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  • Greenheart Ibiza

    The Greenheart initiative is a project farm, supported by the non-profit Fundación por el Futuro, it encourages symbiotic relationships between cultural tradition, information technology and sustainable ecological development.
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  • Casita Verde

    Situated in a beautiful valley near the village of San Jose in Ibiza, La Casita Verde is a model ecological centre that is operated by volunteers and open to the public on Sundays.
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  • Greenheart Music

    GreenHeartMusic is a music platform based in Ibiza, Spain. Presenting artists of different influences who express their connections to nature through their music.
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  • Guía Verde a Ibiza y Formentera

    A bi-lingual directory to Ibiza and Formentera of local groups, businesses and services that offer or use environmentally friendly practices.
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  • QL Studio › Websites Made Easy

    Quinta Linda is a low-impact living space and website design studio based in Portugal.
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  • Greenheart Resonancia

    An educational and fun programme of practical, stimulating experiences discovering sustainable and respectful habits in order to face the realities of climate change.
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  • Green Ibiza Tours

    Our Green Ibiza Tours provide responsible tourism holidays in Ibiza offering a full programme of eco activities and nature happenings.
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  • Greenheart Travel

    With the aim of promoting the Greenheart message around the world, travelling members of the rapidly growing Greenheart family will write blogs and add photos of their travels.
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  • Ibiza Gold

    The Greenheart Carob project plans to rejuvenate an important traditional economic activity, as well as motivating many local land owners.

A cultural interchange in Austria - by Chris

As all directors of important projects must do some day or other, I decided to treat myself to a ten days 'off the boat' experience and went to visit some dear friends of mine in Austria. I went precisely to Krems, a small town on the banks of the Danube, in the midst of a wine growing area. There I stayed for both the Christmas and New year celebrations with one of our most appreciated volunteers, Vera Polatschek and her family. Vera arrived to work with us at Casita Verde in March 2007 and stayed until the middle of August, becoming one of the main supporters at the centre despite her young age. Vera showed her love for doing practical and artistic things around the place as well as helping to feed us all with some excellent recipes. She was joined by her parents Stefan and Sabine for the last two weeks of her volunteering mission and I luckily was able to take some time out to relax a little more than usual as I accompanied them to see some of Ibiza's hidden treasures.

In Austria, Stefan has a business designing and selling very efficient and beautiful wood burning stoves for household and office heating, whilst Sabine runs a Montessori style kinder-garden inside the forest near their home. Vera has been working alongside her mother in the forest kinder-garden project since she left school at the age of 16, after enjoying a Montessori school education herself, together with her elder sister Marise and her two older brothers Paul and Román. Marise is studying at university in Vienna, whilst Román makes beautiful things with natural timber in a carpentry business connected with his father's stove business and the eldest son Paul works directly with Stefan designing and installing wood-stove systems.

I have to say that having stayed with this lovely family for ten days, I can see the exact result of how an alternative thinking family can operate and just what kind of young people have evolved as a result.

The Polatschek house is huge compared to the Casita Verde but somehow it had a great deal of similarity as a living space. The lovely rooms for everyone on-board, the bathrooms, showers and toilets are all effective and very comfortable to use. Stefan's home office on the ground floor is much bigger than our little 'bottle house' in Ibiza office. It is also well equipped and comfortable like any serious working space, despite being a part of the family house. The main entrance to the building is a large space where everyone left their out-door clothes and footwear, bicycles, toboggans, snow skis etc and where the family dog 'Chilli' was mostly hanging out. It is of course kept in an orderly and sympathetic way (I never once lost my boots!). Upstairs you enter into the main living space, where in the winter you are greeted by a dry, warm and inviting atmosphere. The spaces are very open and well lighted and you immediately feel in communication with the rest of the family who all live on the same level. The house has about six special fireplaces, which keep the whole of the living space at a very comfortable temperature whilst at the same time always giving you the feeling that you have plenty of air to breathe).

The room I stayed in during my visit is an extremely agreeable and well decorated space, with Internet access and even some very cute company in case I was lonely. The two baby tortoises I lived with in Vera's house were really the most in-obtrusive pets I've ever had the pleasure to sleep next to, especially with my intolerance to strange noises in the night. (I hope my presence in the room didn't disturb them either!)

A valid point for many serious directors away from their home office, is to be more or less well connected. This is not to say that I am promoting the idea to take your office away with you on holiday but merely illustrating that the addition of having Internet access whilst away on a visit is a very convenient way to feel more able to operate at a distance and therefore feel both relaxed and connected at the same time. With a fast line (the Internet in our centre is not really fast enough to watch on-line movies), I had the extra opportunity to see some of the film material I have recently been sent about the global evolution of 'Free Energy' devices and their importance in tackling todays rising climate crisis. This gave me some great inspiration for the future of mankind on the planet, as well as planting the seeds for another great project from Greenheart in the near future. (Surely, this is the kind of vacation we can do several times a year and without losing contact with the steering wheel - obviously something we need to investigate further!)

The food preparation and organic ambiance of the family community gave me the impression of a home from home. The basic ecological common sense was very present in the whole experience and I soon found myself entering into the general rhythm of the Polatschek movie. This was no 'culture shock' for me as I was certain it couldn't be, so I was able to go directly for my other options for interchange. This of course manifested itself in my usual habit to cook and do things in the kitchen, so I very soon began seeking every possibility to put my skills to work. Having the chance to cook on a wooden stove made me very happy as did the possibility to contribute something useful to the daily life of my host family and I set myself a target to make some lovely food, together with two wonderful cooks, Sabine and Vera. (It's like finding your niche in the system and feeling good in there). This is something I had experienced when Stefan and Sabine came to visit us and stay with their daughter during the previous summer. They too made themselves quickly at home and found useful and very welcome contributions to make to our daily life at Casita Verde. Naturally we exchanged many cooking tricks and recipes as well as other very useful information about lifestyle techniques, in a truly harmonious interchange, both in Ibiza and in Krems. (For me, there are very few real differences in culture between people from different countries, as long as they enjoy a similar level of social and ecological evolution).

I seem also to have chosen a perfect occasion for my visit, as the whole family had some more 'free time' during this period. We were able to do lots of out-door activities including some walking in the picturesque frozen hills, tobogganing down snowy mountains, or cycling next to the romantic river Danube and enjoying the fresh Austrian winter air. Along the way, we visited friends and working partners of the family. We seemed to always be in the right place at the right time (or was it that we chose to do the things in the right order to coincide with the weather?). However it was devised and delivered, it worked very well, so I covered all of my personal wishes with regards to making myself acquainted with the local scenery, the local people and the eco-touristic offer, not to forget the alternative education system and the whole process involved in the family wood stove business.

In conclusion, my Austrian visit was for me a great success and I say a big thank you to the Polatschek family for inviting me to share such an enjoyable slice of their family life. Thanks to my observations and discoveries whilst in Krems, I now have yet another couple or three projects to put into motion back here in Ibiza but suppose I should respect my personal energy limits and take things at a sustainable pace.......maybe we'll be still around to see what's coming next!................

For sure it's no surprise to see that I have composed the following slide-show from a selection of photos taken during my visit to Austria,  including some from Stefan's collection.