About Orange County Sustainability Decathlon

Every day we see the impact of climate change, globally, and in the State of California. Wildfires endanger communities. Droughts impact water supplies and food production. Rising sea levels threaten coastlines. Shifting weather patterns threaten many of California’s natural wonders, from the giant sequoias in the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the snows of Mount Shasta. Add the shortage of affordable housing, and it’s easy to see that solving California’s environmental, social, and economic challenges will require innovative thinking and collaborative problem solving. These issues call for creative solutions:

• Climate change
o We need to decarbonize buildings and dwellings

• Wildfires and natural disasters
o We need more resilient homes and neighborhoods

• Frequent periods of drought
o We need homes and communities that incorporate water conservation measures

• The pandemic
o We need healthier homes designed for varied use

• Increasingly high cost of housing
o We need affordable, energy-efficient homes

The Orange County Sustainability Decathlon (OCSD23) is a new competition that challenges talented individuals working as a team to design, build, and market model housing prototypes that demonstrate a range of practical solutions to some of California’s most urgent problems. OCSD23 will motivate a new generation of leaders to envision and apply creative solutions that will accelerate sustainable development in California and across the country. OCSD23’s primary objective is to jump-start the availability of innovative, energy-efficient, net-zero energy housing units that are market-ready and affordable for today’s consumers.
The OCSD23 Organization will build and display for public viewing a sustainable village of leading-edge homes at a single site. This event will showcase up to 20 unique homes designed and built by multidisciplinary teams. While on display, these teams will be in competition to demonstrate which houses outperform the others in ten contests.

Learn more here: www.ocsd23.com.