Our Vision

Stony Brook Cohousing

Community

Stony Brook Cohousing is a community of individuals and families seeking to establish an environmentally friendly development in Jamaica Plain, Boston. We intend to create a safe, healthful community that supports and nurtures ourselves, our families, and our neighbors. As a group, we seek to participate in the wider community in a way that is welcoming, respectful and mutually rewarding.

We are designing and building a development whose architectural structures and landscape are aesthetically pleasing, provide privacy, and foster harmonious interaction.

Sustainability

We wish to serve as a model of urban sustainable choices. Our goal is to build using the most sustainable materials and methods possible. These will include sustainably harvested woods, low-VOC paints and materials, energy efficient appliances and more. Join us in planning roof gardens, a gray-water recycling system, passivhaus strategies, and super-efficient energy use. We believe that sharing our resources and making conscious choices about minimizing our consumption is our responsibility.

To do this, we, our architects and our developer are carefully considering the best options available. Stony Brook Cohousing members all have a say in these and other design questions.

Our guiding principle is to foster mutually beneficial relationships with nature and people. We believe that sharing our resources and making conscious choices about minimizing our consumption is not only our responsibility but a welcoming experience for all.

Equitability

We believe that many hands make light work and that every individual has a unique contribution to make. Each of us pledges to share in the basic maintenance and well-being of the community. We recognize that shared meals and cooperative labor are ideal ways to create and sustain close connections. We are committed to creating an environment where everyone has a voice that is heard; and where we can also be organized and get things accomplished. We use consensus decision-making as our method of achieving this balance.

Diversity

We strive to have a membership that reflects the diverse population of Boston. We commit ourselves to overcoming the barriers to making a diverse community a reality. We will work to make our community affordable to anyone who wishes to join and who shares these values. We will plan our common areas and living spaces with an intention to accommodate, to the best of our ability, the needs of people of all ages and abilities.