Jeff Clearwater 
Jeff Clearwater has been playing, working and creating in the field of intentional community and appropriate technology for many years with a special passion for whole systems design and how communities create and share wealth. Jeff received a B.S. degree in Solar and Alternative Energy Engineering from the Evergreen State College in 1979 and went on to be an integral part of the creation of the present solar and electric vehicle industries through the founding of 5 renewable energy design and installation businesses and serving on the Boards of 7 not-for-profits over 34 years.
Jeff cofounded and presently serves on the Council for the Ecovillage Network of the Americas (ENA) and was Ecovillage Director at Sirius Community for 6 years. Jeff helped found Living Routes, Study Abroad in Ecovillages and has provided whole systems design, appropriate technology and renewable energy consulting, design and installation for ecovillages, rural villages, governments and sustainability projects all over the world including Nepal, Sri Lanka, Columbia, Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, Sweden, Turkey and Spain. Jeff has taught sustainability through the United Nations’ CIFAL program and taught appropriate technology and new paradigm economics in permaculture and ecovillage design courses in numerous venues over 16 years. Jeff now strives in his learning and teaching to go beyond sustainability into regenerative and new paradigm knowledge, wisdom and practices.
After 30 years of immersion in whole systems design, Jeff’s present passion is illuminating a new paradigm for community economics - believing strongly that ecological sustainability and regeneration cannot be reached in the context of the present economic system. Grounded in a long cultivated sense of sacred economics and a life-long love of imagining post-capitalist futures, Jeff is now on tour developing and presenting “Community Economics as a Path of the Heart” - a work that strives to make visible and evolve the inherent wisdom of intentional community economic systems and apply it to the world at large.
Jeff is also strongly involved in the reorganization and re-invigoration of the Ecovillage Network of the Americas (ENA) through spearheading the creation of the Ecovillage Network of North America (ENNA).
When not actively engaging in intentional community work, Jeff finds himself in wilderness - intentionally losing his mind along the rivers and beaches of northern California and Oregon or hiking the trails of the Pacific Northwest. He also finds time to visit his daughter and 3 grandkids to love them up and be reminded of who the real teachers are.
Jeff is presently part of a intentional community formation group on Ashland, OR and also (somehow) finds time to tour ecovillages in the U.S., Canada and Europe exploring community economics and social dynamics while also managing to install a solar energy system or two. Jeff's passions can be explored at www.visionarycommons.org - jeffc at ic dot org.