Cohousing-L Mailing List: "Green" or "Sustainable" ... or both?

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

Ann Zabaldo <ann.zabaldo [at] gmail.com> is the author of the message below.
It was posted by Fred the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
due to a problem.
--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------


Hello all --

One of my partners, Meda Ling, wrote the following piece looking at the
qualities of what makes something "green" and/or "sustainable."  I hope
you get as much from it as I did!  Ann

--begin--
As noted, "green" and "sustainable" is not the same thing.  There are
many shades of "green".  But "green" initiatives are inherently part
of the sustainability formula, as is COHOUSING.

As noted in ULI-The Urban Land Institute's, Developing Sustainable
Planned Communities, (2007) - the Three Pillars of Sustainability are:

Environment
Economy, and
SOCIETY [my emphasis]

TRUE "sustainability" is a holistic balance of ALL three elements.

In developer parlance, cohousing is a type of planned community,
unique in that the process of building cohousing places critical
importance on "society". The cohousing movement has the potential to push
the silver wave towards a more balanced approach to how we use our land
resources and how the public comes to define true "community" and true
sustainability.

The concept of planned communities is not new. In the post war 50's &
60's (when most of the silver wave of boomers were born), there was a
'New Town' movement which sought to develop with sensitivity to the
relationship between people and the environment - these
pedestrian-oriented, humanely-scaled planned communities where one
could work, live, and play...schools, shops, recreation & work -
everything was within walking distance. Housing was clustered in
neighborhoods and villages around commonly held green spaces. Planning &
design professionals of the boomer generation will remember the principles
of "Designing with Nature" that was taught to us as a
holistic strategy to mitigate the environmental impacts of a rapidly
industrializing society.  Even these principles were rooted in ancient
concepts of 'common sense' land use (feng shui is among those ancient
precepts).

The intricate relationship between how the built environment affects
people and vice versa, has long been studied.  As our love affair
with the automobile blossomed, the disconnect between people and the
environment grew. We have literally and figuratively, "paved paradise
and put up a parking lot."  As a result, society has suffered along
with the environment, and the economic costs of an auto-centric
lifestyle grows. Witness: suburban sprawl. It is neither a sustainable,
nor a "green" model for land use.

 We push for mass transit alternatives, yet simultaneously we continue
to expand roadways to relieve traffic congestion (a politically
expedient band-aid approach that has long been proven NOT to work) and
the search for 'affordable' housing for the workforce in a
density-adverse society pushes residential bedroom community sprawl further
and further out into the countryside so that the critical mass needed to
support mass transit systems and get people to give up the convenience and
necessity of a personal automobile, cannot be accomplished.

"Smart development" principles advocate putting density where density
makes sense - at mass transit nodes, at work centers. Increased density
where density makes sense is what enables "affordability"... it is what
enables "true green" by preserving precious agricultural land and
sensitive habitats. Smart development enhances functional open space
opportunities for human recreation and interaction with nature where it is
needed- at our front doors. "Smart development" provides humane and
vibrant pedestrian-oriented work-live-play communities.

Cohousing, is an approach to building communities from a strong foundation
of society: one of the pillars of sustainability. Cohousing offers hope
for sustainable community with a synergistic "green" relationship between
people and environment.  The potential is there. It will take persistence
and deep pockets to navigate an often resistant regulatory system to build
not just cohousing, but "smart", "green" cohousing and "sustainable"
community in the truest sense of the word.

Yes, cohousing can be some shade of "green" and with sufficient social
equity, it can be "sustainable"... not just for the silver boomer
generation, but for anyone and everyone who seeks to live more lightly
on the land among reasoned society.

Meda Ling
Principal Partner, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
...from dream to reality, building joyous, sustainable communities

--end--


-- 
Ann Zabaldo
Voice 202-291-7892
Fax 202-291-8594
Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
Takoma Village Cohousing
Washington, DC