By:  Sydney Leto, Green Contributor

With classes back in swing and students working to finalize their schedules, some people are already starting to think about the fall semester and where they will live. Many students are looking forward to the opportunity to kiss dorm living goodbye and seek housing somewhere off campus, but one group is experiencing the best of both worlds. The Sustainability House, owned by the university and inhabited by seven undergraduate students, is a coed living situation for people interested in the theme suggested by the name itself—sustainability. The small group of housemates is a unique and refreshing dynamic of aware and proactive individuals who come together because of a shared interest. While there are few prearranged requirements for living in “Susty,” as its tenants fondly call it, the house’s residents are involved in a handful of different yet related organizations and positions across campus including interning with the Office of Sustainability, working in the Campus Garden and leading up groups like SEAC (Student Environmental Action Coalition).

The Sustainability House is just like any other off-campus house, but because of its location on campus it receives help from the school outside the house in the Campus Garden and inside the house too. Resident Logan Healy-Tuke described several projects that Facilities has helped with, including a water system in the garden and the installation of power outlets which can be turned off when not in use.

Even though the students in the Sustainability House are concerned about the environmental issues we hear a lot about today, they are also students just like everyone else at Wake Forest trying to balance their interests with their schoolwork. The house emphasizes recycling and composting, but each time that lazy housemate messes up, a quarter is fed to their eighth roommate, Tim the Piñata.

The Sustainability House benefits Wake Forest by bringing together a group with a shared passion, giving them the ability to join forces and brainstorm ideas for on campus and beyond. At the same time, the house provides its dwellers with a situation of immeasurable value. Between family style dinners incorporating fresh ingredients from the garden, promoting documentary screenings that fill the basement and heading up various projects around campus, themed housing works to the benefit of the Sustainability House residents in the end who come together under the same roof and give life to their inspired ideas.