The Carbon Neutral Co-Op Story – Part I
A little over a year ago I had an idea, which with the guidance of some amazing friends and housemates became the Carbon Neutral Co-Op.
Last winter I was fighting between grad school in architecture & sustainable design and corporate energy work. I chose corporate energy work. I wanted to not lose sight of the values and ethics that were fostered by my mentors and friends at Carleton. I wanted to have the quest for sustainability remain a major part of my life. The Co-Op remained an idea until 3 beautiful people, Chris, Dana and Sonja-Mae agreed to live with me even before we knew where we were going to live. This started to make it seem financially plausible that it could work…
Then came the realization of how EXPENSIVE houses in Minneapolis are. I thought “I’m sure we can find a nice old house for less then 100k and fix it up environmentally and it will be a great place for 4-5 people to live.” Well, I was off by about a factor of 3. I soon realized that for people to be happy, safe and healthy, they need things like bathrooms, working heat, an actual kitchen….. Back to the drawing board.
Chris and I initially talked about using the project as an example of urban renewal and using the project as a demonstration project in an area in need. Unfortunately, balancing our practical living needs made us scale back our ambition and we looked for a nice simple house in an area we were familiar with and that was located close to the Minneapolis greenway.
Even with scaled back ambitions, finding a house and being able to move in on time was no easy task! Initial searches last March and April turned into a color coded Google earth map with almost 100 houses throughout Minneapolis. I kept track of amenities and issues for each house, is there good solar access, is there room for a garden, how many repairs, etc…. It wasn’t until the help of my new found realtor and savior Pary Weinberg (Lew, my Carleton ITS mentor’s wife) that it started to come together. Many mornings she would drive me around all parts of the city looking for houses. I would then try, try, try to make it back on time to Carleton in time for my Global Change Biology class.
We narrowed houses down quickly to those that were vacant as graduation was rapidly approaching and we needed a place to live, of course we couldn’t let the seller know that.
It took a few weeks of negotiating, but on June 21, 2006 we moved in. 10 days after graduation and 5 days before I would start my new job. That week I stayed on my new housemate’s floor while Chris started his summer architecture program commuting from Northfield.
The Co-op was well suited to our immediate needs, but posed many changes in the quest to become carbon neutral. Foremost was the 3 story apartment building to the south and the limited yard space for a garden, but we had faith that we would be able to think our way out of such limitations!
Full of enthusiasm we embraced our new home with our best friends Lauren, Dave helping us move in!
Then came the summer…..
