Sustainable villages: a flourishing niche?

Richard Hammond from National Lifestyle Villages delivered a compelling presentation on the
company’s sustainable living initiatives that both saved money and engaged residents.
• Passive solar design: creating a 50% energy reduction
• Saving water: 66% reduction
• Waste management: 80% reduction
Initiatives included worm farms, a village ‘paper mill’, fruit trees as landscaping, an ‘organic
farm’ with a mandated $10 sale of fruit & vegetables to every resident each week (guaranteed
$3,000 p.w. cash flow), and grants for PhD students to use villages as test sites.