Is Oberlin living up to its eco-friendly reputation? At a meeting in Wilder last Sunday night, College sophomores Lucas Brown, Kathleen Keating and Amanda Medress shared how they have recently taken matters into their own hands.

The idea is a sustainable living theme house called SEED — that is, Student Experiment in Ecological Design.

“We want to be able to live in a way that reduces our ecological footprint,” Keating said.

These three students have been working on the idea since the end of last year. “At the time, we didn’t feel that the school was doing its best to become green,” Keating said. “The idea of a sustainable living house had been floating around a bit, but no one was really taking a hold of it seriously, so we decided to be those people.”

The chosen site is across from the Allen Art Museum at 20 and 22 E. Lorain St. (the house is a duplex). The house will accommodate a total of eight students. Brown, Keating and Medress all plan on living in the house at some point next year, leaving five spots open. Applicants for the house must be viable for village housing, and the house will accept residents both on a year-long and semester basis.

At the meeting, these three students shared a bit of the history of the project, its current status and its hopes for the future. Over the summer, the three students did collective and individual research on fundamental aspects of “green living” and necessary renovations. They found that many other colleges, including Warren Wilson College, Earlham College and Brown University already have sustainable living theme houses. “It seemed odd that Oberlin [didn’t] have one,” said Medress.

This past fall, they brought their idea to the administration. At the beginning of last semester, the three met with Residential Education’s Director Molly Tyson and Associate Director Keith Watkins and Chair of the Environmental Studies Program David Orr. Keating said, “People have been really supportive and receptive along the way, which has been one of the best parts about this process.” The school approved a budget of 40 thousand dollars for renovations of the house.

This semester, Orr has made this house one of the central projects for his senior level eco-design class, which these three sophomores are currently taking.

“Right now we are going to be doing a lot of research on what changes to make, what kind of programming, how to outreach to the community,” Brown said.

So what is the current status of the project?

“At this point, there is still some flexibility around how the house is going to operate,” Brown said. Many details depend on input from the Ecological Design class. Ideas are still being tossed around, including in-house dining, incorporation of an organic garden and chickens. They are even toying with the idea of having residents receive academic credit for living in the house through the ENVS department.

“On one half [of the duplex], we hope to create a model for homeowners in the area, with changes that don’t require a lot of investment or resources. The other side of the house would be something that we would be able to spend more money on, and that might require more technology,” Medress said.

Brown added that the whole point of the experimental aspect of the house would be to “display a wider variety of options.”

The three repeatedly emphasized their hopes for the house to be an outlet for community outreach. “At this point, since we don’t know exactly how the house is going to function, we want different people to have input and see the potential of what it could be. The more people we get interested, the more people will be aware of the kind of stuff we are doing. We want to bring a lot of people in,” Keating said.

Keating also explained how the house will be designed to spread the advantages of sustainable living beyond the Environmental Studies department and into the local community. “We want to expose a lot of people to lifestyle changes like conserving energy,” she said.

The house will be open to all majors. Brown is a declared economics major, Keating is currently doubling in politics and history and Medress is leaning towards ENVS and creative writing. “Our philosophy is that if only ENVS majors were to live in the house, then we wouldn’t be spreading environmentalism,” Medress said.

 Brown added: “If the house only ends up benefiting the people that live in it, we see that as a total failure. This really should be an outreach center that helps all those who would like to know more about sustainability.”