Green Building

SOSTENICA is currently offering a unique opportunity to invest in Green Building in Nicaragua!  We are offering special rates for ten-year investments earmarked for a community of 30 families committed to building eco-friendly housing.  If you would like to support this important initiative, please contact us for more information!

What is Green Building?

Green building is the practice of creating structures and using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building’s life-cycle: from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and deconstruction.  This practice expands and complements the classical building design concerns of economy, utility, durability, and comfort.

Although new technologies are constantly being developed to complement current practices in creating greener structures, the common objective is that green buildings are designed to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natural environment by:

  • Efficiently using energy, water, and other resource
  • Protecting occupant health and improving employee productivity
  • Reducing waste, pollution and environmental degradation

Natural building tends to focus on the use of locally available natural materials.  Appropriate technologies relevant to Nicaragua include:

  • Composting toilets
  • Rainwater caption
  • Gray water treatment
  • Solar electricity
  • Edible landscaping
  • Earth building

How does SOSTENICA support Green Building in Nicaragua?

Nicaragua has a housing shortage estimated to be 22,000 houses annually.   The long term goal of SOSTENICA’s Nicaraguan partner, CEPRODEL (The Center for Promotion of Local Development), is to organize hundreds of communities of mid-low income families (people who earn between $350 and $500 per month), who want to build their own homes costing around $5,000. The future owners will contribute sweat equity and will pay $50 per month for 10 to 15 years.  The minimum home size would be approximately 600 square feet.

In December 2009, SOSTENICA sent CEPRODEL’s lead architect, Carolina Arroliga, their lead mason, Lolo, and their community organizing leader, Fatima, to a week long training on green building techniques in Tlaxcala, Mexico. During that week, the three professionals studied cob, rammed earth, adobe, pajareque (clay/straw), and straw bale construction. They returned from the training committed to building — on CEPRODEL’s “Siete Sur” complex in Managua — some of the first earth and straw bale structures in the city.  These structures are to serve as part of a demonstration and training complex.

In the future, we at SOSTENICA intend to increase our involvement in the construction of housing cooperatives.  We have pledged to send more  of our CEPRODEL colleagues to workshops on appropriate technology.  We are also discussing with other non-profits that have green building experience  bringing edible landscaping, green urban design, and a host of alternative technologies to the already proven model of organizing low income housing cooperatives.

To read more about housing work in Nicaragua, please see “Home Is Where the Heart Is” from our Spring 2010 Newsletter.