Student’s Zero-Carbon Structure Wins First-Place Archer RISE Award

When Zita Surprenant returned from an academic and wilderness semester away at Colorado’s High Mountain Institute, she set her sights on continuing the work she had immersed herself in while in the program.

 

“We learned about sustainable living and the mindset was very literal: If something was broken, we would fix it,” the 12th-grader said. “Coming home, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find anything that consumed my interest the way my semester away had. So, I came up with the idea for this A-Frame.”

 

Zita’s goal with the project was to build a habitable structure with materials that netted zero carbon—meaning the carbon stored in its materials would be greater than the carbon released by the manufacture and transportation of those materials. On top of that, she researched materials and created a mobile app that calculates the overall embedded carbon in any structure.

 

For her efforts, Zita recently earned a first-place Archer RISE Award, after presenting a poster about her project. The RISE (Research in Science and Engineering) competition was open to high school girls in Los Angeles.

 

Zita was judged on a written and oral presentation, and won a trophy and $5,000 toward college.

 

“I was so surprised when they announced me as the first-place winner,” she said. “It was an incredibly rewarding experience—partially because my hard work was validated, but also because the whole experience got me excited for the future of women in the STEM fields.” 

 

Starting last February, Zita began researching materials for her A-Frame. When her family moved to a new house, Zita was able to make use of a 10-foot by 10-foot concrete slab in the backyard that functioned as a foundation for the structure.

 

“I became obsessed with researching and getting building materials with the lowest carbon footprint,” she said. “I hunted down local sources for reclaimed lumber, attended a workshop on how to build with ‘hempcrete’ (a concrete-like product made from hemp hurd that is carbon negative) and explored every avenue I could find.”

 

When Zita couldn’t find sustainable hardware pieces like door hinges or gusset plates, she experimented with printing hardware parts from a 3-D printer at Crossroads using PLA, a sugar-derived polymer that is compostable and recyclable.

 

Zita started slowly building the structure with the help of her parents and siblings, and continues to work on the project. All the components, except for the hempcrete walls, have been installed.

 

“The construction industry is one of the primary purveyors of greenhouse gases/waste in the country, and I wanted to do my part to remedy this,” Zita said. “I realized that the decisions to be more environmentally conscience aren’t difficult (choosing locally sourced materials, experimenting with more environmentally friendly alternatives, etc.), but this information isn’t easily accessible for the average homeowner. My hope is that my app will spread the word in a digestible way.”