Sustainable 'Freedom House' for JMU Students

Zach Fettig & Josh Kelaher provide a tour of the sustainable technologies that undergird 'Freedom House', located north of the JMU campus.

From your car to your home-JMU graduate Zach Fettig is bringing the concept of sustainability to everyday life. "Going through ISAT you run across all these technologies and a lot of real-world type analysis and I started asking questions, like why isn't this proliferating a little bit more?" he says. Graduating from the ISAT program with a concentration in Biotechnology and Environmental Science in December 2006, Zach began honing in on business principles, eventually starting his own company, Shenandoah Sustainable Technologies. With help from investors and bankers and the procurement of a personal risk loan, Zach began work for the construction of the first of, hopefully, many completely self-sufficient, off-grid sustainable houses. While this was not a completely original idea, the ISAT graduate says that his product will offer something unique to the market. Discussing existing sustainable house models, he says "Builders mainly play around with 'green washing' some features, but so far, completely sustainable experimental homes aren't something that a normal American can afford or look at and see themselves in. I've put together a unique package of sustainable technologies that will make the homes cost-competitive and livable, a house with a normal floor plan [and be] something that the average home-buyer would want to live in."

http://www.jmu.edu/cisat/news/greenhouse.html

Category:

Education

Tags:

• jmu
• sustainable
• james madison university
• zach fettig
• josh kelaher
• freedom house
• green
• solar
• net
• zero
• madison
• university
• college
• virginia
• shenandoah valley