{"id":8165,"date":"2009-12-16T07:00:33","date_gmt":"2009-12-16T11:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=8165"},"modified":"2011-05-31T12:41:45","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T16:41:45","slug":"living-and-learning-in-ecohouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2009\/12\/living-and-learning-in-ecohouse\/","title":{"rendered":"Living and Learning in EcoHouse"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>From<\/a>
From left, Tanner Burgdorf, a real estate and urban economics major, Danielle Lanslots, an environmental science major, and Trevor Biggs, also an environmental science major, in an EcoHouse dorm room. Photo by Jessica Tommaselli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When the Eco-Madness<\/a> competition results came out this fall, Hollister residence hall, home to the living\/learning community EcoHouse<\/a>, struck out, finishing third in energy savings and well down the pack in water savings. But Mark Westa, a landscape architecture professor and faculty advisor to the group, had a ready answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince we\u2019re EcoHouse, we started from a higher baseline \u2013 we were already saving water and energy,\u201d said Westa with a smile.<\/p>\n

Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, EcoHouse, in its first year as one of 23 living\/learning communities on campus, is already making a mark, pitching in to help keep UConn clean and green. And if their enthusiasm is infectious, the group\u2019s future should be bright.<\/p>\n

\u201cEcoHouse has already made a difference in raising environmental awareness on campus,\u201d says Richard Miller, director of the Office of Environmental Policy. \u201cI\u2019ve seen increased student involvement in events like the Gant Plaza green roof installation, Green Awareness Day during a UConn football game at Rentschler Field, and an environmentally themed acoustical coffee house this semester. A lot of that is directly attributable to EcoHouse volunteers and the example they\u2019ve set.\u201d<\/p>\n

With 50 residents, the living\/learning program is off to a fast start, rivaling pharmacy and global house for early growth. By next September, the community hopes to add about 70 more students, allowing EcoHouse to occupy all the rooms in Hollister.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have a chance,\u201d says Jennifer Sayers, part-time coordinator of the house. \u201cRecruiting should be easier next year because we\u2019ll have something to show for it. We\u2019ll kick off the effort in the next few weeks, working with Residential Life, talking to Honors Program students, just getting the word out.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing going for EcoHouse is that it is one of the few interdisciplinary living-learning communities on campus. There are students majoring in environmental fields, to be sure, but there are also students majoring in literature, fine arts, philosophy, and biology, to name a few.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to major in environmental studies to love and want to enhance the environment,\u201d says Westa, the program advisor. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the great things about EcoHouse. The environment is important in virtually any field you can think of. \u201c<\/p>\n

Danielle Lanslots, a junior from Stamford, does fit the profile, however. An environmental sciences major with a minor in oceanography, Lanslots snapped up the chance to join EcoHouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was trying to find a way to be more involved, so I called Rich Miller asking about internships, and he mentioned EcoHouse,\u201d says Lanslots.<\/p>\n

Once there, Westa and Sayers suggested she join the University\u2019s Environmental Policy Advisory Committee and, at EcoHouse, she joined the group\u2019s action committee, which is \u201cfocused on getting things done on campus \u2013 issues that we want to address,\u201d Lanslots says.<\/p>\n

To date that has included rallying housemates to help with the green roof installation at the Gant Complex, running an environmental day at Rentschler Field during a football game, and \u201cchalk it up nights,\u201d when the group spreads across campus and chalks environmental statistics outside dorms, the Student Union, and other high traffic areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings like \u2018if you took one minute less every time you showered, you could save 150 gallons of water every year,\u2019\u201d Lanslots says.<\/p>\n

The committee also is toying with planting a garden next year and, if they can obtain funding and support, installing a green roof on Hollister.<\/p>\n

Sustainability-themed residences are not new, but only recently have their numbers and ambitions been growing.<\/p>\n

At Dartmouth College, for example, students at the Affinity House have reduced energy use in their house by 58 percent compared to students who lived in the house during the previous five years, perhaps lending credence to Westa\u2019s theory that UConn EcoHouse students will perform well in next year\u2019s EcoMadness contest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new living-learning community is helping raise environmental awareness on campus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[37],"class_list":["post-8165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-19 06:27:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8165"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37393,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8165\/revisions\/37393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8165"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=8165"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}