GRUPEDSAC counts on two centres of demonstration and training, founders of the network of Centres of Apprenticeship and Knowledge Exchange (CAIS).

Both centres are dedicated to investigations into appropriate technology, training, demonstration of eco-technologies and the broadcasting of solutions for farmland, for poverty and for environmental degradation.

CEDER (Education Centre for Rural Development), located in Huixquilucan, Estado de México and ITT (Tonantzin Tlalli Institute), located in Ejutla, Oaxaca.

Both were constructed using ecological technologies that constitute a living model for teaching, which is received by farmers, public officials, members of civil organizations, students, professionals and the general public.

These centres were born out of the belief that a new vision is necessary to realize positive change in rural Mexico, a vision inspired by the concern for that which is sacred in nature and humanity.

Appropriate Technologies or Eco-techniques

Designed specifically to attend to the environmental, social, economical, cultural and ethical needs of the communities on which they are focused. They require fewer resources, lower costs, less maintenance and above all they have a lesser impact upon the environment relative to other comparable technologies; thus they represent creative solutions to the environmental problems. They are presented in both Centres of GRUPEDSAC to show self-sufficiency in:

WATER

Integral management of water, construction of different-sized ferrocement cisterns, construction of bio-digesters, construction of dry toilets, with water collected from rainwater, washrooms and showers, contour lines, infiltration trenches, keyline design.

FOOD

Organic farming, bio-intensive cultivations, permacultural cultivations, organoponia, vermicompost, phytotherapy, food processing, industrialization of food..

ENERGY

Solar water heater, solar dehydrator, electricity-generating bicycle, solar and wind hybrid generator, solar stoves, Lorena and Patsari stoves, meat smoker.

HOUSING

Ecological design, sustainable human settlements, permaculture, rammed earth, straw bale, cob, mud walls, bamboo, sand bags, construction using re-used materials.