The Natural Systems Developers (NSD) mission is to create and mainstream small full-service ecologically and economically sustainable communities of up to 5,000 population. Our business is to design, build, and market these communities as environments to ensure a future of human and non-human survival and development on planet Earth. Renovating existing communities is also included here.

     NSD's long term goal is to build many EcoVillages in selected locations around the world. We are also interested in cooperating with other individuals or groups who have similar values and goals, and we believe it is important to encourage the creation of a wide diversity of locally appropriate communities, and this will result in a rapid spread of the concept of small net-worked villages on a world-wide scale. NSD proposes to use the method of early Greek city-states, whereupon reaching a predetermined size of around 5,000 population, they would often establish another small community, thus forming a network of federated village, or city-state alliances. A primary goal of NSD is to build EcoVillages in a way that prepares the citizens to generate their own leadership abilities, and develop the skills necessary for the management their own communities.

     NSD will apply the concept of an "Ecological Footprint" to its EcoVillage communities. This is a method of analysis used as an accounting tool to estimate the resource consumption and waste assimilation requirements of a specific human population, in terms of a corresponding area of productive land. That is to say, "Just how big an area of land around a town is needed to support all of the ecologically derived resources necessary for its on-going existence?"  The answer to this varies from place to place due to the influence of differing climates, soil types, water resources, etc. A primary principle use in NSD community design, is to locate commercial, office, industrial, and public-service employment within easy walking distance of the residential areas.

     In 1995, the Ecological Footprint calculations for the productive land required by an average American was 12.4acres, for an average Canadian 10.43 acres, and for India it was 0.97 acres per person. The carrying capacity of the world is estimated to be 30% LESS than the current level of consumption of the world's people. Carrying capacity is a calculation of how many individuals in an ecosystem can be adequately supported in that ecosystem. The Earth may be considered to be one large ecosystem, made up of many smaller ecosystems. Broadly held scientific consensus holds that unless there is a change in the way humans interact with the Earth, grave ecological disasters of vast magnitude will occur in the not too distant future.

     The NSD team has creative approaches and solutions to many ecological issues concerning the human impact on the environment. These solutions have been gained, not only through research, but also through hands-on experience on other ecological projects, including closed-systems research, and its derivative applications.

     Emphasis will be on creating prosperous and successful communities to serve as a stimulus for building further NSD, or similar, projects around the world. There is widespread interest, both domestically and internationally, concerning sustainable EcoVillages, which gained impetus through international Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) colloquiums such as Habitat One, held in Copenhagen in 1995; the Global Eco Village Network (GEN), created in Findhorn, Scotland in the same year, and Habitat Two held in Istanbul in 1996. Participants to these forums discussed the issues in creating and re-creating human habitats in the face of impending problems such as energy resource shortages, scarcity of water, increasing spread of world-around desertification, environmental pollution, destruction of fishing stocks, loss of forests, loss of topsoil, and Global Warming which was even recognized by a 2004 Pentagon study as being, "the most critical problem of our age".

     To the best of our knowledge NSD is at present the only for profit corporation engaged in a total-process approach, and dedicated to creating small human-scale, ecologically and economically sustainable communities, selling them, and then going elsewhere to build another.

     NSD EcoVillages are designed as mixed-use, wherein residential, commercial, and other compatible uses co-exist, adjacent to one another in the community. NSD EcoVillages are designed to provide "full-service" communities. As such they will contain all the functions considered necessary for a viable modern community, and will develop their own industrial and economic base featuring local people and local materials.

     It is important to understand that the planet Earth itself is essentially a closed-system of enormous size, into which very little enters, other than solar energy, and from which very little leaves, other than infra-red heat energy. To be truly ecological, any community design must also include the economic prosperity of the village and its citizens. This economic vector is often left out when planning ecological projects. Sustainability, as a design principle, uses ecosystems as models. Creating conditions of sustainability requires:

   - promoting diversity of life forms, both plant and animal,
    - utilizing the cyclical methods of natural environmental systems to provide water, food, energy,
    - natural solutions for buildings' internal climate control,
    - clean water, clean air, fertile soil,
    - the necessity of using "waste" from one industrial process as "food" for another.

     Energy will come from wind, solar, geothermal, and hydro-systems (where available), and hydrogen sources. These renewable energy resources, will be used when possible from the projects' startup phase.

     We hope to convert corporate vehicles and power equipment to hydrogen early in the project. Hydrogen will be extracted from water using the abundant local wind and solar electricity for the electrolysis. Since the first NSD EcoVillage site(Mariposa) was a caliche (calcium carbonate) mine for over 60 years, we must also address the problems of land degradation and lack of adequate topsoil. NSD will produce large quantities of compost to assist re-vegetation , and to build soil for growing, high-quality food, both in greenhouses, and outside in orchards and dry-land agriculture.

     NSD will address the myriad community needs of electricity, water, superior shelter, low cost home ownership, employment, and on the job training. Some areas of "difference" for the NSD communities will be:

   - no use of pesticides, fungicides, or herbicides, or fossil fuel derived fertilizer
    - no growing of unproven genetically engineered plants,
    - no big boxes or franchised establishments to drain away the community's economic base,
    - real solutions for air and water pollution, and solid waste recycling,
    - communities will be pedestrian friendly rather than auto-centric
    - a community supported insurance and health-care system

     Synergies within the village will create strength through diversity which is emphasized, and we will address recognizing, and holding together, the forces found in such dyads as old-young, urban-rural, global-local, and internal-external community relationships. We aim to eliminate, as much as possible, the age-old dyad of healthy-ill, and rich-poor through various community policies, and will concentrate on building communities that have the values and framework in place so they can "take care of their own."

     Wastewater treatment and recycling are areas of particular interest, and NSD plans to use bioremediation for this. This uses processes of purification of by means of the Five Kingdoms of Life; microbes, protoctista, fungi, plants and animals. Bioremediation systems have been developed for pathogen destruction, reduction of both air and water toxicity, oil and other hydrocarbons cleanup, heavy-metal sequestering and recycling, and transmutation of volatile organic compounds into carbon dioxide and water vapor.

     NSD will introduce small-scale locally owned industries which are necessary for the construction and on-going life of the community. NSD ecovillage design aims at making the community as self-sufficient as possible in the areas noted below:

     Utilities and Services
    Utilities:
    - Electricity
    - Water
    - Sewage (bioremediation)
    - Fiber Optics
    - Hydrogen/Biogas (Methane)
    - Phone/TV/Internet Uplinks
    - Broadband
    - Garbage & Biomass Composting
    - Solid Waste Control & Cycling
    - Heating & cooling
    Services:
    - Insurance
    - Fire & Safety (Security)
    - Bank & Credit Union/co-ops
    - Intra-community transportation
    - Community Clinic

  Desirable Areas of Community Self-Sufficiency. Complete self-sufficiency seldom if ever occurs in real-life complex communities, nor is it even desirable, as trade and social interaction has always been important for human communities. However, areas in which community self-sufficiency is particularly sought after are:
    - water harvesting, purification, storage, and distribution
    - sewage sterilization and recycling of nutrients for food production
    - food production adequate to supply the community needs
    - renewable energy for the community
    - building materials which are natural and found locally
    - transportation and communication systems
    - local small scale industry with basic manufacturing skills
    - education for mutually supportive human and environmental
    - local government (independent, transparent, self-determined)
    - ecologically sound solid-waste disposal
    - natural means of heating and cooling

     Locally owned business and utilities are important to an EcoVillage, and NSD will develop startup industries, and community utilities, for sale to individuals, co-operatives, and the ecovillage as a whole. Group purchases of insurance and other goods and services will reduce living expenses in the community.

     Civic embellishment (Lewis Mumford's term) as in ancient Greece and Rome will be practiced. This will include community art and fountains.

     We expect to have no local sales or property taxes for anyone living in the ecovillage (other than those levied by the county).  NSD calculates that it will be able to create and maintain the public facilities and utilities infrastructure through the initial purchase prices charged to home and business buyers, plus reasonable monthly utility charges.

     Co-housing and group-housing options will be available and are encouraged as methods for reduction of family living expenses. When used as a temporary living style, both of these programs will allow EcoVillage dwellers to bootstrap their way into home ownership while enjoying lower living costs, in a convivial atmosphere. Group purchasing power for many everyday items will also be employed as an EcoVillage policy.

     Surrounding the community will be a buffer zone of un-built real estate to protect the community from encroachment by other developments. Vistas will be present within and from the community, with parks and plazas, village focal points, three dimensionality, and color. A premium is placed on creating community diversity at many levels from the physical environment, to ethnic, to socio-economic. There will be no nationally franchised restaurants or big-box businesses allowed within the community. This will help keep ownership local and restrict the exportation of local monetary resources. NSD estimates an eventual tourist influx to help support community enterprises. 

     Historically speaking, NSD design theory is strongly influenced by the ideas of Ebeneezer Howard (instrumental in the early 20th century Garden City Movement), and numerous architects, historians, and commentators such as Lewis Mumford, Jane Jacobs, Camillo Sitte, Patrick Geddes, Raymond Unwin, Clarence Stein, Benton MacKaye, Richard Register, Eilil Saarinen, Antonio Gaudi, Frank Lloyd Wright, Bruce Goff, Mark Roseland, William Rees, Robert Wackernagel, Ian McHarg, Henry George, and a host of others.

     In the village, all facilities will be within easy walking distance, and the distance from the center of the EcoVillage to its "hinterland" of agriculture and buffering open space, is at most 2,600 ft., or about a 15 minute walk at two miles per hour. Strict signage regulations will be maintained, and the overall EcoVillage ambience intends to promote a community mentality antipathetic to a high-consumption economy.

     Inexpensive alternative transportation systems are included in the community design, and the most usual forms of local transportation, other than pedestrian, will be bicycles, tricycles, quadricycles, elevators, escalators, roller skates, blades, and boards, horses, electric scooters, carts only for deliveries, handicapped, and so on. For inter-urban transportation, small truck and auto rental will be available.

     Efficient, toxin-free food-production and processing systems are included in the NSD plan. The ownership and operations of these systems are expected to be by the community itself, with financial arrangements with individual growers, co-ops, or locally incorporated groups of growers. NSD will make a special effort to attract experienced small-scale produce farmers to the community for this.

     Renewable energy will be used for all energy needs of the village. Renewable energy generators, such as wind, solar, methane and hydrogen, will be used for the community's electricity requirements.

     Educational facilities of the highest quality will be available, and at Mariposa, NSD is establishing a relationship with the High Plains Institute for Applied Ecology (HPI), as the umbrella educational organization for the community. It plans to act in cooperation with the existing educational system as mutually beneficial. The HPI curriculum will span from pre-kindergarten through post-graduate courses, and will have an overall ecological orientation. HPI will host visiting scholars as well as having its own qualified staff drawn from the sciences and humanities. Much of the education will be of a hands-on nature. In addition to the standard offerings of schools, HPI is planning to develop the curricula to include a range of biomic studies to be begun at even early ages, that will include:

   - grasslands
    - mesquite, and other agro-forestry as possible
    - wetlands
    - geology
    - climate
    - ecological systems biology
    - ecosystem analysis and emergy (flows of energy through living systems)
    - soil-science
    - permaculture (permanent agriculture, and/or permanent culture)
    - dry-land food and fiber production
    - economics of small communities
    - organic architecture
    - town and bioregional planning

     Many of the NSD team members have been recognized ecological and educational leaders during the last 30 years. NSD is in a position to apply what has been learned on other ecological projects, to relevant ecological problems found in most human communities on Earth, particularly regarding issues such as water, wastewater, food production, air purification, and other dynamic functions.

    NSD welcomes inquiries from groups or individuals seeking to create ecovillages such as we describe -----