The campus facilities operations hub — landscaping, HVAC, waste-to-energy, compost, and recycling. This is where the campus crew works the trades, and keeps the whole place running.
Building 21 is the campus facilities operations hub. It sits right next door to Building 13 (the Mike Rowe Trades & Vocational Center), and the distinction between them matters: Building 13 is education, Building 21 is operations. Micro lives in Building 13 — he’s the janitor who knows every system, every sound, every drain — but his crew works out of Building 21: the landscapers, the HVAC techs, the maintenance workers, the handymen and handywomen.
This is a working facility, not a classroom. These people have jobs. Yes, they’re learning; yes, they’re on campus — but it’s a job to them. They show up, they fix things, they keep the campus running. The team operates on a philosophy of immediate action and problem-solving: equipment maintained preventively rather than reactively, safety protocols non-negotiable, every repair logged and every purchase documented.
Vehicle and equipment storage with repair stations, plus tool cribs organized by trade — plumbing, electrical, HVAC, landscaping, carpentry.
Mowers, tractors, salt trucks, and tree-service gear, with a radio/dispatch center routing maintenance requests across all 20+ buildings.
An industrial composting facility with curing bins and a recycling sorting floor — plus a break room and crew offices where the workday starts.
Landscapers, building maintenance, HVAC technicians, groundskeeping, and emergency response — a mix of campus employees and CWEP participants who earn credentials while they work.
BWG = Beautiful Word Garbage — the same turn-the-discarded-into-fuel logic as the FlipSuite file converter, made physical. A real waste-to-energy system: trash that can’t be composted or recycled is burned for heat. In winter, Building 21 is the warmest building on campus — it sits on the heat source.
Food waste from the DDS Server (Building 2) becomes compost here, then feeds the gardens at Old McDonald Farm (Building 3). Building 2 → 21 → 3 → 2. A closed loop on campus.
Campus-wide collection, sorting, and processing — paper, cardboard, aluminum, glass, plastics. The Triple R: Reuse, Recycle, Regurgitate — Leon Grey’s RRR Protocol, made literal. Sort it right, ship it to the best facility you can find.
Three tabs you can run. Fleet Maintenance — when oil, tires, brakes, and coolant come due. The Fleet — cars, ATV/UTVs, golf carts, tractors, and mowers, and how each one’s fed. The Checklist — did you load the right kit before you rolled out? Hosted by Micro; the checklist run by Mac Bulldog & Jamie Paul.
Building 21 has no college — it’s pure operations. Landscaping and HVAC, the BWG Incinerator and its waste-to-energy heat, composting and recycling: the daily work that keeps all 192 wooded acres running. Professionals lead, students support, everybody learns, the campus survives.
“Professionals lead, students support, everybody learns,
the campus survives. They show up. They fix things.”