Good after the last drop
Stacking up vodka bottles is not usually an indicator of good lifestyle choices. That is until last summer, when a group of University students traveled to the Mongolian countryside to build a greenhouse out of the discarded glassware.
The project began during the 2010 fall semester in “Development on the Ground,” a class tought by Robert Swap, environmental sciences research associate professor.
Students in the class create project proposals during the semester and then submit them to the Jefferson Public Citizens program to apply for funding if they wish to go through with their proposal, Swap said.
Fourth-year College student Sarah Culver said the group formed out of a shared interest in rural development and quickly became focused on waste management and Central Asia when Tashi Dekyid, a Tibetan exchange student in the group, brought it to their attention. The project was conceived in summer 2010 when Ken Dabkowski, an employee of Charlottesville-based international developmental firm Mosaic Collateral Asset Management, and M-CAM Chairman David Martin , went to Mongolia. There, Dabkowski and Martin participated in “integral accounting,” assessing the value attributes of the local area and writing down their observations of the environment. What they found were vodka bottles and a harsh climate.
“Past winters have been very cold and a lot of live stock had died, so [locals] were looking for a way to increase their growing system,” Dabkowski said. “They wanted to make green houses but there are no places to get a loan for this, plus some of the traditional greenhouse structures wouldn’t work because of the sand storms.”
M-CAM began working with Swap’s class last fall and helped the group develop a plan for Mongolia. At the end of the semester, the group submitted its proposal to the Jefferson Citizens Program and received a grant large enough to cover almost the entire project. The aim of the project was to form a partnership with Mongolian innovators and to use as many local materials as possible to show how local resources could be used.
Brian Cullaty, assistant to the vice provost for academic programs, said he found this proposal intriguing because of the interdisciplinary nature of the project, which combined anthropology, global studies and architecture.
“They all have different skills and aspects that they are bringing to the table to solve this problem which was essentially waste in Mongolia — it takes more than one skill to do that,” Cullaty said.
Fourth-year Architecture student Carlin Tacey said working on the project was an experience in balancing collaborative ideas and interests. After all the months of preparation and trying to mesh everybody’s expectations together, the students were still confronted with multiple design issues and obstacles to overcome while physically constructing the greenhouse.
“It was less of a holistic design and more of a piecing together of concepts,” Tacey said. “It provided a lot of learning experiences but also a lot of frustration.”
During construction, members of the group had to discuss and decide what direction and shape the greenhouse would take and what purpose they wanted the project to serve, fourth-year College student Claire Cororaton said.
The biggest challenge was successfully implementing the bottles into the greenhouse’s design, Cororaton explained. At first the students wanted to melt the glass but complications arose about the size of the keel needed and how much energy it would take to melt all the bottles. Eventually they ended up tying the bottles together with wire, though some components of melted glass were incorporated into the walls and base of the greenhouse.
One problem the group never faced was a shortage of the vodka bottles. The project site was at a Mongolian resort, where the dumpsters were full of the discarded containers. Because the site was so remote, however, resources such as gas and electricity were unreliable. For this reason, Cororaton said sustainable practices were even more essential.
“The issue of sustainability is very important because the site is so rural and remote that it is hard to transport supplies,” she said. “It is important for the community to use resources that they have.”
The group hopes its project will provide an example of waste management and agricultural sustainability to the Mongolian locals.
“The idea was that we could work with communities to see what kind of ideas they have and things we could do to help,” Swap said.
In such a remote location, he said the limited resources presented a difficult challenge but that these obstacles only forced the group to be more imaginative.
“Not everyone has access to gold or money but everyone has access to creativity,” Dabkowski said.
On average, the students worked 15 to 18 hour days to finish the project before their 30-day visas expired, Swap said.
“These students have really been working hard and diligently,” he said. “It’s more than a career builder because these students are really committed, and that’s to be applauded. I think it points to a hopeful generation of leaders.”
The project began during the 2010 fall semester in “Development on the Ground,” a class tought by Robert Swap, environmental sciences research associate professor.
Students in the class create project proposals during the semester and then submit them to the Jefferson Public Citizens program to apply for funding if they wish to go through with their proposal, Swap said.
Fourth-year College student Sarah Culver said the group formed out of a shared interest in rural development and quickly became focused on waste management and Central Asia when Tashi Dekyid, a Tibetan exchange student in the group, brought it to their attention. The project was conceived in summer 2010 when Ken Dabkowski, an employee of Charlottesville-based international developmental firm Mosaic Collateral Asset Management, and M-CAM Chairman David Martin , went to Mongolia. There, Dabkowski and Martin participated in “integral accounting,” assessing the value attributes of the local area and writing down their observations of the environment. What they found were vodka bottles and a harsh climate.
“Past winters have been very cold and a lot of live stock had died, so [locals] were looking for a way to increase their growing system,” Dabkowski said. “They wanted to make green houses but there are no places to get a loan for this, plus some of the traditional greenhouse structures wouldn’t work because of the sand storms.”
M-CAM began working with Swap’s class last fall and helped the group develop a plan for Mongolia. At the end of the semester, the group submitted its proposal to the Jefferson Citizens Program and received a grant large enough to cover almost the entire project. The aim of the project was to form a partnership with Mongolian innovators and to use as many local materials as possible to show how local resources could be used.
Brian Cullaty, assistant to the vice provost for academic programs, said he found this proposal intriguing because of the interdisciplinary nature of the project, which combined anthropology, global studies and architecture.
“They all have different skills and aspects that they are bringing to the table to solve this problem which was essentially waste in Mongolia — it takes more than one skill to do that,” Cullaty said.
Fourth-year Architecture student Carlin Tacey said working on the project was an experience in balancing collaborative ideas and interests. After all the months of preparation and trying to mesh everybody’s expectations together, the students were still confronted with multiple design issues and obstacles to overcome while physically constructing the greenhouse.
“It was less of a holistic design and more of a piecing together of concepts,” Tacey said. “It provided a lot of learning experiences but also a lot of frustration.”
During construction, members of the group had to discuss and decide what direction and shape the greenhouse would take and what purpose they wanted the project to serve, fourth-year College student Claire Cororaton said.
The biggest challenge was successfully implementing the bottles into the greenhouse’s design, Cororaton explained. At first the students wanted to melt the glass but complications arose about the size of the keel needed and how much energy it would take to melt all the bottles. Eventually they ended up tying the bottles together with wire, though some components of melted glass were incorporated into the walls and base of the greenhouse.
One problem the group never faced was a shortage of the vodka bottles. The project site was at a Mongolian resort, where the dumpsters were full of the discarded containers. Because the site was so remote, however, resources such as gas and electricity were unreliable. For this reason, Cororaton said sustainable practices were even more essential.
“The issue of sustainability is very important because the site is so rural and remote that it is hard to transport supplies,” she said. “It is important for the community to use resources that they have.”
The group hopes its project will provide an example of waste management and agricultural sustainability to the Mongolian locals.
“The idea was that we could work with communities to see what kind of ideas they have and things we could do to help,” Swap said.
In such a remote location, he said the limited resources presented a difficult challenge but that these obstacles only forced the group to be more imaginative.
“Not everyone has access to gold or money but everyone has access to creativity,” Dabkowski said.
On average, the students worked 15 to 18 hour days to finish the project before their 30-day visas expired, Swap said.
“These students have really been working hard and diligently,” he said. “It’s more than a career builder because these students are really committed, and that’s to be applauded. I think it points to a hopeful generation of leaders.”
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