Designing Solutions for the Big Problems

“Participants in Local Environment group, Design Science Lab. From left: Cathy Holt, Darcel Eddins, Joel Vann Fuller, Gloria Howard Free, Michael Miller, Molly Sprengelmeyer.”

by Cathy Holt

Buckminster Fuller, world-famous as the inventor of the Geodesic dome, lived and taught at Black Mountain College. He believed that the world’s most persistent problems – poverty, disease, famine, illiteracy, environmental decline – could be solved affordably using existing technology.

A 10-day Design Science Lab at UNCA recently set out to try to fulfill his vision. Participants in the pilot program used Fuller’s scientific methodology to address problems of energy, environment, and education, locally and internationally. The lab was sponsored by the Buckminster Fuller Institute in New York and by Black Mountain College Museum & Art Center.



Among the three dozen participants were Asheville City Council member Robin Cape; Gloria Howard Free, Asheville native and longtime activist; Professor of Environmental Science Dee Eggers; Ari Zitin, 14, of Asheville High; and the author. On July 29, they reported to the United Nations via teleconference, and then to local citizens including Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy.

Some highlights from the groups’ recommendations:
•    By adopting energy efficiency measures already in place in Austin, Texas, North Carolina could save $2.5 billion and avoid building another power plant.
•    Distributing “Energy in a Box” kits (containing compact fluorescent bulbs, caulk, and other energy efficiency items) to 10,000 Asheville homeowners would save $2 million per year.
•    Green roofs would cut heating and cooling needs by 20% to 30%, reducing ambient temperatures and retaining 50% to 95% of stormwater runoff.
•    Instead of food waste from restaurants going to the landfill, it could be used for compost to enrich community and school gardens, to provide local food security, teach kids to grow food, and decrease the reliance on fossil-fueled agri-business (which uses 10 calories of energy to grow 1 calorie of food).
•    A “Local Hero” campaign would honor people who made strides in energy efficiency.
•    A Uniform Floodplain Ordinance could establish buffers with native plant species, providing wildlife corridors, filtering of pollutants, stabilizing of stream banks, shading for fish, and organic matter for stream ecosystems.
•    Incentives could be offered for treating stormwater on site, using rain gardens, bio-swales, stormwater wetlands, green roofs, and cistern collection.

On the global front, strategies were advanced to address such issues as fuel and natural resource depletion, deforestation, health problems, renewable energy, and the risk of crop failure.

Following the presentations, Mayor Bellamy honored Jean McCloud, a retired African-American Asheville resident, as a Global Citizen for her local “one-woman cleanup campaign” through which, quietly but persistently, she has picked up trash around Asheville for many years. The Mayor recognized McCloud as living proof that “One person can make a difference.”