Robert Gilman

Robert C. Gilman is an American researcher and current advocate for sustainability . Together with his wife Diane Gilman , he worked intensively in the late 1970s and early 1980s on the concept of the eco-settlement and the eco-village as a possible model of lived sustainability, and they have also published several texts on this. Their work was mainly for the development and definition of the first coordinated Ökodorf- movement and the emergence of the global ecovillage network of importance . In 1991 Robert and Diane Gilman were both co-authors on the publication of the study Eco-Villages and Sustainable Communities for the Danish non-profit organization Gaia Trust .

Robert Gilman also wrote an article in 1991 entitled The Eco-village Challenge , which defines an eco-village as follows:

• basic human needs are met
• there is an independent, functioning infrastructure
• daily life takes place in harmony with the natural environment (non-invasive)
• The way of life is conducive to the healthy development of all people, taking future generations into account

This definition became the model of the young ecovillage movement and the 4 principles mentioned are still considered fundamental by many supporters of sustainable communities today.

Life

In 1967 Robert Gilman graduated from the prestigious University of California at Berkeley with a bachelor's degree in astronomy and in 1969 received a doctorate in astrophysics from Princeton University . In the following years he taught and researched at the University of Minnesota and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and was a research member of NASA at the Institute for Environmental Research.

In the mid-1970s, Robert Gilman decided to end his previous career: with the statement “the stars can wait, but our planet cannot”, he said goodbye to space research and from then on turned his attention entirely to the study of global sustainability and elaboration strategies for a cultural change for the benefit of society as a whole. In 1975 he and his wife were able to complete the realization of the self-designed solar house and in 1979 they jointly founded the Context Institute, one of the first NGOs ever with a focus on sustainable development.

In 1983 the Context Institute began printing the quarterly magazine In Context, A Quarterly of Humane Sustainable Culture, with Gilman as editor. In Context achieved widespread international recognition and was awarded the Utne Reader 's Alternative Press Award in 1991 and 1994 for "best discussion of urgent matters".

Another important stop in Gilman's life was his time as a member of the city council of Langley , a small town in Washington State , from January 2004 to August 2011. In recent years he has mainly devoted himself to developing and evaluating his Bright Future program which includes the Bright Future Now courses and the Bright Future Network .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Global Ecovillage Network - Community for a Regenerative World. Retrieved March 23, 2018 (American English). 
2. ↑ Gaia Trust - Creating a sustainable world - Gaia.org. Retrieved March 23, 2018 (American English). 
3. ^ Robert Gilman - The Eco-village Challenge. December 13, 2004, accessed March 23, 2018 . 
4. ↑ About In Context . In: Context Institute . September 15, 2011 (English, context.org [accessed March 23, 2018]).
5. ^ Introducing Bright Future Now and the Bright Future Network . In: Context Institute . February 3, 2016 (English, context.org [accessed March 23, 2018]).