Submitted
Good Jobs & Inclusive Entrepreneurship

Green Villages PBC Sustainable Community

Team Leader
Elizabeth Armstrong
Solution Overview
Solution Name:
Green Villages PBC Sustainable Community
One-line solution summary:
Provide safe housing and support for at risk and veteran women to catalyze the masses to embrace clean, green, healthy, wealthy lifestyles.
Pitch your solution.

Green Villages combats homelessness, climate change, mass extinction, and resource loss through the 30+ acre LEED certified built, nature rich decentralized sustainable community.  We provide safe housing, employment, and other services for at-risk and veteran, potentially homeless, women.  The buildings include Community center, Commercial kitchen, Kennel, Mercantile, Laundry, Co-housing, and Greenhouse/Garden that offer education, business development, rental space, wellness activities, quality food, and basic services.  We will be open to the public in a one stop environment to model resilient and sustainable lifestyles.  The nature rich landscape and wildlife sanctuary strengthens biodiversity.  Preliminary market analysis shows the generation of $7 million annually.  We use eco-friendly technology to research energy efficiency and effective water management to overcome energy loss and water leakages in traditional urban systems.  We empower gender equality and maximize on efficient cost of living.  The prototype will be rebuilt across the country and around the world.

Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?

Women:  >216,000 US homeless women may be subjected to attacks by groups of men during the night (nursing.usc.edu). 

Over 230,000 American women have served in recent wars.  Up to 40% of women reported being sexually assaulted and 71 to 90% reported sexual harassment in the military.

Energy and Water Loss:  22 Quadrillion Btu of energy is lost from coal/nuclear/power generating plants in 2013 in the US annually (insiderenergy.org).

69 Trillion Btu of electricity is lost with transmission/distribution from plants to homes/businesses annually.

~6 billions gallons of water per day may be wasted in the US (cnt.org).

Climate Change: Climate change modeling predicted the impact of virulent microorganisms, such as our pandemic, >5 years ago (nature.com).

Climate change resulted in the global rising temperatures and extreme drought conditions (usgs.gov) and has devastating impacts on societies through the increase in frequency/intensity of natural disasters; eg. 2019 Hurricane Dorian on the south and east US coast.

Mass Extinction:  Natural products and serviced valued at $72 trillion worldwide, annually (UN Dead Planet Living Planet).

>1 million species are on track for extinction in coming decades (biologicaldiversity.org). Ecological, economical, and social consequences results from extinction of species.

Linkages connect human health and ecosystem services (epa.org).

What is your solution?

Technology is used to monitor overall conditions at our community for the safety of at risk and veteran women.  Full service computer labs are provided for employment, education and business development.  Using strategic behavior change development technologies aid in overcoming trauma and restoring dignity and quality of life for the women.  Creating a localized ecosystem to satisfy the needs of women uses convenient eco-friendly transportation. 

The sustainable community is designed to optimize on the efficient generation and use of electricity and water.  Our decentralized environment reduces the need to transmit energy across distances.  We collaborate with green developers and businesses to research the viability of eco-friendly, renewable resource driven technology.  Efficient use of valuable resources reduces the generation of energy and water processing climate changing activities.

Soil and air monitoring technology is used to asses ground and atmosphere conditions to research best habitat and resource management for the survival of humans, plants, wildlife and natural organisms to enrich life and well-being.  Technology allows us to assess soil carbon over time to determine optimum conditions for oxygen generation, and air/soil/water bioremediation (clean up).  Traditional built environments do not take into consideration replenishing the needs of life by the lack of greenspace.

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Traditional homeless women support is designed to shelter by one organization and provide food, education, business support by other organizations.  Shelters may be six dorms of men and one of women with 12 people in each dorm.  At night the doors are open while the responsible worker is asleep behind two locked doors.

Workforce and education environments are not monitored for human trafficking prevention.  Women are susceptible to electronic harassment and stalking (Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being).

I have lived in the homeless population, on and off, for about 10 years as I lived in my car.  This enabled me to understand our needs.

Providing at risk and veteran with a safe place to exists allows them the heal from the traumas from living on the street and oppression from social norms impressed on women.

Wasteful traditional lifestyles has resulted in the pandemic predicted through climate change modeling.  Teaching university level Environmental Sciences provides me with the expertise to devise solutions to today's challenges.  Green Villages was specifically designed to create clean, green, healthy, wealthy, resource efficient lifestyles.  EPA health browser provides outlines the impacts of natural environments on human health and well-being.   

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
  • Enable small and new businesses, especially in untapped communities, to prosper and create good jobs through access to capital, networks, and technology
Explain how the problem, your solution, and your solution’s target population relate to the Challenge and your selected dimension.

As a single parent, high school drop out, I was one in 3% of women to graduate with a STEM degree, PhD in Biological Sciences.  It was a time when congress considered environmentalist to be terrorists.  Bush became president.  I was put on a terrorist list that resulted in me becoming homeless.

I was unable to find safe housing so I wrote the business plan to help me and other women.  The localized sustainable community provides safe employment, business development, housing, and well being for myself and up to 96 other women at a time.

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
San Rafael, CA, USA
What is your solution’s stage of development?
  • Prototype: A venture or organization building and testing its product, service, or business model
Who is the primary delegate for your solution?
Elizabeth Armstrong, PhD
More About Your Solution
About Your Team
Your Business Model & Funding
Partnership & Prize Funding Opportunities
Solution Team:
Elizabeth Armstrong
Elizabeth Armstrong
Founder CEO