The EcoVillage label originally came about in the late 1980s when leaders of many long standing intentional alternative communities including Findhorn in Scotland and The Farm in Tennessee, US, were looking to teach the processes of designing and developing ecologically sustainable communities. This forum was joined by several Permaculture Designers and Educators including Max Lindeggar one of the principal designers/planners of Crystal Waters community in Australia.
This open forum discussion revised previous labels such as Global Villages for EcoVillage to deliberately distance themselves from the politics of Globalism and arrived at a working consensus that the Permaculture Design principles and methods as defined by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren provided the most coherent framework to go about designing and developing sustainable communities.
Covenant of the GoodEnough Community at Sahale