Footprint and Building Design Goals

I went to college in boulder colorado which as a city has quite a bit more involved in its and its citizens impact on the surrounding enviroment etc. I spent quite a bit of time learning about the things that each of us can do to reduce our personal impact on the earth. Recycling, composting, organic local products, public transportation, etc. In Boulder, and in many other areas I'm sure, these things seem more 'convenient goals'. Now living on Columbus Ohio, which has pretty abominable public transportation systems, you must pay to recycle, etc. The easy things to do to reduce my eco footprint have become not as convenient and unfortunatly I have fallen out of the habit of reaching for them as goals. Additionally, it seems as though because the outdoor spaces in the midwest, are not as desirable as maybe other parts of the country there is much less of a desire to 'protect them'??


Goals for the building.

High Importance

Reduce Consumption and Waste...
Use gray water systems, provide motion and time cycled lighting, provide some alternative electrical production, wind, solar, even in the small amounts that may be produced. Every little bit counts. Even provide recycled water systems within the building, if a cruise ship can do it... a building certainly could.

Design with reasonable construction materials...
Many construction materials are or can be recyled. Concrete and steel are easy to get as recycled products, while wood stud is hard. Many finish materials are now convenient to acquire as a recycled material.

Reduce emmissions...
This is kind of included in the other goals, but is important enough to mention on
on its own. When I was a boy scout, we had our moto of 'leave it like you found it' balancing what we take in and what we put out is important.

Low Importance

This might be a more important than low... and I am definetly stealing this issue from Tim S. but... if we are providing living space for 24 people... but keep in mind that this is a distance program... is that space only going to be used for the 8 days during the intensive... 3 times a year?? 24 days out of 364... What a waste...

To make sure that we are providing comfortable spaces... really... people will be living here for 8 days... and you can use history as a precident, people will be getting very little sleep. The living accomodations need to be comfortable, not like the sub-standard hotel that has been provided for this semester. Talk about reducing consumption. 8 days, 24 meals, all eaten out? Not providing any kind of kitchen or anything... talk about consuming processed foods!! Yikes. Is it hypocritical to be teaching us about this... sorry if I am writing this when I am angry... I didn't sleep very well last night. The cooling tower that was on top of my room made me feel like I was sleeping in the back of a semi...

Building location...
I'm assuming that the building will be in Boston... probably in the Back bay... that is good. But access to public transportation is important. It would suck to build it in a corn field in the middle of ohio where people had to fly and rent a car, or drive in from miles and miles.

Speaking of that... how many hours on a plane was one of the eco-footprint questions. Considering most of the class is from ohio... maybe having the intensive in ohio would reduce some global emmissions... just a thought.

See you all soon!!! Bring your own towels, and flip flops for the shower.