The Waterside Co-op

Environmentally Sustainable Practices at the Co-op

• We recycle. Before the blue bins arrived we contracted with Recycle Plus.
• Our electricity is solar powered. We don't have panels on the house, but we did switch to a solar electricity provider. We chose Viridian. So far, so good.
• We are pesticide free. We have been using IPM techniques to prevent and treat any little bugs that might come along. It works, it's safer, easier, cheaper, better on all counts.
• We compost. There's two compost bins in the backyard as well as one at Waters Community garden across the street.
• Food: We share food alot. We order from a local CSA to purchase local organic produce and are members of the Dill Pickle food co-op. We cook together with seasonal vegetables. We sprout, make healthy smoothies, have local organic teas, and are good cooks. We ferment (saurkraut, kombucha, and more..), forage, garden, and experiment. There's lots of good food around. We cook together pretty often. It's informal. We have many potlucks. To be honest, we also have chocolate, coffee, wine, and lucky charms, so we don't judge.
• We have used sustainable materials in the co-op house, such as sustainable wood bamboo flooring and recycled denim insulation.
• We are tv-free. We entertain ourselves by living interesting lives, so interesting, that tv is boring by comparison! (if we do say so ourselves.)
• We use a laundry line and wash on cold when we can to save energy.
• We have a manual lawn mower for our tiny patch of grass. We garden. We grow raspberries in the parkway. We grow natives grasses and flowers. We have a log innoculated with oyster mushroom spores (thanks Rob!) We don't water our tiny lawn. We have a raingarden that our downspout leads to.
• We use green cleaning products.
• We try to mimimize car usage. We try to work close to home. We bike alot.
• We used to host the Waters School Media Lab where 7th and 8th graders make videos to teach their community about what they learn in the ecology program.
• We help organize for environmental causes in our neighborhood to make changes on a bigger scale.

 

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