Background
The Green Retrofit Co-op is aimed towards creating a self-funding way to train people to upgrade their homes and to build community cohesion around action for sustainability. It is the outgrowth of nearly four years of experience with the Teaching & Helping Mentor Program.
The Teaching & Helping Mentor program is a service-learning program funded with grants from the Pima County Community Development & Neighborhood Conservation Department. The goals of the Teaching & Helping Program are - (1) develop the capacity to train people in sustainable home repair and remodeling skills, and (2) help improve the homes of low-income families.
Both the Teaching & Helping Mentor program and the Green Retrofit Co-op grew out of a Pima County-funded study (Empowering Local Communities) of the condition of Tucson’s aging track homes. These were some of the basic conclusions of that study:
- There are roughly 175,000 houses in Tucson that are extremely energy-inefficient and expensive to operate.
- These homes need substantial major maintenance (replacement of major systems like furnaces, wiring, and plumbing). Most homes built prior to 1980 are masonry and very durable.
- It would cost many times as much to replace these older homes than repair them.
- Most of the funds needed to upgrade these homes is already being spent and could be diverted to upgrades at little or no net cost,
- upgrade(s) for energy efficiency
- modify homes for accessibility rather than put people in nursing homes
- replace low-efficiency appliances rather than enlarge capacity of electric grid and generators.