Sustainability / Social Impact
What good can coliving achieve for people and the environment?
As an innovative living model designed for the twenty first century, coliving places a big focus on environmental sustainability and creating social impact. From using sustainable building materials to integrating their residents smoothly into the larger community (to avoid the negative effects of gentrification), coliving operators around the world find ways to respect the people and the environments that they affect. The articles, frameworks, and reports below provide measurable results for coliving and other shared living models as a force for good.
Top Resources
Social Value in Coliving
Matthew Lesniak, Penny Clark, and Naima Ritter
A research-based article packed with helpful resources and a clear snapshot of how coliving operators are incorporating social value into their business models. A great place to start for a succinct overview of social impact in coliving.
Can shared living improve our mental health and wellbeing?
Space10
A fantastic review of how coliving, cohousing, and other shared living models can impact our mental health. Citing many reputable organizations studying human wellbeing, this piece from Space10 is a great introduction to the intersection of shared living and mental health/wellbeing.
Co-Living and the Common Good
RSA Action and Research Centre
A great analysis of the past, present, and future of communal living in the UK. From housing equity to design for wellbeing, this piece covers a lot of ground on how coliving can be a force for the common good.
Impact & Sustainability in Coliving
Coliving Insights
The third edition of Coliving Insights contains contributions from more than 30 industry experts and researchers to produce a full 180-page report. The topics covered include social value in coliving, policy & investments, and wellbeing & sustainability.
Build Well to Live Well
Global Wellness Institute
This 150-page report contains a wealth of information on how we can use built environments to encourage wellness. For those looking to learn about the history and potential of wellness lifestyle real estate, this report is an excellent place to start.
The GoodHome Report 2019
Happiness Research Institute
The Happiness Research Institute teamed up with European home improvement company Kingfisher to find out what makes a happy home. The report compares many countries across Europe and offers advice on how to make our future homes happier.
Why Coliving is the Secret to Health & Wellness
Haven Coliving
What health benefits does coliving offer? This piece from Haven Coliving dives into many benefits of coliving including improvement in mental health, promotion of cognitive skills, and the reduction of age-related health decline.
Social value in new development
UKGBC
From the UK Green Building Council, this resource is a guide for local authorities and developers to ensure they create spaces with social value at their core. From measuring social value to barriers of creating social value, this guide is a great place to start when thinking about developing community-driven spaces.
The role of co-living spaces in digital nomad' well-being
Jennifer Sin Hung von Zumbusch and Lidija Lalicic
While not many academic papers have specifically covered the coliving industry, this paper published by the Springer Nature group dives into how co-living spaces can affect the wellbeing of digital nomads. The authors interviewed twelve digital nomads that had experienced coliving to some degree to discover how coliving affected their lives.
How cohousing can make up happier (and live longer)
Grace Kim
In her Ted Talk with over two million views, architect Grace Kim suggests that shared living models such as cohousing can be an excellent way to combat the loneliness epidemic.
Coliving as a tool to meet Max Neef's Fundamental Human Needs
Gabriel Neira Voto
Most have heard of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, but fewer are familiar with Max Neef’s fundamental human needs. This article by Gabriel Neira Voto dives deep into how coliving can allow us to satisfy all of our fundamental needs from subsistence to identity.
The Conscious Coliving Manifesto
Conscious Coliving
One of the first truly comprehensive frameworks designed specifically for the coliving industry, the Conscious Coliving Manifesto provides a toolkit to build a conscious coliving community.
State of Coliving 2018: How Conscious is the Sector?
Conscious Coliving
Another great piece of content from Conscious Coliving that presents the response from a survey conducted at Co-Liv’s 2018 Coliving Summit in Paris. The survey asked 45 coliving operators to self-report how well they thought their company was doing in regards to wellbeing, community, and environmental sustainability practices.
Why CoLiving Is An Investment In Your Well-Being
Leah Ziliak
Guest experience consultant Leah Ziliak provides a convincing list of reasons why living in a coliving community will increase your well-being. The list includes factors like connections develop quickly, avoiding burnout, and increased personal growth.
Sexual Assault: addressing issues of boundaries, violation, and harassment in coliving
The Co-Liv Podcast
Sadly, sexual assault is still and under-discussed topic. This roundtable discussion aims to help break this stigma and provide awareness, education, and ultimately, prevention of sexual assault in coliving.
Coliving in the Sustainable City
Ulrika Hafstrom
Ulrika Hafstrom’s research paper from Lund University in Sweden presents an interesting study on how coliving is an effective sustainable urban housing strategy in Stockholm. The results of the study confirm that coliving can promote environmental sustainability through “sharing and access to social capital, lowering carbon emissions from densification, and providing social belonging.”
Co-Living: A Solution to the Housing Crisis?
Scott Corfe
This study (commissioned by Barclays) aims to explore how coliving can “provide a viable route towards homeownership” and “the potential demand for a “to buy” co-living product.” The study specifically examines potential home-buyers in the UK, but the bulk of the insights presented could certainly apply to countries around the world.
Coliving Impact Reports
Check out these impact reports from some of the most impact-driven coliving companies in the world:
Other Resources
Coliving Resources by Co-Liv © 2021
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