Cascadia Center
When the world's greenest office building opens in March 2013, Seattle University students will be there. The Bullitt Foundation’s Cascadia Center (http://bullittcenter.org) addresses the Living Building Challenge (https://ilbi.org/) and will be a zero-net-energy and zero-net-water facility. The six story building is covered in solar panels, so even in rainy Seattle, it will produce more energy than it uses on an average day. The 55,000 gallon storage tank in the basement of the building will collect rain water to meet tenant water demands, and most of the building’s waste will be processed on-site. This includes grey water from sinks and showers which will be treated in a third-story wetland treatment system. Under the supervision of Professor Phillip Thompson, SU students will be evaluating the performance of the treatment system by verifying that the treated water complies with the Washington State Department of Health’s water quality requirements. Performance data for all of the building’s systems will be published and shared with architects and engineers around the world who are developing similar sustainable facilities.
Environmental Justice Book to be Released in March: Resisting Structural Evil: Love as Ecological-Economic Vocation
by Cynthia D. Moe-Lobeda (Author)
"This is a grand prophetic book motivated by love and focused on justice – social justice, ecological justice and dignity for "the least of these." Don't miss it!"
- Cornel West
Princeton University
"This is great….We badly need new doors into the greatest set of problems humans have ever faced. This prayerful amalgamation of deep concern for social justice and a healthy mystic sense of what might inspire it—it's a blend that could provide great help."
-Bill McKibben
Leading American environmentalist, author, and journalist
Schumann Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at Middlebury College
http://store.augsburgfortress.org/store/product/17650/Resisting-Structural-Evil-Love-as-Ecological-Economic-Vocation
Faculty Win Forest Management Grant from NSF
Tanya Hayes and
Felipe Murtinho, faculty in the Institute for Public Service and Environmental
Studies, recently received a three-year National Science Foundation Research
Grant, titled "Influence of Economic Incentives on Common-Property Forest
Management." Working in collaboration with Hendrik Wolff of the University
of Washington, and Condesdan, a non-profit that focuses on natural resource
management in Andean countries, Hayes and Murtinho will investigate if and how monetary
payments impact forest conservation in community managed forests in Ecuador.
The study examines why rural communities choose
to participate in payment for forest conservation programs, and how said
programs impact conservation behavior, livelihoods and community governance.
As part of the
study, Seattle University undergraduate students will have the unique
opportunity to travel to Ecuador to conduct case study research and then return
to Seattle University where they will help analyze that data and present the
findings. By combining quantitative and qualitative methods, this study will
test the significance of payments as compared to other non-monetary factors in
rural land-use decisions. The results will provide valuable information to
policymakers and practitioners regarding the use of payments for forest
conservation and suggestions for improving the design of payment programs in
developing country contexts.
Organic Urban Farm Project Delivers
An innovative urban agriculture project, spearheaded by
Seattle University’s Environmental Studies program, is helping to put fresh
produce on the table for families in need in the Puget Sound region. The aptly
named Urban Farm, located on a portion of King County's South Wastewater
Treatment Plant, was created on unused land with the support of a $100,000
grant from Wells Fargo.
After the area was cleared of debris and fortified with nutrient-rich soils,
the first crop of fruits and vegetables were planted in January 2011. In its
first year, the farm generated nearly 7,000 pounds of produce for area food
banks. That number doubled by the end of 2012.
Check out the video on
this innovative urban agriculture project and learn more here.
Electrical and Computer Engineering Student Projects: Electric Cars and Hydropower
The goal of this electrical and computer engineering senior design project is to create an electric vehicle and find ways to improve on the current design of the Zap car. The Xebra Zap is an electric car capable of 40 mph and 40 miles per charge.
A Senior Design Projects focused on humanitarian work in Zambia. The focus has been to deliver energy resources to rural areas in southern Africa.