E.S. King Village sits quietly on Gorman Street, enclosed by Ligon and Jackson, far from central campus and the buzz of class-goers. The community provides housing for graduate students and married students with families. However, building E of E.S. King Village will soon undergo a revolution – a green revolution.

This fall, the building currently used for guest housing will be transformed into the University’s first green housing facility.

“I consider myself an environmentalist, so I’m always trying to reduce my carbon footprint and live more sustainably,” Elin Arnaudin, a sophomore in environmental science, said. “All the elements they want to put into the green house sound great to me because that’s how I want to live in the future.”

Several universities across the country – including Stanford, Harvard, Tufts and Duke – have made efforts to encourage on-campus sustainable living by providing eco-friendly means of student housing. The University of South Carolina was one of the first institutions to renovate a residence hall using environmentally sound resources, according to Ryan Powell, a graduate student, said.

“Many of these universities have built ambitious green dorms that incorporate high green building design standards and impress the importance of developing environmentally sustainable living habits upon student residents,” Powell said.

According to Powell, there are a variety of things students could be doing to minimize harmful effects on the local environment. He said he wants to encourage students to not only explore sustainability, but also showcase their progress toward achieving it.

Andrew Campbell, a freshman in landscape architecture, compared N.C. State’s progress to pioneering universities.

“They’re so far ahead,” Campbell said. “Look how much we have to catch up.”

As the outreach coordinator for the Office of Waste Reduction and Recycling, Powell initiated the institution of a green residence hall on campus.

“Ryan came to us and said we’ve been talking on the sustainability front about finding a place for this sustainable community,” said Barry Olson, Associate Director for University Apartments. “We are continually looking for ways to increase and enhance our occupancy, so it’s a win-win for us.”

There will be 12 rooms available in the residence hall, and Olson said he is looking for 12 to 20 people to move in next fall. The residence hall will be open to upperclassmen, a variation from E.S. King’s graduate students and married residents.

According to Powell, the green house will incorporate progressive technology with the efforts of students to create a more sustainable living environment. He said they are considering using things such as solar panels to cut back electricity costs and even implementing rainwater irrigation. These efforts have yet to be translated from theory to reality, and Olson said the changes will be gradual.

“We’re not exactly certain how that’s going to look yet on the building,” Olson said.

He also said students will be able to do a little gardening.

“They’re going to be able to use our garden plots, which are located right out back, as a way to possibly grow their own vegetables,” Olson said. “We’re also providing composting so we can give that back to the earth and use compost for potting soil as well as for out in the fields.”

While there are many plans, Arnaudin said it will take practical applications of what are right now only ideals to bring about real change.

“We’re keeping things minimal until we can see what we can get done once it opens,” he said. “It’s hard to get through all the processes before it’s opened.”

For Powell, the pace of change is not as pressing as the lifestyle changes required to decrease the amount of damage done to the environment.

“Because the residents’ sustainable behavior is the focus of the program, the question of ‘how long’ the conversion process takes is relatively unimportant right now,” Powell said. “Our hope is that the students applying to move in are ambitious enough to identify solutions for minimizing our ecological footprint and work continuously with us to progress from there.

PowelI said the process is “transformative” and obstacles would not be a problem.

In order to offset some of the costs, Powell said he is working with companies that could provide donations to the project.

“We will slowly add features as we get them,” Olson said. “If it is donation driven, a lot of it’s finding the donors who are willing to do that.”

While the first year will inevitably be a time of testing what does and does not work, both Olson and Powell said they look forward to working with students who are passionate about not only decreasing their footprints, but taking steps in a positive, earth-friendly direction as well.

“The ideal resident thrives on the experimental nature of this venture,” said Powell. “Does recycled, unbleached toilet paper work? Can you recycle 100 percent of your waste? Grow your own food? Live without a car?”

According to Powell, current data show that if everyone on the planet lived like the average American, it would take five planets’s worth of resources to survive.

“Our goal is to bring together a diverse mix of students who recognize the severity of our unsustainable predicament in economic, social, moral, political, ecological, agricultural or technological terms,” he said.

Campbell said he’s looking forward to the community formed by a group of people brought together by a common passion. Yet, he observed, becoming isolated is an issue.

“We don’t want them to be a stand-alone community where no one interacts with them,” Olson said. “Our whole idea is that the house will be a part of the village, a part of the neighborhood. So hopefully people will see the things that they’re doing and think, ‘Wow, that’s something I could do in my apartment.'”

Powell echoed the hope that the green house will serve as a model.

“With support from community partners, [we will be] gradually converting the facility into a symbol of what everyone on campus could — and arguably should — be doing to combat climate change and other equally severe issues of environmental denigration,” Powell said.

Campbell said he hopes the green dorm will not only benefit the environment, but the University as well.

“It will improve the University’s reputation and help create a more responsible vibe that’s not there so much now,” Campbell said. “We’re not known for being an environmentally friendly campus. This would foster a more environmentally friendly attitude in the student body. We have so much to learn regarding sustainability, and living in the green house is a good way.”