Josh Edmonds has decided where he will work to make a difference in the fight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.
“The built environment accounts for 40 percent of global emissions,” said Edmonds in a recent interview. “Furthermore, two thirds of existing buildings will still be in use in 2050.”
Thus, the mission of Edmonds and his company, Simple Integrity, is to turn standing buildings into high-performance structures and build new ones that are carbon-neutral. With 80 percent of their projects consisting of existing retrofits, it’s clear where the passion lies.
Josh Edmonds stood outside Chestnut Crossing – the 13-unit apartment building nearing completion at 10 Chestnut Street in Cooperstown – and described the construction process that will render the building a Certified Passive House, a concept manifesting renewable energy and environmentally-friendly designs that set standards for ‘green’ buildings everywhere. Mr. Edmonds’s company, Simple Integrity, is building the project.
“I don’t know why every new construction isn’t done this way,” he said. “For now, it has to be a lack of education for contractors and home-buyers.”
“When buyers sit down with a contractor, they’re thinking more about how they want a free-standing tub or a wood-burning stove more than they’re thinking about the way we’re going to blanket the building in insulation or install heat pumps,” Mr. Edmonds said. “We start our presentations with that design-and-build standard.”
Two months after getting its special-use permit from the Cooperstown Board of Trustees, the Chestnut Crossing apartment complex at 10 Chestnut St. is mostly finished at the municipal level.
According to village documents, the project has had public hearings and gotten approvals from the village committees that must approve various parts of the project, including its architecture, fencing, parking, sidewalks, streets, lighting and drainage.
Artist’s rendering for the Chestnut Crossing property proposed for 10 Chestnut Street, shows the alleys, parking area and adjacent property on Pine Boulevard that will act as a buffer between the 13-unit rental property and its neighbors. (Greg Klein/Allotsego)
COOPERSTOWN — About 50 village residents gathered Monday, June 15, at a residential space at 20 Lake Street to hear a detailed presentation and ask questions about a debated proposal to build a 13-unit rental apartment on several pieces of property on Chestnut Street.
Josh Edmonds, a Cooperstown native who is the owner of Simple Integrity Construction, and Francesca Zambello, the artistic and managing director of The Glimmerglass Festival, detailed their private partnership and its plans to develop the three pieces of property they own—two on Chestnut and one on Pine Boulevard, behind it—into one housing project.
