Question

You are working for Colorado Green Builders, a company in Boulder, Colorado, specializing in sustainable building. You are part of a project team that is supervising the design and construction of a visitor’s center in the Rocky Mountain National Park. The goal is to build the visitor’s center so that it is self-sufficient. That means it should use no outside resources, if possible, including energy, water, and waste systems. Your manager, Amanda Karlson, suggests that you meet with your team to plan this project.
a.Brainstorm the general categories of resources you need to build the visitor’s center so that it is self-sufficient. Consider everything typically found in a public building.
b.Review the resource categories and create a master list.
c.For each category, brainstorm ways to provide the resource without depending on outside systems. For example, if you have a food category, you could create a garden and greenhouse to provide fruits and vegetables without depending on outside suppliers.
d.Review the ideas your team generated, and then use convergent thinking techniques to edit the list. Your goal is to identify all the resources a visitor’s center needs using systems that are fairly easy to set up and maintain and are not too expensive.
e.Submit the list to your instructor as requested.

PLEASE HELP ME WITH THIS. ANY IDEA WILL HELP, OR EVEN SHORT ANSWER. THANK YOU!

Answer 1

Categories of resources used to build visitor's center:

1. Energy (Electricity can be generated using solar panels, windmills can be used for energy generation)

2. Water (Two types: Drinking water for visitors and non drinking water for cleaning and other purpose).

• water can be brought to visitor's center by making a canal joining nearby river.
• Rain water harvesting can be done to store water in underground tanks from rain. Then that water can be pulled out and used
• Micro-irrigation system can be used which will provide water to plants grown in garden and greenhouse
• Drip irrigation can be used which will use less water and helps in growing more plants.
• Canal water or rain water can be purified by natural process of gravity filters which will make this water suitable for drinking. Under this process, the design requires a container that allows water to drain out of the bottom and to be poured in at the top. Filter layers of activated charcoal, sand, and small gravel (moving from bottom to top) remove progressively smaller particles making it good for drinking.
• Alum can be used to purify water t its best quality
• Aloe vera can be used to purify dirtiest water and making it safe for drinking. ( Aloe Vera can be grown in garden in visitor's center and then its small tablets can be made which could be dropped in the water container. This aloe vera tablets will purify water to its best.
• This purified water fit for drinking can be transferred to the container with tap so that anyone could drink it.

3. Waste system (segregate into biodegradable and non biodegradable waste)

• Biodegradable waste can be dumped into a deep hole drawn in garden's ground. In some days it will be turned into manure good for growing plants. Gases such as methane and carbon dioxide produced can be used as biogas for various energy requirements..
• Non biodegradable waste can be used as landfills, burning them for combustion purpose.

4.Food

• Garden and greenhouse can be made using above resources of water energy and waste to obtain fresh fruits and vegetables.
• Manure can be made from biodegradable waste.
• Rain water and canal water can be used for irrigation purpose.
• Electricity generated from windmills and solar panel can be used for irrigation purpose.
• Biogas generated can be used to cook vegetables making it fit for consuming.

5. Furniture

• Jute and wood can be used to make chairs and tables for comfort of visitors.
• Decoration of walls can be done using wall planting and all wood work