PORCH is an intentional living community in the Buckeye neighborhood working to transition towards 100% solar powered!
Leader
Diana Sette
Location
2909 E 117th St Cleveland, OH 44120
Since 2011, PORCH has been experimenting with communal living, growing and loving in the Buckeye neighborhood. PORCH stands for Possibilititarian Regenerative Community Homestead. At its core, it is a place focused on exploring what is possible, and the question of how can we build community that is renewing and restoring. How can we live on the land with deeper harmony and less of a negative impact?
PORCH is the home to 5 people and each person's extended community. Over the years, we have hosted numerous community workshops, potlucks, and gatherings at PORCH. PORCH's electrical infrastructure supports all the indoor activities, as well as, the community garden, Possibilitarian Garden, adjacent to the building. It takes a significant amount of energy to support this community and in an effort to become more sustainable, and transition away from energy that is destructive to the environment like energy generated from oil drilling and coal mining, we have been preparing to go solar for several years now. Through a process of saving collective funds, receiving multiple quotes from local solar installation companies, to making necessary roof and structural repairs, we have been preparing PORCH for making the renewable leap!
Supporting this project will make a huge impact in micro and macro ways. PORCH going solar will not only be able to generate renewable energy to supply the PORCH residents and extended community and garden, it will also be able to add renewable energy supplies into the local electrical grid, supporting Cleveland's transition. The solar panels positioned up on the South aligned roof will also be a highly visible realization for the community of a more resilient future in action. Finally, we will be taking significant steps for reducing our greenhouse gas waste, supporting the health and wellbeing of the local community and the global planet.
August 1, 2018 - Begin installation of solar power system!
Fall 2018 - Celebrate completion of solar power system @ Possibilitarian Garden with community potluck & party, and solar power system tours!
By transitioning our power uses to more than 93% renewable solar powered energy we will reduce our carbon footprint and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that comes from non-renewable energy sources and contributes to climate change. Within a tulmultuous social, economic and environmental climate, moving towards solar power expands what people understand is possible and works to lead neighborhoods and communities in Cleveland towards increased resilience and self-sufficiency.
Possibilitarian Garden, the community garden adjacent to and stewarded by residents of PORCH and surrounding community members, gets its energy from PORCH's infrastructure, and the further we create a renewable energy source at PORCH, the greater our capacity to increase the neighborhood's food security and access to fresh and organic fruits and vegetables.