The EcoHouse Story

Berkeley EcoHouse founded in April 1999, is a non-profit, community-based educational organization created by a group of diverse, talented, and inspired individuals with a common passion for restoring our ecological systems and building healthy, socially just and stable communities.

The mission of Berkeley EcoHouse as a decentralized small-scale resource center located amidst a diverse residential area is to contribute to heightening ecological and social awareness and the quality of life in its own neighborhood. Citywide, Berkeley EcoHouse aspires to overcome the barriers to healthy environmental choices, making ecological ways of living accessible and affordable to people of all ages, ethnic/racial backgrounds, and income levels.

To offset as much as possible the homogenizing and displacing effect of gentrification, Berkeley EcoHouse will participate in programs that contribute to community stability in multicultural and economically diverse neighborhoods, such as advocating affordable housing, mass transit, local economies, and community gardens.

The development of Berkeley EcoHouse proceeds with a two-pronged approach consisting of educational community outreach programs, and EcoHouse, an  environmental demonstration house and Permaculture garden. Our outreach program includes a solar energy education program in local schools that offers hands-on classes that are not only fun and popular, but teach students how to use the sun’s energy to reduce pollution and depletion of our planet’s resources. Berkeley EcoHouse also conducts Permaculture workshops, pilot demonstrations with sustainable building materials, and ecological building systems onsite at the EcoHouse.

A board of directors and members of an advisory board of prominent community leaders, guide the program through an exemplary multi-sectoral collaboration between Berkeley citizens and Berkeley city government.