The Sustainability Institute is a non-profit trust, founded in 1999. An international living and learning centre focussing on studies and experience in ecology, community and spirit, we work in partnership with the School of Public Management and Planning, University of Stellenbosch in the following areas of  education (Masters and PhD degrees in Sustainable Development Planning and Sustainable Agriculture), Early Childhood Development, Community Development Practice and Management, project facilitation to establish Sustainable Neighbourhood Developments in various localities,policy research in the sustainable development sector. The Institute is located in the Lynedoch EcoVillage, a place where we have provided development facilitation to create a space for sustainable living and learning.

Written by Adi Enthoven, Spier, and Sustainability Institute board member

I can hardly believe 10 years has gone by since the inception of the Sustainability Institute and the Lynedoch eco-village. If I recall correctly, my first interaction with the Sustainability Institute was a conversation with Mark and Eve sometime in 1995 or 1996 on a proposal to establish a leadership institute at Spier. This ultimately came to fruition in a much bolder dream; namely to not only create what became the Sustainability institute, but to embed it in a community that would seek to radically redefine the social and ecological reality of South African, and indeed global, living.

I've learned that these kinds of journeys do not have a destination, but what has been achieved in these years is truly remarkable. This community has become a leader in the living, learning and thinking about the world in which we live today, and the world we dream of for tomorrow. To Mark and Eve, the team at the Institute, Grantham and his team at the school, the residents of Lynedoch and to all of you who have made this happen, you can be really proud of what you have achieved. I for one am immensely proud to be associated with your achievements. I look forward to partnering with you into the future in your journey of not only dreaming, but building the dream of a world that we will be proud to hand over to our children.

Jess Schulschenk and Anri Landmann have waved magic wands on our Green Cafe – see below, and come and experience Chantelle’s coffee in her amazing space before she goes off to have her baby....

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Our new year is off to a very exciting start with an intake of 47 new BPhil students, 30 MPhil students and 10 Phd’s (in our partnership with SU, Stellenbosch Doctoral Programme in Transdisciplinarity studies). We have a renovated classroom to accommodate us all, and our students are already working hard in their morning community work...

 

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