Yesterday the walls went up on MUM’s new Sustainable Living Center. This building will be completely off the grid with respect to electricity, heating and cooling, water, and waste.

MUM's new zero-energy, off-the-grid campus building

The Sustainable Living Center has been designed to meet the Living Building Challenge, the highest standard for sustainable design and green building in the world. It will be one of the first three to achieve this.

“There’s no other building like this going up in the nation, or in the world for that matter, that we know of,” said nationally known green building expert Mike Nicklas, who co-designed the building, and whose company Innovative Design has designed over 4,000 buildings that use renewable energy solutions.

Whole Tree Post and Beam Construction

Construction will proceed quickly because the structure uses whole tree post and beam techniques. The walls will be tilted up and roof trusses placed on them. The entire shell of the building should be completed within about a week, and the building is expected to be ready for occupation in late fall.

A Building That Teaches

The Sustainable Living Center will serve students in the university’s Sustainable Living major. It will have classrooms, workshop, meeting room, greenhouse, kitchen, research lab, recycling center, and offices, as well as east and west covered verandas and a porch on the north.

It has been designed as a building that teaches. In addition to embodying sustainability, it will allow students to monitor performance and energy efficiency and make adjustments.

“The Sustainable Living Center will be a living, evolving building,” said David Fisher, head of the MUM Sustainable Living Department, who helped plan the building. “The building itself is an educational tool, not just a passive one like most classroom buildings. It will provide participatory education where students will be continually adding to, or altering, the building and grounds as well as systematically checking its effectiveness.”

Off the Grid

The Sustainable Living Center will be completely off of the energy and utility grid. Every feature will exemplify healthy and sustainable green building and will be geared to teaching those principles.

Construction uses all non-toxic materials from local sources (as defined by the Living Building Challenge requirements). All energy will be provided from solar panels on the building and from an outside wind turbine. Rainwater catchment will be the complete source of the building’s water, with purification of drinking water via ultraviolet technology. Wastewater will be treated onsite using a constructed wetland. Natural daylighting will illuminate the entire interior. Geothermal technology will assist with heating and cooling.

An Embodiment of Sustainability That’s Feasible and Practical

This achievement is noteworthy because none of the systems in the building are new or experimental, according to construction manager Dal Loiselle. “The Sustainable Living Center is being constructed using ‘state-of-the-shelf’ technologies,” he said. “This building proves that we can meet our environmental goals for our built environment with the materials, technologies, and green building protocols we already possess.”

Sustainability has become a major focus at Maharishi University of Management. The University has filed a climate action plan to be 100% carbon neutral by 2020 as part of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment.

This is a busy week in sustainability, we have an exciting lineup for our Backyard Conservation series as well as fantastic visitors from Dubuque; we hope you will consider coming to our workshops and presentations.

This Thursday and Friday Candace Eudaley – the Regional Economic Development and Sustainability Coordinator for the East Central Intergovernmental Association (ECIA) – will be visiting Fairfield to meet with members of the community at Greendrinks on Thursday, noon at Revelations; and addressing the Green Business Council on Friday, noon at the Extension Office. Candace oversees the Petal Project and Buyer/Supplier based in Dubuque. The Petal Project is a green business certification project for Eastern Iowa that is growing quickly. Buyer/Supplier is an innovative program that links local and regional businesses to help keep businesses purchasing and providing services locally. Both programs have grown over 100% in the last year, and have proven to be potential partners for our sustainable efforts in Fairfield.

Friday and Saturday have first-class workshops going on, all free to the public. Friday morning, at 10am, members from COSC will be delivering a workshop on Green Roof Design – followed up with a free lunch and an afternoon workshop on Stormwater Runoff Management (1-4pm). These workshops are in the Extension Activities building on the Fairgrounds. Registration is necessary, the workshops are FREE. To Register, contact Leslie Berckes at at (515) 707-2787 or Leslie@icosc.com . At 7pm, in the same location, Wayne Petersen will be presenting a fabulous workshop on Building your own Rain Garden. This extensive and informative workshop will have a hands-on follow up on Saturday morning at 9am as we install a rain garden at John Revolinski’s home located at 705 North Court Street.

It looks to be a gorgeous week and weekend, we hope to see you at the Extension office, Revelations, and John’s home! Contact Scott Timm at stimm@iastate.edu for more details.

Fourteen organizations are working together in Fairfield during the months of March, April and May to provide free, quality programming and resources for backyard projects in sustainability. “These workshops and organized sales focus on sustainable efforts that community members can incorporate into their everyday lives and techniques they can utilize to improve their backyard landscapes,” says Scott Timm, Sustainability Coordinator for the City of Fairfield.

Gardening workshops, given by local residents on how to attract birds and create habitat, develop edible landscapes and incorporate permaculture techniques, increase and identify pollinators, and strategies for composting will help residents get out of their homes and hands dirty this spring. The City of Fairfield and ISU Extension are also hosting a one day sale of high-quality, City-approved, Earth Machine composters for an amazing price of only $46 (first come, first served, April 24th); and the second annual Edible Cityscape sale by the Sustainable Living Coalition will expand its sale this year to berry bushes and a larger variety of fruit trees at extremely low prices. ($5-$15, May). In addition, the Jefferson County Conservation Board has scheduled a prairie burn, weather permitting, for next week.

Groups and speakers will be visiting from out of town presenting on sustainable topics as well. Russ Tell, from the DNR, will hold a workshop on how to identify wells and cisterns on your property – and either utilize them for gardening or safely deal with them. The team from COSC will be running workshops on green roof design and storm water runoff. Wayne Peterson and members from IDALS will present a workshop on rain garden design – followed by a hands-on workshop and an actual install in Fairfield with the help Mr. Peterson and the Master Gardener’s of Extension.

Backyard Abundance will visit Fairfield this Friday evening to kick off the workshop and lecture series with a presentation on creating bountiful backyard landscapes and resilient communities. For more information on events, the schedule, locations and workshop descriptions can be found on the City’s website, and you can also contact Scott Timm at the Extension office at stimm@iastate.edu.

For a a complete listing of workshops please download this printable brochure.

The Fairfield City Council Property Committee met yesterday to discuss a proposal to end the City’s annual trash pick ups. Committee members John Revolinski (Chairperson) and Myron Gookin, discussed a plan that would end the Spring and Fall bulk trash pick ups and save the City tens of thousands of dollars (committee member Susan Silvers was not in attendance).

The new plan being proposed might look like this:

• Once a year, each household would be allowed to haul one pick up truck worth of eligible garbage to the waste management facility for free deposit.
• For a small fee, Waste Management would pick up large items from residents.
• 2010 would be the last year residents would receive the existing Spring and Fall bulk trash pick up service.
• Before transitioning to the new plan, the City would implement a program to educate residents the changes in order to prepare everyone for 2011.

A resident in attendance at the Property Committee meeting asked about residents who did not own the means to haul their own trash (did not own a pickup truck for instance), or were not physically able to load and unload trash. Council member John Revolinski suggested that the new program would attract small businesses that would provide trash hauling as a service to those not able to haul their own trash.

The tone of the meeting was positive, with committee members excited about a plan that will save City funds, as well as encourage residents to reuse-reduce-recycle. A discussion from last Fall on the Fairfield Voice was cited as useful feedback for the committee.

The elimination of the City’s annual trash pick up program, along with the proposed replacement plan are on the right track.  I believe that while the cost savings are a plus, the most benefit comes in the reduction of lazy waste.

Having said that I would like to see a plan that is more in line with what I believe are the goals of the City’s Go-Green Strategic Plan, which includes objectives to “Establish Fairfield as a model Waste to Energy community / Waste to Resource community” (a fancy way of saying they want to minimize waste).  To that end I would suggest the following plan:

• Eliminate the City’s annual bulk trash pick up.
• Hold a summer long initiative to encourage residents to drop off toxic household waste at the Waste Management facility. Including information in the water bill about the types and dangers of household toxic waste.
• Maintain fees for waste drop off. Don’t encourage residents to take truck loads of trash to the dump. The fees are only $5-$8 as it stands.
• Promote the Fairfield Freecycle Facebook Page, local thrift stores, and community initiatives to help residents give away unwanted used items.
• Introduce a “lean and green” trash service. Households can opt into a free trash pick up service, in which they get a trash bin that is 40% the size of the normal can. The bin would be green and branded in a way so that the owner can show it with pride on their curb.  Encourage families to throw out less on a daily and weekly bases and involve students in similar programs at school.

I’m interested to hear your ideas for how Fairfield can get closer to reaching the goals laid out in our Go-Green plan with regards to reduction of waste.  Please post your ideas or entire plans if you have them.

Here is another great opportunity for local gardeners new and experienced to learn more about growing their own food!  As part of his internship in the Iowa Master Gardener program, MUM Sustainable Living professor Alex Kachan is offering a series of workshops on various aspects of small-scale, organic gardening to the entire community for free.  The only requirement is that you register at least one week in advance because each workshop is limited to 15 participants.  If Alex gets more than 15 requests for a workshop he will schedule a repeat for the overflow members.

I had the great pleasure of both attending one of Alex’s lectures on Vermicomposting (using composting worms to biologically break down organic matter) and working with him at the Ecovillage CSA two summers ago.  He is incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about growing food sustainably from every step in the cycle, so I am sure these workshops will be not only informative but inspiring.

Here is a brief listing of workshop times and topics.  Email Alex at the address below for complete descriptions and to reserve a spot in the ones that interest you.

Sunday, March 14th, 2010: Starting Seeds
Workshop length: 1:00– 4:00 PM (3 hours)
Location: SL Dept., room 111 & SL greenhouse

Sunday, April 18th, 2010: Making your bed – the art of Double Digging!
Workshop length: 1:00– 4:00 PM (3 hours)
Location: MUM Community Garden

Sunday, April 25th, 2010: Compost – learning to grow soil!
Workshop length: 1:00– 4:00 PM (3 hours)
Location: MUM Community Garden

Sunday, May 2nd 2010: Compost Tea – pampering your soil & vegetables!
Workshop length: 1:00– 4:00 PM (3 hours)
Location: SL Dept. room 111

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010: Garden Q&A’s
Workshop length: 2:00– 4:00 PM (2 hours)
Location: MUM Community Garden

Workshops will be filled on a first come, first served basis.  To register, choose the workshops you wish to take and send their titles, dates & your name to Alex at: akachan@mum.edu

Click here to download a flyer providing more details on the workshops.

MUM students & staff enjoy all-organic, vegetarian, fresh-cooked meals everyday

If you want a healthy fresh-cooked meal, a college cafeteria isn’t the first place that comes to mind.

Anyone who’s subsisted on college cuisine for extended periods of time probably doesn’t consider those days a culinary high point. Heck, coupled with late-night pizza runs, a standard university diet is partly to blame for the infamous “freshman fifteen” (i.e. those extra 15 pounds that seemingly appear out of nowhere during your first year on campus).

Yet at MUM, students and staff enjoy all-organic, vegetarian, fresh-cooked meals daily. While many campuses are starting to offer healthier menu options, MUM is the first U.S. college to serve exclusively organic, vegetarian food in its dining hall (officially, Annapurna Dining Commons). It’s part of the university’s commitment to inner and outer sustainability (for the record, many students aren’t vegetarian).

Local ingredients are used whenever possible, including produce grown right on campus at MUM’s greenhouses and nearby organic farms. It’s not uncommon for food to be picked and served the same day. Milk, yogurt, and ice cream come from Radiance Dairy right here in Fairfield. Everything is made from scratch, and the kitchens participate in a composting program. Meals are also prepared according to Ayurvedic principles, an ancient science of health and natural medicine. Thanks to these efforts, the MUM dining hall was a finalist in the “Best Local Food” category of Iowa Source magazine’s annual restaurant contest.

As student enrollment has increased—MUM now serves over 1,600 meals per day—the university brought in Aladdin Food Management Services to handle operations. Aladdin has been so inspired by MUM’s program that the company decided to make organic food service its niche, leveraging its experience with MUM to extend organic offerings at other accounts. Food Management magazine wrote a good article about the collaboration.

“I’m happy this worked out, and frankly, MUM was the catalyst to make it happen,” said Jim McKee, Aladdin’s regional VP of operations. “MUM’s 100% organic program is 10 years ahead of where the rest of the world needs to be. It is the right thing to do, and I’m glad to be a part of it.”

Anyone is welcome to eat at the dining hall, and you’ll find people of all ages—not just students. It’s located upstairs in the new Argiro Student Center (the big building on 4th street that looks like a cruise ship). The walk-in price is $8 flat, though it’s less if you buy a multi-meal punch card. Lunch is served everyday from 11:45-1:30, and dinner from 6:30-8:00. There’s a pretty big line at lunch by about 12:15, so I recommend getting there at noon or after 12:30 (though you’re almost certain to be standing next to a nice, interesting person in the queue). You can also check the menu online before you come. Happy dining!