Sunseed Desert Technology

Situated in a beautiful village in southern Spain, Sunseed is an English and Spanish Charity which aims to develop, demonstrate and communicate accessible, low tech methods of living sustainably in semi-arid environments. Since 1986 hundreds of volunteers from around the world have come to work at Sunseed every year, working in all of our departments and participate in all aspects of community life.

Sunseed is a living community that offers its visitors the opportunity to learn how to live a greener life. We take our relationship with the local and global environment seriously, using permaculture principles to develop, demonstrate and communicate sustainable ways of living. Sunseed is divided in six different departments, each one leaded by a Coordinator, and volunteers con choose to join in. These are: Organic Garden, Drylands & Water Management, Eco-Construction, Appropriate Technology, Sustainable Living, Education, Publicity & Fundraising.

A visit to Sunseed is an excellent way to learn to live more simply and launch yourself into a lower carbon life.

Our starting point for sustainable living is to reduce what we use. Activities that need energy are powered by technology that has the least detrimental environmental impact. All of our electricity and hot water is generated using solar energy, and we make use of solar cookers and solar food dryers whenever possible. All the water we use comes from rain water catchment and from the local rive by means of a ram pump, power only by the natural flow of water. We re-use or recycle most of our rubbish, and all of our organic waste goes back into the ground as compost or into composting toilets.