My fundamentals of engineering class has been assigned a mini-project to design a community for 30 families that is somewhat self-sustaining and environmentally friendly.

While the actual project is calculating the daily water needs and getting the right size tank and pump, and drawing the locations of everything within the land area given, I would like to include all sorts of environmentally conscious details for fun and education. We have no cost constraints, so I can go wild with this. Also, since it's an introductory class, we really don't have to worry about all the technical details. Just ideas (and the water calculations as mentioned).

The 30 familes will have an average of 5 people each. They will have planted 1 acre of wheat, 1 acre of corn and 1 acre of soybeans. In addition, they will have 100 hogs, and half an acre of "lawn" to maintain.

Some ideas I have so far:

water conservation:

*plant the yard with natives and ground covers to reduce water needs and eliminate wasted gasoline for mowing

*collection tank for rainwater from roofs

*dual plumbing system where grey water is recycled to flush toilets

*dual flush toilets

other:

*organic farming and gardening methods

*no till planting

*green roofs

*methane from hog waste

*fertilizer from remaining solids

*solar panels on all buildings

*passive solar design of houses

*wind power

I'm wondering if anyone has any other ideas or if you know of any good websites I could look at. I don't know much about what's possible with acre-size crops.

This is in NC zone 7b where we get decent sun and rain, occasionally too much or too little rain. The topography is gentle hills and the soil is acid clay.

K.