Sustainability

Sustainable living

Reshaping the future

At Powered by CO, we are driven by our passion for sustainability. In fact, our founder based the company on his vision to create houses and communities that redefine the way we interact with nature and one other. At CO, we feel the responsibility to be proactive and create innovative solutions that address challenges the planet is facing.

Our project, Cerro Mouro, embodies sustainability in the following ways:

Incorporating circularity

Our foundations are based on ground screws which can be easily reused and recycled, being a circular product by design.

Our homes are built from floor to ceiling with bio-based, prefabricated wooden panels which can be disassembled, reused, and repurposed.

Our neighbourhood grey water system allows water that would otherwise be cast away into the sewerage system to loop back. This water is filtered on site, and then re-used for irrigation, promoting circularity of a precious resource.

Designing around regenerative principles

Our landscaping, especially the green communal area, incorporates regenerative agricultural practices, creating ecological abundance in a landscape that was partly degraded and low in biodiversity.

We plant species that promote biodiversity both in flora and fauna, with particular care on locally endangered species.

By reusing grey water on site, we will bring irrigation to an otherwise dry landscape, helping to build soil quality and allow for vegetable gardens and a food forest to thrive, creating a local green oasis.

Our green area will feature a vegetable scrap composting area. If you want to know more about composting, please check this article.

Choosing ecologically superior materials and products

We choose bio-based, nontoxic, local, and eco-certified materials and products wherever possible.

All the wood we use is FSC Certified.

We preference local suppliers to reduce the carbon footprint of transportation.

Low impact by design

Our homes use solar energy, heat pumps and highly insulating wood panels, resulting in a very low carbon footprint and energy bills.

Due to the use of ground screws and prefabricated wooden panels as the core material in our homes, our construction process will result a small fraction of the waste typically generated on a construction site. We strive to reduce our residual waste as much as possible, with a focus on continual improvement.

Water saving features and rainwater harvesting in each home mean that household water consumption is much lower than average.

Composting and recycling is centrally organised and easy to implement, encouraging the highest degree of participation.

Promoting community and social integration by design

Our neighbourhood design focuses on nexus points for community connection, including areas to share meals outdoors, garden together and spaces for children to play.

We believe that sustainability should be designed into action and includes both reducing negative impacts of how we live (our ecological footprint) as well as actively contributing to a world that is more ecologically and socially resilient (creating an ecological handprint, as it is called).

Green community

Discover communal facilities

Lush greenery

Natural swimming lake

Playscape

Vegetable gardens

Edible orchard

Quiet areas to relax

Map of the green area

Hello to nature!

A swim in a CO Cerro Mouro designed natural pond does not leave you with itchy red eyes, dry skin or wanting a shower, which is common after swimming in chlorinated chemical water.

At Cerro Mouro we invest in smart technologies in order to recycle annually ±4 Million liters of household grey water. This precious water will be reused to irrigate our food forest and green spaces.

Water is becoming a scarcity in the world and we believe every drop from the heaven is gold. Therefor we made sure each Cerro Mouro house will contribute in catching and storing rainwater so it can be used to water your garden.

United Nations

Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice.