Minutes October 22, 2008
Campus Sustainability Council
Meeting, Wed. 10/22/08
Summary
Interim status
· The Vice-Chancellors are still discussing this issue.
Focus groups
· We need to prioritize among the many areas of sustainability. Perhaps three or four groups.
· We need to keep in mind that some of these initiatives are ongoing while others are at the beginning stages. Some also need a comprehensive plan more than others.
Curriculum:
· Primary focus is the Winnebago Project for infusing sustainability into the curriculum. This program is ongoing.
Student life:
· Sustainability programs could be in dorms, in orientation, and in mainstream university events.
· We should get OSA and USRH involved in this.
· Ashley and Cassandra expressed interest in working on this focus group.
· It was suggested that someone from the Council that knows the Campus Sustainability Plan should also be involved.
· We should go beyond our normal environmental events (e.g., Earth Charter and Earth Week) and try to integrate sustainability in university events not specifically aimed at sustainability.
Energy and water:
· We have doing a lot on this for several years. We could “coast” on this while we focus on other aspects.
· Steve is in the process of doing a carbon footprint analysis.
Facilities
· Sustainability is being taken seriously in the New Academic Building and the renovation to Elmwood Commons.
Food service
· There is a lot going on concerning food
· There are also non-food initiatives, such as take-out dinnerware made from organic materials.
· We need to keep checking to see what sustainability initiatives are going on, and what could be going on.
Purchasing
· This area is ripe for development.
· Here we also need a plan.
· Our purchasing has high impact.
· Brian will try to create a report on where we are with sustainable purchasing.
Recycling and solid waste
· Recycling has been going on for 20 years, but there is certainly room for improvement
· We recently purchased our first outdoor recycling containers.
· Recycling is actually a small portion of our solid waste.
· We need a thorough waste stream analysis.
· We need a comprehensive solid waste plan
Transportation
· Transportation is a significant part of our ecological footprint
· We actually have a substantial amount of data on this.
· Again, we need a comprehensive plan for this.
Fair Trade (FT)
· We achieved the goals of declaring ourselves a Fair Trade University (FTU) and making FT a part of the dining services contract.
· We are now working on educating the campus about FT and what a FTU is.
· We are also working on making sure we actually are purchasing and selling as much FT products as we can.
Garden
· We achieved the goal of starting the garden.
· This is a student-run initiative with a modestly paid intern.
Research
· Faculty, especially in the sciences, are already doing research that is related to sustainability. It would be good to make an inventory.
· The word “research” can mean a lot of things (e.g., researching our use of electricity), but the focus here is peer-reviewed scholarly research.
· This may be an area that we put on the back burner in order to focus on other things.
Outreach
· Outreach has two parts, which are not necessarily related: public relations, and connecting with off-campus communities.
· David is working with IMC on an integrated marketing campaign for sustainability.
Priorities
The Council considered the top priorities to be
· Curriculum
· Student life
· Dining services
· Solid waste
· Transportation
Marty raised the concern that we may be premature in developing some or all of these focus groups. We will be hiring a Director soon, and perhaps we should wait till the Director is in place. It was then suggested that our role is in part to give guidance and support to the Director, and starting these groups is a way to do that.
The Council decided to meet again in two weeks: Wed. Nov 5 at 3:30. The meeting will be in the Facilities Management Conference room unless you hear otherwise.
--Muldoon, Barnhill
