New residence halls are set to begin offering sustainable living spaces
Through workshops and classes, Ohio University’s new residence halls will give students an opportunity to live a sustainable lifestyle.
OU's Director of Sustainability, Annie Laurie Cadmus, said her office and Residential Housing have collaborated in efforts for a living space that will include an emphasis on sustainable living.
The spaces will have no structural or physical differences from other spaces, but will offer a variety of sustainable living lessons and workshops done in collaboration with the peer leaders from the Ecohouse and the Office of Sustainability.
“Many of the fine details are still being determined, but it has received approval from Residential Housing,” Cadmus said. “It is now up to our office to put together the programmatic pieces necessary to properly implement.”
Executive Director of Residential Housing Pete Trentacoste said the sustainability community is going to be located in ‘Phase I’ of the new residence hall spaces, which will be made up of suite doubles and singles.
OU is spending $105 million on the first phase of its housing master plan to build the residence halls rising near the Ping Center that will total 900 beds.
Students will not be charged extra for living in the sustainable community, Trentacoste said.
The idea for these living spaces came from residents of OU’s Ecohouse in 2013. Benjamin Bushwick, a senior studying psychology, is one of the former Ecohouse residents who made the proposal for sustainable living spaces in residence halls.
The Ecohouse is a residency lease mediated by the university and involves sustainable initiatives like rain water barrels, a community garden, solar panels, and composting bins, Bushwick said.
“All of us were committed to working together with the Office of Sustainability to limit our carbon footprint and have a lesser impact on nature," he added.
Therefore, the logical next step was to create more living spaces for eco-minded students, he said.
Cadmus said other universities, such as Iowa State University and Colorado State University, have implemented similar programs. OU has been referencing these programs while developing their own program, she said.
“Research of the programs and conversations with implementation teams have proved that efforts and outcomes have spanned a wide spectrum but that, overall, such programs are enriching experiences to participants and also offer educational opportunities to the institution as a whole by opening up programs to the public,” Cadmus said. “We’re aware that this will be a lot of work, as our peers have told us, but we are excited by the opportunities of increased collaboration, relationship building, and outreach.”
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