Sustainable Living Center
Welcome to the Dartmouth Sustainable Living Center (SLC) webpage! We hope you will take the time to read both the short history and mission statement below, and that it will inspire you to become involved with this groundbreaking project. The success of the SLC will ultimately be a product of the support it receives from students, faculty and community members, and we hope that this site will serve as a means of promotion and information as the development of the project moves forward.
Our Core Values
We recognize there is a need for students, faculty and other community members to learn the practical skills involved with living a more sustainable lifestyle. To address this expressed and growing student need and to uphold the institution’s commitment to environmental awareness and stewardship, we propose that Dartmouth establish a Sustainable Living Center. The SLC will necessarily be
- Focused on education: The SLC is designed to further the education of students and other community members in ways that are not currently being offered. It will therefore be strongly linked to a diverse range of academic programs at Dartmouth.
- On campus: It must be readily accessible to all students and faculty as part of its inclusive and educational values.
- Self-reliant: It must be a free-standing building that is not dependant on outside sources of energy and minimizes the output of waste products. The mechanisms for minimizing inputs and outputs will be working demonstrations of how to live more sustainably, as part of the educational purpose of the center. These will provide the hands-on experiential education that currently is unavailable to students.
- Designed, developed and operated by students: As part of the educational process, academic courses and individual students will benefit by the experiences of planning and running the SLC. Researching and developing every part of the SLC is a valuable educational opportunity.
- Community-oriented and community-dependant: It must be in part a residential space for at least 10 residents. An important part of sustainability is the sustainability of a community and the ability to share tasks and resources.
- Outreach to and involvement with the Dartmouth community: It must be a non-exclusive space that actively seeks to serve all members of the Dartmouth community as part of its educational purpose.
We envision the SLC as a household that would be a venue for experiential learning in regards to sustainability, an educational resource for the broader Dartmouth community, and a place that would allow residents to practice a lifestyle of minimal environmental impact. The SLC is very much in line with Dartmouth’s tradition and is an important way in which Dartmouth can lead the way in sustainability.
How can I get involved?
Undergraduates: Come to meetings about the center, become a residence in the center and take part in sustainable living practices, take classes concerning sustainable living for credit, do a project for one of your classes focused on the center, learn more about the center!
Faculty: Becoming involved with the center, teaching classes in the center, teaching an experience-based class with the living center as your subject matter, (The opportunities for this are endless: ENVS: What is sustainability? How could we best attempt to approach a truly sustainable, “closed-loop” living space? ENGS: How can we design the building to be as energy efficient as possible? What sort of alternative energies might we explore and how might we harness them in an “off-the-grid” housing structure? ECON: What are some of the cost-benefit aspects of sustainability techniques? Could we make this center profitable? MANY MORE)
Alumni: Helping to continue Dartmouth’s tradition of environmental excellence, a space to hold meetings or reunions, heading up a committee of alumni in support of the center, lobbying to the Administration or Board of Trustees!
Member of the Community: A space to learn sustainable techniques that can help you lower your utility bills, supporting sustainable living techniques, sponsoring the center, helping with construction when the time comes to do so!
All Others: Telling us a bit about other programs you know of, special tips or hints from your house or project that worked especially well!
CONTACT US VIA LETTER OR EMAIL: Explain your interest or support of the center. Let us know how you could use the Sustainable Living Center to YOUR benefit. Your letters and emails will provide us with both information regarding interest and serve as proof that there is support behind the center and its ideals.
Address all letters to HB 3701, Hanover, New Hampshire, 03755
Sustainable.Living.Center@Dartmouth.edu
