EDE Crete, Greece 2025
Overview
Type: Face to Face
Dates: Sep 28th - Nov 2nd 2025
Website: ede-in-crete.org
Contact: olga.talantopoulou@gmail.com
Location: Paradeisos Scouts Center, Armenoi Rethymon, Crete, Greece
Certified by:
What does it mean to truly live in connection—with each other, with the land, with ourselves?
The Ecovillage Design Education in Crete is a program, a training and so much more. It’s an experience of belonging, questioning, unlearning, and reimagining. It’s the warmth of shared meals under the olive trees, the pulse of collective movement, the quiet hum of the land teaching us how to listen again. Over the course of several weeks, we weave together social, ecological, economic, and worldview dimensions, grounding sustainability and regeneration not just in theory, but in the way we show up—for ourselves, for each other, for the world.
For many who come, it’s a return to something long forgotten.
What makes this EDE special?
The fact that spiritual and religious practices and characteristics are part of every community-building process sooner rather than later and need more spotlight: on how to navigate them, name them, understand concepts, supportive and especially risky factors leading towards sect and cult-like dynamics.
The schedule is also finalized by the specific interests of this year’s cohort.
Offering an EDE opportunity for the geographical position of the Southeast of Europe; further, the cultural, socioeconomic and historic frame of the Balkans and the surrounding countries.
The trial to offer a more affordable option for an EDE for countries with financially less privileged political and global standing in today’s world.
The Growing Together Days (GTDs) as a concept adopted from the EDE Glarisegg - but not only for EDECrete alumni! For all people who have completed an online or in-person EDE experience! This is for the network to come together and create together on a common and visions!
Location
Surrounded by forest and open landscapes, our EDE home is a scout camp designed for immersive, hands-on learning in nature. With expansive outdoor space and well-equipped indoor facilities, it offers the freedom to connect with the land while providing sheltered areas for workshops, discussions, and communal gatherings.
Just 10 minutes from Rethymno city and the coast, the site balances seclusion and accessibility, allowing for deep immersion in nature while staying connected to the island’s rich cultural and ecological heritage.
How to run an EDE?
Several of our EDE graduates have carried on organising EDE programmes in their local areas, and you are warmly encouraged to do so after completing your course.
The recommended time frame of an EDE is four weeks, however this is not fixed and varies with each individual programme.
The material can be condensed into smaller workshops, spread out over a longer period, or distributed in blocks at different times and locations.