BUILDING A BETTER FUTURE Journal staff The Sustainable Technology Center of the San Juan Islands passed its one-year anniversary in July, during which time it has served as a showcase for new and innovative environmental technologies for buildings. A project of Seventh Generation Systems, Inc., of Friday Harbor, which provides consulting and design services in those technologies, the center features 17,000 square feet of commercial retail and office space on a one-acre site in Friday Harbor. It has its own water supply and wastewater treatment systems; its own solar power generators; solar hot water heating of offices; rainwater irrigation system; and an electric-vehicle charging station for the center's one electric car. According to its developers, Jim Sackett and J. Ward Phillips, the goal of the center is to make available to mainstream builders existing technology that is cost-effective and environmentally friendly. A particular aim is to demonstrate the feasibility of building projects in areas that lack such infrastructure as water, sewer and power hookups. Sackett and Phillips claim that the center uses 90 percent less electrical power than comparable buildings that use conventional technologies, and that it actually sells surplus power during sunny periods of low demand.