Business Development: 

Develop business plans and investment strategies:
Create a funding strategy to finance the initial research and development.

Market:
Attract eco-conscious urban families, couples or individuals who wish to flourish within community and an equitable share of earth’s carrying capacity. 

Technical:

Water catchment systems: 
Each of the 4 homes has a small (400 sq. ft) footprint, and captures rain in an amount that limits inhabitants to around 12 gal/day.   2020 Engineering estimates that each home would require a 4,000 gallon tank for rainwater storage. To meet the water use conditions, several ideas that have been suggested, including recycling showers, foot pumped water flow to sinks, no flow (composting) toilets, etc.  However, research is needed to investigate these options and determine which are viable.  

Gray water storage and distribution to gardens: 
Gray water is planned to be used for watering gardens, however, this means that this water will need to be kept for several months to use in the summer months where little rain falls.  Total gray water storage is estimated at 24,000 gallons, or four, 6,000 gallon tanks.  There is a suggestion to use silver nano impregnated cloth to kill bacteria and sterilize water but again, research is needed to determine if this is viable.  Filtering systems that meet DEQ’s new Gray Water Codes and fall within the power available to sanitize potable water without chemicals are alternative approaches to address this important design criteria. 

Waste composting urine separation systems and nutrient recovery systems:  
Composting toilets and urine diversion systems are used to turn human wastes into viable plant fertilizers and soil amendments.  Research is needed to determine storage and delivery systems that work well together.   

Energy capture and use modeling: 
These home filter and sanitized their own water, compost systems and gray water system.  This creates additional loads that need to be calculated.

Passive House design and energy modeling: 
Minimizing the heating load is crucial for achieving net zero electrical use, and thus using the techniques pioneered by Passive House will be pursued.  Final design and approach has yet to be determined.