Proposal for the Center for Sustainability Resident: James Rounds

The Center for Sustainability's residency program provides for diverse and unique assays of sustainable technologies. In 2006-2007, a human inhabitant of the center may achieve Rees' Ecological Footprint limit of 4.5 acres. While the ecological footprint itself will be rethought as a useful metric of sustainability during the process, such an endeavor tests the usefulness of the site's technological facilities for the task of sustainable living. The experiment further explores the lifestyle modifications necessary for such a footprint downsizing. Along the way, the residency program at the Center can serve as a locus for generating standards to supplement the existing versions of the Ecological Footprint calculation matrix, as current resident Dave Lettero has begun to do.

The residency will also produce discourse and images to help fill the gap between Vendor discourse and materials useful to the average homeowner or small business. Dave has recorded some aspects of his stay with video clips, EF spreadsheets, and his instructional manual. What can be done further is a full scale documentary or newscast-style video recording of the life and endeavors of the Center's resident. The value of a recording project lies partly in its benefit to the sustainability movement, for it can further distribute the knowledge and "techne" (i.e. the skill or art) of sustainable living. Additionally, such easily shared media can accomplish one of the main goals of the scientific method: replicability. This characteristic of scientific research means that others can use this work in order to evolve their own attempts within the same vein, even after this initial endeavor has morphed or disappeared. Finally, as the Center itself continues to evolve we can preserve this instantiation of its life, at least in the media of video, paper, and web log, if not physically. These images and records will then become integrated into a website and web forum useful for anyone seeking to decrease their ecological footprint.

The Public Media Project at Penn State has expressed interest in producing a documentary about the center, and a Penn State class will regularly cover the CfS Resident in what the media industry calls an "evergreen" story (an ongoing story without specific deadlines). Such an iterative account of the endeavor will be collated into a single video stream; additional personal "footage" will be broadcast online in the manner of podcasts. Continual updates of the experience will be posted on textual web media outlets, such as wikis, which can serve as a resource for homeowners and small businesses. Along with the Lettero manual, this part of the project will begin to address the knowledge "gap" that is well-known to the professional world: how do the advances of scientific and technical efforts become transparent to those not responsible for them?

To address this gap issue, James can also work to coalesce all of Penn State's web-linked resources regarding sustainability, and offer them in a centralized way, to make it easier for surfing Penn State community members and non-members to become familiar and engaged with the projects in sustainability that Penn State has underway.

Another specific project will be the accomplishment of the Ecological Footprint 4.5-acre limit. To accomplish this for at least part of the year will take strict attention to the Center's resources and their efficient, faithful use; for the whole year (and especially the winter), James will need to take further steps, especially involving the purchase/exchange of local foods (e.g. from Stone Soup Market), and careful food storage methods. He will engage the food production, waste management, water collection, energy collection, and food storage systems and techniques to their and his full potential. Refering again to the scientific method, James will take a one-month EF measurement of his own lifestyle before beginning the residency, and then continue the measurements throughout the residency period and afterwards, in order to describe the trajectory of his education and accomplishments at the Center. With this measurement experience (and his ongoing experience in a Nutrition laboratory), James can deliver a more comprehensive battery of calculations and additions to the Ecological Footprint literature, perhaps accounting for aspects such as the health care costs that accompany different lifestyle decisions.

Finally, James is coordinating with Penn State Psychology faculty (Profs. Castonguay and Newman) about a possible eco-therapy project at the Center, involving activity-based healing for individuals with anxiety and depression. The field of ecopsychology is growing (www.ecopsychology.org) and exploring the relationship between humans and the world in order to serve therapeutic and non-therapeutic goals. The potential for constructive interaction to facilitate a number of clinical and non-clinical conditions is tremendous. If an actual clinical experiment is not in the Center's future, a serious writing project can be undertaken to explore the notion of sustainable psychology. Enrolling in Rich's "Sustainable Discourses" class will be an important step for James along that path. Furthermore, we will pitch an article to Penn State Research magazine on the Center as an example of novel participatory research into the science of sustainability.

James' compatibility with the residency project is well-distributed across several connections. First, he has a long history with the Center for Sustainability, beginning in the fall of 2003 with a philosophy- and activity-based class in Sustainable Living Projects. He has contributed significantly to the Center for several years, and gained valuable experience in gardening, construction, sustainable building techniques, and theories of sustainability. He has observed the Center transition through different periods of growth and management, and witnessed the community-led learning experiences that have founded the site's character. His multidisciplinary background is also well-suited to the multifarious tasks projected for the next CfS resident. From his work in Nutrition, Neuroscience and Psychology laboratories, he has gained skills in project completion, and knowledge in how to apply the scientific method to very difficult-to-reach phenomena, e.g. the mind, the mammalian body, and living systems in general. Additionally, as a student of Philosophy and English, he has a deep background in communicating theories and concepts to a non-scientific audience. With such a diverse background, James is prepared to integrate the principles of nutrition, mental health, and environmental integrity together in order to demonstrate environmental stewardship in a way highly accessible to the public at large. As he looks forward to a career in research eco-psychology, the path provided by a year of residence at the Center for Sustainability will carry him a long way.

In order to provide the most exemplary service to the Center, and benefit the most from his time there, James intends to work there full-time (holding no other work positions), while keeping part-time, non-degree student status. In order to fund this endeavor, we will employ a distributed scheme similar to that method recommended by energy experts: diversify. There is funding available from the Student Gardening project that David Lettero was involved in (approximately $5000). Nancy Tuana, Director of the Rock Ethics Institute, has requested a proposal to explore the ethical implications of this lifestyle in contrast with non-sustainable avenues for funding and to provide a tuition waiver for James' enrollment in Professor Doyle's class. The Public Service Media Study Group (contact: Susan Squier) is also interested in funding the rhetorical dimensions of the projects proposed here. We are drafting grants for other sources as well, such as Project NatureConnect, The National Environmental Education and Training Foundation, Inc., the Roy A. Hunt Foundation, the Echoing Green Foundation and others.

This whole process of acquiring funding inevitably involves marketing sustainability to other parts of Penn State and the world. One way to do this is to gather Energy Credits from excess energy generated by the Center's renewable energy sources that can be exchanged for funding from other PSU entities (e.g. the Smeal College of Business, or the new Stuckeman Family building). All funding avenues will be fully discussed with the administration of the Center for Sustainability as part of our effort to achieve full transparency.

By these various techniques and for these various reasons and projects, James intends to reside at the Center for Sustainability as an active participant, with guidance from the Engineering and Liberal Arts faculty and included departments. As new projects and buildings join the existing structure of the Center, we can continue to fully capitalize upon the potential of such an innovative place. With a full-time resident onboard, the Center will remain alive and continue to attract attention and support for the sustainability movement.