O1.2: Doing It the Eco Way

Doing It the Eco Way: Together

Now that the foundations are laid, it’s time to appoint specific tasks to the builders. The aim is getting answers to one treacherously simple question: What do trainers in eco-construction do?

Star charters and group discussions were meant to pave the way to a conclusive response, but the pilots had to face some kind of disappointment – or so they thought: „People discussed a lot about how they do training, the skills you use to be a good trainer, which was interesting but is not our question.“

But in the end this assessment changed: “There is a lot we hold in common with trainers in other things, but there are some key things that define us as special. The important things we do are:

1. Practical things that can be taught and assessed;

2. Intangible things that are to do with being human, which we see in how we are with each other.

So what we do and how we do it are both key, the process is as important as the product.”

One of these how-tos especially prominent among us is: We do things motivated. Which leads to the why above all, an aspect that can’t be overestimated: Arguably the single most essential quality for a teacher or trainer is – to die for your thing (in German we figuratively “burn” for our favourite things, but maybe the British take it even one step further?)

Motivation among eco-constructors is so big mainly for emotional reasons: There is a lot of awareness and hope going around, a good and strengthening feeling of actually doing something about the world’s crazy, of doing good and important and positive work (the dark side of which is (self-)righteousness). We are keeping ourselves in good mental and physical health, are being in touch with nature and natural materials. And: We are working together, empathic and in fairness and equality, which is the core of being human.

The task at hand is: Finding out “how to deliver the intangible” – so that working together works out on every possible scale from the smallest training group to the whole planet, with every possible group of people.

Pilot: EBUKI
Redaction Group: Fédération Ecoconstruire, ArTUR, AsTerre
Time Frame: Sept. 2017 – April 2018
Branches & Fruits: An inventory of the activities of eco-trainers as
illustrated essay (PDF) | as workable spreadsheet

Latest update of this page: 2019-02-28