The TREK Project

TREK is an educational program which SBRI offers for upcoming sustainable village-type developments on the former Fort Ord in Monterey County, CA. Its purpose is to promote research, education and tourism for the Monterey Bay area. Its intended results are economic and social benefit for the entire community.

TREK stands for Training, Research, Education and Kids. This is a three pronged approach to create opportunities to educate for sustainability within a community and involves the following:

Training - This first component is a hands-on approach for local contractors and builders to gain experience in green building practices and LEED certification as well as building reuse, removal and recycling.

Research - This is a collaboration between SBRI and local educational institutions such as the Monterey Institute for International Studies (MIIS) International Policy. The students from those institutions design research projects to gain experience in the area of specialization they choose.

Examples of such research projects might be: policy and process - what has worked and not worked in the reuse process of the former Fort Ord; the statistical analysis of the effect community design (smart growth, walkable communities) has on commuting patterns and means of transportation used; or the health of the community's inhabitants in comparison with traditional urban-sprawl type communities.

This local research would then be examined to cull the best practices that could be applicable in other communities around the world. And thus ultimately this research collectively would be a study in how policy, education, community design and consumer behavior could have an impact on global environmental security.

Education & Kids - This third component involves both walking tours of the model sustainable village-style developments on the former Fort Ord and engaging the local schools. Self-guided walking tours designed for visiting and local families with displays and information to learn more about the design, technologies and materials used in the development.

In the schools program, community gardens would be grown, harvested and eaten by kids. This is a project in which, from the garden alone, the students learn about types of plants and many aspects of plant biology, and organic agricultural practices among other things. In addition, the kids harvest, learn recipes for, and cook the food they have grown. Through this they learn not only cooking skills, but about proper food preparation and nutrition.

last updated: June 2005