About Us
Self Guided Tour of CCAT Site
-
Self Guided Tour PDF Format
- Self Guided Tour MS Word Format
- For an actual tour come to the CCAT we're open to the public Monday through Friday 9-5.
A Little History..
CCAT is a live-in demonstration home and educational center for appropriate technology and resource conservation. We are located on the Humboldt State University Campus in Arcata, California. Motivated by an ethic of "education by example," CCAT offers tours, workshops, and opportunities for hands-on involvement to university students and the general public.
CCAT began in 1978 when a group of students, with the support of faculty and community members, renovated a dilapidated house on the university campus and initiated an experiment that continues today. CCAT works with fifteen HSU classes a year to incorporate new appropriate technologies into this living laboratory in sustainability.
House 97: The Buck House
The impressive result of these students' work: CCAT uses less than five percent of the energy consumed by the average U.S. house, produces almost no waste, and serves as a national model for appropriate technology.
Just as important as what CCAT does, is how it is done. Three students live in the house and direct the program for one-year periods. Eighteen student employees keep operations going. Being directed, staffed, and funded by students makes CCAT a place where young adults become leaders; it nurtures creativity and hones professional and technical skills. CCAT helps to infuse HSU with a practical idealism and a desire to serve the global community.
What is Appropriate Technology?
Appropriate Technology (AT) describes a way of providing for human needs with the least impact on the Earth's finite resources. When determining if a technology is appropriate for a specific use, we at CCAT examine a number of issues: is the technology built locally or use local materials? Can it be built, or at least maintained, with a minimum of specialized training? Is its use sustainable over many generations? Does it cause suffering in its manufacturing or use, human or otherwise, disproportionate to its benefits? Can we financially afford it? With answers to these questions, or at least predictions, we try to balance the benefits and harms of a technology to determine if it is appropriate.
Appropriate technology is not a specific item--it's not solar panels, or a greywater marsh, or anything. It's a way of evaluating a technology, a way of thinking about the social, economic, and environmental impacts of introducing a technology into our lives, and a technology may be appropriate in some situations and not in others. As E.F. Schumacher said when he coined the phrase, "AT is technology with a human face."
If you would like a more thorough description of the history of CCAT and four other demonstration cites at universities accross the United States see the following link [PDF 465.6 KB]. It was written by graduate student Kathy Jack under the advisement of Dan Ihara of HSU and the Center for Economic and Environmental Development.