Looking forward to the call for tenders stage that is about to get started, I was wondering how we could reinforce our negotiating position towards suppliers of sustainable technologies. That made me think back of the website of Schoonschip, the cohousing in Amsterdam that we used as an aspirational example.
On their website you will find two things:
A list of all their sustainable features (About > The plans)
Would you be up for maybe setting up a Helping Circle to see whether we can produce a simplified, low effort version of this wiki? My reasoning is that if we ask a supplier for an offer, they might be more inclined to offer us a substantial discount if they understand that we will be organising tours, which will make their brand more visible?
I have to admit though that I have no experience in setting up websites bur I am erger to learn how that works, so I can do it for my own projects as well.
Hi Lee, it seems an interesting idea. Their website is really wonderful (and I did not explore it all, far from it). Still not so clear to me what you mean by wiki, is the link you refer to (https://greenprint.schoonschipamsterdam.org/) a wiki in the collaborative sense so that users can edit/contribute themselves to the website? It did not look like that to me.
Thanks for clarifying that! In all my ignorance I indeed just meant some sort of web page to share our knowledge (or for now: our aspirations), so nothing interactive indeed (we have the forum for that).
OK then I guess having a simple website (wordpress like? extension of the current website?) should not be so much of an effort on the technical side. The real question is how to find the material to put on it. I don’t have much experience though on creating (somewhat artistical?) content and website creating. On that level the greenprint website of the schoonschip is so impressive (the graphics, the animations, the 3D modeling… they seem to have received subsidies/support from universities/institutes/research projects). Maybe, the suppliers would be the ones providing inputs… if it is a way to showcase their brand
My two cents: it makes plenty of sense to publish the advanced stuff we produce anyway as part of the building process (like 3D renderings). It makes less sense to invest in fancy websites, as they need maintenance etc.
Agreed. We have a habit of complicating things that can be simple, so maybe let’s try to not do that for once.
Can it be as simple as the graphic below, maybe enhanced with a bit of Canva wizardry?
For the content I would differentiate between collective sustainability choices and individual ones. When listing them them I would be ambitious and not limit ourselves to things that have been consented to yet (in casu: battery and climbing plants).
This would be my provisional list:
Collective sustainability features:
Passive built
Heat pumps
An energy community, possibly with one or several batteries
Rainwater capture and reuse (2 x 15.000 litres)
Green roofs
Sustainable insulation materials
Indigenous plants in the garden to enhance biodiversity
Climbing plants to get a solarpunk look
Individual choices
Sustainable building materials
Recirculating shower
Waste water recycling (from showers, sinks and washing machines)
Yes, I’d be happy.
I’m imagining an extra page or extra section on our website. Assuming this is not urgent (not before end of year), I’d be glad to work together on this the coming months. I’ll be part of the HC.
It depends a bit on when we start the call for tenders stage, but then I figure having an extra section on sustainability also won’t hurt in terms of convincing people to register for a presentation. So ideally I would like to move forward with this in September if possible.
It needn’t be complicated. I picture the graphic above, with maybe the different features listed above with a simple icon. I can then provide two short paragraphs of text and that would be it.
Would that be possible for you in September, or would you prefer we ask one of the other Canva wizards?
For the section (graphic) on sustainability, ok for me for september.
I’m very inspired by the website of Schoonschip, so I wouldn’t mind working on more sections later in the year (governance, our blue print, energy community…). But let’s take it one step at a time.
Recommendation: keep it as technically simple as possible to avoid technical debt: pages that break because someone forgot to update a dependency, pages that do not render well on mobile, etc.
The content, on the contrary, can be as sophisticated as we want!
