On Monday, many of us had the opportunity to travel to Goshen College’s Merry Lea Environmental learning Center: http://www.goshen.edu/merrylea/
For those of us that weren’t able to make it, keep an eye out for the pictures we will be posting this weekend. Until then, you can take photo tour at Merry Lea’s site: http://www.goshen.edu/merrylea/education/webmap/map.html
The majority of our visit was spent at Rieth Village (featured left) which is an ecological field station for undergraduate programs and a fascinating model in sustainable design. Rieth Village was designed and constructed with a strong commitment to sustainability, successfully meeting the highest standards of the LEED rating system. The village consists of two cottages, which provide housing for up to 32 students and a third cottage which currently serves as the initial classroom and office building. This is the page for Reith Village: http://www.goshen.edu/merrylea/rieth/index.php
During the course of our visit, Merry Lea’s Executive Director, Luke Gascho, described many aspects of the design and implementation process for the center, facilitated a discussion between the IU, Purdue, and Goshen College representatives, and gave us an extensive tour. I propose that we use the blog to record some of the highlights and observations we made during the trip.
I will begin with what struck me the most:
-First, it was encouraging to see the fast pace of the steps Goshen College is taking towards sustainability. The college has signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment and has a five-year plan to Ensure Operational Excellence (among many other initiatives).
-Within the Merry Lea center, I was particularly impressed by the water-treatment system: a “cleansing biotope” consisting of gravel beds and a rooting system comprises the entire on-site water treatment system, whose final product meets Indiana’s requirements for treated water without the use of any chemicals.
-The center has also successfully designed the landscape to achieve a 0-storm water discharge.
- In the design of the village, great attention was paid to the types of materials used in construction in order to ensure the integrity of the sustainable system. Some of the factors taken into account were the environmental footprint of the production of the materials, durability, recyclability, and potential interactions with the environment. Some examples of the materials include rapidly renewable products (products which renew themselves every 7 years or less), such as a sunflower-hull/resin mix used to make the kitchen cabinetry, recycled concrete used to build the road system, recycled plastic and wood chips used as decking for the cottages.
Feel free to continue the list…
Tags: LEED, Merry Lea, sustainability, sustainable design
