Shane Sylvanspring - Founding Director

Shane Sylvanspring has 20 years of experience working with town planning, local government, faciltation, community consultation, ecovillage design, ecovillage education and general project management.

Experience includes:

• 10 years working as a strategic and statutory town planner in 6 different local governments within Victoria and QLD
• Worked on large private planning projects as Director of Planning Sustainable Solutions with a focus on Northern NSW
• Currently working on large Development Applications in Northern NSW with the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 including eco-tourism, eco projects and sustainable farming projects
• Central in the development of two large ecovillage projects which involved large teams and community engagement (Bruns Ecovillage and Bunjil Ecovillage)
• Trained in Ecovillage Design Education at Findhorn Ecovillage through the Global Ecovillage Network.
• Developed the Village Development Program for specific ecovillage members and trained over 150 adults in ecovillage education inspired by the Ecovillage Design Education offered by Gaia Education and Global Ecovillage Network.
• Visited, lived in and explored dozens of ecovillages around the world and within Australia
• Studied permaculture, Non Violent Education, Sociocracy and other tools to assist in ecovillage design.
• Active member of the Global Ecovillage Network and co-facilitated ecovillage workshops around Australia, Fijian villages and with Indigenous communities in Australia
• Co-founded, developed and designed the Balaya Buyul Community in Northern NSW including relevant council approvals.