Rice University
ER-12: Sustainability Immersive Experience

Rice competed in the 2009 Solar Decathlon. Students researched, developed, and built a net zero energy house. Rice's Zerow House,inspired from Houston's traditional row-house design uses current technology and low-cost, off-the-shelf products to demonstrate that solar power can be an affordable and viable option. Rice placed 2nd in both market viability and architecture, and 8th overall. The house was afterward donated to Project Row Houses, an organization devoted to providing housing for lower income families and preserving the cultural and historical character of Houston's Third Ward. Additionally, Rice Engineers Without Borders collaborates with communities in the developing world to provide sustainable and culturally appropriate engineering solutions that improve quality of life without harming society or environment. Through these projects, students form strong intercultural relationships and understanding, and become socially and environmentally conscious engineers with outstanding leadership skills and practical, hands-on, international engineering experience. Rice currently has four EWB projects spread throughout El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras. (http://www.ewb.rice.edu) A third sustainability immersive experience is the Lesotho Sustainability Assessment Project, which sends a group of students and faculty to Maseru, Lesotho to identify large-scale problems, needs, and obstacles to implementing sustainable, cost-effective solutions in order to promote development. The goal of this project is to develop integrated, multi-disciplinary approaches to sustainable development, including improved energy efficiency, air and water quality, and adaptation strategies for climate change that can be implemented at the community level in developing countries. (http://www.rice.edu/energy/research/poverty&energy/lesothoproject/Lesotho.html)