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DESIGN OF ECOHOUSE DORM OFFERS A TEACHING TOOL

A multiple-year course at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota examines global issues by designing an eco-efficient campus residence. Taught by Richard Strong, Carleton facilities director, and Gary Wagenbach, director of Carleton's Environmental Technology Studies, the course is targeted to liberal arts students. Carleton envisions teaching the class for up to five consecutive spring courses. "Since the class is open to freshman through seniors from all disciplines," Wagenbach says, "We have to respond to the mix of students who walk through the door." Thus, the instructors have sought a "structured openness" by blending conventional classroom lectures with guest speaker presentations, field trips, computer exercises and hands-on construction activities. While each segment of the EcoHouse course addresses aesthetics, energy use, life-cycle costs, and the relationship between a building and its site, community and culture, the course "themes" and two-thirds of the course content vary from year to year. The inaugural class (2004) focused on answering the question: "What is natural for Northfield?" In 2005, the instructors narrowed the focus by selecting one site from four finalists and prescribing straw-bale walls for three sides of a student—built test structure. In spring 2006, students will design a "living machine" and explore ways to minimize waste. In one to two years, EcoHouse will be built on campus, using the student research. Meanwhile, research leading up to and resulting from the course is spilling into other Carleton building projects, such as a 40-unit student residence design that will break ground in fall 2006.
Architecture Minnesota, Nov/Dec 05, p 56, by Heather Beal.

WEST MICHIGAN SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS FORUM MAKES A DIFFERENCE

For more than 20 years, the West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum (SBF), an initiative of the West Michigan Environmental Action Council (WMEAC), has been bringing together regional furniture and textile manufacturers, architects, contractors and other businesses to discuss business in relationship to the environment. The history of the SBF marks a series of paradigmatic shifts in the thinking of the group. For example, their first reaction to antipollution regulations was defensive: they would at best comply with the law but do little else. In the mid-1990s, they moved to the intermediate posture of recycling materials, which was not required by law but helped appease environmentalists. But, in scarcely a decade, the consensus has moved toward a wholehearted embrace of renewable resources and energy conservation as a way of replenishing nature and maximizing profits. The SBF enables companies to share information about waste reduction, renewable materials, energy conservation and "best practices" to help save the environment during the quotidian activity of making money. The most compelling aspect of the forum is the willingness of its participants—companies often in direct competition with one another—to collaborate, sometimes to the point of treating proprietary information as a common resource. SBFs influence doesn't stop on the shores of Lake Michigan. Members of the forum are increasingly sought out by manufacturers in other part of the country (including the automakers of southeast Michigan), to create similar platforms for sustainable practices.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING GOES GREEN

In the past year, the Enterprise Foundation, a leading provider of capital and expertise for the development of affordable housing, has helped start 77 green developments in 21 states, creating more than 4,300 environmentally efficient homes for low-income families. "Each year we will have $1.5 million of energy savings in those homes, more than 5,000 tons of reduced greenhouse-gas emissions per year, and 30 million gallons of reduced water use a year," says Bart Harvey, CEO of the Enterprise Foundation. "Those are remarkable savings, and they really reflect that the country needs to think and work in a different way: Green and affordable need to become synonymous." A recipient of Enterprise's efforts is the Lower East Side People's Mutual Housing Association, a Manhattan nonprofit that's committed to building affordable housing. The nonprofit built its first energy-efficient affordable-housing project seven years ago. Now, it has received $8.5 million in tax-credit equity from Enterprise to build 44 more units of green affordable housing. Citigroup has just pledged $1.5 million to Enterprise's green initiative. "This is our first venture into green affordable housing, and the lesson is that we can do economic development with respect for people and the environment and do it economically," says Pamela Flaherty, senior vice president of global community relations at Citigroup. "The secret objective is much broader, which is to transform the whole affordable- housing infrastructure across the country."
The Christian Science Monitor, 22 Nov 05, by Alexandra Marks.

MAKING FIRE FEATURES GREEN

Several manufacturers have introduced "fireplace" products that are both green and aesthetic: 1) The EcoSmart Fire, which is available in a range of attractive freestanding and built-in pieces, functions much like a fondue set. It is fueled by a portable stainless steel burner that uses denatured ethanol. 2) The Firebowl is an outdoor fireplace that is beautiful and functionally green, using propone or natural gas for low emissions. 3) The Fabio Granite Gel Burner is a coffee table that spits flame. The fuel is Greenheat Organic Gel, which is derived from sugarcane and emits no toxins or strange fumes. 4) Dodging the whole issue of sustainable fuel altogether, the Scandinavian Ellumo Classic uses digital lights to create remarkably fire-like flames inspired by the northern lights.
Dwell, Dec/Jan 06, p 130.

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