INTERLOCHEN — Tom Stanton has a goal of planting seeds for a more sustainable future. This month, he will advance those efforts as he leads a weeklong statewide tour showcasing ecovillages and grassroots sustainability efforts across Michigan.
The Michigan Ecovillages and Intentional Communities Tour kicks off on July 17 at the Interlochen Center for the Arts.
An eco-village tour in Costa Rica in early 2024 inspired the Michigan tour.
“The trip to Costa Rica was inspired because of my long interest in eco-villages,” he says. “It goes back more than 30 years, and I have been studying and collecting information.”
Now that Stanton has semi-retired — “for the second time” — he has more time to devote to developing other projects.
After returning from Costa Rica, Stanton began identifying areas around the state that are already up and running or in the early stages of eco-village development.
“Some Michigan universities already have their own efforts to try to work on eco-villages as part of their housing and food infrastructure on their campuses,” he says.
Leading the way in campus sustainability is the Interlochen Center for the Arts, making it a logical starting point for the tour. Notably, Interlochen will host its own Sustainability Retreat from July 13 to 16. Stanton plans to attend this before launching his tour on July 17.
Stanton says Interlochen is currently growing food that is then served in the cafeteria, raising chickens, harvesting honey, growing crops that are used for natural dye in costume making, and re-establishing a butterfly habitat.
He believes these efforts will have a global impact.
“They really have a great team, and of course, they attract very wonderful students from all over the world,” he says. “So to the extent that Interlochen can demonstrate these things in-house, they have the potential to spread (these practices) worldwide.”
For now, Stanton is focusing closer to home with his Michigan tour. Following its kick-off at Interlochen on July 17, the tour will then make stops in Traverse City and Benzie County on July 18, Boyne Falls and Traverse City on July 19, and Crystal Mountain on the morning of July 20. The tour then continues to Grand Rapids, Lansing, Ann Arbor, and Detroit. A full schedule of tour stops and events is available online.
The tour will include a virtual component to make it more accessible to those who might not be able to travel for such an extended period.
“We’re trying to make it accessible, and we know that Michigan’s just a huge state,” he says. “We don’t want to necessarily encourage people driving all around the whole state.”
Using Zoom, Stanton hopes to broadcast from each location, allowing virtual participants to interact via chat or text. And while the ideas and concepts may be new for some participants, he hopes to offer an approachable starting point for creating more sustainable communities.
“We’re welcoming anyone and everyone interested in any aspects of sustainability, environmental restoration, resilience in all of our different institutions and infrastructures,” he explains. “We will try to study as many of those aspects as we can — what goes into designing, building, and maintaining not just an eco-village, but all the aspects of ecological living.
“We are seeing many different kinds of failures in our existing systems; natural disasters and equipment failures due to old age, long-distance supply chains, climate events affecting crops, floods, fires, and droughts,” he explains. “So I think more people are getting serious about protecting their own future and their family’s future by trying to make sure we’re doing well locally.”
For Stanton, this mindset and way of life have been part of his life for decades.
“I’ve always been interested in stopping pollution of all kinds. And frankly, as I get older, I’m more and more concerned with where I will end up living in the golden years of my life,” he says. “I’d like to be certain I’m living in a place with a strong local community at the neighborhood or village level, and with access to all the appropriate medical care.”
For a complete tour schedule or more information, visit communityenergysolutions.info/events. While most events are free, RSVPs are requested for each day’s activities to help with planning.