Home electrification - Electrification eliminates harmful indoor and outdoor emissions for improved population and environmental health.

Net zero energy - Our townhomes are designed to use as little energy as possible. Adding in the solar array, the building creates surplus energy which can be recirculated back into the local grid.

Net zero water - Net zero water buildings provide a way to enact more conscious consumption of a life-sustaining natural resource. These buildings reduce water use, maximize alternative sources, and minimize wastewater discharge.

Circular economy - From minimizing construction waste, to residential composting and reduce-reuse-recycle-refuse education, to an innovative end-of-life facility onsite, our property acts intentionally as a micro-installation of circular economy.

Food forest - The various trees and plants we have chosen promise improvements in air and soil quality, biodiversity, and urban beautification.

Flood mitigation - Living in nature is different from living with nature. That the residential site neighbors a flood plain cannot be managed by zoning boundaries alone. For this reason, we chose flood-mitigating crops to populate the food forest so that it functions both as an agent of placemaking and an agent of site resilience.

Myceliation - Myceliation offers a path of reuse for some of the most toxic, difficult-to-breakdown materials. It has the potential to divert a significant waste flow from landfill and recirculate it as a renewable material.

Consumer education - Sustainable lifestyle is quite near impossible to enforce. Our project will support sustainability that endures through resident education at several nodes. The food forest and community kitchen also may act as sources of environmental and sustainability education.

Placemaking - Co-housing developments center participatory design to promote resident ownership of the built environment. Through relationship-building and pride-of-place, co-housing has reciprocal benefits for the sociocultural environment that inspired its design.

Affordable housing - Co-housing is affordable by design. In addition to building community, residents build collective financial capacity.

More inclusive Ann Arborite identity - Commuters face the social distance of dedicating their working life to a community that they leave once they clock out. Additional affordable housing in the city can lower the barrier of entry and reconcile this identity conflict.

Local food - The food forest provides direct and local access to fresh produce. As a public good, produce comes at the affordable price of being a contributing community member. The forest also offers a way to develop important preparedness skills, such as planting and growing, foraging, and plant-based food preparation.

Social cohesion - In the context of climate resilience, social cohesion changes from a luxury to a necessity. In the practice of collective ownership and relationship-building, co-housing builds resilient communities from the inside-out.

Agents of change - Membership in a sustainable living and learning community counteracts the negative effects of eco-anxiety through collective processing and action. Net zero energy homes thus not only reduce power used, but increase power within by emboldening residents to lean into the momentum of climate action.

Treeline trail - The food forest and community center add to the list of attractions to the Treeline trail. Together, they engage trail users with various amenities and opportunities to get involved onsite.

Affordable housing - Housing affordability has numerous economic benefits. To name a few, there is tax generation, opportunities for economic development, increased job retention and productivity, and the ability to address inequality.⁶

Energy market share - The combined solar array between the townhomes and retrofitted warehouses will produce an energy surplus of over 375,000 kWh/year, which the developer may sell on the wholesale energy market to help cover the upfront costs of net zero and bridge the gap between affordable and market rates.

New recycling economy - Mycocycle's method of myceliation "promotes a closed-loop supply chain, converting [hard-to-treat] carbon waste into a usable by-product." ⁷

Property values - Food forests have been shown to promote urban beautification and increase surrounding property values. In addition, the neighborhood will have convenient access to the site's community kitchen and events.

Green space without eco-gentrification - Since food forests carry a specific function and aren't characteristically trendy, they are able to add neighborhood green space without triggering eco-gentrification and economic displacement, like parks, greenways, and riverwalks have been known to do.

Unpaid m/paternal labor - In a co-household of two families, savings on unpaid m/paternal labor translates into over $10,500 annually, if the pair of co-housed families can save each other even 1/16 of time spent caretaking, whether by relieving duty for date nights or filling in gaps of overtime hours at the office.

• Calculations: $16.54/hour (living wage) * 14 waking hours for a 7-year old child * 365 days/year = over $84,000 per single parent, per year, divided by 16 = $5,250 per family.

Cost of resilience - The flood-mitigating effect of the food forest acts as a preventative measure of cost-savings.

Creation of jobs - Jobs will be created onsite between construction, maintenance, myceliation facility operation, food forest upkeep, community center operation, and the street food stand.