Alcoa builds up sustainability

Greener by design…Pillars of Sustainable Education, a new $1.5m cross-sector programme created by Alcoa Foundation and Architecture for Humanity to explore the use of sustainable materials in architecture and community design, has launched. Seven universities from five countries will each integrate curriculum about innovative building design and material use and then execute a community-based project that incorporates their research. The grants, totaling up to $60,000 per year will support 1-3 year projects reaching approximately 150 participating students and faculty.

To date, the selected universities are Carnegie Mellon University (US), The Georgia Institute of Technology (US), Purdue University (US), Delft University of Technology (the Netherlands), Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences (Germany), the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Tsinghua University (China). Each school will expand the learning opportunity for the students with professional engagement activities, such as, guest lecturers from Alcoa executives, partnerships with a local nonprofit organization and involvement through the Architecture for Humanity network.