CEN DC— Green Design: From Solar Decathlon to Business Creation

Join us as we feature the student leaders of the 2009 Cornell University Solar Decathlon Team (from Engineering, AA&P, CALS, and Johnson) and David Wax MBA ’04 of ZeroEnergy Design, a business formed by the leaders of the 2005 Cornell Solar Decathlon Team.  You’ll see firsthand how these students and recent grads are changing the way we live and how we think about green buildings and green businesses.

About CUSD

The Cornell University Solar Decathlon (CUSD) is an interdisciplinary, student-run project that competes in the U.S. Department of Energy’s global “Solar Decathlon” to design and build an 800 sq. ft. house that combines solar energy, energy efficiency, and the best in home design. The house must be powered exclusively by the sun. 2009 marks CUSD's third successive entry into the competition.

Cornell is one of only twenty universities around the world (and the only one in NY State) selected to participate in the 2009 Solar Decathlon Competition. Through this competition, the student-led team will design, finance, build, transport, and showcase their 100% solar-powered house on the National Mall (Washington, D.C.) in October 2009. CUSD consists of nearly 200 undergraduate and graduate students representing a wide variety of colleges and departments at Cornell. This team will present their design, key systems, and sustainability features of their 2009 entry. Also on hand will be team advisors, as well as Trustees Jeff Berg ’79, MEng ’80, MBA ‘81 and Jill Lerner ’75, B.Arch ‘76.

About David Wax

David Wax MBA '04 will discuss his transition from the 2005 CUSD Team to creating ZeroEnergy Design (ZED), a leading residential design and engineering firm. From its inception, ZED has completed over 60 projects including the design and oversight of numerous types of alternative energy homes, consulting projects with corporations such as General Electric, and international efforts in Dominica and Nigeria. In 2008, ZED spun out another start-up business, FreeGreen.com, a company that works with alternative energy building products vendors on an advertising basis and has become the largest provider of house plans in the US downloaded from the internet.

This event will be a perfect chance to meet the team and get a sneak peak of the 2009 design before it is assembled on the National Mall in Washington, DC in early October. Houses will be open and available for public viewing on the Mall, October 9-13 and 15-18. For more information on CUSD, to join their mailing list, or to learn how you might support their efforts, please visit www.cusd.cornell.edu.