Global warming. Soaring oil prices. Green jobs. Clean energy. Resource conservation. Living local. Sustainable design and building. We're all living in the midst of a worldwide shift, and the global green movement is unprecedented in scope and speed. But what does all that mean for rural communities?

We believe it means opportunity. A chance for rural people to learn how to change for the better, and a chance to raise up our communities and economies. The Maroney Rural Learning Center facility will be built to the highest 'green' standards. We'll use strategies, materials and systems that are friendlier to the environment, more energy efficient, and as local as possible. We'll install solar electric panels, geothermal heating systems, wind turbines and roof-top gardens. We'll flush toilets and water plants with collected rain water. We'll let Mother Nature take care of the heating and cooling as best she can. We'll use old-is-new-again building techniques like rammed earth and straw bale walls.

In short, we'll design and build toward LEED Platinum standards, with the help of the region's greenest architecture firm. And we'll turn the whole building into show-and-tell by exposing the green systems and materials and displaying the building processes and energy efficiencies. Visitors to the Rural Learning Center will learn about green design and building just by being here.

The RLC facility will move the green movement forward for other rural communities. The people of Miner County have been creating green jobs since before it was popular. Now local and regional companies in the clean energy industry are partnering with the RLC to build a renewable energy training center in our facility. We'll be building a clean energy workforce, for South Dakota and the nation.

 

See how a whole community is building the Rural Learning Center in Howard, SD: The vision (learn why this project is important and see conceptual drawings), The design process (learn how we're collaboratively co-designing the facility), and Help build it (learn how you can join the effort).