Natural Innovation .org

Mitra is back in India again, continuing to figure better ways to get tehnology into the hands of the people who need it most. And ... its not just "them", it won't matter how much "we" improve our sustainability in the West, if the South follows the only model it knows to get out of poverty - coal, oil and over-consumption.

As I lived most of my life in intentional communities, I always enjoy it when I have a good reason to visit one. This year I've had the pleasure of staying at two eco-villages, both of which have a substantial amount of renewable energy activity.

The first was Auroville in India, a planned community of about 2000 people (though they've always planned for many more) with a blend of Tamil's and westerners. I visited people working on building & distributing clean technologies to rural India, including solar; wind; stoves; earth-building and in saw new developments in LED street lighting and ruggedised electric scooters. I particularly appreciated at Auroville the importance of spirituality or connection to the divine without there being any one dogma. {More}

I also spent a few weeks with the Solar Village team at Tamera, a very different community of about 200 people in Portugal, it is much more intense and intellectual, and is researching all kinds of technology for food and energy, with a focus on autonomous communities and developing countries. They will be looking for interns in the spring to work on technologies for communities or developing countries. {More}

I look forward to returning to both of these communities.

In August I spent a month in Indonesia, principally Bali, getting to know the culture and the wonderful people. I had the pleasure of staying at Rachel, Rob & Johnny's home overlooking a valley just outside Ubud. Its hard to imagine a more perfect place for me, with the peace of nature, other social entrepreneurs and close to town. Though I'd come to Bali with a main interest being the highly promising Vortex hydro-power technology it wasn't really happening, so I spent my time working out of "Kafe" & getting to know the people pushing the envelope of sustainable innovation.

There are very few people really supporting innovation in developing countries, in Indonesia a notable exception are Ramp and Inotek whose course and mentorship program for young innovators I got to visit