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We aim in contributing to social transformation with regenerative tools
We envision communities that thrive and their members can fulfil their dreams
Community Lab is a permaculture services company. It has a multidisciplinary approach helping communities & individuals thrive. It provides solutions to how the land can be regenerated while producing healthy food and how groups and individuals can transit to a a more regenerative and community way of living.
Community Lab has a “home”, an educational permaculture field called Syntrofia(/Greek/: companionship, eating together). Syntrofia started in 2024, designed with the permaculture principles to host volunteers and courses and demonstrate syntropic agriculture to the local farmers. It is located in the community of Garipa, Chania next to other interesting innovative projects such as Free Field permaculture farm, Kariatzoules forest school and more.
In cooperation with the association Kissamos Social Spot and the Municipality of Kissamos, a permaculture design and implementation is carried out in a municipal area in Kissamos in the prefecture of Chania. The implementation aims to create a therapeutic educational field accessible to people with disabilities and students of local schools. The presentation of the permaculture design here
The 1st training in Greece on facilitating collective processes, the art of making our collective processes more effective, meaningful and truly equal. Community Lab in collaboration with Stathis Mavridis, a certified facilitator from the International Facilitation Institute of Spain, founded facilitation.gr that trains facilitators from 2022 with annual training cycles on the art of facilitating groups. More information on facilitation.gr
Permaculture consultant, teacher & regenerative farmer, diploma in permaculture
Christos Karystinos lives and works in Garipa community, Chania, Crete, founder of Community Lab, manages Syntrofia Permaculture Project and more local permaculture projects. He uses R.Morrow methodology and he holds a Diploma in Permaculture Design from the Italian Academy of Permaculture. His experience in ecovillages (Sunseed Desert Technology, Lakabe, Auroville etc) and permaculture projects around the world (Latina America, Asia & Europe) formed his core belief that the regeneration of the land is directly connected with the regeneration of the social system around it. He has taught more than 30 non-formal education courses related to social permaculture, regenerative farming, art & facilitation. Council member of Evolving Cycles NPO and actively promoting facilitation of groups, a set of tools for collectives in Greece.
Popi is a Project Manager at Community Lab, with a multidisciplinary background in EU policy research, circular economy, sustainable food systems, and environmental
education. Popi holds a Master’s in Urban Environmental Management with a focus on understanding the complexity of urban systems and sustainable transitions.
She worked at the European Parliament’s Research Services Unit on regional development, cohesion policy, climate change, and the just transition, contributing to high-level events and authoring a publication on urban agriculture.
Popi’s practical engagement with regenerative agriculture includes hands-on work on organic farms in the Netherlands and WWOOF placements. She further expanded her expertise through the Interreg NWE Grow the City training on circular urban agriculture, exploring innovative growing systems and sustainable business models.
Earlier, she worked with MetaMeta, a social enterprise focused on land and water management, contributing to climate-resilient projects under the Green Roads for Water
program. She supported field teams in Pakistan and Sudan through technical analysis, training materials, and communication outputs, focusing on nature-based solutions,
road-water harvesting, and the links between infrastructure, ecosystems, and community livelihoods. Living in the ecological community of Droevendaal further shaped her commitment to environmental awareness and collective living.
Sofia has been, over the past years, our Erasmus+ coordinator, supporting the sending of young people to Training Courses and Youth Exchanges across Europe
Her travelling spirit and passion for knowledge have helped Community Lab grow its partnerships with European networks such as @yestosustainability
She was born and raised in Thessaloniki and at some point chose to leave her career as an archaeologist and her life in the city to explore alternative paths and regenerative ways of living.
She started as a member of @evolvingcycles , where she was active in educational programmes before taking on the coordination of Erasmus+ projects until today.
Her connection with permaculture deepened after participating in a PDC in 2021, followed by active involvement in ecological projects in Greece
Her journey later led her to the Canary Islands, where she worked for a year contributing to the design of a community farm and facilitating workshops on social permaculture.
For the past six years, she has also been training in Neuro Coaching, trauma therapy, and Nonviolent Communication, approaching them as essential foundations for healthy social life and community processes.
Liselotte
Aims to live according to the permaculture ethics, integrating them in all aspects and projects of life. Currently residing and stewarding land in Capilerilla, Alpujarra Granadina and working mainly with association Semillistas as planting and volunteer coordinator. Graduated in 2011 with a degree in Anthropology and Ecology (UCU, Netherlands) and is completing her diploma in ecosocial regenerative cultures with Gaia University. Has life and work experience in various communities, educational projects, and ecovillages, including Tierra Langla, Sunseed Desert Technology, Baile en el Aire and to date in an intentional community, Aylacar. Teaches permaculture design certificate and social permaculture courses, among others topics such as pagan celebrations, foraging and fermentation, land management. In general loves to work with water in landscapes, foraging, dance and movement, cooking and long walks.
Mali
Mali is a permaculture practitioner, facilitator, and educator whose journey began with studies in Forest and Nature Conservation and Sustainable Tropical Forestry. After graduating with a strong understanding of the socio-ecological challenges of our time, she went looking for more hopeful, solution-oriented pathways and found them in permaculture, community living, and cultural regeneration. Her most recent work is centered around writing, coordinating and facilitating projects for young people and youth workers on regenerative living, nature connection and sustainable activism, amongst others in collaboration with the Yes to Sustainability network and NextGEN – the youth branch of the European ecovillage network.
Natassa
Environmental educator & founder of Smirili Nature Experiences
Natasa is a nature lover and sustainable travel ambassador. She is the founder of Smirili Nature Experiences, a hiking and nature awareness business in Greece. She holds a degree in Environmental Sciences and a Masters in environmental education from the University of the Aegean.
Since 2022 she is also working as an Arctic Guide in Finnish Lapland and also holds the “Arctic Guide” Certificate from the University of Lapland Finland. Her academic studies are complemented with several courses and seminars about sustainability, nature connection and interaction, permaculture, nutrition, ecosystem design, nature guide, travel guide, community building and social economy.
Her main residency is in Naxos, inspired by the beauty of the Cycladic ecosystem.
Her vision is to re-establish our connection with nature through meaningful interaction as seminars, outdoors activities and experiential learning workshops.
Community Lab idea was conceived at 2021 after the study of ecovillages and regeneratione examples in Spain, a country with simillar social and natural ecosystem of Greece. Our path started in the political movements of autonomy and global justice in Greece and it evolved to theories and practices around building a new paradigm in the rural, apart from just fighting a the old one at cities. Permaculture, non-violent communication and communitism came to answer the question: “how will this new paradigm look like?”. The need to find living examples of the answer, we found ourselves in eco-villages, systems that practice their utopias in small scale. The seeds of our experiences is Community Lab, seeds of education and design of regenerative communities in Greece.
