Partnership for a Sustainable GA & Southface

May 12, 2010 | by Rachel | filed under: compostable toilet, eco-office, Partnership for a Sustainable Georgia, roof garden, Southface, Steve Jobs

Southface, in case you don’t know, is a national leader in sustainable solutions for the built environment with soup-to-nuts consulting to save energy, money, and, let’s face it, our health, in our homes, schools and communities.

Its Platinum LEED®-certified eco-office is a paragon of what’s possible. So let’s just start with the aesthetic. And I’m somewhat qualified to talk about this as a former “Private Quarters” writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It sounds kind of dirty, but it’s a feature on homes, and everyone reads it. I always thought they should change the name.

Anyway, the Southface eco-office is so beautiful and cool that you’re a little sick to your stomach that you don’t get to work there.  It sort of has this soothing spa effect by virtue of soft, neutral colors and tons of indoor and outdoor windows that bathe the space in not-too-bright light. And it’s, of course, uber high-tech. This might be what Steve Jobs’ house looks like.

They use the modular squares of carpet so that if one area gets ruined or weary, you just pop out and replace the affected square instead of underatking a major recarpeting ordeal.

And, are you ready for this, each desk has its own temperature control! There’s even a button on there for white noise, but apparently no one uses it, our tour guide said. I would totally use it.

The piece de resistance might be the composting toilet. First of all, because it gives me an excuse to write that word and post a picture. Voila!

The composting toilet at Southface's eco-office

Can you see the foam dripping down from inside the toilet? (Yes, I wrote it like that on purpose.) That’s a biodegradable soap that allows little water to be used. The waste then gets routed to a tank where worms and woodchips are added. Eventually, it all gets compacted and produced into liquid fertilizer that Southface calls “Compost Tea.” If that grosses you out, consider this: The fecal matter in the “tea” isn’t as great as what’s found at your average city pool, our tour guide said. Just what we’ve always suspected.

 The above pic, by the way, is of the men’s room, where there’s also a waterless urinal. And I just couldn’t resist being the girl who uses her phone to photograph a toilet in the men’s room with a group of people.

On to more pleasant subjects — the roof garden.

The eco-office roof garden. That's Georgia Power in the background.

Those rubber tiles atop the roof are recycled not one, not two, but three times. They started out as tires, and I can’t remember their reincarnated forms.  There’s also a barrel donated from a local vineyard that collects water up here and an eco-elevator that’s more efficient than a hydraulic lift.

There’s more, of course, like blinds on the outside of the window to save energy before the sun hits and warms it up. You activate the blinds from an indoor panel that also includes a switch that, through some chemical reaction in the window pane, can darken it.

Everyone should try to tour this place. But until then, check out the site: http://www.southface.org/about/campus/eco-office

See you next time, Southface!