The Switch: Andrew McLean of Eco Villages
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Andrew McLean is co-founder of Eco Villages Australia, a housing initiative with a mission to focus on connection to others, self and Earth, and to build a new way of living.
Andrew grew up in a truck stop - with most of his family being climate change deniers - but came to see that humans were destroying the planet and feared that societal change was not happening fast enough to stop it. At the same time, Andrew’s hard work was not delivering the meaningful community connections that underpin real wellbeing, so he started Eco Villages.
The initiative’s first Eco Village is in Maleny on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. In 2019 Andrew and co-founder Claire bought a former dairy farm there under collective ownership for affordable housing and created a sub-tropical food forest, regenerated bushland, an orchard and vegetable gardens. There’s a main house, tiny homes and shared eating, washing, laundry, workshop, library, social and storage facilities.
Sharing facilities makes it super-cheap to live, so people work less, and spend more time with family and friends. Residents pay rent, but it’s not a landlord/tenant relationship. The rent is used to pay back the loans that paid for the land, so it’s under collective stewardship for as long as they want it to be.
The Maleny Eco Village represents a vision for a different way of living: lighter on the earth, more in tune with each other’s needs. Many things are shared, from meals to skills. It’s how people lived for most of human history, and not surprisingly the project has inspired thousands of people who want to live this way. Andrew and Claire now want to see villages all over Australia and are keen to forge connections and share their learnings.
01. What gets you out of bed each day?
Doing a project like this is fun, engaging and challenging. We’re working at the ‘edge of culture’, so many people do not understand what we are doing.
Loneliness is society's next epidemic. We’ve built a society where community is not easy to build and maintain, but being alone is worse for your health than smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. Every day, we are challenging modern society's deeply ingrained concepts of wealth, work and progress in the way we choose to live our daily lives. If money makes you happy then go for it; but I know it doesn’t.
What drives me is to inspire people like me; successful people who have some means behind them to invest in what's important - community. Amid a cost-of-living crisis, we’ve hacked the system to live easily and cheaply. Our food contribution is $30 a week per adult. Games nights, joint projects, cooking and eating together are a normal part of life for us - TV, commuting and stress are not.
02. How are you contributing to our planet beyond super?
Our carbon footprint is just 6% of the average Australian. Residents have time to volunteer for community projects in town and beyond. Everyone’s been involved in bush care, food production, animal protection, politics, non-violent direct action, and being available to those around us.
The world is about to change quickly. Climate change is biting, technologies are converging, and I think many people may find themselves without traditional work in the next 10-20 years. Many will struggle with the transition. There are very few examples of living a low-carbon lifestyle, rich in relationship and meaning – this is our task.
03. What people-powered movements are making a difference in 2024?
The Switch gives our members the chance to put the spotlight on people-powered movements and causes that matter to them.
Permaculture may be one of the biggest contributions that Australia has made to the rest of the world. Permaculture Design Courses are popular with backpackers and young people keen to learn about sustainability. Learning about permaculture is a great way
We are ambassadors of the Global Eco Village Network (GEN) who support 10,000 eco villages around the world. Local Futures, an Australia-based organisation that advocates for localised food production, is inspiring. The Greens have to be admired as a people-powered organisation trying to break the power of the two old parties to get better evidence-based outcomes for our political landscape.
Also, I’d love people to check out futurist Tony Seba - look at his work on the ‘s-curve’, and what happens when electricity, transport and manufactured protein (called Precision Fermentation) becomes 10 x cheaper - a world of super abundance.
The person interviewed in this post is a Future Super fund member and the views and opinions expressed by the interviewee are solely their own. Future Super is not affiliated, associated or in any way officially connected with Eco Villages Australia. All product and company names are trademarks™️ or registered®️ trademarks of their respective holders. Use of them does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them. Future Super receives no commission or referral fee by promoting Eco Villages Australia and takes no responsibility for any action or decision you take in relation to this independent organisation.