‘The Tesla of eco-villages’: Silicon Valley entrepreneur’s optimistic vision for sustainable, resilient 21st century communities

James Ehrlich was close to building first ReGen Village, a sustainable community practising organic farming and circular waste management, before coronavirus

Silicon Valley entrepreneur believes now is the moment to implement his vision, and he has a supporter in Asia in Hong Kong eco-hotels developer Andrew Jones

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An artist’s impreesion of a ReGen Village, a sustainable neighbourhood where families produce their own food, generate their own power and contribute community labour. Image: ReGen Villages Holding

Published: 8:00pm, 27 Apr 2020Updated: 9:33pm, 27 Apr 2020

Brick by brick, app by app, James Ehrlich is building his ideal home, and – he hopes – what in future could be everybody’s ideal home.

The Silicon Valley entrepreneur’s brainchild is straightforward: a sustainable village that makes the best use of technology, growing much of its own food and generating most, if not all, of its own power. In many ways, it’s a fusion of old and new, combining modern technology with the idea of a traditional village that provided everything it needed for itself.

“I call this the Tesla of eco-villages,” says Ehrlich, 56, who has been honing the concept of ReGen – short for regenerative – Villages for more than a decade.

“With the coronavirus, we are living in fast-changing times, so now is the moment to grasp artificial intelligence and machine learning to address the integration of high-yield organic food, clean water, renewable energy and circular waste-to-resource management on the neighbourhood scale. Given the climate and other factors, it’s potentially the perfect housing solution for Asia.”

Villagers would grow their own high-yield organic food in the neighbourhood. Image: ReGen Villages Holding

Under the basic template for the villages, each 20-hectare community will be home to about 100 families. Each house will have its own greenhouse for growing personal crops, and the village’s communal farms and livestock will be managed and run by ReGen staff.

Individuals can volunteer their labour as a way to lower the monthly fees homeowners pay on top of their mortgages. At present, 40 square metre (430 square foot) village houses are expected to sell for €150,000 (US$161,000), while the largest, 280 square metres in area, should fetch €1.1 million. “Our goal is to bring costs down with prefab construction methods and circular building materials, to realise social and affordable pricing for purchase and rentals,” Ehrlich says.