Introducing Our Standards (aka Paragon Projects)

Things don't always go to plan, however that shouldn't stop us from striving for best-in-class. We also don't want to be held back because we're unable to achieve perfection at this time.

Our Paragon Project Initiative is the development of a standard which has 5 tiers setting a community and environmental standard.

In practice

Environmental Standard

Some retrofits, for example listed country estates, might take millions to bring up to what we consider best-in-class. This might mean we only aim for a score of 3/5 after our retrofit due to the prohibitive cost. This allows us to raise additional funding over the long term to meet these goals but don't hold us back.

For smaller scale projects we might be aiming for 5/5, however, in practice, deadlines might be tight, labour might fall through, materials might become unavailable so an score of 4 or 3 might be achieved.

We pragmatists and we believe in transparency. We think having a goal is important, but real life sometimes get in the way of the best plans and having these grades allows us to reflect, acknowledge and improve upon what we do. It allows us to have ambition and take risks, but also accept that a risk and a miss is better than not trying at all because we can't be perfect, or to hide when things don't go to plan because we have fallen short of the standards we set ourselves.

Something is only a failure if you don't learn from it. We believe in the process of evolution and iteration.

Community

We don't plan to tell anyone how to live. Each community is going to be gloriously different depending on a huge range of factors.

We do however want to create a set of standards which we think is the difference between having a community versus just having a bunch of people that just so happen to live in the same place.

It will probably be based around ensuring there's an interview process and that certain topics are discussed - and we respect whatever the answer is.

Some questions might includes

• How shall we split rent or equity?

• What's the exit strategy when someone wants to leave?

• How are chores handled?

• Is there an expectation around spending time together?

• How do we manage conflict?

• How do we propose and instigate changes to this agreement?

Depending on the community, new members might need to agree to the culture that's already in place, or they might choose to start again when the fabric of the community changes.

Join one of our Paragon Discussion Events to find out more.