madison, wisconsin’s housing cooperatives appeal to residents for their sense of community and affordable rent. but they also serve as an example of how housing can become more sustainable, according to damontae january, membership coordinator of madison community cooperative.

mcc operates 11 cooperatives that currently house a total of 142 members, according to january. the group provides logistical assistance and a financial safety net for expenses such as maintenance and renovation. members vote on policies for their individual buildings and participate in mcc-wide decisions. depending on which mcc house a member lives in, rent and utilities combined cost between $360 and $710 per month.

in a housing co-op, members live in separate rooms in the same building, sharing utilities and common spaces such as kitchens. according to claire oleksiak, the executive director of madison environmental nonprofit sustain dane, more dense housing like apartments and cooperatives are generally more energy-efficient than single-family homes, producing fewer greenhouse gas emissions per person.

recent gas and electricity use data wasn’t available for three of mcc’s buildings. out of the eight others, madison gas & electric data show that all use less natural gas and most use less electricity per person than the madison average for all forms of housing.

building back better

zoe bayliss cooperative, madison’s largest co-op with 47 student members, will move into an mcc building on langdon street this summer. 

the university of wisconsin-madison will demolish the building zoe bayliss has rented from the university for decades after this academic year. after frustrating uncertainty about the future of the co-op, angela maloney, a uw-madison senior and zoe bayliss board member, said the move into mcc’s building “feels more like we are joining a partnership.”

zoe bayliss’ new location on langdon street has the potential to become uniquely efficient even among mcc co-ops, according to january. mcc will replace the building’s damaged steam boiler system with a new, all-electric heating and cooling system, reducing its reliance on fossil fuels. 

heat and air conditioning are some of the largest contributors to household natural gas and electricity usage, according to valora gutierrez, sustain dane’s efficiency navigator and naturally occurring affordable housing outreach specialist.

improvements like those planned for zoe bayliss can be costly – january said the more efficient heating and cooling system and the electrical upgrades necessary to support it will cost $750,000.

for the project, mcc received financial and logistical assistance from sustain dane and elevate, a chicago-based nonprofit that aims to make utilities cleaner and more affordable. the organizations helped mcc secure a grant to cover $288,000 of the new system’s installation.

sustain dane and elevate assist with similar — though typically smaller — projects through their efficiency navigator program, which aims to make energy and resource-efficient upgrades to affordable multifamily rental housing more accessible.

“we, throughout the process, hold their hand and coordinate the contractors for them, coordinate the contractor bids and set up all the necessary logistics,” gutierrez said.

gutierrez said the program also helps affordable housing stay affordable by directly funding upgrades to old buildings, helping owners keep rents low. upgrades such as more efficient insulation and window sealing can also reduce gas and electric bills for renters.

january expects the replacement and other renovations to be complete by the end of may, allowing members of zoe bayliss to move in for the next academic year.

january said mcc also encourages member houses to improve insulation, particularly in the winter. “those smaller things, that can have a big impact,” january said.

location, location, location

while older buildings often require renovations to increase efficiency and drive down energy costs, sustain dane’s oleksiak said renovations have a smaller environmental footprint than constructing homes from scratch.

“think of all the materials that go into building a house. the concrete to pour the foundation, the wood and drywall,” oleksiak said. “reusing an existing building can be a benefit to the environment.”

housing co-ops typically occupy large, old houses downtown. many, including zoe bayliss’ future building, inhabit former fraternity or sorority houses. 

january said older houses are often either rented out to students as-is or occasionally demolished to make way for new construction. but he said converting them into co-ops can accommodate more people and still “keep the whole house out of the landfill.”

converting old buildings in the city into more densely populated cooperatives also allows co-op members to take shorter commutes to downtown jobs. according to a city presentation on building sustainability, residential buildings create 17% of madison’s greenhouse gas emissions, while transportation creates 41%. 

steve vig, a member of mcc’s hypatia cooperative, said being part of a community also reduces members’ transportation needs and waste compared to living in separate apartments or houses.

“i make one shopping trip a week and do the food shopping for 14 people,” vig said, adding that other members are responsible for recycling and composting. “if we weren’t all living together and organizing it together, probably not all of us would do that wherever we were living.”

rejenerate housing cooperative aims to further reduce its emissions from transportation by installing charging stations for three shared electric vehicles, according to the co-op’s website. members may opt-in to use those vehicles instead of owning their own car.

rejenerate should house 25 units in two adjacent houses on jenifer street once ongoing renovations are complete in the spring, according to abby davidson, one of rejenerate’s developers and a former member of an mcc co-op house.

while making housing less harmful to the environment may be a burden on homeowners and out of the control of many renters, january said madison’s housing cooperatives show sustainability doesn’t have to be a solo project.

“as we look at how our changing climate is going to start affecting how people live, where they live, i think co-ops can be at the forefront,” january said.

the arizona-based start-up company tempe betr-blok is the for-profit arm of a non-profit organization that researches alternative materials for building. frettoloso said the idea of the betr-blok formed from an idea he and his partner developed after there was idea between the two of commercialization opportunity and mass production of a sustainable, affordable building material.

with a diy approach, betr-blok wanted to make the material not only easily accessible, but also easy to build for common hands.

“there is really a community of paper creators,” frettoloso said. “in general, you build a house out of paper and you’re using less labor and less materials.”

the betr-blok is made with paper — yes paper — like shaded paper, magazine, cardboard and regional material. the material of the block has other perks besides its friendly environmental properties — the block is also fire resistant, water resistant, termite resistant and, more importantly, it’s supportive to hold up structures.

“everyone has paper news print and cardboard but they have a unique form of delouse,” frettoloso said.

affordability is another concept frettoloso had in mind while creating the sustainable block. frettoloso said he wanted to highlight not only the environmental aspect of the building block, but also the cost and how it can help homes and businesses save on energy costs.

“lead with costs and those benefits and how people save money,” frettoloso said. “thirty-five percent of the energy that is lost through our house is through the walls.”

the concept over the cost of energy with the betr-blok has been tested by frettoloso and his team over the past several of years. the company recently received a grant from the salt river project, an energy supplier in arizona, to build a 500 square foot test structure of their innovative blocks.

in order to monitor the space, a weather stations and data acquisition was put in place to monitor the blocks. over the course of 3 years, the house was kept at a 76-degree temperature, for a total cost of 18 cents a day. the end of the month bill was 18 dollars. if the calculations of frettoloso’s project were applied to a bigger space, a 2,000 square foot space kept at the same temperature of 76 degrees would put energy costs at 75 dollars a month.

“with 500 square feet, you can easily multiply those numbers to larger houses,” frettoloso said.

the testing and approval of the buildings has been no easy process, with hurdles around each corner that frettoloso and his team have to pay attention to and overcome. fires testing, water penetration and other tests can often eat up a lot of time and money.

“there’s a lot of hoops you have to jump through when you’re dealing with municipalities,” frettoloso said. “it’s necessary, we get it. it’s just really expensive.”

as far the future of betr-blok, frettoloso said he’s optimistic for the next five to ten years, where he hopes his innovation will reach a mass audience who will not only want to welcome more sustainable products to build their spaces, but also save money on monthly and yearly energy costs.

“definitely making it a regional thing,” frettoloso said about the future. “replicate this across the country.”

the idea of taking and implementing the betr-blok across the country is entirely possible, according to frettoloso. by using the base of paper materials and using local materials from a specified place means the block can be recreated from san francisco to oklahoma city to philadelphia. instead of shipping in materials, local economies are able to be used and cultivated by using regional-specific products to contribute to the block.

“the idea is strategically to place this thing,” frettoloso said. “providing the country with different local building materials.”

to learn more about betr-blok, check out this video!