Sanguine et Purpure
Behold the future my brothers. This is where our heads need to be at as we are developing new fraternity houses and rehabilitating old ones.
Agreed Sam!
Hear! Hear!
This is another area where SigEp could show leadership. All new construction and major renovations should incorporate energy and resource minimizing technology. Chapters would have lower utility expenses and SigEp would get some great PR.
The National Housing Corp. could take the lead and SigEp would have another "First."
The question is the "First" at what. Lamda Chi will probably have the "First" LEED Gold/Certified facility. The only way we could beat that is if we had the "First" LEED Platinum certification which would be pretty tough. However, I think if as a stipulation to get any money from the NHC for new construction that there would have to be a green or LEED component to the facility. Or, it could be a graduated scale. I.E., you receive less funding if the facility does not have a certain level of green/sustainable or LEED components.
You are correct, Sam, that LXA will have a LEED "gold" house first. My enthusiasm got the better of me.
The point I meant to make is where the chapter is getting guidance. Reading the story it looks as if the city and maybe the school are really the ones pushing the certification. Nothing at all wrong with that. Green is good. I see an opportunity for SigEp to make a leadership statement in the area of housing, much like the BMP did in membership development or the Phi Beta Kappa "wheelhouse" has done academically.
Here is what I meant by a SigEp "first." I believe SigEp could make a bold statement in full alignment with our Cardinal Principles if we chose to encourage all our chapters to build to LEED guidelines...
Virtue - Reducing our environmental footprint is behaving with a decency befitting our times and is respectful of others' needs.
Diligence - We will provide a model program for others to follow. In so doing we actively show stewardship toward our resources.
Brotherly Love - Careful use of resources is nothing less than a demonstration of the care and respect we have toward our fellow man, and all creatures for that matter.
The mechanism of having the NHC helping to achieve the goal is one way that SigEp could be a leader. It would be reasonable to ask new construction to meet certain LEED standards, and to have major renovation projects incorporate "green" techology as it is feasable. As I said earlier, individual chapters benefit from natural conservation measures because recurring utilty expenses will decrease.
Will such a plan increase membership? Probably not directly, though undergrads will welcome any relief from expenses.
Will it move public perception in a positive direction? Maybe a bit - Greeks need more good news stories like this one.
Is it the right thing to do? Definitely!
I definitely think the NHC adopting some sort of Green standard would be ahead of the curve. Most government work requires all new buildings to be LEED certified and many municipalities are following suit. This could be interesting legislation discussion at Conclave. I would be interested to see how much impact it would have on current NHC operations.
Since I'm a developer and a LEED AP, I'd provide the following comment -
LEED was never envisioned, nor is it supported by the USGBC as a manditory benchmark for governments.
That said, it could be a goal for our chapters to pursue.
We do some of our projects LEED, others are not. There typically can be a big price difference. All our buildings incorporate LEED principles, but they may not necessarily go through the certification.
It's an interesting debate for the people who care...
CSD
The Spring issue of the Trident of Delta Delta Delta arrived at our house today and it is devoted to GOING GREEN. Two major articles "Greenhouse Effect" which begins with “When the purpose meets forward-thinking women, great things happen.” And "Our Steadfast Ground" which leads with “We have poisoned our world.”
Seems we are not in the lead on this topic.
There is a really good joke in there somewhere about "Green Tri-Deltas". I just can't quite find the right punch line.
All joking aside, many sororities or female fraternities(including Tri Delt) are way ahead of us in the way that they look at any one of a number of issues.
For example, the Tri Delts have a small staff supplemented by a large support network of regional volunteers that take care of many issues and concerns that we pay people to handle. These regional volunteers are usually more sensitive to local issues and customs than someone who is parachuted in to put out a fire, and they usually already have the relationship network that can be relied upon in a time of need.
Tri Delt also has a male director of chapter services. How would we handle having a female in that position?
We are a fraternity of firsts in a lot of ways, but we do not have a monopoly on good ideas. We do our brotherhood a major disservice when we dismiss good ideas simply because they did not originate with us.
Well said, Dave. "Not Invented Here" is often the unspoken reason for not adopting a good idea - not just in SigEp-land but in the corporate world as well.
When you look at the "Fraternity of Firsts" section on the web site it is impressive. At first. Then you notice that many of the firsts are 30 to 50 years ago or more. As the saying goes, "what have you done for me lately?"
We have the largest undergrad population. But if you look at college attendance and Greek participation trends one begins to wonder if we are headed toward having 100% of the metaphorical buggywhip market.
The BMP was a watershed concept for member development. Fantastic. It was first implemented 17(?) years or so ago. We have spent all that time arguing whether it is a "real" fraternity plan or not and some of our oldest, largest, and more successful chapters have yet to adopt it.
...And this is a long term strategy?
Other organizations have built on our ideas and adopted them for all their chapters. Who will be making the most progress in the future? Maybe it is time we started looking outside of Zolly House for good ideas that we can adapt and use.
As far as the LEED certification goes. My wife works for TC Williams High School in Alexandria, VA (The same school the movie Remeber the Titans is based on). Her school was recently constructed right next door to the old one. It is the first LEED certified High School in the nation. One thing to note. If waterless urinals are incorporated, they stink. I would recommend that this part of the plan be avoided as we already know, for those chapters that have a house, that it is hard enough to keep a bathroom clean without having a smelly one as well.
Other than that, this is a great idea. I think we should adopt it nationally. Or at least, commit to something that reduced our impact on the environment such as all trash is recycled (including those pesky alumninum contraptions that hold liquids). That would be a great first step.
Speaking of "pesky aluminum contraptions":
I bet if every chapter recycled beer cans and sent the proceeds to the CIF we could fund a LEED compliant house for each chapter in very short order.
heh.
Kohler developed a new waterless urinal that doesn't stink. http://search.us.kohler.com/?
q=w...aterless+urinal The older waterless urinals had a particular chemical that needed to be added and for the most part were not properly maintained.
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