ABSTRACT
The present study was born out of an agreement between the Sieben Linden community and the Politecnico di Torino, approved on May 9, 2013. The Politecnico team, led by professor Andrea Bocco, intended to perform an overall analysis of the way of living in the ecovillage, including a number of areas among which are agriculture, biodiversity, building, decision-making, diet, economy, energy, land husbandry. The environmental impact of the construction of Sieben Linden buildings was assessed with reference to two basic sustainability indicators and also “translated” into Ecological Footprint (EF) terms. The environmental impact of the ecovillage residents’ lifestyle was assessed with reference to two methods, the Carbon Footprint and the EF. The latter EF appeared an appropriate tool to produce an inclusive picture of the most relevant activities and quantify them in a single unit of measurement that is easy to visualise and communicate.
