Sustainable Living
Our conservation efforts would be completely undermined if we did not inhabit the Valley in a responsible way, with as little impact on the Valley itself and the wider world as possible. Current worldwide levels of resource consumption and pollution are globally unequal and are unsustainable: they cannot continue without seriously affecting what we leave future generations. Sustainable living means taking no more than 'your fair share' and giving back as much as you can to the Earth and its people.
We try to live sustainably by producing as much of our food as possible ourselves; by using renewable energy like solar and wind power; and by creating ecologically friendly buildings.
We
have our own gardens where we grow organic vegetables, as well as over a hundred
fruit and nut trees, many of which are now beginning to produce. At this time
the Sanctuary grows approx. half of our community's vegetable requirements.
We also get great Manuka Honey from the beehives on our land, as well as eggs
from our free range chickens. Our electricity needs are mostly met by our
three wind turbines and a solar panel and we a currently planning on introducing
more solar power in the near future. As well as our earth building projects
(we have built a prototype earth cabin -from recycled materials and Valley
clay- and an earth composting toilet), there were existing buildings on the
land when we purchased it, which we are gradually “eco-retrofitting”
to make them more sustainable.
At
Tararu Valley, we try to embody many of the principles of eco-community living,
living in a way that benefits the natural environment and gives our residents
a positive social experience. By living in relatively small communities, which
are 'human-scale', all members of the community can share resources and choose
those that have been produced in a way that minimises the community's ecological
footprint. We encourage our residential volunteers to stay for several weeks
or months so that they can become fully involved in the community and not
just be 'observers'.
