I am seeking assistance with an idea I am working on. I'm not sure if you are familiar with the Solar Decathlon competition held in
Washington, DC, but I am proposing to organize a similar competition here in
Saskatchewan.
The Solar Decathlon is a competition, sponsored by the US
Department of Energy, held every second year on the National Mall in Washington,
DC. In this competition university teams compete to design, build, and move a
house to Washington, and live in that house for approximately two to three
weeks. The homes are designed to be entirely solar powered, energy efficient,
practical and innovative home design, and are open to the public to tour during
certain periods of those few weeks. The materials used in the construction also
have to be commercially available. During the first week of the Decathlon teams
take part in a variety of competitions do demonstrate the practicality and
efficiency of their designs. After the competition the houses are dismantled,
and taken by their respective universities, where they typically are used as
demonstration homes and/or used for research, or sold to recover costs and/or
raise funds for the next competition.
My proposal is to create similar university-level competition, with a few
important changes. I propose we create a competition to be held here in
Saskatchewan to build semi-permanent and permanent dwellings that are as
sustainable and eco-friendly as possible.
The scope of the competition should
be beyond solar power, with a focus on overall sustainability. We should select
a rural community that has done work towards environmental sustainability, and
with easy access to one or more major cities in the province (one such community
could be the village of Craik, and could be held in conjunction with their Solar
Fair).
We could continue to host the competition in the same community, or
select a different community for each competition. After the competition the
dwellings could either be taken back by their respective universities, or left
on site and sold to the general public (with this being the preferred option).
A variety of contests could be held during the competition, ranging from
overall energy/commodity consumption (water, electricity, etc) per person,
indoor air quality, architectural/aesthetic quality, typical household tasks,
etc. The dwelling can be graded on their use of solar, wind, and geothermal
energy use, grey-water recycling, compost, water use, use of
recycled/reused/sustainably harvested building materials, overall green space
lost vs replaced during construction, etc. Companies could be invited to
demonstrate the technologies they are working on (such as transportation, waste
processing, etc). The homes would have to be suitable/practical for year round
living in Saskatchewan, and large enough for a minimum family size (still to be
determined, perhaps minimum 4).
There would be benefits for the host
community be increasing awareness for the work they are doing, as well as
potentially attracting industry to their community to help improve the local
economy and community. The University of Regina, University of Saskatchewan,
SIAST, and their affiliated colleges/universities would be the most likely to
organizations to ask, and hopefully partner together, to host the Sustainables
competition.
I am currently a full time student in my first year of
university (though I am 26). I have an avid interest in sustainable concepts
and activities. Part of the reason I want to do this is that I have noticed
that there are lots of great ideas and technology out there, but despite the
hard effort put in by many people there are still problems getting these things
mainstream and in the public's hands. I want to do what I can to change
this.
I am still working to put together a team to assist me with doing
the feasibility and organizing this competition. The competition would also
need companies, organizations and, departments to help sponsor this competition,
a construction company/companies to build the dwellings that will be built on
site, a community to host the competition, and many volunteers when the time
comes. This is why I am contacting you. Any advice, assistance, or personnel
you can send my way to assist me would be most appreciated. Feel free to pass
this request on to anyone you think would be appropriate.
Contact me by email:
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