ABSTRACT
Environmental justice scholarship has long argued that race and class need to be central, not merely an afterthought, to efforts of the environmental movement. According to Kempton et al., "understanding culture is an essential part of understanding environmental problems because human cultures guide their members both when they accelerate environmental destruction and when they slow it down". The concept of a green lifestyle embodies specific tastes and a distinctive style of living with neighbors and nature. For only a handful of residents, a deep concern for earth and a strong commitment to proactively improving the way new homes and communities are built were the principal justifications for creating an ecological co-housing community. The exclusionary nature of creating a brand-new village outside an established city is a characteristic of green lifestyles. While EcoVillage attempts to make protecting the environment effortless, it also demonstrates the difficulty faced by well-meaning residents to voluntarily simplify their lifestyle in a way that protects the environment.
