Tuesday, September 24, 2013

teaching sustainability

smith college in northampton, mass has taken a lead in teaching sustainability through ceeds (center for the environment, ecological design and sustainability):

With environmental sustainability an increasingly dominant issue of our day, CEEDS exists with one purpose: to graduate women who excel at integrating knowledge across disciplines in support of environmental decisions and action. We meet this goal in a variety of ways, from connecting students to green initiatives and academic pursuits to supporting faculty who desire to deepen their understanding of salient environmental issues of today.

building scale in sustainable living takes a cadre of individuals trained in it's techniques, approaches and thinking. similar initiatives are taking shape at other institutions as well.

an interesting demonstration project at smith is the bechtel environmental classroom which is one of the first few buildings in the world to adopt the living building challenge:

It uses solar panels to generate more energy than it uses on an annual basis, and Smith students and the building’s designers vetted all of its building materials to ensure that they were the most sustainably sourced materials available.



it has a simple functional feel and could be replicated the world over.

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