California State University Sacramento is on the path of making history with their new project that aims at creating a certified living building on campus. The project is being led by Dr. Rustin Vogt of the Mechanical Engineering Department, Professor Gareth Figgess of the Construction Management Department along with the Campus’ Sustainability director, Ryan Todd. The students and faculty are currently in the developmental stage of the project and are in the process of renovating the same building used in the solar decathlon. With the help of students from Dr. Vogt’s Material Selection class and other students who wish to be a part of this historic project, the goal of the project is to establish the first building that is Living Building certified on a state college campus. The purpose of the building is to serve as a hands on learning platform for students and faculty at CSUS. The Living Building will allow for sustainability challenges to solved and worked on by senior project students and faculty alike so that they may apply energy and building innovations. The driving force for Vogt to establish the first the living building on a CSU campus is to be able to provide a platform for students to learn and gain experience with sustainability which is gaining more momentum every day in the current work environment for engineers.

        The first steps in renovating the solar decathlon building to a living building certified platform is to ensure that a sustainable framework is being used which calls for non-red listed materials. Dr. Vogt along with the student and faculty helping are currently producing biodiesel fuel that is made on campus to run a biodiesel generator in order to power all the equipment used while working on the building. This will ensure that every aspect of the living building has been created and renovated with sustainability in mind. The long term plan for the living building is to serve as an evolving learning platform that will serve the community and students for years to come.  With the help of the faculty and students at Sacramento State University, the Campus may be well on its way to ensuring that they are the first State college in the nation with a building that is green certified and only the second living building in the State of California.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

CleanStart has a new face supporting the region’s Entrepreneurs.  Renonedo Williams is a CSU Sacramento Mechanical Engineering Student who is the newest intern at CleanStart.   He is entering his final semester at Sac State and is looking forward to connecting with as many clean tech startups as possible and understanding each of their value propositions, to connect his enthusiasm of building things to his goal of being his own boss. Renonedo has a background in design and material selection