POTSDAM -- A video on an innovative food production and waste management facility designed and operated by Clarkson University students is featured on the Planet Forward Web site at http://planetforward.org/idea/year-round-greenhouse-gardening .

The students are competing in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s P3: People, Prosperity and the Planet Student Design Competition for Sustainability project.

Food production and managing food wastes are not typical components of an engineering education. But students at Clarkson are diverting food waste from school dining facilities through an anaerobic digester to create heat, electricity and a nutrient rich fertilizer that are used in a high-tech greenhouse they designed and built to grow leafy greens year round in the North Country climate.

The 650 sq. ft. greenhouse is designed to grow produce in northern climates limited by cold and dark winters. Its internal heating, LED lighting, and water and plant growth systems are designed to maximize plant growth while limiting fossil fuel use. The state-of-the-art aeroponic growing system uses only a small fraction of the water and nutrients required by other greenhouse growing operations.

The greenhouse system is integrated with a biomass-solar thermal heating system and an anaerobic digester for cafeteria waste to create a closed-loop, energy efficient and zero-waste system that contributes to Clarkson's sustainability efforts.