Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Green Housing Can Cost Less to Build

[Chris ScottHanson (chris]

on 10/5/2000 2:14 PM, Fred H Olson at fholson [at] cohousing.org wrote:

> The Erie-Ellington Homes use 49% less energy than standard homes, 41% less
> water, reduce air pollutants by 25-60%, and reduce annual water,
> electricity and heating operating expenses by 46%.  All to be expected by
> anyone who has followed energy-crafted building for the last few years (or
> decades).  What is most encouraging is that these houses cost 25% less to
> build than conventional housing.  That is quite impressive and the
> breakthrough we all should have been waiting for.  I've known for years
> about the advantages of green building but the figures I'd always seen
> showed that these changes cost about 5% more to build in than conventional
> homes.  Now that Mark and his colleagues have shown that these advances
> can be included at a lower per square foot cost than conventional
> building, there is no reasonable argument left for continuing an energy
> and resource wasting habit.


Fred,

Where did you pull these numbers from?  Do you know, to what standards are
they being compared?  I'ld like to track this down some more.

The greatest thing we can do to build green, and to be affordable, is to do
tightly clustered cohousing communities.  Common (shared) walls and
especially shared floors and ceilings save vast amounts of energy and
materials.  The more three dimensional the community, the more energy
efficient, and the more green.  For more information contact Patsy Casey at
Winslow Cohousing who has NOT had to turn on her heat since she moved in
more than nine years ago.

Getting out of our cars, something cohousing are now becoming famous for, is
the best thing we can do for the planet.  I understand that the 30
households at Winslow are now down to 31 cars.  Living our lives in a
vibrant community allows for this.  Happy people are greener people

Chris ScottHanson

Cohousing Resources, LLC
Ecovillage, Cohousing & Sustainable Communities
Development and Consulting

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