Body Shop, Green & Blacks, Ben & Jerry’s and Innocent Drinks represented a Brave New World when it came to doing business – Fair Trade, sustainable, (slightly) less hierarchical, informal, friendly. Read more

An cohousing eco-hamlet around a chateau in the Dordogne region of France is being formed. You can rent a plot to see if the project is for you, before deciding whether to become a co-owner. Read more

I’ve found that learning about how to change to open source software can be difficult for non-techies. Yes, you can easily find the websites that contain the information you need, but it’s almost never written in a style that non-techies can understand. Read more

Readers of the Lowimpact blog won’t necessarily know who Alicia Keys is. She’s an American singer / songwriter who has sold over 35 million albums. So very famous, very successful, and right at the heart of the entertainment industry. Read more

Temple Druid Community is set in 56 acres of woodland, pasture, steams and meadows in North Pembrokeshire. We are looking for members to join us in creating a community based on the foundations of compassion and respect for nature, ourselves and others and a strong wish to tread gently on the earth. Read more

Here’s a very interesting opportunity for a budding smallholder – either paid work or farm share, near Totnes in Devon. Over to Richard: Read more

It’s a tricky one. The argument for the licence fee (and one that I used to subscribe to until I watched the Panorama corporate propaganda piece – see below) is that the Beeb produces drama of a quality not found anywhere else. Read more

Our friend Jonathan at Stir to Action (incorporating STIR Magazine) is hosting a three-day workshop for people who are interested in starting a community enterprise, rather than joining the corporate rat-race. He’s offering one place on this workshop for free Read more

Fly away, plug in to your chosen third world metropolis with the arrogant urgency that accompanies our civilisation, departure lounge to lounge, no sense of progression or gradual change necessary within this flying tube. Read more

As a new generation of aspiring land stewards, we wish to minimise dependence on fossil fuels whilst learning to meet our basic needs of food, shelter, energy and livelihood, from the land.  This has been entirely possible for millennia. However, in a 21st century Read more

A week ago, we posted about a large, 50-room Victorian mansion with lodge house, stable block, the largest walled garden we’ve ever seen, and 21 acres of woodland that was up for sale on the Worcestershire / Shropshire border. Read more

Not far from Worcester is a stunning Grade II mansion house, 50+ rooms, stable blocks, 2-bed detatched gatehouse, 21 acres of woodland plus huge walled garden. Lowimpact.org, plus other like-minded organisations, would like to secure it as an intentional community Read more

Last minute Christmas shopping? Well, this is our last-minute plea for you not to do it. I was recently invited to a party with a ‘secret Santa’ that invited people to buy presents for less than £5. It’s a nice thought, but it inevitably resulted in a barrage of plastic trinkets that won’t last until… Continue reading 3 shopping days to Christmas – a plea not to buy any more tat Read more

Making use of biological resources, or renewable resources and services as David Holmgren characterises them, is an important principle of Permaculture Design. ‘Renewable services (or passive functions) are those we gain from plants, animals and living soil and water without them being consumed.’ Read more

Someone said to me the other day that he associated ‘low-impact’ with lifestyle but not with politics or economics. Someone else asked why we blogged about TTIP, economic growth or system change when we were ‘just’ an environmental organisation. Read more

‘Understanding ourselves, we come to understand all things, but if we seek to understand all things without knowing the nature of our own awareness, great will be our calamity.’ David Frawley Read more

NB: Dave from Lowimpact.org will be giving a talk about the Ujamaa2 idea on the Saturday afternoon, and the whole event will bring together people from various parts of the ‘alternative technology’ field Read more

Our manifesto We now know that the richest 1% of the world own the same amount of wealth as the other 99%. But it’s worse than that. Read more

We’ve been approached by a very nice man called Rod Harper, who has never used a computer in his life, and so asked us for help in finding someone to rent his property in the Loire Valley. Read more

The Sea Gypsies at ‘Sailing the Farm’ have been posting about their exploits on our forum for years. We wondered if you’d like to learn about them, and maybe even think about joining them. Sounds like an excellent way to escape the rat-race Read more