Live the Enviro Housing Way

Thinking about moving out in the not too distant future, but can't really afford it? Interested in making the environment conservation part of your lifestyle?

There are alternative housing arrangements out there which allow you to live on your own at prices that you can afford, while taking on the responsibility of your surrounding environment.

Most housing cooperatives have three separate rental rates. There are those who pay the regular, full cost of their rent, those whose rent is partially subsidized depending on how much they earn and those whose rent is fully subsidized (free).

Tenants are expected to maintain their cooperative by mowing the lawn, tending to the gardens, painting or fixing up things when its needed. Basically, the take on the upkeep of their building.

The Conservation Cooperative in Ottawa was set up a year and a half ago with this in mind. It also had the added focus on the environment by including as many energy, water and waste conservation features as possible.

For example, with a wave of your parking card, you can roll your bike into the underground bicycle garage instead of locking it up outside or lugging it up to your apartment. The housing cooperative has 200 bicycle spots and only eight parking spots for cars on its grounds. The building is also located near a bus stop.

"The biking garage is the most innovative environmental feature of our cooperative," said Susan Fisher, a consultant with the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation and a founding member of the Conservation Coop.

Susan explains that the cooperative also has a voluntary Environmental Code of Ethics. It asks tenants to use phosphate-free cleaning agents such as baking soda for cleaning the bathroom instead of Mr. Clean or Comet. It also reminds tenants not to pour toxic chemicals down the sink because the water from the taps and showers is reused to flush stuff down the toilet.

The Board of Directors for the building development, the group that made the initial big decisions about how the building would look, worked very closely with the architect to make sure that most of the trees on the site were saved. They only had to transplant to of them.

The building has insulation levels that are higher than the standards, the balconies were designed to eliminate thermal bridging (eg. in the winter, cold air seeping in and / or warm air seeping out) as well as using less water with low-flow water fixtures in the shower and taps. The toilets are also six litres instead of the regular 13 litre.

"If you have a hose and it's just trickling, it won't seem like a lot of water, but then if you put pressure on it with your thumb, it seems like there's more," Susan said. "That's what the low-flow water fixture does."

Tenants are encouraged to save energy and water with their wallets. Most buildings have central heating, the Conservation Coop however, metres and bills people individually to discourage them from waste. Paying an extra five bucks on your hydro bill provides an added incentive to turn off the lights and the tv.

The architect decided to rely on sheer laziness to promote the three Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle). As such, there are four recycling rooms with bins for glass, cardboard, newspapers, etc. on each floor and only one garbage room in the basement!

There are also 12 to 14 composters on the grounds, a solarium for growing plants and vegetables as well as individual gardening plots for the green thumbs in the building.

It looks like most other apartment buildings except perhaps the solar panels on the roof for photovoltaic lighting. But inside the atmosphere is different because people know each other and work together to keep their building and environment clean.

"People are open to these ideas," Susan said. "We're all kind of learning from each other."

© 1997 - TG Magazine / The Students Commission
© 1997 le magazine TG / la Commission des étudiants