The village of Langouët in Brittany, northern France, is well on the way to energy autonomy and is aiming for food self-sufficiency, too. This community of 600 inhabitants is home to a whole host of green projects, designed to meet these objectives: since 2004, a canteen that serves 100% organic and local produce; passive social housing (no active heating used, or very little); a hamlet of “kitchen-garden houses”; a garden used for teaching permaculture; a community café; a solar power plant; an activity hub focused on the social and solidarity economy; a shared electric car… All of this in the last 20 years thanks to the dedication and vision of Daniel Cueff, who has been mayor of Langouët since 1999.
To finance these projects, the local council has twice borrowed funds from its inhabitants (25,000 euros this year to create a communal permaculture learning garden, and 40,000 euros in 2016 for the village’s redevelopment). “Anything we can do locally, we go for it!” Cueff said. His dream is to see every one of the residents get involved in the projects. Not content to stop there, Langouët plans to build a hamlet of “Triple Zero” houses (Zero energy, Zero carbon, Zero waste), equipped with greenhouses on their roofs, and to achieve energy autonomy within the next 10 years, thanks to solar power.
