Speaking 29 July 2008 on Maharishi Global Family Chat, Dr Peter Swan, Minister of Communication for the Global Country of World Peace, along with Dr Bevan Morris, Prime Minister, presented a video of the Vedic groundbreaking ceremony for the new Sustainable Living Center at Maharishi University of Management (M.U.M.), Fairfield, Iowa, USA.

Featured in the recording were Dal Loiselle of Evergreen Homes and Developments, builder and developer for the Sustainable Living Center; and David Fisher, Chair of the Sustainable Living Department at M.U.M. Both Mr Loiselle and Mr Fisher led the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Center, which took place at the future site for the building, near the M.U.M. library.

The Center will satisfy criteria for the Cascadia Region Green Building Council's Living Building Challenge, Mr Loiselle said, which constitutes the highest standard for sustainability—surpassing Leed Platinum. The building will be completely off the grid, generating its own electricity, heating, and cooling, as well as treating its own waste. It will also catch its own water, purify it, use it, and deposit excess into a nearby wetland to beautify the area.

Mr Fisher added to Mr Loiselle's account that the Center will also have maximum internal daylighting, enabled by a monitor running east to west. 'The monitor will allow light into the building from all directions,' said Mr Fisher: 'even into its centre.'

The building, continued Mr Fisher, is intended not only as a university facility, but as a teaching tool for students, community members, and for the entire world. 'There is no building in the world that includes as many features under one roof as this one will.' M.U.M.'s four-year Bachelor of Science programme in Sustainable Living, too, is the first of its type in the country. 'This new Center will exemplify everything we teach within the academic programme,' he added.

Mr Loiselle elaborated on the Vedic groundbreaking ceremony, describing the traditional laying of the cornerstone and the ensuing sequence of events, prescribed to ensure the building's fortune and success. The laying of the cornerstone must take place at an exact auspicious time, he explained—in this case, on 28 July between 1:15 and 1:30 pm. The cornerstone is made up of five bricks, each containing a Vedic symbol. After completing the laying of the cornerstone, Mr Loiselle said, 'thus begins the most sustainable building in the world.'

Responding to the recorded presentation, Dr Bevan Morris emphasized that, most importantly, M.U.M.'s new Sustainable Living Center will be built perfectly in accord with principles of Vastu (Maharishi Sthapatya Veda, Vedic Architecture in accord with Natural Law).

'Vastu is the ultimate source of sustainability,' he said. 'When one builds according to these principles, he will gain support from the intelligence of Nature; and, with the support of Nature itself, there will never be any loss or lack of life.'

In conclusion, the Prime Minister remarked that the university's Sustainable Living Programme is gathering enthusiastic students from all over the country, who desire to become forerunners in the reconstruction of the world. 'With such rapid expansion of this major, the Sustainable Living Center will soon have to be duplicated.'

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