ROEE: Resources: Sustainable Sites

Sustainable/Green Residential Sites

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I posted inquires to the ROEE and ANCA email lists, as well as to ACA and Campus Ecology, and these are the replies I got.

I am considering hosting a discussion on actions that sites can take to become more "green" or environmentally sustainable, both in facilities and programs. I would be happy to have another co-host, someone who is more familiar with site management, as I mostly know only about programs. I am also interested in hearing of ideas and/or resources in this area. I've found some overlap in the NWF Campus Ecology info, but not much else. ACA doesn't have much. I'll ask the same question of the ANCA email list.

Please respond just to me. I will share info with the whole list, but don't want to busy the list with small pieces of information or suggestions. Thanks for your help. Looking forward to seeing all of you (why not?) at Waskowitz.

Dan Allison (my initial message to ROEE email list)

I do not know of a particular resource on greening camp operations and cannot claim a particular familiarity with camp operations. We have found that much of the information that Campus Ecology provides is useful for other industries, agencies and even governments and so we are happy to make our resources and information available for everyone. While we do not have a strict restriction on membership and you are therefore more than welcome to join as an individual, I think you will get just as much useful information by simply subscribing to our email updates and perusing our materials. The technical difference between this and joining is that we attempt to provide more one on one assistance to member campuses, and as a camp, we won't be able to provide as much specific assistance.

Please contact me if this is confusing. You can sign onto the email list online at www.nwf.org/campusecology (if you haven't already).

Jessica Stine
Coordinator
Campus Ecology Program
National Wildlife Federation
11100 Wildlife Center Drive
Reston VA 20190
Tel: 703.438.6262
Fax: 703.438.6468

Regarding sustainable operations. You've hit sweet spot with me on this one, as my family and I are very interested in moving that direction (beyond recycling, conscious shopping, composting, etc.). With regard to camps operating in this capacity, I'm not aware of any camp where it is a central focus. However, I'm guessing there are many that incorporate some aspect of sustainability: Examples I have seen or heard of: (not all of these examples are necessarily ACA camps):

Frost Valley YMCA (New York) has a well recognized, cutting edge composting program. Central Wisconsin Environmental Station (part of the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, my alma mada) designed one of its residence buildings with sustainability in mind. It's burned with significant south exposure and behind-glass thermal mass. Sargent Camp (New Hampshire) used to include sustainability practices (vermiculture, composting, recycling, measuring food waste, etc.) as part of their regular curriculum. YMCA Storer Camps (Michigan branch of the Toledo YMCA) looked at "green construction of buildings they were putting in during 1998-1999. Contact Glen King at the Toledo office of Kathy Trieber at Storer Camps. I can't attest to the level of commitment they made in going this direction, though I know it came up in one conversation I had with Glen early in 1998.

I think there are many examples, but the diversity of practices that define sustainable behavior prevent a center of gravity from being defined. These topics may include agriculture, consumer habits, building design and construction practices, supporting technology, integrative energy production, bioregionalism, resource management, recycling, environmental activism (from eco-terrorism to legislative lobby), environmental education, etc.

You may have some luck looking at Environmental Education associations and camps that may be networked through that focus. The University of Wisconsin Stevens Point College of Natural Resources may be able to provide some suggestions for you to get started. Sorry, not sure who to contact there for this. Perhaps the director of Central Wisconsin Environmental Station or Scmekle Reserve (also a UWSP center).

Perhaps you could contact the folks at the Midwest Renewable Energy Association. They organize the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair each year. Last I heard their offices were in Stevens Point, Wisconsin though they may now be in Amherst, Wisconsin. (Can you guess what my home state is?)

I would enjoy staying in touch with you on this topic. If you can send me an occasional synopsis of what you are discovering, I would appreciate it.

One last thought. You may end up pulling together enough information to warrant an article in Camping Magazine. We are always looking for contributions and there is now a section on site and faculties as a regular feature.

Eric Nei
American Camping Association
765-342-8456 ext 349

www.ACAcamps.org

You ask about something that is difficult to summarize, and I am not sure what sort of information you are after.

At Riveredge, we are on the front side of a major program and site development project that begins the process of making all of our buildings sustainable and demonstrable educationally. Over the past 25 years we have 'renovated' our grounds (350 acres) to be essentially free of invasive/exotic plant species and have planted 35 acres of prairie, as an example of landscaping (on a large scale) practices; we installed the first engineered wastewater wetland system in the state to treat our wastewater in 1998; and, we are in the planning stages to begin the process of making all of our buildings sustainable and demonstrable educationally. We are not prioritizing as you are: we are not seeking to do what takes the least investment of 'energy.' Rather, we are seeking to make over the center into a regional model of sustainability that teaches and demonstrates practical, realistic and appealing solutions that inspire people to explore ways of living that sustain, rather than harm, natural environmental systems.

We will tackle
- waste (already have in terms of wastewater, but will be expanding to composting research and education)
- food (plan to implement example organic gardens)
- housing (planning has begun to do an ecological retrofit on a home-scale farmhouse we own)
- energy (planning underway to implement efficiency, conservation, and renewable technology that will turn the facility into a net-zero facility)

Programs (conceptual at this point) point toward energy installation workshops, practical programs for homeowners in composting, waste reduction, food growing, home cleaning products, etc.). One specific program planned for this summer: Food as an environmental issue. We have begun adult discussion-based courses in Voluntary Simplicity, Choices for Sustainable Living, and Discovering a Sense of Place.

This is a bit more of a list of ideas than you want, but I think you might need to be a bit more specific as to what information you are after. Then I can be more helpful to you in terms of giving you what you want from Riveredge.

Rick Flood
Executive Director
Riveredge Nature Center
P.O. Box 26
Newburg, WI 53060
262-375-2715 (PH)
262-375-2714 (FAX)
http://www.riveredgenc.org

This has more to do with design than practices, but Paul Anderson of the architectural firm Partners & Sirny in Minneapolis makes sort of a specialty of green design in residential center settings. The firm has done extensive work for Audubon Center of the North Woods and others. The full contact information:

Paul B. Anderson
Director, Environmental Education Studio
Partners & Sirny
100 Union Plaza
333 Washington Avenue North
Minneapolis, MN 55401
phone: 612-341-1070
fax: 612-341-2124

Dave Catlin
National Audubon Society
Springfield, MO

I would be interested in working with you on a sustainability session. As you may remember from the Oregon conference last year, I have been working on the concept design for a potential brand new site. We are working with two architecture firms to design a facility that will be a model for sustainable building practices. The Architects are also interested in putting on a session at the conference. I thought it might be nice to do a series of workshops dealing with a wide range of site issues.

Gary Myers
Director, Northwest Outdoor Science School "Where learning comes naturally"
Northwest Regional Education Service District
5828 NE Ray Circle
Hillsboro, OR 97124
Phone 503-614-1405
Fax 503-314-1468
Cell 503-701-4702
check us out on the web at www.nwresd.k12.or.us and then click on Instructional Services

Dan, I would be very interested in helping but don't know exactly who-what you are looking for. This is currently a topic we are exploring at Bradford Woods as we look to develop property / facilities in the near future. I myself have more of a program background but am slowly moving into a facility support role through implementing / managing green practices.

As resources, I recently heard of some good books: Natural Capitalism by Hawken, Lovens, and Lovens, and Biomimicry-Innovation Inspired by Nature by Janine Benyus.

There is also the Leeds building design certification for sustainability at www.usgbc.com or org. It stands for US Green Building Council if I messed that up. There is also www.omsolar.org for cottage plans.

There are other facilities that can be used as benchmarks:
Rocky Mountain Institute
John Tillman Lyle Center in Pomona, CA
National Renewable Energy Lab
Adam Joseph Lewis Ctr. at Oberland College

Jim Rodgers

May I strongly suggest a man named Callum McKee. He's the director at a YMCA camp/Outdoor Education Center in Ontario. He has a bunch of alternative buildings on site. Straw bale building, indoor, closed-loop septic system, "off-the-grid" buildings, corn stove heat, etc...

He is at Paradise Lake Center of the Waterloo YMCA (519) 699-5100

** emailed 20Nov2001

Kenis

Written By: Bill Hopple
To: ANCA Association of Nature Center Administrators

We have developed sustainability principles (we call it a Values and Beliefs Statement) and are in the midst of applying them to all that we do. This year all staff have been required to participate in the Sustainable Living discussion course offered through Northwest Earth Institute. We have also developed principles for building and design. I will have copies of these sent to you via email. What we have discovered is that the words are just the beginning. It is really the discussion about them that is meaningful. It has been and still is a work in progress. The Values Statement is still not formally adopted by the Board of Trustees. We are still building understanding and consensus around them.

William H. Hopple III, Executive Director
Cincinnati Nature Center
4949 Tealtown Road
Milford, OH 45150
www.cincynature.org
(513)965-4246, FAX (513)831-8052

Here is a site you might want to look over...

http://www.secondnature.org/

Dr. Evert Brown
Dept of Biology
Casper College
Casper, WY 82601

307/268-2407

Do you know about Camp Arroyo. I'll bet they are a good source since they just went through the process. Here's their URL with contact info. http://www.ttff.org/camp.htm

There is something called LEED that is a certification process for Green Building. It's a good basic design that would work for any building, including camp facilities. http://www.usgbc.org/programs/leed.htm

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Rocky Rohwedder, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Environmental Studies and Planning
Sonoma State University
1801 E. Cotati Ave.
Rohnert Park, CA 94928

E-mail: Phone: 707.664.2249
FAX: 707.664-4202 Website: www.sonoma.edu/ensp/rocky
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Written By: Kevin Kopp
To: ANCA Association of Nature Center Administrators

Our organization has also used the Choices for Sustainable Living materials from the Northwest Earth Institute and found them a very useful way to begin action towards sustainable practices. Currently we have some simple stuff like two sided copies and recycled copy paper. The biggest thing we are working on in replacing our old worn out carpeting with carpet from Interface (http://www.interfaceinc.com/us/). They are leading the way in a new way to look at old products.

Kevin Kopp

I am very interested in the results of your inquiry. We are designing (third try!) a "green" building, which we have needed to modify three times because of cost. It would be helpful to us to know what is deemed the best bang for the buck.

The only suggestion I have within our current setup is a vermicomposting box -- we put our staff kitchen scraps in it and use the box extensively in our programming to teach about soil critters, nutrient recycling and conservation. The down side is that someone on staff needs to take the maintenance under their wing -- not extensive care, but occasionally there nevertheless.

Please put me on your "results" list.

Thanks,
Barley Van Clief

Written By: Katie Shaw

To: ANCA Association of Nature Center Administrators

One excellent resource book is Easy Green: A Handbook of Earth-Smart Activities and Operating Procedures for Youth Programs by Marty Westerman. It was written primarily for residential camp facilities. It includes sections on philosophy, programming and infrastructure improvements.

Could we persuade you to take all of the feedback you get and turn it into a short (1-2 page) article for Directions, the ANCA newsletter?

Richard Haley

Director, Goodwin Conservation Center
CT Department of Environmental Protection
860-455-9534
Fax 860-455-9857

Written By: "Allison Copeland" < >
To: "ANCA Association of Nature Center Administrators" < >

Our firm, Schmidt Copeland Parker Stevens is an ANCA member and a member of the Green Building Coalition. We have foucsed and specialized in outdoor recreation and educational facilities, and environmentally sound design for the past 30 years. Our expertise is in the field of master planning and facility design for camps and recreation facilities across the United States. Over 300 camps alone have been served so far.

One of the facilities we have been involved in is the Frost Valley YMCA, an environmentally sustainable utopia and a great reference for you. We'd love to be included on your list as well. We are driven by a mission to design places of recreation and education that build community respect the environment and enrich the individual.

For more information please check out our link below, or drop me a line and we can get additional information out to you.

Sincerely,
Schmidt Copeland Parker Stevens
Allison C. Copeland
marketing director
1220 West Sixth Street, STE 300
Cleveland, Ohio 44113
216-696-6767, fax 216-696-4767
www.scpsohio.com

Written By: David Imbrogno
To: ANCA Association of Nature Center Administrators

Bernheim is building a new visitor center designed by architect Bill McDonough. It will feature passive solar, geothermal, a sod roof with prairie plants, recycled wood (from dismantled whiskey warehouses), a new super glaze glass ceiling hallways and more. It is being built on a scale that can be duplicated by homeowners and small businesses. We are trying to demonstrate that although many of the items above has higher initial cost, it pays off in the long run. The problem of course is raising the higher initial start up costs.

We have applied to the Kresge Foundation among others. They are developing a set of criteria for "green building" (written with the help of Bill McDonough). You might contact them to see if it is available yet.

Bill McDonough also has some criteria which had been on his website at www.mcdonough.com or www.mdbc.com . The Bernheim building may also be on the site.

Other "green" architects include Sim VanDerRyn, VanDerRyn Architects www.vanderryn.com , and Michael Rotundi, Roto Architects (I don't have their website handy but a quick internet search would find him).

Dave Imbrogno
Executive Director
Bernheim
PO Box 130
Clermont, KY 40110
Phone: (502) 955-8512
Web: www.bernheim.org
Email:

From: KATIE SHAW <

>
To: < >
Subject: Building Green
Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 17:29:56 -0500

I am manager of the Walker Nature Education Center in Reston, Virginia. We are in the midst of a new capital campaign for an education building that incorporates sustainable design and building practices. Recently, we completed conceptual designs, including elevations and selection of HVAC systems. We were very pleased with the creativity, knowledge and professionalism of our design team which included:

Architect- Bill Hutchins of Helicon Works, 202-332-7949 ( )
Environmental Consultant- Sigi Koko of Down to Earth, 703-243-5030 ( )
Energy consultant/engineer- Eric Oliver of EMO Energy Solutions, 703-255-6674, www.emoenergy.com

Our building will include a geothermal heat pump system, radiant flooring, "smart computer controls" for HVAC operation, passive solar features/fixtures (thermal roofing tiles, attic fan, building orientation, window trellises for seasonal shading), non-toxic/renewable/recycled building materials (local/sustainably harvested lumber, Wheatboard cabinetry, recycled carpet, etc.).

Our Board opted not to do a living roof or strawbale construction although those alternatives were researched. (This decision was heavily influenced by local politics and personal tastes, not the information presented by our design team.)

Good luck with your project,
Katie Shaw

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