Cohousing and the climate crisis: Making a difference, leading the way

In every cohousing neighborhood I've lived in or visited, sustainability has been an explicit core value, particularly expressed in how the community was designed and built. Many of us have the luxury to choose to live lightly on the earth, "changing the world, one neighborhood at a time," as a Coho/US bumper sticker puts it.

But in this time of global climate crisis, as we mark the anniversary of Earth Day this month, it is well worth taking a fresh look at our role as cohousers, not just in how we build for sustainability, but also in how we live, how we organize the communities around us, how we can deepen our commitment, how we reduce our ongoing impacts, and how we lead the response.

Inconvenient truths vs. convenient community

Early this year, I had the opportunity to participate in The Climate Project in Nashville, where former Vice President Al Gore trained 1,000 activists in giving his legendary "An Inconvenient Truth" presentation, customized for different audiences and venues. We each committed to present it at least 10 times this year to spread the message and build the movement.

While I already had confidence in the recently confirmed science behind the theory, going through the talking points and seeing the existing and projected climate effects slide by slide with Mr. Gore and a climatologist really brought home to me not just the enormity of what's facing us, but how well positioned we in cohousing are to lead the way, having already taken many of the proposed actions.

Sustainability beyond sticks and bricks

Cohousing developer Jim Leach, President of Wonderland Hill Development Co. (WHDC), likes to say "Community is the secret ingredient in sustainability." He uses the phrase, which is prominently displayed over his company's reception desk, to refer not just to the green building and energy-efficient design (see Zero energy homes, Cohousing Magazine, September 2006). The participation of future residents makes cohousing units much smaller than the typical American new home and substantially more efficient.

Cohousing researcher Graham Meltzer, in "Sustainable Community: Learning from the Cohousing Model," his groundbreaking quantitative research across multiple cohousing neighborhoods, found that we go beyond the basic efficiencies of green building, the "sticks and bricks" of materials and site orientation, construction practices and shared walls. Cohousers used 75 percent fewer lawnmowers, 30 percent fewer washers and dryers and lived in half the space of the typical American.

But the real long-term, society-changing effects can come from how we live in community: he found that over time, cohousers made fewer car trips per person, used less energy and water, and produced fewer toxics. We were saving the earth, making reductions in many cases exceeded targets set for decades from now, without even trying. Peer influence and mutual support made it possible. All it takes is one person who is serious about composting, or two people who can share a trip or carpool. By living in a structure that makes it easy to support and learn from one another, we can rapidly adopt effective practices that make a difference and incorporate innovations. We can use our homeowner associations as a tool to help each other and the community find and achieve our greatest shared visions and inspire others beyond what we could individually accomplish. Cohousing elements, from common meals through neighborhood design, provide the mixing that makes this more likely.

A great personal experience of this phenomenon was at my first cohousing neighborhood, Swan's Market Cohousing, where, through collaborative problem-solving, we were able to get a grid-tied solar-electric system installed at zero upfront cost to the community. Because one member kept pursuing the concept, we found a solar installer with a unique business arrangement that allowed us to buy the system over time paid for by the electricity it generated.

As global climate change becomes a topic of discussion in your group, there are a number of things you can do, individually and collectively, to increase engagement around the topic and use it to help members develop their facility in this area. See the following sidebar for a few examples. We invite you to share other ideas that you have implemented or are planning on the listserv. We may report on those efforts in a future issue.

Community leadership beyond cohousing

While it may be convenient to focus on our own cohousing neighborhoods' sustainability and look inward at our little pieces of paradise, we have to acknowledge that we can't go it alone. We need to build alliances with our neighbors, with other cohousing neighborhoods and intentional communities in our region, with our governments, and with values-aligned organizations working on the same issues. These days, when people ask me why I live in cohousing, I tell them "I know I can't save the world myself. But together, living in community, we can make a real difference."