We focus on Sustainable Development because the way we organize our living environment and meet our basic needs for food, housing and community, can dramatically help our society adopt a Low Carbon Living footprint. As we have reduced the consumption in our own home and office we have found pleasure in simple things that cost less but are equally enriching.
Electricity – Our home and office power needs are generated using a PV system mounted on the roof, with a portion provided by Wind from the local utility, and another portion from a Carbon Offset provider. In total, we are generating at least 50% of our annual power used from renewable sources of energy.
Transportation – By living within the City of Boulder we have a variety of options for getting around. We ride bicycles, walk, take the public bus and, when necessary, drive a hybrid with 40 MPG.
Recycling — We live in an close-knit cohousing neighborhood of 11 households where we recycle the vast majority of our paper, glass, metal, plastic, and cardboard. In addition, our neighborhood has a small community garden where we grow herbs and vegetables, plus we grow vegetables and fruit in our private yard. We compost all of our food scrapes, which either get placed on to the compost pile for the community garden and trees, or we fed leftovers to our four chickens. Not bad for urban living in the City!
Community – By knowing our 25 neighbors in our cohousing community, we have the advantages of a built-in spontaneous social life with community members without driving, phone calls or emails to make arrangements. Our daughters are part of an energetic and precocious group of children who regularly play after school and during the summers and are growing up together in a caring multi-generational village. We enjoy group meals twice each week and cook for the community approximately once every six weeks. Community meals help us stay connected with one another and cut down on energy use plus cooking and cleaning expenses.
Food – For overall sustainability we have chosen to eat as healthy and organically as we can. This means supporting the local farmers market, shopping at smaller locally-owned markets and buying as much organic produce as we can find and afford.
Work – We feel it is a blessing to do work that we strongly believe in. Working with innovative, creative, and passionate people and sustainable products and services makes our daily work worthwhile. We are pleased to offer our skills to help create a more sustainable future.
