Abstract

Sustainable development of rural communities requires defining development strategies that respect human nature and the environment, guaranteeing the involvement of the affected community. The aim of this paper is to analyze a case study where a co-construction methodological approach was applied to productive projects in isolated rural communities. This project has the particularity of using local renewable energy resources to satisfy the energy demand of the productive process. The co-construction approach was implemented from the kick-off of the project to the operation and evaluation stages. In this specific case, the proposed methodology required that the community became involved in the decision-making process from the beginning of the project. The methodology was applied in the General Lagos region in the north of Chile, within the framework of the sustainable development project “Ayllu Solar.” The results showed that high levels of community engagement could be achieved through the involvement of the community since the beginning of sustainable development projects.