Coliving, Cohousing & Environmental Sustainability​

Interviews, focus groups, and observation produced a wealth of qualitative data. From this, how shared living communities negotiated sustainability-related practices could be explored. The following are some of the highlights which emerged from the qualitative research:  

• On sharing values and creating pro-environmental social norms. What sustainable practices consist of, and how people negotiate when to undergo such practices, differs widely. However, social norms within communities provided a context which shaped individual actions. This context was sometimes different to that of other (non-residential) communities that individuals were a part of (e.g. work, other friends). If the community had a shared and co-created articulation of sustainability-related values, then individuals were more likely to “make an effort” to be sustainable. 

• On social coordination and sustainability. Tools to aid in social negotiation and shared governance (such as nonviolent communication and shared decision-making processes) can enable sustainable practices. This is because they facilitate the sharing of spaces, resources, and social time, all which can have pro-environmental outcomes. 

• On sharing spaces and resources. Learning how to share spaces and resources with a sense of social ease is a skill, and can require active and mindful negotiation around expectations. Being able to achieve a sense of comfort/privacy in shared spaces is important for community longevity and use of communal areas. It is reductive to think of spaces as either private or shared: it is more helpful to think of temporalities and actions as private or shared. This framing will enable greater flexibility in how to understand resident needs in terms of privacy and sociability. 

• On how friendships can facilitate sustainable habits. With strong social relationships there is more likelihood that residents will share spaces and resources (which can lower environmental impacts). It is also more likely that residents will pick up habits from one another. The research found that pro-environmental habits, such as flying less, reducing meat consumption, and cycling, were shared amongst residents with strong social connections. 

• On making sustainability easy. The community in this research who had the lowest environmental impact were, as a whole, not the most passionate about sustainability. Rather, their infrastructures made sustainable options the easy and most financially viable choice. For example, sharing a kitchen and bathrooms lowered the rent. Riding a bicycle and taking public transport was cheaper than running a car. Picking (unpackaged) food up from the local market was easy and quick. From this we can conclude that if you want residents to engage in sustainable practices – make it the obvious and easy thing to do!

• On harnessing the power of collective action. Collective action could be slow, frustrating, and difficult. It could also be powerful: an antidote to antipathy and feelings of helplessness, and a means by which people could achieve far more than they could do alone. Facilitating collective action which has positive environmental and/or social impacts can create powerful and valuable experiences for residents. 

• On ‘larger-than-self’ thinking. Some residents made connections between caring for the community, with caring for the environment and the wider world. Both were a mode of caring for something larger than themselves.