Daily News

From Home Furnishing Business

Resource Furniture to Sponsor Sustainable Home Competition Teams

September 6, 2013  by in Community / Charitable Support, Industry   

Solar Decathlon is a program designed to challenge collegiate teams to design, build and operate sustainable homes.

The biennial event, located this year in Orange County Great Park in Irvine, Calif., features the homes conceptualized by 20 finalist teams selected from around the world. The teams spend almost two years planning, proposing and executing their homes and once in Irvine, the homes will be judged by a panel of experts on a range of factors including comfort, architecture and market appeal. The winning team will have successfully balanced energy production and consumption with an efficient, well-designed home. Almost a third of all the competing homes will feature furniture made in Italy by Clei, distributed exclusively in North America by Resource Furniture.

The goals of the Solar Decathlon are completely aligned with those of Resource Furniture--to support, promote and educate people about sustainable and efficient living solutions both now and into the future. According to the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, North American homes, offices and other buildings contribute an estimated 2.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year--more than one third of the continent’s greenhouse gas pollution output--demonstrating the need for reduced footprint and zero-impact housing solutions designed by Solar Decathlon participants.

The six collegiate teams Resource Furniture are sponsoring include Arizona State University and the University of New Mexico; University of Louisville, Ball State University and University of Kentucky; Norwich University; Southern California Institute of Architecture and California Institute of Technology; Queen’s University, Carleton University, and Algonquin College; and the University of Southern California.

“After several teams approached us about the value we could provide to their projects, we sought out other teams that would benefit from our multi-functional solutions,” said Ron Barth, president of Resource Furniture. “We are proud to be a part this eco-competition that aligns with the values we have held for many years.”

This latest venture comes as part of a long list of recent projects in non-profit and academic arenas. Resource Furniture has sponsored and collaborated in designing a course at Georgia Tech, as well as exhibitions at the Museum of the City of New York, Chicago Museum of Science & Industry and Design Museum Boston.