Mission:

To build an Eco-Village that will support sustainability of our free education center through hosting retreats. It will serve as a model for ecological techniques in construction and will be used for marketing. Through the project, we will provide the training of Khmer interns to establish a green construction group. We will promote the use green technologies and eco building in Cambodia through our project.

Global Mission:

To offset carbon footprint in Cambodia and globally, by reducing waste generated by traditional construction methods and promoting use of locally available natural and recycled materials in construction, our ambition is to contribute to increasing awareness about sustainable building alternatives by educating disadvantaged children and youth in rural area of Cambodia. We will provide them with decent employment opportunities in a value-added sector. More specifically, the output of the proposed project is a model eco-village constructed from natural and recycled materials on site at our community school. This can be used for marketing green technologies in construction.

After the hands-on training of interns within this project, we will support the organization of a green construction group and a network of enterprises focusing around construction from natural and recycled materials; as well as production of supplementary tools and materials needed. Through social enterprise we can support local families through supporting small businesses that provide materials like glass bricks, recycled plastic tiles etc.

Why the ECO Village is Important to the Communities It Serves

• It will allow the school to increase and diversify the range of supporting entrepreneurial activities to be able to sustain provision of education to local community through providing housing for retreats and interns.
• The eco-village will be a showcase of construction from natural and recycled materials and hereby increase awareness to the local and expat population about sustainable and green building alternatives.
• During the construction of the eco-village local community members will have an opportunity to acquire useful skills and knowledge about sustainable construction techniques through direct participation and paid internships.
  Community members can also get involved and subsidize their income through being supported in starting small businesses that directly correlate with the materials needed to build eco villages.
• Students and community members will benefit from exposure to high-tech green technology, e.g. the 3D-printing of housing parts, using litter and recycling discarded objects.
• The project follow-up will directly raise entrepreneurship potential among local population in green tourism and green industry sectors.

What now?

In 2022 we will work with the local community in rural Cambodia to set up a network of family enterprises focusing on the production of supplementary tools and materials needed for constructing the Eco-Village and further, to support the transition from focus on solely conventional construction materials towards natural and recycled ones. These include production of pressed earth bricks with recycled glass and plastic content, bamboo nursery and a treatment center, passive evaporative air-cooling devices made of clay and bamboo and coconut husk separation production line to produce fiber used in the plaster mix.