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The Center for the Built Environment at IPFW and The Northeast Indiana Green Build Coalition and Habitat for Humanity collaborate to create a Sustainable Residential Construction Project Abstract

Senior students in the Construction Engineering Technology program at Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne have collaborated with members of the Northeast Indiana Green Build Coalition and Habitat for Humanity to design and build a sustainable residence. Participants from all three collaborating groups worked together and the house will be completed in April, 2008. Habitat has long wanted to produce sustainable homes and to support that end, we are producing a DVD of this design-build process for Habitat for Humanity’s use throughout the United States.

Introduction

We are currently faced with global problems here on earth. Actions that we take “here,” regardless of where “here” is, affects everywhere else too. Intuitively, we can all understand that. The air that we breathe is the air belonging to the thin layer of atmosphere surrounding our planet earth. If we hold the concept that the resources of the earth are ours to do with as we please, and that we are wholly unconnected to them, then we use resources and discard them without any thought. Imagine the change that would take place if we held the concept that we are not only the stewards of the earth’s resources for present and future generations, but are also intimately connected to them, and that the choices we make about them can make the difference between destroying and benefiting the earth for all of its present and future inhabitants.

In the United States we have created a way of living to which the people of many other nations aspire. But it would take more than the resources of two planet Earths to provide enough energy to support and sustain the way in which we currently live if everyone were to live as we do. Other countries are rapidly acquiring the ability to do just that. China is building right now at such a rapid rate that they have to construct one coal plant per week in order to supply enough electricity to provide the new buildings with energy.1 But buildings, commercial, industrial, or residential, no matter where they are constructed, consume more energy and material resources than any other area of consumption.2

For many years, Habitat for Humanity has wanted to change the way they build homes to make them sustainable. The word “sustainable” includes environmental, social, and economic parameters—what is referred to as the triple bottom line. Sustainable includes the idea that we must not use resources today at the expense of future generations. Our use must not compromise theirs.3 The Executive Director of Fort Wayne’s Habitat for Humanity expressed how difficult this change would be because they are volunteer based. It is a massive endeavor to think about having to train and re-train an entire volunteer force the size of Habitat’s. Seniors enrolled in the Construction Engineering

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Leffers, M. R., & Zaneldin, E., & Pablo, R. (2008, June), The Center For The Built Environment At Ipfw And The Northeast Indiana Green Build Coalition And Habitat For Humanity Collaborate To Create A Sustainable Residential Construction Project Paper presented at 2008 Annual Conference & Exposition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 10.18260/1-2--3085