After four years in the design and permitting process and a year of construction, Eastover Estate and Retreat in Lenox, Massachusetts, is ready to unveil its state-of-the-art water reclamation system. Owner Yingxing Wang says Eastover’s investment in this eco-friendly technology—designed to minimize the center’s impact on its environmentally sensitive locale, the Berkshires—shows that it “walks its own talk.”

“It’s a facility that can add great value to our educational tours, planting the seeds of taking responsibility not only for our own health, but also for the planet’s health,” she says. Eastover welcomes visits from community and school groups.

The technology does not use any chemicals. Instead, the key treatment components are natural enzymes made from kitchen scraps and tropical plants growing on small gravel beds in a large greenhouse. “Their eight-foot-deep roots do all the work of purifying the water,” Wang says. “There are no CO₂ emissions, zero chemical use and very limited energy consumption. The reclaimed water, which is drinking-water quality, feeds back to the 600-acre forest, beaver ponds and wetlands that are within walking distance from the human habilitation area, which is relatively small compared to the large forest under its stewardship.”

Eastover is not affiliated with any specific spiritual tradition, but hosts a broad array of groups and teachers with a common aim: “to support the continuing emergence of holistic and ecological ideas capable of renewing our culture and leading the way to a sustainable planet.”

Eastover Estate and Retreat, located in Lenox, MA, minutes from Tanglewood Music Center and Kriplau Yoga Center. Find out more at Eastover.com.