Examples of previous 150 Tons projects
Are you curious what you'll get from the time and thought you invest in this project? The videos and "Hero's Journey" descriptions here will help you see what some others have done. I think they will also get you thinking about ideas for your project. No need to watch or read all of these, just those you are interested in.
The examples here now are from a version of the course that was offered exclusively at Clemson University. Now, the course is open to anyone in the world. Imagine what some of the hero's journeys will sound like! What will yours be?
Youtube playlist of selected 150 Tons projects Links to an external site.
Hero's Journey descriptions - in participants' own words
A Zero-waste stadium
This summer, I traveled to Burlington, Vermont as part of my Research Experience for Undergraduates. While I was there, I couldn't help but notice the presence of compost collection bins around the city. In fact, the Vermonters were pretty intense about their composting policies. At a festival-type event that promoted local foods, I went to toss my plastic cup in the recycle bin, when a lady standing nearby politely (yet forcefully) informed me that my cup was compostable and should be tossed in the appropriate bin. After talking with some cousins who live in the area, I found out that recycling and composting in VT is serious business. The state already requires mandatory recycling, and this summer, a law was passed that will require mandatory composting to be phased-in and officially in place by 2020. To me, these policies seem so brilliant that it made me wonder why other states (including our own) are so far behind.
Though I dabbled with the ideas of double-dipping my senior design project for this class, I decided to look more into the composting idea. I knew Clemson had some composting facilities, and I wondered if there could be a way we could be as progressive as Vermont in our composting policies. It seemed to be a decent idea for proposal, though it wasn't until talking to Lisa and Hunter that I decided it was worth pursuing. Honestly, I was planning on working with Scotty on the Theme Park idea, but Lisa’s passion for the Zero-Waste Stadium made me think that our project could actually take hold and start a change at Clemson.
Our group dynamic this semester was unbeatable. We jumped straight into emailing contacts at other schools and setting up meetings with Clemson faculty and students in order to learn more about Zero-Waste Stadiums and Clemson’s current composting facilities. There was no bickering, no fighting, and nobody who didn't pull their weight on the assignments. The three of us were all motivated to win the award at the end of the semester so that we could see our project to completion. We jumped at the opportunity to see a current Zero-Waste Stadium, and the trip provided more insight to our goals than we ever
We did encounter some discouraging obstacles throughout the semester. Finding out that there is only one commercial composting facility in South Carolina – and that it’s located in Charleston – was a major disappointment. We realized that the University’s composting facilities were not sufficient to handle the amount of waste we would be dealing with, and that we would first have to spend time improving on-campus composting capacity. We also realized that in order to start the program, we may have to dispose of our stadium waste at composting facilities in Georgia.
I think our team did well in facing pessimists and naysayers in regards to our project. We took suggestions in stride, incorporated the ideas into our plans, and did not lose sight of our goal amidst negative responses. I think this positivity and enthusiasm kept our project on focus, and were the true selling points when it came down to voting.
Commercial building energy audits
In India, we are already seeing the impacts of climate change, so I came to graduate school motivated to do something about the energy and climate problem. Initially, my focus was on producing cleaner energy - solar panels, windmills, things like that. This seems to be what gets the most publicity and marketing, maybe because it’s easier to visualize. Anyway, David MacKay’s book and Amory Lovins' presentation really got me thinking in terms of “Negawatts.” I realized that saving energy can be just as good as producing sustainable energy. But I had a part-time job and three other classes, so I definitely was still thinking of The Brooklyn Project as just another assignment.
My perspective began to change when Tony Putman, Clemson’s director of utilities, came to talk with our class. From Tony's presentation, it was pretty obvious that reducing energy use in buildings was something that needed to be done right here on campus. I spoke with Tony after he presented and this is when I started seeing my Brooklyn Project as an opportunity.
My first idea was to use the project to start my own energy retrofit company, but I had trouble getting partners. My teacher gave some advice but was pretty clear that he didn’t want to help start a company. Students in my group had some good ideas too. But their life plans, understandably, didn’t include helping me start an energy retrofit company. While I was failing to find partners, I was also learning as much as I could through internet research.
Looking back, I was working hard on the project, but not yet working smart. I needed that background information, but anyone can browse the internet. I had to figure out what I was uniquely qualified to do and what unique resources I had. From then on, I did anything it took to push my idea forward, even when it was uncomfortable for me. Tony and I met and he gave me contacts with energy audit companies who I interviewed by phone. I was persistent, probably annoying, but I didn't care. It was actually kind of fun. Some of my dealings were disasters. One professor didn't respond to my e-mails; I had a hard time communicating with the industry members; and a couple people just talked for the entire meeting about irrelevant topics.
I got my break when Tony and I came up with an idea to start an internship program for student workers to do energy retrofits. This was a long way from my original vision for my company, but I saw the opportunity to achieve the same goal. Plus, at this point, I was tired of planning and ready to start the project and see what happened. I knew I'd be able to solve any problems that came up. I interviewed interested students and selected a group of 5 to start in Summer ’12. We worked together on projects ranging from counting and changing light fixtures to analyzing potential for PV-covered parking structures. We've helped save over $1 million in energy costs and we are expanding the program for next year.
In the meantime, I have a good job offer with one of the energy retrofit companies I spoke with on the phone. This gives me a nice sense of security, but I really want to figure out how to build the internship program into a career for myself by expanding it to other institutions.
Local foods cookbook
I chose to take this class because I wanted more specific information on sustainable energy sources. Before “sustainable energy boot camp,” I believed that sustainable living was ideal, but that our culture has become too detached from reasonable standards of consumption for any real change to be possible. The readings and videos we watched in class soon showed me otherwise; technology for sustainable resources and efficient products is increasing exponentially, and I began see what a sustainable future might look like. However, when the class started to shift focus toward coming up with our own innovations, I felt vastly unqualified to offer any type of design or idea for more efficient technology, and put off thinking of a “big idea” of my own. But the class where we were going to share our ideas was coming, so I turned to thinking of my interest areas in the scope of living sustainably. After studying how energy expensive and unsustainable our food production can be, my mind kept revolving around local food, and I started to play with the idea of a local community garden. I realized quickly that this idea was not particularly innovative and when I thought of how else I could encourage local eating, I started discussing a local cookbook that would teach people how to think and cook when dealing with seasonal produce. This idea was met with enthusiasm from others in the class, and I committed to my new cookbook idea. I soon gained Margaret and Sam as team members, and we worked together to construct a framework for the book. It would have information on what vegetables and fruits were available at different times of the year in our area, would have recipes organized by season, and would encourage creativity and enjoyment throughout the cooking process. We envisioned our book being sold alongside local farmers markets, in local bookstores, and through some on-campus organizations. After we experienced an initial rush of excitement, we soon came to an abrupt halt when we realized just how much work this would require. Though I was mildly discouraged, we continued researching produce and organized the fruits and vegetables into a seasonal chart that could be adapted for the book. The team decided that a short prototype of the book could be completed before the end of the semester, and would give us a better structure on which to build if we continued work throughout the spring semester. We quickly decided that this was a project that we wanted to see through to the end, and with much of the design and initial writing in place, we had a renewed sense of purpose and a clear path to the finish. As it stands now, all that remains is continued recipe writing, experimenting, and photographing. Throughout this process, I have come to see how something so in line with my interests and so exciting to me could contribute to sustainability. Work continues on the cookbook, and I can’t wait to see it finished!
Biofuel engines
Initially I took this class to fulfill my honors class requirement; however, upon attending the class I developed more of an interest in sustainability. Upon hearing about the semester long project I was excited to see what I could come up with and I knew I wanted to do something with the automotive industry.
After thinking about an area of the automotive industry that could be made more sustainable I decided to focus on the engine. I decided to focus on the engine because I had rebuilt an engine over the summer; due to this I had the strongest foundation of knowledge around the engine. Now that I knew that I wanted to focus on the engine I had to decide what could be changed to make the engine more sustainable.
The idea for making an engine more sustainable by fueling it with biodiesel came in class when we were discussing alternative fuel sources. Upon doing more research into biodiesel engines I realized that there was not much development in biodiesel as a primary fuel source. Because of this I decided to move forward with the idea and look into what it would take to create a biodiesel specific engine.
Upon researching the differences between diesel fuel and biodiesel fuel I realized the main difference was combustion temperature. This would require a redesigned combustion chamber and changes in timing. However, I soon realized that major changes in engine design will take a large investment and high tech research facilities.
Due to the large requirement for funding I did not know where to go from this point until I heard about the National Science Foundation grant during class. Applying for this grant involves specific guidelines and the development of a concrete idea. Currently I am working toward collecting all necessary components to apply for the grant; I hope to apply by my senior year at Clemson University and pursue the project further during my graduate studies.
Biking programs and infrastructure
I loved going through David MacKay’s “Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air,” and learning different ways to improve how we use energy. I was particularly impressed by the chapters dealing with energy use related to transportation. So, I wanted to be involved in something that dealt with transportation – specifically on the personal mobility level.
But, I had a dilemma. For the first part of the course, I was working on something that didn't have anything to do with transportation. Then, I happened to talk to a different group that was committed to “doing something with bikes.” That was all they knew, but it seemed to line up, so I joined them.
Now, we all knew we wanted to do something to increase bike usage. Personal automobile use, we learned, was a big contributor to our energy consumption. Our first thought was to improve infrastructure – widen bike lanes, paint them, make them safer, etc. But as we explored these ideas, we determined that none of them would have a substantial impact on bike ridership. Then one day, someone mentioned bike sharing, and we were off!
We began perhaps as all planners begin: ambitious. We had plans of sophisticated bike storage units, and nice, durable bikes. But when we did a financial analysis of these plans, we freaked out, and went the other extreme: rusty, fixer-upper, free bikes from impound lots that we would repair and paint, and store in a few moderate-quality storage units on and off campus. Well, we over-corrected. The impound lots didn't have enough bikes, and the ones they did have were in terrible condition. So, we were pretty low at that point, and felt as if we may have failed.
But then, we pooled our research together, ran some more numbers in the financial calculations, and found a way to be simple, make it easy to start, and retain an acceptable level of quality. We would purchase cheap, new bikes, paint them orange and green and start five pilot bike sharing stations – four on campus and one off. With start-up funding, we could potentially keep the maintenance going with funds from user fees.
I was very happy with the project in the end. I learned about how to think through the logistics of a start-up, sometimes thinking through factors I wouldn't have thought to address prior to beginning the bike share project.
Residential grey water
At the beginning of the course, going through the energy boot camp, I was a little overwhelmed when it came down for the class to begin assembling groups and pitching ideas for our energy start-up project. At first (like many other students), I didn’t have the slightest inkling of what I wanted to work on. There were just so many options ranging from sustainable energy designs to full-on inventions. I really didn’t have an idea of where to start. When it came time for us to start bouncing ideas off of each other, hearing the other classmates initial ideas were intimidating and made me feel like I was quickly falling behind everyone else.
So, one weekend early in the semester, I decided to go home and get some of my Mom’s cooking. While reading an old copy of the local paper, I came across an article explaining that the county needed to buy water from neighboring counties during the summer to fulfill the demand. This struck a major cord with me, because for the longest time I remembered that the water from the washing machine would drain from the house into a ditch on the edge of our property. Then my idea hit me, why not focus on reducing and recycling the water waste from residential homes to curb our overall water resource usage. After a brief Google search, I saw that my idea was a grey-water system. This idea seemed to hold well as we kept explaining our projects to each other, but I was still having doubts as to how feasible my idea was.
My initial plan was to design my own affordable system after finding out that commercial systems can cost upwards of $3000 not including maintenance. Then, after more research, I found that in places like California and Nevada, citizens make their own makeshift systems to meet their own needs. So instead of trying to make money off of an invention, I decided to make offer information to the people, and leave the creativity to them. While the systems would be homemade, I decided that it would be better if the workshop had the backing of professional engineers and specialists. So I got to work contacting civil and water engineering services around the area.
While I wasn’t able to get professional backing (no one ever answered back) I still feel that this project would at the very least make the citizens of my hometown just think about the potential effect they could have on the community just by caring a bit more. Just from my own household, I calculated that recycling the water from clothes washing into garden irrigation would save us over a hundred dollars a year. Hopefully, others would take the chance to reap those kinds of rewards.
Low-energy workouts
Although this started out as a simple idea, it gained complexity the more research we did. The first obstacle we encountered was the fact that people do not generate a significant amount of energy when working out. Therefore, there was no economic benefit for buying this equipment, even in the long term.
There was also a lot of information out there on workout equipment: outdoor vs. indoor equipment, retrofits vs. zero energy. We needed to nail down what our company actually provided. Because of the various options, we decided to be a consulting company, to be able to customize solutions and maximize our customer base.
While I was disappointed about the limitations of energy generation, I realized that this equipment could be used as an education tool about energy use. We contacted Furman and USC who has already implemented this equipment, and they reassured us they used the equipment predominantly as an education tool. We also met with the Director of Fike, David Frock, who gave us more leads of where to have the most impact at Clemson.
The ultimate limitation however proved to be money. Being a consulting company, we needed to build a reputation for public/private companies to even considering hiring us. This proved to be difficult, as we had no prior experience with energy efficient/zero energy use systems.
Going back again, I would rethink the idea of starting a consulting company. Our project contained a large range of products, increasing the complexity and cost of our company. I would have focused directly on workout systems that could have improved Clemson’s campus, as opposed to creating a more general company that attempted to have a large range of solutions for everyone.
Overall, this semester I learned not only about energy generating work out equipment, but also strategies used to get people to buy into your product. The most important idea I got from this was to pay attention to your target audience, and ways to appeal to their interests. Hopefully, others can learn from our mistakes and improve on our iterations of designing sustainable means of working out.
Coffeefficiency
Our group quickly realized that we would have to get our hands dirty and do some prototyping. We started by taking a perfectly good coffee maker and tearing it apart. That way we had a base point to work off of. Now, it was time for innovation. We pooled all of our ideas and created something that would have made Dr. Frankenstein proud. We decided on three critical innovations, insulation, a relocated heating element, and unlimited brew size. The final result was a conglomeration that was just as likely to burn your house down as brew you a cup of coffee.
We had to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to make this prototype workable. I honestly didn’t feel like we could pull it off. As we worked, we realized that we might not have a working prototype. Initially it felt like we had accomplished nothing. I can only speak for myself when I say that one thing I accomplished was an appreciation for energy use. During the course of the project, we had learned to think critically about where our energy comes from and how it is used. Sustainability had previously been just a word to me. It had no meaning or weight. After this project, however, I realized that energy usage is the biggest challenge facing our world today and that in order to keep thriving as a society, we would need to design with energy usage in mind. I felt like I had a veil lifted from my eyes and that I could see how critical energy is to our way of life. Even if we hadn’t created the world’s next energy efficient innovation, I had learned valuable lessons that will stick with me for the rest of my life.
Sustainable living
I didn't want to keep living with my mother-in-law forever so I figured I had better come up with an affordable long term housing solution. With property values in a slump I was able to find an affordable plot of land in a good location. As I looked into cheap ways to build a home I started seeing tiny houses and natural buildings built by their owners with help from friends, family, and community members. Many of them were also powered by alternative energy sources including mini-hydro, wind turbines, and solar panels and I liked the idea but knew I needed to learn more before I could use these ideas. I also needed to overcome issues of financial feasibility on my budget.
I read many websites and ultimately did an online search for classes and found this Sustainable Energy class for free. I did not even know there was a project attached to the class when I began reading and playing catch up with all of the assignments. I enjoyed learning everything and started to think about all of the other people that could benefit by learning more about sustainable energy systems to make their lives better while helping the environment. I got the idea to use my property, building project, and gardens to teach people by having workshops for the community. I decided that the best way to do this was to form a non-profit so I reached out to friends and community members to find people willing to start the non-profit with me, teach workshops, and otherwise help develop the project.
Along the way I had a major setback. I found out after 21 weeks of spending my day off working on the project site that I had been working on the wrong plot of land. This has still not been completely sorted out but I am currently in the process of getting things moved to the correct location, 90 feet down the street. Luckily I had been getting more community involvement so I am no longer working alone to clear, plant, and build everything. Due to one of the future board members being out of the country for a month we have not yet filed for non-profit but thanks to this class I have a solid business plan and a timeline to try sticking to. I missed the final presentation for class because I was taking up so much of my time trying to deal with the setback to the real life execution of this project but rest assured, I am as dedicated as ever to making this happen.
So often, even when people see the need for change they also see reasons not to change. Fear and uncertainty keep people from trying new things but I have no fear and will lead by example. My hope is that as people show an interest in various aspects of my project and attend workshops to learn more I can follow up with them and help them make their own lives more sustainable. Donations will fund projects in people's yards. For example if you take a gardening class we would follow up by then having people come help put in a garden bed in your back yard to get you started. If the funds can be raised I would like to help people do bigger things too, like add solar panels to their home.
As for final mastery....I will probably never see things that way. I will always strive to continue learning but as someone else said, come see me in 10 years.
Walkability consulting
The week that we learned about how energy is used in the transportation sector my interest was peaked. As an architecture major I started to notice design shortcomings in the transportation system and city layouts. However, changing this would mean redesigning the entire layout of cities! That is a lot of work just to protect the environment for generations to come. I did not think that these consequences affected current life enough for anyone to be interested in making this drastic of a change on such a large scale.
At the same time, I was also taking a class where I researched the effect city planning has on health. I start to notice that the exact same problems that related to sustainability related to health as well. This is when I decided that this problem does not just affect future generations, it affects quality of life right now and I need to make people aware of the issue.
After I talked in class about my ideas, Ally asked if she could be my partner. As a landscape architecture student, the problems with current city planning as well as ideas to change it are a common topic. With this common goal in mind we began to work together in order to find a way to educate other people about the problem. Our biggest challenge was in creating a business model. We had the knowledge we just did not know how to get other people to want to listen.
One day, Ally had the great idea of running a workshop to teach students and professionals about better community planning. We decide to specifically focus on how to increase the walkability of a community and I started gathering information to develop a document to be handed out at the workshop. When we held a test workshop many of our design student friends as well as students from other majors who are interested in the topic attended. From their comments it seemed like we are finally on the right track. They enjoyed learning more about walkable communities and were realizing that this is a real issue that needs to be confronted. One student who is not even a design major but rather is a health science major, said that she was incredibly interested because getting people to walk more is a common topic for her to hear about in her studies but she had never heard it from this perspective of influencing people through design. It was good to hear that already many people are concerned with this issue and want to learn how to do something about it.
Through my research during this project I have decided that this is something that I want to work on long-term. I have applied to several City and Regional Planning Masters programs so that I can learn more and keep working on designing better cities for our environment and our health.
Tiger Nutz
A long time ago (approximately 3 months) environmentally evil snacks ruled the Clemson campus. Chips and their planet murdering bags were the snack of choice for unknowing and innocent students and tailgaters. Fortunately I had found a cheaper option, buying peanuts from a local produce store and boiling them. It was a cheaper and more delicious than chips, so I came to be an amateur boiled peanut producer.
In class, I discovered how harmful food could be to the environment, especially food that had to be transported long distances. It occurred to me that my boiled peanuts were probably a much better snack as far as the environment goes. I knew I had to come up with a project for class, but selling peanuts seemed so do-able, and I didn’t want to actually have to do work. The dark side of the snacking world was growing stronger…
A mentioned the idea just to pass that specific assignment, expecting to join the sheep- lawn mower group, but then the great professor Klotz bought the solar oven. One thing led to another, and I was sitting in a field on a hot day waiting for some peanuts to boil in the sun oven. As I was boiling the peanuts I thought of the recent events. I thought of how the sheep- lawn mower business had merged with me and now I had an alliance against the evil snack empire. The dream team was made up of Phoebe, Elliot, Ash, and I. We were a small group, but we had no idea of the momentum we were capable of.
Unfortunately that same day I found my greatest enemy – latent heat energy. The water would not boil enough to cook the peanuts, and was slowly roasting them giving the peanuts the wrong flavor. The dream team (now called TigerNutz), came up with the solution of using the solar oven as a water heater that would reheat the peanuts rather than cook them. While this took away some of the environment saving force, it was still much friendlier than the evil chips.
The first break through was the selling of peanuts on Bowman field during homecoming. The profit margin was huge, and it seemed that this business would take off. I was so proud of the group. Then the next weekend set us back. The profits barely paid for lunch! We knew we had one more chance so we rededicated ourselves to making the last game amazing. We bought the coolest shirts ever and made tons of peanuts and sold them in compost-able cups.
The boiled peanut business was mastered, and the chips lost their power. TigerNutz started an underground revolution, and will be coming to a game near you.
Aerodynamic body kits
In the beginning I was trying to think of a revolution in sustainable energy. I shared this idea with many other people, but the challenge was to be creative enough and be able to monetize your idea. I saw that people were getting excited about "Zero Energy" Homes, and by watching the online lectures I was starting to get creative. I was trying to think of a way to spread the word and get people excited about "Zero Energy" but kept hitting a mind block; My creativity was running thin.
Out of the ashes rose the great idea to start a Zero Energy Theme Park. Discussing this idea with other students in the class gave birth to this crazy concept. I started looking at this as more than an assignment - I wanted to start my own Theme Park! Everyone began to take action in their own projects but with this idea I was stuck just researching without any sense of direction.
I initially wanted to create an entire theme park, but I was yet to realize how big of an undertaking this was. My own creativity began to take the best of me. And discussions with other students only added more chaos and new ideas to this already overwhelming topic. By browsing the internet and other sources and just talking to the instructor about my idea I came to the conclusion that this wasn’t going to be feasible for one person to do in a semester.
I j decided to give up on this project to try and start something new. After searching, I came to my final great idea of Aerodynamic Body Kits. The idea of a theme park was going nowhere and the thought of this new topic was intriguing. I had some less-than-helpful discussions with others, but this new idea was growing fast and I was going back and redoing everything.
Starting a new idea gave me the motivation to keep going, and encouragement from other students helped to be more productive with my idea. This is when I decided that I was fully committing to this new idea, putting everything into it in order to make it a reality. The "new idea" feel began to wear off. I began working alone and getting into the hard part of this new project. I knew that long-term impact would require me to grow this idea from just a concept on a computer to a reality, and then into a business.
3D surface modeling and designing a whole new body for the vehicles was taking a lot long than expected, but turned out looking quite professional. I then began trying to find and convince people to buy my project and commit money to my idea. I pitched my idea and didn’t end up winning the grant from the class, but I will still try and find money wherever I can to make this idea a reality because I really believe it will make a difference.
A Green Bank
The first day of class I showed up and everyone introduced themselves, after about ten people went I thought I was in way over my head and needed to get out. I knew nothing about sustainable energy other than we need more of it and that the majority of the population didn’t get that.
As class began I started to learn about different types of renewables and how they could be implemented, Net-zero houses especially intrigued me. One of the things that struck me was the lack of financing options out there, but the more in-class discussions about the readings the more I thought this wasn’t the place for a finance student. I was reluctant to get involved until in class Professor Klotz said something about how big of a problem start up costs and financing was for all these great ideas.
I realized with what I studied being so different than most I could approach the sustainability issue from a different perspective, and I came up with an idea to effectively finance net-zero homes through the mortgages on the homes. So, I initially wanted to research and write a proposal on how to finance these net zero homes. There were some government incentives out there for building net-zero but it wasn’t very publicized. I still had my idea of mortgage payments being percentage based off of energy savings in comparison to homes in the area. I was researching more and more and finding less and less solid information and hit a roadblock about the actual possibility of my idea.
Then my idea took a one-eighty; I wanted to start a bank. I had discovered energy performance contracts and was very interested in those as well as mortgages but didn’t see why one company couldn’t do it all. I started researching the feasibility and profitability of starting a local bank and to my pleasant surprise it is not that uncommon and the profits are generally substantial, especially if you are the founder/president. The more I read the more I thought, “This could work”. I knew I was looking years down the line but that didn’t bother me I saw its potential. I did a lot of research about the early stages of starting a bank: government approval, capital, FDIC insured, and investors. Once I had this I knew I needed to put it all together so I could sell someone the idea and they would believe it.
I knew that this was something way off in the future, but I also knew that if I keep coming back to it and thinking it over as I continue in school and continue to work I can only improve on the foundation and one day it could be a reality. So I began applying for internships at banks and large corporations and have already gotten past the first screening stage for everyone I applied to.
Demonstration green roofs for college campuses
I’ve been interested in green ideas for a while, but my focus was far more in realm of green in relation to health. My love for Whole Foods is unparalleled and when money and proximity are in favor, I buy healthy, minimally processed foods. This lifestyle has a tendency to draw in certain people with wildly green ideas; one of which was green roofs. This is how I first became introduced to green roofs, but other than knowing of their existence, I never gave them a second thought. My interest in actually implementing this technology began last summer when I talked to client at my work place who worked for a green roofing company, Green Roof Outfitters. It was after talking with him that I became quite interested in the roofs and began to want one for my own home someday.
My interest peaked when I started taking this class and was presented with the idea of actually planning out the construction of a green roof on our very own campus. Despite my excitement, I was quite hesitant because I anticipated quite a bit of red tape and other complications. I did get a little confidence once I learned that there was an intensive green roof on Lee 3; that meant that there was a precedent that I could follow. With this little bit of confidence, I decided to make by Brooklyn Project focus on building a green roof.
I was joined early on by Rachel Brant, who also had a roof-based idea. Her idea was to put solar panels and vertical axis wind turbines on roofs. It was also around this time that I switched my idea from trying to build a roof constructing company to a promotion venue. We began our project by writing out all the things we’d have to do: people to talk to, information to find, and the like. The more we researched, the more we were able to narrow down and modify our tasks to make the ultimate goal more feasible. As we reached the end of the semester, Rachel and I had made a thorough list of tasks. The biggest step in completing my goal of a green roof is contacting GRO and ordering a module. I’m hoping that the module will serve as a persuasive piece that I can use in proposing the idea.
I fully intend to keep working on this project after the semester is over and pass the work I’ve done onto groups at Clemson that would earnestly try to make my dream a reality.