New skills for a
new future! By Joan Randle, CAT
The Centre for Alternative Technology in Mid Wales, Europe’s leading Eco Centre, has been running courses in sustainability for over 35 years. These range from taster days to a Professional Doctorate degree, all taught in the award winning Wales Institute for Sustainable Education (WISE) which opened in June 2010.
The Wales Institute for Sustainable Education is a unique venue. WISE is the most beautiful combination of environmentally conscious design and cutting-edge sustainable building techniques. The venue is sensitively constructed out of low embodied energy materials such as hemp and lime, rammed earth and sustainably sourced timber. The supply of on-site renewable energy sources, including biomass and solar power, means that WISE is a truly sustainable venue.
By providing inspiration, information and skills, courses at the Centre for Alternative Technology help enable participants to live and work in a more sustainable way. Sustainability is at the core of everything taught. Living and working with sustainable systems allows CAT’s teaching staff to be hands on practitioners as well as theoretical experts.
The Eco Cabins were built over 20 years ago, for the use of school and youth groups and are excellent examples of ‘living the technology’. The cabins were designed using the Segal timber frame method. A simple series of frames resting on concrete pads forms the structure. The interior is boarded and the exterior timber clad with a turf roof. They are of course very well insulated. Electricity comes from wind, hydro and solar. Roof mounted solar water heaters provide hot water and locally available timber provides a back up for heating. Wastewater and sewage is treated naturally in reed beds and water saving compost toilets are also available.
By monitoring electrical inputs and outputs, weighing wood before burning, monitoring water use and experiencing water heated by the sun, schoolchildren in their thousands over the years have really begun to appreciate their impact on the earths resources. They can also begin to understand that living in a sustainable way is not just about recycling.
The Graduate School for the Environment was established in 2007 and currently has over 700 students. Post graduate degrees are accredited by the University of East London, the University of Wales Institute Cardiff and the Architects Registration Board, and include: |148| ENVIRONMENT INDUSTRY MAGAZINE
- MSc Architecture: Advanced Environmental and Energy Studies (distance learning also available).
- Professional Diploma Architecture: Advanced Environmental and Energy Studies.
- MSc Renewable Energy and the Built Environment. - MSc Environmental Change and Practice: Buildings - Professional Doctorate: Ecological Building Services.
One of the educational aims of CAT has always been
to teach people to think and to question. One recent graduate said; “ I would like to thank all the staff who have inspired and opened many doors in my mind over the last year and a half.”
Course delivery is in intensive 5-day modules. Students are able to remove themselves from their every day lives, wake up in a sustainable, breathing building, eat a healthy vegetarian breakfast and engage in stimulating discourse until collapsing into bed many hours later. Another recent graduate commented; ‘I have thoroughly enjoyed studying at CAT as well as learning a huge amount about Renewable Energy. I am indebted to all the staff and students for cultivating such a unique and exhilarating learning environment.”
CAT also offers over 80 short courses lasting from half-day to 6 days. They cover renewable technologies, sustainable building, eco refurbishment, sustainable water and sewage management, organic gardening and more. Some courses are tailored specifically to train installers of photovoltaic, solar thermal, biomass, heat pumps and rainwater harvesting systems.
Courses are accredited by City and Guilds, BPEC, Logic and the Energy Institute and are open to people of all ages and abilities. Participants value the hands on approach in a location where systems are real and not virtual.
Recent events in Japan have shown us just how fragile our modern urban high-tech existence is. A city with 35 million people with scarce food, power supplies and transport. Residents are advised to stay indoors or leave. Where can 35 million people go?
Sustainable systems will not protect us from natural disasters but they may prevent man made ones and allow a more speedy recovery.
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