What is GEN Europe?
When people choose to live together with a shared vision and purpose in a way that’s respectful to one another, their local environment, and the wider world – that’s an ecovillage.
GEN Europe is the European network for ecovillages and sustainable communities. We are a non-profit membership association that supports existing ecovillages and encourages the development of new ones, while spreading the tools, resources, inspiration and culture of ecovillages across Europe and the world.
We run events, offer training and capacity building, and act as a platform for our members. We are the European regional node of GEN, the Global Ecovillage Network.
Want to join us? Become a member as an ecovillage or an individual and be part of our community!
Our vision…
…is of a conscious, sustainable, resilient Europe where ecovillage values and lifestyles are widely adopted.
Our mission
To achieve our vision, we work with ecovillages and ecovillage networks, and support individuals who are curious about ecovillages on their journey to ecovillage living.
- We connect ecovillages to promote innovation, the exchange of experiences and knowledge, and to build friendships and networks.
- We build our collective capacity to inspire and enable the creation of new communities through training, courses and projects.
- We promote ecovillage lifestyles and solutions as part of the transition to a regenerative culture and bring people closer to ecovillages with events, publications and volunteering opportunities.
What we stand for
At GEN Europe, we stand firmly against all systems of oppression, including environmental destruction, colonialism, systemic racism, patriarchy, economic injustice, and all forms of discrimination and exclusion that deny people their dignity and autonomy.
We reject the forces of war, militarisation, and authoritarianism that divide societies, erode democratic freedoms, and perpetuate cycles of violence and exploitation. We recognize that oppression manifests in many ways—through the displacement of communities, the commodification of nature, the concentration of wealth and power, and social structures that marginalize people based on gender, ethnicity, sexuality, ability, or background.
In a world increasingly marked by division, polarization, and othering, we affirm the power of dialogue, solidarity, and deep listening as pathways to healing and transformation.
As a network of ecovillages committed to regenerative living, we believe that true peace is rooted in justice, sustainability, and inclusion.
Our work strives to be an active response to extractive and oppressive systems, offering community-led solutions based on cooperation, resilience, and ecological harmony.
We recognize that meaningful change arises from building bridges of understanding and fostering spaces where diverse perspectives can coexist and enrich one another.
We are committed to nonviolence not only in human relationships but also in our relationship with the Earth, ensuring that our actions restore rather than deplete. We embrace diversity as a fundamental strength, fostering dialogue, solidarity, and mutual aid across cultures, borders, and generations.
By nurturing spaces of connection, active reconciliation, and shared stewardship of the planet, we work toward a future where all beings—human and non-human—can thrive in dignity, safety, and harmony.
How we work
We’re a non-profit association based in Spain and Germany, serving ecovillages and national and regional ecovillage networks across greater Europe. Our day-to-day operations are served by the Secretariat staff team.
Guiding the Secretariat is our oversight body, the Council, who are elected every two years to hold our vision by the General Assembly. The General Assembly, made up of all full member ecovillages, makes proposals, debates and approves decisions and strategic direction for the organisation.
We organise ourselves and make decisions using Sociocracy, a transparent and participatory governance method based around consent decision-making.
We publish annual reports on our activities for our members and the wider public. You can find them on our resources page .
The Global Ecovillage Network
We are the European regional body of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN). GEN is an umbrella organisation that connects regional ecovillage networks all over the world: GEN Africa, GEN North America, CASA Latina, GEN Oceania & Asia, and GEN Europe. It also represents NextGEN, the global youth ecovillage movement. The regional bodies are supported and coordinated by GEN International.
ECOLISE
We are co-founding members of ECOLISE: the European network of community-led initiatives on sustainability and climate change, which acts as an advocacy platform for the thousands of local climate initiatives across the continent. We support their Communities for Future action programme to inspire and enable transformative change at local, community level in response to the climate and ecological emergency.
