With over 150 environmental sensors installed throughout the building and landscape, the AJLC's data monitoring and display system provides a unique opportunity to visualize in real-time the flows of energy and cycling of matter that are necessary to support the built environment. Our goal is to make interactions between the built and natural environments visible and easy to interpret. The premise of this work is that real-time feedback on ecological performance increases awareness, connectedness to place, and motivation to act. We believe that new feedback of this type may be a necessary prerequisite for facilitating a more sustainable relationship among humans, technology and the natural world.

Energy Photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roof of the Center use renewable energy from the sun to meet a substantial fraction of the building's energy needs. Solar energy production is coupled with energy efficient lighting, heating, and appliances to minimize negative environmental impact.

Heating, Cooling & Air Quality Relying on both active and passive systems, the Center provides a comfortable working environment for students, faculty and staff. Active systems use mechanical equipment to extract and move heat, while passive systems do so with a minimum of mechanical devices.

Landscape The Center was conceived as an integrated building-landscape system. The landscape features a variety of constructed ecosystems that simulate native Northern Ohio ecosystems and incorporate cultigens that produce food for humans.

Living Machine & Water Use The Living Machine is an ecologically engineered system that combines elements of conventional wastewater technology with the purification processes of wetland ecosystems to treat and recycle the building's wastewater for reuse in the toilets and landscape.

Weather Conditions A weather station rises above the peak of the Center's curved roof, monitoring real-time conditions and trends for a variety of environmental variables.

Materials Materials for the Center were selected to enhance its sustainability and were evaluated based on criteria that required less energy inputs, encouraged local production and distribution, and supported creative economic structures.

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