So you want to build a green home? Of course you would never want to underestimate the difficulty of such a task, take my word, but the building of Cliffs Cottage was a really big task. See: furmancliffscottage.com All involved believe it to be the greatest number of person hours per square foot of structure (~3000 ft sq) in planning, defining, refining, executing and justifying of any other project any of us had been involved.

Scott Johnston put forth a design that made important use of two green factors. First, he wanted to build it on the footprint of the existing six tennis courts, courts 1 and 2 with the organic garden covering the remaining 4 courts. Secondly, the home passive solar technique demands that the home be oriented on an East/West line for purposes of making best use of the sun’s energy in the design of the home. Fortunately, like any good tennis court design, each court was built on a North/South line allowing the six courts to lie shoulder to shoulder on an East/West axis. How green are these two factors? Reusing existing build space is about the best way to recycle. The old tennis court surface is now used as fill material on the site and the Furman campus and the precious ground is being reused in a new and more valuable way for generations of future Furman students. And, just what is the environmental impact of the E/W building orientation? Green building 101 demands that the power of the sun be considered in any building, a long forgotten and too frequently overlooked fundamental of architecture and human survival. By simply creating longer and properly angled overhangs for the roof of the building, the lower in the sky, winter sun can be allowed to enter through large south facing windows in the winter, where the heat is both welcomed and stored. In the Cliffs Cottage the winter sun warms the rock floor of the large sunroom, and the dark bamboo flooring of the living and meeting areas of the home. The open design of the floor plan allows that heat to move E/W through the home as it is gently given off throughout the evening and night. Such a simple design used by early humans in many places on the Earth has augmented human comfort in the winter and saved millions of tons of C02 that would have been released by the burning of wood and, more importantly, the burning of oil, natural gas, and coal (coal burn releases more C02 per unit of energy produced that any other of our major fuel sources, and makes about 50% of all of the electricity used in the USA. Note that the Cliffs Cottage is totally electric using no gas or oil for energy. All of its energy need comes from the sun) In the summer the long overhangs of the roof prevent the sun from directly entering the south facing windows of the home because of the notably higher angle of the sun in the summer sky. In the next few years we will enjoy finding ways to estimate the green savings of reusing distressed land and maximizing the value of the sun’s energy in the design of a home. Take a look around at the haphazard way our urban landscape sites homes. Why has the design of our built environment conspicuously and continuously ignored nature’s invitation to build green?

Reflecting upon the era in which I grew up, it's clear that progress and prosperity were the expectation for my generation. I have not been disappointed. My life has been blessed and my acquisitions are notable. My generation is doing better than any previous generation. At some point though, enough is enough. There are now more motor vehicles registered in the USA than there are licensed drivers. I live in a home that has 3 showers and only two occupants, whereas in China, 2/5’s of women there will never experience a hot shower. I am living in an era when little effort is made to teach where waste goes, where few are aware of the true costs of food and from where it comes, and why that fast-food hamburger costs only $1.00. The idea that reusing something is tacky like wearing the same shirt again during a school term has become well-developed. The use of a needle and thread to repair something has disappeared and can you tell me where I might get my hiking boots resoled? The diseases of affluence are maiming us at startling rates (accidents and obesity, for example), and today’s 18 year old will likely have a lower life-expectancy than their parents. More distressing is the head in the sand attitude we have about our relationship to global climate change. It must be the fault of the Chinese that that the planet is warming. They are so wasteful using energy making all the stuff we buy.

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When you compare life at Furman with life at most other college campuses, one clear difference is apparent - space . During class change at Furman our sidewalks and pathways are rarely crowded. The half-mile trek from Johns Hall to the PAC causes some students to be late and is a common complaint of the tardy. And what about the 15-minute walk from the distant North Village apartments to the PAC; makes you want to get a bicycle. Our 750-acre campus, designed primarily for motor vehicles, puts lots of space between buildings. Students at Furman have nearly 1/3 of an acre allocated to them which can take a good bit of time to negotiate. At Arizona State University with about 50,000 students on 700 acres, your 1/100th of an acre is approximately four parking spaces. During class change at ASU you sometimes wonder if you are in Times Square in New York City.

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If it is yellow let it mellow, if it is brown, flush it down. Can you imagine seeing these words above the toilet you are about to use? I'm unsure of the translation in the countries of the Middle East, but you can be sure that potable water is rarely used to transport human waste in many places in the world. So, why would I want to not flush a bit of yellow urine down the drain with 1-3 gallons of potable water? Is it unsanitary? Will someone follow me at the toilet and drink from it? Or, do the molecules that enter the air from my urine, when inhaled by another, bring on illness? Is that what is called yellow fever? A little color in an otherwise white porcelain throne looks kind of nice to me.

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OK, so we are celebrating the "year of the environment" at Furman University. I’m trying to help coordinate the event and create a promotional scheme to raise awareness about environmental issues. A friend of mine told me about a small sign next to a marina that sums up what "the year of the environment" at Furman is all about. The sign said, "Mind your wake." If you’re a boater, you know that your wake affects those other boats on the water, those on docks, and the shoreline itself.

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