Cohousing-L Mailing List: Abstract from the Nyland Traffic Study

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

Sheila Braun <sbraun [at] gmavt.net> is the author of the message below. 
It was posted by Fred the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org> 
because the message included HTML ;      PLEASE do not post HTML, see
   http://csf.colorado.edu/cohousing/2001/msg01672.html
--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------

I'm still working on typing in the Nyland study-but here is the
abstract.
 

abstract

A planned residential community of 42 homes outside Boulder, Colorado,
designed and built between 1992 and 1993 has demonstrated the cost
effective use of practical energy and resource conserving technologies.
The Nyland Cohousing community achieved its goal of affordably reducing
nonrenewable energy use by 50% when compared with conventionally built
new homes.

With the support of local, state and federal organizations and agencies,
the future residents and supporting professionals selected a balanced
package of energy conserving products and systems which reduced their
natural gas usage by 62% and electrical usage by 33% relative to local
utility averages. The combined annual energy saved by the community
equals over 71,000 kilowatt hours of electricity and over 3,600,000
cubic feet of natural gas. At current local utility rates, the monetary
savings for the community exceed $21,000 a year, for an average of over
$500 per household. These documented savings lend credence to a local
utility executive's assertion that the Nyland community "is the most
energy efficient residential community in Colorado.
Even more importantly, the energy saving measures used were shown to be
very cost effective, and can be easily transferred to similar projects.
The annual dollar savings achieved by these measures would easily offset
the increase in the homeowners annual mortgage payment.
Additional environmental and resource conserving benefits were attained
within the community. The clustering of buildings preserved a majority
of the site for open space. Water conserving fixtures reduced water
consumption by 37% when compared to conventional homes in the area
during the fall of 1993. For a variety of reasons, overall vehicle trips
were reduced 25%. The community's commitment to recycling kept 24,860
pounds of recyclable materials out of local landfills during 1993 and
the insulation in the buildings reused over 250,000 pounds of recycled
paper products.

The commitment of the residents of the Nyland community to live a more
environmentally responsible lifestyle has been reflected in an
affordable, energy efficient, and resource conserving neighborhood. For
those seeking simple, practical, cost effective methods to realize the
same goals, the Nyland example is a good one to follow.
 
 
Sheila
 
Project Coordinator
Champlain Valley Cohousing
www.champlainvalleycohousing.org
(802) 425-5030 phone
(802) 425-5033 fax
(802) 238-2667 cell
 


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