Sustainable Living Tips by Lee Leffler

Sustainable Living Center Will Be Unique in the Country

Press Conference and Earth Day Event Scheduled for 12:45 p.m. April 22

On Earth Day, April 22, the walls and the roof will go up on Maharishi University of Management’s new Sustainable Living Center — a building that will set a new standard for green building in America by being completely off the grid with respect to electricity, heating and cooling, water, and waste.

The Sustainable Living Center has been designed to meet the Living Building Challenge, the highest standard for sustainable design and green building in the world. It will be one of the first three to achieve this. And it will be unique because it will be the first to combine that standard with the standards of LEED Platinum certification, Building Biology, and Maharishi Vedic Architecture.

“There’s no other building like this going up in the nation, or in the world for that matter, that we know of,” said nationally known green building expert Mike Nicklas, who co-designed the building and whose company Innovative Design has designed over 4000 buildings that use renewable energy solutions.

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Are you ready for the EcoFair 2010 in Fairfield, Iowa on April 30-May 2?

Held on the Maharishi University of Management campus, this year’s EcoFair will feature Diana Leafe Christian, the author of Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities, speaking on Spiritually Oriented Ecovillages. Also, you will hear Mark Lakeman and Micahel Cook on City Repair and the Power of Placemaking. Meet Mike Nicklas, president and co-founder of Innovative Design, Inc., who will talk about Key Strategies for Green Development. And more. Speaker’s list. Schedule.

On Sunday May 2, the Ecofair will become an Unconference using Open Space Technology. Open Space Technology is a highly participatory process that has been successfully employed in multiple situations all over the world. Learn more.

My daughter and I will have a booth at the Holiday Trade Fair in Fairfield, Iowa on Saturday, with a totally sustainable gift: Polar Bear Donation Certificates. Customers can make a donation in their friend’s name and get a certificate to give to them. This booth is for the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the polar bears, whose habitat is greatly threatened by global warming. Did you know some are drowning because there is too much distance between icebergs? I hope you can come! Please tell your friends. If you cannot come, you can still make a donation and get a certificate online.

On Saturday December 5, the Dharma Foundation will hold a Holiday Trade Fair at the Field House on the MUM campus, next to MSAE, from 10-4. Admission is free. There will be local artisans, local companies and lots of incredible food!

By Lee Leffler

M.U.M. Organic Farm

The Maharishi University of Management Organic Farm in Fairfield, Iowa, has received a $13,750 grant from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture to study growing vegetables in large gutter-connect greenhouses in winter without added heat.

Not heating the greenhouse will reduce the farm’s fossil fuel consumption by about 88%. “This is an innovative study and a significant step in making the M.U.M. Farm and the University more sustainable,” said Steve McLaskey, assistant professor of biology and agriculture and director of the farm.

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Golden Dome Fairfield Market employee stands proudly in front of the geothermal rig.

By Lee Leffler

On the campus of Maharishi University of Managment, the new storage building by the Golden Dome Market is now being heated and cooled with geothermal technology as part of a pilot project to install geothermal systems in additional campus buildings.

Geothermal technology involves drilling holes in the ground, inserting loops of pipes, then circulating water through the pipes. Since the ground in this region is a constant 55 degrees Fahrenheit, heat can be either extracted or rejected as it is circulated through the pipes, providing winter heating and summer cooling.

Geothermal pipes outside the Golden Dome Market in Fairfield, Iowa

The University is leasing a special rig to drill holes horizontally, 15 feet underground. The drill can run under lawns, parking lots, and other terrain, without disturbing the landscape. When the drill has gone far enough (usually several hundred feet), it is sent to the surface. A loop of polyethylene pipe is attached to the drill head, and the drill slowly retreats back through the hole, bringing the pipe with it. Soon, the pipe is underground, ready to be filled with water and connected to a ground source heat pump that uses only a small amount of electricity (about a quarter of the amount used by a small space heater).

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