Our new president Barack Obama has announced his intention to move our nation from oil dependency toward renewable energy, efficiency and sustainable innovation. Are there existing examples of how this new paradigm might look and work today?
In Santa Fe, New Mexico, a 450-acre New Urban community offers an example of Obama’s call to action. Oshara Village is a mixed-use town designed for people not cars. It’s a neighborhood served by public transportation where residents can walk to the central plaza and will be able to shop, visit a health care provider, drop their child off in day care, and go to work within a five-minute walk of their home. The design allows people to exercise more, drive less, easily interact with their neighbors and live in a comfortable home with low energy use.
“We utilize many of the sustainable elements the Obama team espouses to help reduce energy consumption and emissions that cause global warming,” said Alan Hoffman, town founder of Oshara Village. “At Oshara, the first 40 homes are super-insulated, oriented for passive solar gain, use solar hot water heating, and have energy-efficient appliances and lighting.” The town also has an operational water purification plant that recycles all water from homes and businesses to be reused for all the town’s landscaping and commercial uses,” added Hoffman.
A study commissioned by the non-profit New Village Institute found that a family could save as much as 58.7 percent of its energy costs and reduce its carbon footprint by 26,000 pounds of CO2 per year in these kinds of energy-conscious walkable towns. All the technology used in this analyses is “off the shelf” and easily available right now. Today, over 100 New Urban towns are complete in the United States and some like Oshara Village also emphasize energy-efficiency.
“We believe that by investing in conservation, ’smart growth,’ renewable energy and well-designed mixed-use towns, the United States will produce millions of new jobs, make us safer at home, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil, while improving our quality life,” said Hoffman.
For more information visit http://www.osharavillage.com/ and see the Oshara Model Video.
Alan Hoffman Town Founder, Oshara Village 4 Willow Back Road Santa Fe, New Mexico 87508 505-316-0449
CONTACT: Alan Hoffman, Town Founder of Oshara Village, +1-505-316-0449
Web Site: http://www.newvillageinstitute.org & http://www.osharavillage.com
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Great article Alan!