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Campus Sustainability Day at the ‘Ville

The Innovator Lecture Series brings Matt Grocoff to campus.

Net Zero3
Artist’s rendering of Net Zero Energy building

Innovation and sustainability will come together on Tuesday, October 25 when Millersville University will celebrate Campus Sustainability Day with a visit from Matt Grocoff, a nationally-recognized leader on net zero energy buildings.

Grocoff is the founding principal of the THRIVE Collaborative, which works to create life-enhancing buildings that harvest their own energy and water, create zero waste, and are beautiful and restorative.  He will speak at 7 p.m. at the Ware Center (http://www.artsmu.com/event/a804b9ea42f7b9bb6d44ca66d3dd6e91) as part of the Innovator Lecture Series. The event is free and open to the public. Mr. Grocoff will also lead student-focused events on campus earlier in the day.

Grocoff’s visit brings special emphasis on net zero energy buildings to Campus Sustainability Day as the University prepares to break ground on our first net zero energy building. Slated to begin construction in the spring of 2017, the Lombardo Welcome Center has been designed with sustainability in mind every step of the way. By utilizing efficient planning and construction techniques, the building will take advantage of passive solar heating to regulate indoor temperatures to a comfortable and optimal level. Energy efficient equipment and appliances will keep the building’s energy use to a minimum while a rooftop solar array will harness the power of the sun to provide the building’s electricity. A geothermal system will be used to heat and cool the building. The grounds around the building will feature rain gardens and native landscaping.

Grocoff is recognized for his work to convert his historic Ann Arbor, Michigan home to net zero energy and net zero water. The Grocoffs intend for the Victorian-era Mission Zero House to redefine home, proving that where we live is much more than four walls, but a space to cultivate and sustain community. The project was a historic rehabilitation achieved within the restraints of the Secretary of Interior Standards for Historic Preservation guidelines—restoring as much as possible using salvaged materials and supplementing antiques where reclaimed materials weren’t possible. Presently, Mission Zero House is a Certified Net Zero Energy Project under the Living Building Challenge. (http://living-future.org/case-study/missionzero)

Grocoff’s talk will be a profound look into the design opportunity of transitioning to visible, bottom-up, complex adaptive water, energy and food systems based on local knowledge and simple rules. He will engage the audience to ask what true sustainability looks like and how we get there.

 

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