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UPS students will live green this fall

By Meghan Erkkinen

Tacoma Weekly
merkkinen@tacomaweekly.com
Published on: August 21, 2008

Several University of Puget Sound (UPS) students are opting to live green this school year.

Last spring, five students approached the school administration, saying they wanted to live in an environmentally friendly house. The school offers students the opportunity to apply to live in a variety of different houses with themes ranging from foreign language to robots. The themes are student-driven and change, depending on students’ interests.

“They’ve evolved through the years,” said UPS spokesperson Melissa Rohlfs. “It shows you the interests of students through the years.”

The Live Green house is right in the middle of campus, near the Wheelock Student Center. The house was completely remodeled and received a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum rating for its environmentally friendly design. Students were very involved in the construction and design process.

The house has five bedrooms and features local materials, recycled material and an energy efficient design. Everything from the flooring to the paint contains recycled materials. The home also has solar power panels, ultra-high efficiency heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, high-performance windows that block solar heat, low-flow toilets and shower heads, rain gardens to collect water for irrigation, and Energy Star-rated appliances.

“The features have really been designed so it’s still a really great place to live, it just happens to be better for the environment,” Rohlfs said.

Five students, all seniors, will be moving into the house this week. The students come from a variety of academic disciplines, from business leadership to biology to international political economy.

“I really want to be part of the educational process about sustainability for the Puget Sound community and Tacoma residents,” said senior Erica Petrofsky, who will be living in the house fall semester. “Colleges like University of Puget Sound are some of the best places to start demonstrating the sustainable lifestyle.”

This project follows the university’s first “green” building, the science laboratory facility Harned Hall. This second conversion will help UPS in future environmentally friendly projects.

“The house needed major repairs, and this is a great opportunity to address repairs in a sustainable manner, using sustainable products,” said Bob Kief, associate vice president for facilities services. “Testing these materials and products under practical living conditions will help us develop a sustainable standard for the university that we can apply to other building and renovation projects on campus.”

This project is just one of the sustainability initiatives on campus. UPS President Ron Thomas signed a declaration to address climate change. He appointed a Sustainability Advisory Committee of faculty, staff and students, who recommend and oversee sustainability projects on campus. UPS has already implemented a bus-pass program and on-campus composting.

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