Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Enhanced Sustainability through Straw-Bale Construction: Education-Research Building Demonstrating How to Live Sustainably in the Midwest
EPA Grant Number: SU833188Title: Enhanced Sustainability through Straw-Bale Construction: Education-Research Building Demonstrating How to Live Sustainably in the Midwest
Investigators: Gray, Timothy , Hall, Alicia A. , Kottkamp, Bradley A. , Wait, Chelsea A. , Dyson, Daniel A. , Burns, Geoffrey A. , Russell, Justin A. , Woodward, Kelly A. , Merkel, Martin A. , Sams, Martin D. , Powers, Michael D. , Bajor, Daniel G. , Singer, Bradley J. , Geers, Luke J. , Alexander, Ryan J. , Harner, Emily K. , Haines, Teresa Klingensmith , Lewis, Amy L. , Hudson, John L. , McLeish, Stephanie L. , Hoopingarner, Brandon M. , Cain, David M. , Reier, Jason M. , Leder, Megan M. , Ertel, Merritt M. , Dougherty, Sharon M. , Ernstberger, Todd M. , Koester, Alisha R. , Faichild, Brad R. , Seltenright, Corey R. , Ziulkowski, Nathan R. , Desmit, Geoffrey S. , Anderson-Decina, Evan T. , Manwaring, Josh T. , Higginbotham, Joshua T. , Fettig, Lawrence T. , Amore, Matthew T. , Parmele, Logan U. , Pace, Brian W. , Steffen, Patrick W. , Perkins, Wesley W. , Motloch, John , Frost, Kendra , Kenley, Lauren , Eckstein, Lindsey
Institution: Ball State University
EPA Project Officer: Page, Angela
Phase: I
Project Period: September 30, 2006 through May 30, 2007
Project Amount: $10,000
RFA: P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity and the Planet (2006) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: P3 Challenge Area - Sustainable and Healthy Communities , Pollution Prevention/Sustainable Development , P3 Awards , Sustainable and Healthy Communities
Objective:
This project seeks to educate people (higher education, K-12 students, public and developers) to change their perception of P3 relationships and thereby change their P3 behaviors so as to lead them toward a sustainable future.
The project pursued two-phase objectives. In Phase One students designed the learning module to include its building component and its resource harvesting and regeneration components as participants in the life cycle flows of the site’s regenerative systems. In Phase I, students also constructed the building component of this module, assessed the building’s resource effectiveness (material footprint, LEED, and so on), and assessed the ability of the design and phase 1 construction to affect P3 perceptions and institutional behavior. Phase I prepared the project for Phase Two- Regenerative Systems that will complete the built-site regenerative systems including the water-wastewater-energy-building-landscape-education system that harvests, transports, processes, distributes, uses and reuses, and regenerates resources by integrating with life cycles, augmenting cyclical flow, and sustaining positive ecobalance. Phase II will include installation of the monitoring system (including building, site, and built-site monitoring), and assessment of built-site performance. It will also implement the module’s educational programs and their assessment.
Phase I addressed the first phase of the project site management objective by testing student ability to design a built-site (building, site, infrastructure) to integrate sustainably into resource flows. It constructed the building component of the learning module, and assessed the building’s relation to life cycle flows including the building’s material footprint. It set the stage for Phase II construction and assessment of the learning module as an integral component of a resource-balance site management system; and to test the effectiveness of the water-wastewater-energybuilding-landscape-education system in attaining resource-balance.
Phase I began an education program to change public understanding of relationships among built environments, people, prosperity and the planet by designing the learning module complete with resource harvesting and regeneration systems, and constructing its building component. It developed programs for using the learning module as an tool to educate Ball State students, K-12 students, builders, and adults; and developed schedules for use of the module to optimize learning in these four communities.
Phase I included press releases and strategic communications during design and building construction to net coverage on local and regional media; and acceptance of the learning module as a fieldtrip site for the June 2007 Living Lightly Fair and in the 2007 Greening of the Campus national conference. Phase II will complete construction and testing of the project’s waterwastewater-energy-building-landscape-educational system to net coverage on regional and national television and publication in syndicated newspapers and popular.
Phase I assessed the site’s ability to regenerate the resources needed to produce the module in a sustainable and regenerative manner, including the building material footprint. It prepared for Phase II identification, baselining and benchmarking of sustainability Indicators; and assessment of change to these Indicators before and after constructing the learning module. It also prepared the project for Phase II assessment of the learning module’s integration into the life cycles (water, carbon, material) of regenerative systems using static and dynamic digital models.
Phase I included informal LEED assessment to set the stage for phase II formal assessment of the learning module’s environmental performance that may include pursuit of official LEED certification. It also initiated development of static and dynamic models that will be used in Phase II to model performance ecobalance performance (materials, water, energy, and so on) of the integrated water-wastewater-energy-building-landscape system and the learning module’s affect on sustainable behavior.
Phase I also prepared stand-alone presentation boards about the learning module to be part of Sustainability Trunk Shows for four target communities: BSU Students, K-12 students, adult and community learners, and developers. It developed the module’s weekly teaching and research schedule to address the four populations. Phase II will test the effectiveness of use of the module to change perceptions in the four target populations; and the degree to which the research, teaching, and demonstration program changes understanding of P3 relationships.
The project used interdisciplinary knowledge, innovative processes, and technically-sound methods to develop the learning module as a tool to promote societal movement to higher levels of sustainability.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
This project produced key tools, including the strawbale building component of the learning module that will address P3 relationships by educating people to make decisions that integrate internally and with local resource flows. The learning module was designed to address PEOPLE’s need for health, stronger community and local employment. It was also designed to promote PROSPERITY by supporting regeneration of system health to avoid the profound costs of secondary treatment of symptoms of planetary degradation while promoting eco-economic development in a region economically depressed by industries with poor P3 performance. It was designed to address the PLANET by demonstrating how to design buildings and sites so that the planet will be more healthy and productive after design intervention that it was prior to intervention.
Phase I successes include design of the integrated water-wastewater-energy-building-landscape system that interconnects with the site’s resource life-cycles in ways that promote ecobalance. The learning module was designed to harvest, transport, process, distribute, use, and reuse resources; and then return these back to the site in at least the quantity and quality harvested. The team constructed the building component of this module including its attached greenhouse that will house a solar aquatic wastewater treatment system as a regenerative design and green technology education, research and demonstration system. The building-site monitoring system (including building, site, and built-site monitoring) was designed to facilitate monitoring of performance of the water-wastewater-energy-building-landscape system as integral component of overall monitoring within the field site’s resource balance management system.
All disciplines presented by the team members contributed. Natural resource and environmental management students provided insight and technical competency on natural systems and dynamics, natural resources, life cycle issues, and environmental health. Landscape architecture students provided insight and expertise on living systems, design that integrates with regenerative natural systems, integrative and green technologies, resource harvesting and regeneration, built-site systems, LEED, and landscape design. Architecture students provided insight and expertise on built-site systems, green building design, energy and comfort, building systems, structural systems, building materials, LEED, and building design.
Phase I initiated four types of assessment: LEED, the learning module as community asset for addressing P3 relationships, Ball State institutional changes in P3 perception and behaviors, and changes in individual (students and faculty) P3 perception and behaviors. Preliminarily informal assessment of the P3 Award project (by three LEED Accredited Professionals) indicates the project would likely yield a LEED Gold Rating. As early indicator of the module as a community tool for addressing P3 relationships, the project will be featured in the first region’s Living Lightly Fair; and thereafter as an annual event. The learning module is also promoting changes in Institutional P3 perception and behavior. Designed to be a carbon-neutral construction project, it is also raising dialog about sustainable design. In March, 2007, using the P3 Award project as “how-to” demonstration, the co-PI co-led a successful departmental move to adopt the 2010 Initiative to teach ecological literacy, include carbon reduction in all classes, and initiate a carbon-balance design campus by 2010. The Co-PI recommended to the Ball State Field Station Executive Committee that the site be managed as a carbon-neutral design site. He also coproposed to the University’s Council of the Environment (COTE) that the Council recommend that the university officially adopt the 2030 °Challenge. The project is also encouraging changes in individual P3 perception and behavior within the university. For example, 62% of students in the class that designed the project as an integrated water-wastewater-energy-building-landscapeeducation system signed a pledge to reduce the fossil fuel consumption of their designs. This is compared to only 20% of students overall in the College of Architecture and Planning who signed this commitment.
Conclusions:
Since land use and development profoundly affect transportation that accounts for 1/4 to 1/3 of climate change, and buildings account for 48% of U.S. contribution to climate change, there is a profound need for projects that can change perceived relations of built environments and life cycle flows. This project is helping people make this change by implementing a model for enhancing life cycle flows; integrating theories of sustainability, resource management, and ecobalance designTM; and implementing programs of ecobalance education, research, and demonstration. As such, the project has high potential to positively affect the movement toward sustainability. This is especially true because the lessons learned are not just applicable to buildings and sites but also to other interventions in regenerative systems and life cycle flows. Lessons learned are therefore applicable for other sectors and situations in the U.S., the developed world and the developing world to positively affect P3 health and quality of life.
This project has significant potential to change perceptions and positively impact the movement to sustainability. Phase I made early progress toward realizing this potential by initiating the university’s innovative resource-balance site management system as a feedforward-feedback process that promotes ecobalance design and monitoring of site-based Indicators to assess whether design intent has been attained. It initiated the learning module as pilot project of the Land Design Institute’s LandLab that demonstrates how to live sustainably in the Midwest. It built the learning module to optimize P3 relationships and to assess and compare anticipated impacts to monitored performance. It made significant progress in building the network of faculty who will oversee long-term building, site, and built-site monitoring.
Phase 1 began to demonstrate the project’s potential, when fully-implemented, to change perceived P3 relationships among the various populations served by the University. As a highly visible carbon-balance project, it encouraged the university toward early adoption of the 2030 Challenge and 2010 Initiative But even more importantly, the project took the position that climate change is only one of many indicators of planetary decline. This P3 project embraced the imperative of reversing climate change; and looked beyond carbon to address the ecobalance challenge of building so that people, prosperity and the planet are as healthy and productive, or more healthy and productive, after building than they were prior to building.
Phase II Objectives and Strategies: As stated above, the project pursued two-phase objectives. Phase I prepared the project for Phase Two- Regenerative Systems that will complete the built-site regenerative systems including the water-wastewater-energy-building-landscape-education system that harvests, transports, processes, distributes, uses and reuses, and regenerates resources by integrating with life cycles, augmenting cyclical flow, and sustaining positive ecobalance. Phase II will include installation of the monitoring system (including building, site, and built-site monitoring), and assessment of built-site performance. It will also implement the module’s educational programs and their assessment.
The Phase II Resource Balance Management Objective is to construct and assess the learning module as an integral component of a resource-balance site management system; and test the effectiveness of the water-wastewater-energy-building-landscape-education system in attaining resource-balance. The Phase II Educational Objective is to implement the educational program in the four target audiences and test the ability of the learning module and educational programs to change P3 perceptions and the P3 behaviors. The Phase II Communication Objectives are to complete construction and testing of the project’s resource harvesting and regeneration system in a manner that nets coverage on regional and national television and publication in syndicated newspapers and popular; and implement a program of journal publications and paper presentations at national and international conferences. The Phase II Material Regeneration Objective includes identification, baselining and benchmarking of sustainability Indicators; and assessment of change to these Indicators before and after constructing the learning module. The Phase II Assessment Objectives include assessment of the learning module’s integration into the life cycles (water, carbon, material) of regenerative systems using static and dynamic digital models. They also include Phase II assessment of the ecobalance performance (materials, water, energy, and so on) of the integrated water-wastewater-energy-building-landscape system and the learning module’s affect on sustainable behavior. Phase II Assessment also tests the effectiveness of use of the learning module, stand alone presentations, and immersion experiences to change perceptions in the four target populations; and the effectiveness of their use to change P3 behaviors.
Supplemental Keywords:
Strawbale, Green building, Integrated built-site, Eco-balance, Regenerative Design,, RFA, Scientific Discipline, Air, TREATMENT/CONTROL, Sustainable Industry/Business, Sustainable Environment, Technology, climate change, Air Pollution Effects, Technology for Sustainable Environment, Environmental Engineering, Atmosphere, environmental monitoring, clean technologies, sustainable development, alternative building technology, ecological design, education, environmental conscious construction, green building design, alternative materials, straw bale, construction materialRelevant Websites:
http://www.bsu.edu/ldi/strawbale/EPA-P3_Student_Design_Competition Exit
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.