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.

driving an electric vehicle plays a critical role in reducing carbon dioxide emissions, but the impact of this reduction gets diminished if the electricity comes from fossil fuels. the sources of electricity used to power your car must be green too and several choices are available to make that happen.

it all comes down to this: how can you ensure that you are maximizing the amount of electricity that comes from renewable sources used to charge your vehicle?

the two highest contributors of u.s. greenhouse gas emissions in 2016 were transportation and electricity production, according to the u.s. environmental protection agency. in illinois, 40% of the state’s electricity is produced by coal and natural gas—only 7% is produced by wind and solar, reports the u.s. department of energy. fortunately, some power companies offer green energy options for your power. and there are steps you can take to maximize the percentage of renewable sources for your electricity. how you do that depends first on where you live.

“if we’re talking just in a single area, or we’re talking about across the u.s., there’s a difference. that’s because the u.s. is broken up into these different interconnections,” said jordan schnell, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of earth and planetary sciences at northwestern university. “basically, depending on where you are, that’s your regional mix of electricity. the chicago area is different from the rest of illinois. if you live in central illinois, you go into a different mix than you do if you live in the chicagoland area. these are called interconnections.”

schnell uses mathematical models to study air quality issues and said that the most obvious way to ensure utilizing renewable electricity for a car is to live in a region that already produces a large amount of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar. illinois’ neighbor iowa is the heaviest producer of wind energy, and wind turbines dot the landscape along i-55 in illinois.

“the pacific northwest has a lot of hydroelectric and california is really ramping up its solar,” schnell said. “[in] west virginia, they get over 90% of their electricity from coal. unless you put a solar farm on your house, you’re not going to be getting clean energy.”

since moving may not be an option for most people, consider bringing the options home. the most significant opportunity is to contact your electricity provider. schnell said that the company should be able to provide a breakdown of the times when they incorporate the most renewable energy. most often this occurs during the day—a time often associated with when people use the most electricity or the peak load. electric companies typically charge more for electricity during this peak load period, but this is the best time to recharge your electric vehicle to maximize renewable sources.

“that’s when the electricity demand is higher,” schnell said. “so, all these generating sources are online, potentially. at nighttime, the demand is quite a bit lower, so that is picked up by the base load electricity supply which is predominately fossil fuels in most locations. so, the timing is the big thing. generally, it’s better to not charge during the evening. it’s better to charge during the day because there’s cleaner sources during the day.”

in illinois, your electricity provider is most likely commonwealth edison company (comed), which is a subsidiary of exelon corporation. comed provides electricity to 70% of illinois residents, including 4 million in the northern part of the state. in the 12 months ending in september 2018, 60% of the electricity provided to comed’s customers came from coal and natural gas, according to their environmental disclosure report—4% came from wind, hydro, and solar. nuclear power plants produce the rest. comed did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the sources of electricity provided to illinois residents.

direct energy, a subsidiary of u.k.-based centrica, provides power to roughly 67,000 illinois residents. amanda parrish, public relations manager, did not say exactly how much of the company’s electricity mix is made from renewable sources but reiterated that you are more likely to have access to these sources during the day.

“solar is clearly only producing during the day,” she said via email. “wind can blow at all hours, but in certain places we get the most at night. biomass can be used anytime.” although biomass is identified as a renewable source of energy, it does release some carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when it is burned to produce fuel.

the illinois power agency act, created in 2007, requires all large investor-owned electric utilities to produce 25% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025. for the energy year 2019—which ends in may—these companies are required to source 14.5% of their electricity from renewables, and the percentage required increases incrementally up to 2025.

the best method to ensure that your electric vehicle is charged by renewable energy is to take production out of the hands of energy companies and produce the energy yourself.

“some people can get solar power installed at their home,” said marc geller, vice president and co-founder of plug in america, via email. the advocacy group provides consumer information such as installing photovoltaics on homes to power vehicles. “in that case their car could be effectively 100% solar powered.”

producing solar energy at home guarantees that your electricity is made by renewable sources and storing it in a home battery system means you can charge your vehicle via renewable energy at any time. the installation costs and amount of energy produced can vary based on location and installation company, but installing solar panels at home puts the control in the hands of the consumer.

“you could make your own electricity and store it in this battery,” schnell said. “even though you don’t have your car at home during the day where the sun is actually generating the electricity, you can sell it back to the grid or you can store it in your battery. then you can charge it at night from all the solar you generated throughout the day. it depends on where you live and how much you drive—northern illinois is not great for solar—but it can do a significant amount.”

illinois shines offers renewable energy credits (rec) to owners of approved solar panels, and these credits can be sold to utilities to help offset the cost of solar panel installation. comed offers several rebates and tax incentives to install solar panels at home. additionally, solar cooperatives are growing in popularity, allowing a group of individuals to share the cost of solar panel installation and to distribute solar energy among its members, effectively bypassing electricity companies.

regardless of how you power your electrical car, it offers a positive benefit. the electricity is getting more renewable overall and represents the clean future of the transportation system. according to the union of concerned scientists’ ev emissions tool, electric vehicles in randomly selected illinois zip codes release approximately 46% less of carbon dioxide equivalent (co2e) compared to gasoline vehicles.

“electricity in most of the u.s. is already cleaner than gasoline,” geller said. “and it’s getting more renewable every year everywhere.”

the app was conceptualized by curt gervich, associate professor of environmental science at suny plattsburgh and jesse feiler, ios app developer and president of friends of saranac river trail along with the help of mike otton and maeve sherry, two suny plattsburgh students.

it all began with an idea. the pair came together with gervich’s years of study within environmental science and feiler’s skills in app development. “i had an idea to create an app that would help people reduce their use of electricity in their homes like kind of everyday stuff, like turning out the lights and keeping the heat a little bit lower,” gervich says.

with utility smart, you can track how you throw out trash and recycling and even how high you set your thermostat during the winter. it compiles the data and helps you learn about how your choices impact the environment. the app’s ‘environmental footprint’ feature visibly show how close, or far, you are towards good environmental habits.

to keep the app close to home, user data from a class at the nearby plattsburgh high school was compiled. frequent trips to classes helped the developers design the app to ensure a great user experience. the app is accessible to apple devices such as iphones and ipads.

while setting up for my interview, the two were discussing gervich’s recent trip to asia. feiler, who works more closely on the inner-workings of the app, declares the recent downloads from people in china. “china is our largest install base of users right now,” feiler says. with more than 3,000 downloads the app continues to be updated with new data. the app is free to download from the apple app store.

stock video courtesy: footage courtesy of m_broz, hosted by videvo.net

in “the light bulb ban,” energynow! correspondent lee patrick sullivan visits the lightfair international trade show in philadelphia to find the latest offerings in energy efficient bulbs. he finds a 60-watt equivalent led bulb that will be the first in the world to sell for less than $20 and the first 100-watt equivalent led bulb to hit the market in october. he also finds out how led technology is expanding to bring us bulbs that can be dimmed and programmed with a tablet computer or smart phone and wireless sound throughout the home.

tom benton of the lighting science group, maker of the under $20 60-watt bulb, explains how led manufacturers are bringing costs down. brett sharenow of switch lighting, which makes the 100-watt equivalent, tells lee patrick that the switch bulb, as it’s called, is designed as a direct replacement for 100-watt incandescent bulbs and that consumers shouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the two – until they see their electric bills. the switch bulb lasts 15 years and uses just 15 percent of the electricity that an incandescent bulb would use, so it will probably pay for itself.

but even for those who prefer incandescent bulbs, the news isn’t all bad. martha delgado of bulbright industries, a halogen light bulb maker, explains how the government’s phaseout of inefficient light bulbs works, and why consumers will still be able to buy incandescent bulbs.