Granara takes care for about 100 hectares of natural land, which we are transforming into Park of Sustainability.
The village of Granara is a showcase of sustainable development, which we are already presenting to the world. On top of that we strive to expand our educational and research work and become top place for sustainability research and practice in our region.
We strive towards environmental, social and economic sustainability in all the activities we do:
1. Electricity supply. We save and produce electricity. As far as we know, we are the only village in Italy with twice as much electricity production as consumption. Read more.
2. Restoration and building. The village of Granara had to be renovated and partly rebuilt. We renovated ten old stone buildings, using sustainable traditional construction techniques and natural materials (video). We built five additional buildings, mostly with experimental environmentally friendly techniques, which we now continue to research and teach through our workshops.
3. Sustainable hospitality. Our guest facilities and events are environmentally friendly. We are striving to make our environmental impact even lower. Here’s a description of one of our next projects.
4. Farming. We farm free-range horses, cows, goats and chickens. 10 hectares of our land are used for meadows and grazing land for animals, 2 ha for bio produce. We plan to further expand our farming areas and are happy to receive help from our volunteers.
5. Non-violent communication. One of the pillars of sustainability is its social aspect. In Granara we use and teach techniques for efficient conflict resolution.
6. Economic sustainability. To successfully run all aforementioned activities we had to invest over 3.300.000 eur worth of our money and work. Granara is today a loan-free project!
The village of Granara would like to cooperate with reliable educational and research institutions in areas of renewable energy production, bio farming, nature preservation, eco tourism, water preservation and natural construction. For additional information, please contact us at villaggio@granara.org