Who We Are

Services Provided


Eko Community Currency


Community Investment
Phoenix Community Stores
Findhorn Foundation
Findhorn Wind Park
Ecovillage


How To Invest


Grant Aided Projects


Links


Registered Office:
Ekopia Resource Exchange Ltd
The Park, Findhorn,
Moray, IV36 3TZ,
Scotland.

Tel/Fax: +44 (0)1309 691258

Registered in Scotland under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1965.
Number 2574RS

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Investments

Ekopia has made a variety of community investments (see Phoenix Shop, NFD Ltd., Newbold House, Wind Park Project, Ecovillage Share Issueand Findhorn Foundation). We are continuing to developing a portfolio of investment opportunities including the new Park Ecovillage Development below.


Risk Assessment

The Ekopia Board have identified the following general risk categories :-

Low Risk; investments in authorised bodies e.g. Banks.

Medium Low ; Organisations with a good business plan, a trading history showing ability to cover twice the interest costs, and collateral to offer.

Medium High ; Organisations with a trading history showing an ability to generate profits, but not meeting all of the low medium criteria.

High risk: New enterprises with no profitable trading history.

Phoenix Shop

The Community Buy-out of Phoenix Community Stores Ltd. was completed on 31.8.01. Offering a wide range of whole foods, books, music and crafts the Phoenix has a turnover in excess of £1,000,000 per annum. Ekopia members investing a minimum of £500 for five years in the Ecovillage project will receive a discount for purchases made there, and 5% interest depending on the Phoenix' trading performance. We have so far raised £220,000 for re-investment in the Phoenix.

Ekopia owns 47% of the voting shares in Phoenix Community Stores Ltd. and is the largest shareholder in the company. The remaining voting shares are held by other stakeholders including the directors and NFD Ltd.

The Phoenix has been identified as a Medium High risk investment by the Ekopia Board of Directors.


Findhorn Foundation

A charitable trust created in 1972, the Findhorn Foundation offers a wide range of residential courses in ecology and non-denominational spirituality. The Foundation is a founder member of the Global Ecovillage Network, and is an NGO affiliated to the United Nations. It has assets in excess of £3,000,000 and was seeking to replace its bank borrowings with supportive loans from friends and community members. This Ekopia share offer is now closed.

The Findhorn Foundation has been identified as a Low Medium risk investment by the Ekopia Board of Directors.


NFD Ltd.

New Findhorn Direction Ltd. is the Findhorn Foundation’s wholly-owned trading company. In 2003 Ekopia lent this company over £100,000 to support a new visitor eco-chalet project.

This investment has been identified as a Low Medium risk by the Ekopia Board of Directors.


One of NFD’s new eco-chalets.


Newbold House

This charitable trust is located in a beautiful Victorian mansion, close to the town of Forres. Since its birth in 1893 it had been a family home and a hotel; in 1982 Newbold became the host for a small community dedicated to personal growth and transformation.

This investment has also been identified as a Low Medium risk by the Ekopia Board of Directors.

The Crystal Palace at Newbold House

Wind Park Project

The Community operated a Wind Park division, incorporating a 75kW windmill, from 1989 to 2006. It traded successfully and this turbine generated nearly 1.5M units of electricity, and saved 2,000 tons of CO2 emissions.

The next stage for this project was the creation in 2002 of a new company called Findhorn Wind Park Ltd.This raised £600,000 and erected three additional turbines, and the project now has a total installed capacity of 750KW. These came into operation in March 2006 and made a major step toward self-sufficiency in renewable energy for the Ecovillage. We hope it will pave the way for innovative future developments such as hydrogen fuel cells to power on site vehicles. Initial results show that we are able produce all our electricity needs and are a net exporter to the grid.

Investments in Findhorn Wind Park Ltd. are in the form of both voting shares in the company and five year preference Shares or loans.

The Ekopia Board of Directors has identified the Wind Park project as a Medium-high risk investment with the risk likely to reduce over time. We continue to seek funds in support of this project.


Ecovillage Share Issue

Ekopia is seeking investment funds from members and friends of the Community to be directed into the Ecovillage project in general.
Money raised by Ekopia will be re-invested in various projects forming part of the Ecovillage Project. These currently include Phoenix Community Stores Ltd, Findhorn Foundation, NFD Ltd., Newbold House and Findhorn Wind Park Ltd.

We expect to add others to the portfolio in the near future. There are three separate Ecovillage investment options, all of which will attract a variable rate of return.

Why This Issue?

In the first year of Ekopia’s existence we sought to involve ourselves in specific investment issues with a particular appeal to various investors. We intend to continue raising funds for these projects. However, as more funds are supported, our administration becomes more complex, as each individual issue might have several different sub sets of share classes. What we are hoping to do is attract the support of investors who wish to support the development for the Ecovillage in a general way but who do not feel one of the existing share issues fulfils their needs.


Findhorn Ecovillage Project Background

The Findhorn Community aims to completely transform its home at Findhorn Bay Caravan Park into a demonstration Ecovillage. So far over fifty ecological homes have been constructed, a new Guest Lodge and Youth Building, a 750KW wind park, two new visitor eco holiday chalets and an ecological wastewater treatment plant called a Living Machine.

Projects for the future may include the expansion of the Phoenix crafts and whole food store, fuel cell technologies, further development of ecological houses and facilities, and affordable housing.

See Links page for further information.


How the Ecovillage Share Issue Works

When funds are received to support this share issue the Board of Ekopia will maintain a small cash reserve, and invest the remainder in various different Ecovillage bodies. This will spread the investor's risk, and enable Ekopia to offer a more flexible investment opportunity. The first £500 will be invested in the Pheonix shop. 30% of the remainder of any new investment might then go into each of three other projects, although if the investor had a high proportion of funds on short-term call this might change the balance of the portfolio. As new projects come on stream, and at present there are many potential opportunities, a proportion of new funds will be directed into those projects. Projects deemed to be high risk by the Ekopia Board will not receive funds from the Ecovillage Share issue.

Park Ecovillage Development Ltd.

We are pleased to announce that Ekopia has launched a share issue in support of the new Park Ecovillage Development Company which will be a subsidiary of Ekopia. The idea of this organisation is to enable development to occur at The Park, so as to maximise the benefit to the community from these developments. This benefit would be used to provide affordable housing, infrastructure and other community facilities. We may also launch a share issue to support the provision of affordable housing via a shared ownership scheme of some kind to be announced.