Posts in category: News

The EOS is collaborating with several other associations in constructing a biodome for the Umea urban gardeners. Due to the sub-arctic climate of Västerbotten county, Umea is not ideally predisposed for agriculture, and the establishment of a greenhouse – eventually containing heating systems and perhaps an aquaponics system of good measure – that’s up to the people of Alidhem! We have raised a foundation, but decided to wait for the arrival of spring before we raise the dome itself, especially as we still need to acquire the panels. So, during the dark months of 2018, we plan several workshops

and the first one was held on Sunday the 21^st of January 2018, at the Winter Garden, a large and comfortable neighborhood hall, almost a greenhouse in its own right. We had advertised the event on Facebook. Fifteen brave participants defied the crisp winter’s weather and joined us.

What then was a minidome?

Triangle shapes can lend themselves to many forms, in this case we decided that the participants should test to make their own 1V domes, based on half-icosahedrons, arguably the easiest shape to master for newcomers.

Here is a link to a video on how to make a 1V dome.

The main structure of the event was very simple, the EOS provided construction materials and “fika” (the Swedish term for cookies, fruits, coffee, tea and lemonade). The construction materials consisted of flower sticks, sucker straws and glue, the tools of glue pistols, saws, knives and pencil sharpeners.

After a short introduction by me, about the goals of the EOS and its social activism in Alidhem, the participants began making minidomes and made considerable success. All participant teams apart from one managed to produce a minidome each, which they of course took with them to their respective homes.

The event lasted between 2 to 5 PM, but as late as 7 PM people were still active with the project. The mood was very good, as evidenced by our live-streams.

Alidhem, with ten thousand inhabitants, is a community dominated by tenement blocks, and is dominated by working class people, immigrants and students. When we arrange events such as these, we are marketing to people on Alidhem.

It is in many ways a vibrant community with much energy, but architecturally speaking it is consisting of macro-brick housing inspired by socialist realism, and its structure is in many ways endemic for the social design typical of the 1960’s and 1970’s – where the idea is to segregate city blocks into different income zones and to focus on specialisation and organisation in order to maximise economic growth.

Thus, our endeavour aims to instead creating a new Alidhem – an Alidhem where the people organise themselves for an ecological, economic and social transition, which is necessitated by the deteriorating global biosphere. Our presence there might be a small seed, but all mighty oaks begin as small seeds.

See you at the gardens!

On Tuesday the 21^st of November 2017, the EOS was represented by board members Rickard Strandberg and Enrique Lescure at Miljötorget (the environmental forum) at Umea Town Hall. We brought a happy mood, a number of fliers and the book “Technocracy, Building a New Sustainable Society for a Post-carbon World”, by Dr Andrew Wallace (2006). We also brought the experimental plastic dome “collapso” and two bowls of sweets (why have one when one could have two)?

We were invited by the Theatre Association of Umea and by Studiefrämjandet, as one of several sustainability-oriented associations, and were given the opportunity to interact with the guests. We were also given tickets to the engaging theatre show “Vi som bor här”, featuring the nature photographer Martin Emtenäs and the musician Stefan Sundström.

Interacting with the public, communicating about sustainability and sharing sweets and fliers, we managed to increase the interest for both the EOS in general, as well as our local biodome project, which on the 21^st of January will launch a new phase, the Mini-dome phase.

Stay tuned, people!

It’s this time of the year again

The Annual General Meeting is the highest authority of the Earth Organisation for Sustainability, and is occurring once every year (as the name implies). During the annual general meeting, we evaluate the effectiveness of our accomplishments during the year, present our internal financial reports and elect our firm signers in accordance with the laws of the Kingdom of Sweden. 

Paying EOS members have the ability to partake and vote in the AGM, and also to submit motions suggesting reforms or alterations of our bylaws. You send in motions by either e-mailing eosboard@technate.eu or enrique.lescure@technate.eu. 

Our AGM will take place on Kulturhuset Klossen, Ekonomistraket 6 Umea, at 3 PM CET Saturday the 17^th of June 2017. We will arrange for a Skype connection to the members who cannot attend physically.

Background

More people come to realize that our current way of producing food – through industrial agriculture and monocultures – are contributing significantly to the destruction of the soils and freshwater reservoirs globally. Even if they are unaware of the specifics, they can easily see the absurdity of importing fruits and vegetables from abroad when they can be grown locally.

From Detroit to Havana, from Madrid to Tokyo, people are increasingly engaging in urban gardening and in the pursuit of – wherever it is democratically feasible – regain some of the autonomy of their local communities.

Umea – a town of around 80 000 people in northern Sweden – is no exception, and there are several initiatives in the various districts of the town to grow food, though those engaged still are a minority of the population. Alidhem, a large district in the southern part of Umea is one of the most diverse areas, with a large population of students, immigrants, families and elderly, and has arguably the largest group in Umea engaged in urban gardening. This group has also for years been formally allowed by the municipal local government to grow food in a park in the north-eastern part of Alidhem. In 2016, food was grown in several dozen of wooden boxes in that park (which is covered by pavement and stones).

One obvious challenge with urban gardening in the sub-arctic climate of northern Sweden is that the growing season is short, and that the winter is long, dark and cold. Thus, the ability of urban gardening to move from a pastime to a movement is hampered by the climatic conditions of the region.

That was one of the primary reasons why we decided to help them get a biodome.

The Logdea Biodome Project

In 2013-2014, as most of you who are familiar with the EOS know, we contributed our efforts together with a group of youths organised in the local movement of Green Free Will, to help erect a biodome (seen on the image here) in the village of Logdea outside of the small town of Nordmaling. The dome is 6×3 metres in size, and has the capability of producing 125 kilograms of vegetables.

Originally, it was meant that the Logdea biodome should contain a self-regulated aquaponics system reliant on computer programmes, but the trouble in acquiring support for the second and third parts of the project brought it to a standstill. Since the dome was on the property of the mother of one of the project leaders, and would – in its unfinished state – just serve to take up space. So it was disassembled and put inside a safehouse, an event which much disheartened everyone involved…

Until today that is.

Together with the urban gardeners of Umea, the Earth Organisation for Sustainability – which is the legal owner of the Logdea biodome – has decided to transport the dome to Alidhem and erect it as the crown jewel of the community garden which is gradually being assembled in that park. The Dome will, when finished, be the until now largest structure of the park, and will serve to make the growing season longer.

The plan

The first step (after receiving the construction permit) is to raise a platform upon which the dome can be built, for several reasons, but primarily to we can make the structure more accessible to those bound to wheelchairs and other types of mobility aids. This structure will be 70 centimetres tall and after thoughtful deliberation it looks like we are going to make it from car tires.

Luckily for our endeavour, Sweden has instituted a law that states that it is compulsory to change from winter to summer tires during the spring. Thus, discarded tires can be found in abundance, and the only technical challenge was to transport them from the containers we found them in (thanks Däckia btw!) to “Base Area One”. During two days of hard labour, we managed to move nearly a hundred tires, not exactly a Herculean feat or something which can be compared to the construction of Stonehenge, but fun it was!

This project is seeing a growing interest, since it shows that it is possible to create marvellous pieces of environmentally sustainable architecture without having to use that much money, as long as the local community remains engaged and committed towards pooling its resources together.

At this moment, the permit process has moved from the agency responsible for handling out construction permits, towards the Parks and Recreation department of the municipality. On the 19^th of May, the democratic process of input from those living nearby the site will be finished. Hopefully, we will be able to start construction at the end of May (or earlier).

It certainly looks like Alidhem, and the Dome, has a bright future!

If you want to support

If you want to support this project, you can donate money to our paypal at eosboard@technate.eu. Don’t forget to mark the donation with “DOME”.

The Street Art Workshop

The third of September 2016 was probably this summer’s most beautiful day in Umea, northern Sweden, which did contribute to the success of the event. With forty attendants and cooperation from several organizations, we consider the event successful. It was challenging to get every single piece of it working, but at the end it forged friendships and contributed to integration efforts. The weather was exceptionally good, with +24 degrees Celsius it was one of the most beautiful summer days, though the summer had formally ended a week before.

From the perspective of our movement, sustainability is not only a matter of our species having a balanced relationship with the biosphere, but also that human communities should aspire to an active civic spirit and to the democratic control of the means of their sustenance. To achieve that, an active and activated citizenry is necessary. Moreover, if several groups share the same living space without interaction, there will be a heightened risk for misunderstandings and even conflicts.

During 2015, over a hundred thousand refugees arrived in Sweden, a country with a little less than ten million inhabitants. This has strained the government’s ability to both register, accommodate and help to integrate these refugees, since nothing like that has been experienced at least since the Finnish Winter War of 1939-1940.

While we have limited ability to help, and do not as an organisation try to advocate wholesale political positions on said issue, we believe that the EOS has a duty to aid integration efforts and to foment spaces where positive integration can be possible.

This is why we have launched the Umea Ecolab Project locally, with the goal of helping create a youth centre focusing on providing the opportunity for youths from divergent backgrounds to meet, form projects and create together. The centre aspires to contain 3D printers, media production equipment and computer systems, allowing youths in particular and people in general to master the latest technology from the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The Street Art-workshop was the first step on the winding road towards realising this dream.

We want to thank our partners at:

JAQ Studios

Studiefrämjandet

Kulturkraft

Texoferr, Steel & Construction

Introduction

Logotypes are supposed to serve multiple purposes. They are markers, representing associations, parties, companies and other formal social assemblies. They are also brands, which overtly or covertly aims to signal the values and goals of the associations they represent. Lastly, they are the visual representation of the associations in question in the physical world.

Since March 2016, the EOS is temporarily using the Green Logo, featuring a green background with white stripes, over which a golden Earth is placed with two golden arrows around. The left half of the logo forms the letter “E”, the right half forms the letter “S” and the Earth and the arrows around it forms the letter “O”. This is an evolution of the previous “Blue Logo”, where the O is symbolizing the Sun and the blue is symbolizing the Sky.

The first Logotype we had, during our predecessor organisation the NET, featured a wreath which surrounded a fulcrum.

It was not good at all.

Now we are going to develop our logotype further, and in order to make a good choice, we have decided to crowd-source the design of the Logotype to the wider user-base on our Facebook Group.

This experiment is done to widen the pool of inspiration, as well as seeing what kind of ideas are popular today.

Schedule

From the 7th of May to 6th of June, we will accept commissions of logotypes to board@technate.eu.

By the 7th of June, we are going to present the alternatives publically on our website and in the Facebook Group.

By the 11th of June, which is the Annual General Meeting, the Board will vote on our new logotype, per a board decision on the 6th of May 2016.

What you need to do to present a commission

Be a human being. ☺

The winning alternative

The winner will be known to have designed the EOS logotype, which would mean that when we start to grow exponentially the designer would forever be associated with that new logo. If they are a professional artist, or an aspiring artist, it could be positive for future commissions and for building a personal brand.

Also, it’s a fun thing. ☺

What the Earth Organisation for Sustainability is

As a movement, we combine idealism and realism. We aspire towards a sustainable future where all human beings can achieve their highest potential within the Earth’s carrying capacity, and where the eco-systems and the planetary bio-diversity can recover. To this end, we are advocating sustainable technologies, but also a transition from an unsustainable socio-economic system. We are working for a future where human beings have the time to be human.