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Environmental Sustainability Office

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Environmental Sustainability Steering Committee Meeting Minutes

Contact the Environmental Sustainability Coordinator at clarkra@uwstout.edu.

 

October 24, 2007	September 26, 2008
October 10, 2008

 

April 11, 2008	February 15, 2008	November 16, 2007
March 28, 2008	February 1, 2008	November 9, 2007
March 14, 2008	December 18, 2007 (communication)	October 26, 2007
February 29, 2008	December 7, 2007	October 15, 2007

 

 

October 24, 2007

October 24, 2008
Minutes taken by: Hope Larsen
Meeting Start: 2:00 pm
Meeting End: 3:00 pm

Present: Chris Lunde, Zenon Smolarek, Jen Parker, Noah Norton, Amy McGovern, Riana Clark, Krista James, Jim Handley, and Tasha Sookochoff (Stoutonia).

Absent: Derek Huber, Kim Martinez, Bob Salt, Diane Olson, Mitchell Spencer, and Amanda Little.

1. Announcements
• Raina Clark, Sustainability Coordinator, will be taking a position off campus and will be leaving UW-Stout the 31st of October.
• Krista James and Tasha Sookocoff attended the Regional Composting Conference

• It was a brain storming session for composting in the area.
• The city of Menomonie ships its trash to the Seven Mile Creek landfill in Eau Claire and an idea was proposed that maybe we could then ship their food waste back to Menomonie to be composted.

• Tasha Sookochoff from Stoutonia will now be attending committee meetings; she will act as a liaison between the committee and Stoutonia.

• Stoutonia is now adding a new addition to the newspaper, a column focusing on Sustainable Stout. Tasha will be covering some issues discussed in the committee and other related events such as the Regional Composting Conference.
• Krista suggested that Tasha write articles about hypothetical questions that students might have about sustainability issues on campus and how they could act upon them.

2. Future of the Committee
• The charge for the committee is the same to finish the Sustainability Action Plan by the end of the spring semester, despite Raina’s departure.
• Huff’s Lounge is still reserved for the committee every other Friday except for Dec 05, which will be 144 Price Commons.
• Raina will send the reservation list around via e-mail.

Motion 1:                    Committee member Krista James moved to recommend to the the Vice Chancellor of ASLS (Diane Moen) that Raina’s paid position as Sustainability Coordinator be re-filled. Jim Handley seconded the motion.

Discussion:                 Discussion points included:

• Several committee members agreed that a coordinator position is needed to keep this committee going.
• The committee agreed to meet in two weeks and several members suggested inviting Diane Moen.
• Amy McGovern suggested that someone host the meeting next week, Krista and Jim volunteered to do so.
• At the next meeting, the committee would like to ask for further guidance from its sponsor, Diane Moen.

Vote:
Passed on voice vote with no one voting against and one abstention.

 

Motion 2:                    Committee member Noah Norton moved to invite Diane Moen to the next meeting. Krista James seconded motion.

Discussion:                 Raina will notify Diane of the invitation

Vote:                          
Passed on voice vote with no one voting against and one abstention.

3. Sustainability Action Plan Work

• Raina has created a shared O: drive for the Sustainability committee to update and share files.
• Because of difficulty finding the O: drive Raina will get an IT personnel to give instructions on how to access the drive, for the MAC and HP.
• The Sustainability Action Plan outline has been posted on the shared drive.
• Noah Norton has now accepted the strategic area of Academic Initiatives; Courses & Programs.

 

Members’ reports on strategic areas

• Academic Initiatives
• Courses & Programs (Noah Norton)
• Research & Outreach (Diane Olson and Jeff Mullins)
• Working Progress

• Energy (Zenon Smolarek)
• Has been looking into electrical, plumbing and steam savings.

 

• Environmental Quality/Land-Use/Storm Water Management (Mandy Little)
• Met with Mike Smith and will be writing something up about campus land-use and storm water management to put into the shared drive.

• Resource use/Recycling/Composting (Jen Parker & Chris Lunde)
• Cleaning Supplies
• Jen make a note to talk to Bob Dodge for guidelines to start a change over to green cleaning supplies.
• Composting
• In Eau Claire Veolia picks up food waste for a week and composts in the landfill. Krista suggested that this would be a good example for this strategic area.

 

• Transportation (Amy McGovern)
• Working Progress

• Built Environment (Derek Huber)
• Working Progress

 

• Food (Jim Handley)
• Working Progress

• Administration & Finance (Raina Clark)
• Stout has no investments that are designated as environmentally and socially friendly.
• Raina has posted all her information on the shared drive, which includes signed documents, reports etc. It also includes strategic plans for the 2010 and 2015 goals and physical design of campus.
• The Master Campus Plan will include sustainability.

 

4. Future Ideas
• It was proposed to create a behavior campaign for students about the choice of aluminum cans over plastic bottles used in the vending machines.

• Pepsi is the provider of Stout’s soda vending machines and the contract does allow us to have aluminum cans over plastic, but the students would have to convinced of its benefits.

• It was suggested that Tasha could write an article about this in the Stoutonia.
• This would also be a good proposal idea for the strategic area of recycling and composting.

Networking:

• RAINA’S GOOD-BYE, October 31st, 1:30 p.m. at Legacy Chocolates, Broadway Menomonie, EVERYONE IS INVITED!

 

• 2nd Annual Recyclable-Art Competition held on Monday, November 11th, 7 p.m. in The Great Hall of the Memorial Student Center at UW-Stout, Menomonie.

• GreenSense-Student Environmental Club, meet every Monday in AFM residence hall lounge, UW-Stout at 7 p.m.

 

All meeting times will now start at 2:00 pm and end at 3:00 pm.
The next meeting held in Huff’s Lounge in the Memorial Student Center, Friday, November 7th will include:

•  An evaluation of what is going to happen to the committee and how we should go about completing the Sustainability Action Plan.

 

October 10, 2008

Minutes taken by: Hope Larsen
Meeting Start: 2:00 pm
Meeting End: 3:00 pm

Present: Chris Lunde, Jen Parker, Diane Olson, Raina Clark, Krista James, Jim Handley, Jeff Mullins, & Mandy Little.

Absent: Derek Huber, Zenon Smolarek, Amy McGovern, Noah Norton, Kimberly Martinez, Bob Salt, & Mitchell Spencer.

1. Sustainability Action Plan Work
•  Reviewed a basic draft outline for the UW-Stout Environmental Sustainability Action Plan. This can be viewed at: http://www.uwstout.edu/sustainability/ActionPlanOutline.pdf
• The committee also looked at the campus strategic planning model, this can be viewed at: http://www.uwstout.edu/bpa/planning/stratplan/index.html

Members’ reports on strategic areas

• Academic Initiatives
• Courses & Programs STILL OPEN
• Research & Outreach (Diane Olson and Jeff Mullins)
• Stout Research projects include, STEC-Stout Sustainable Technology and Energy Center, Regional Compost Network, Sustainable Resource Exchange Network, Green Packaging & Printing for Sustainable Supply Chains, Training and Development Summit, Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), Sustainable Design and Development Minor, Barron Somali Community Corporation, and UW-Stout Recreation Department.
• To view Diane’s materials on Academic Research & Outreach go to the shared drive (O:\Sustainability Committee\Academic-Research, Outreach)
• Diane and Jeff requested that Outreach have a category of its own, not under the Academic category.
• Energy (Zenon Smolarek)
• Environmental Quality/Land-Use/Strom Water Management (Mandy Little)
• Things that Mandy is working on
• Near the ROC structures run off from the parking lot has created erosion that is now washing a pile of dumped dirt into a nearby wetland.
• Mandy will be meeting with Mike Smith, Grounds Maintenance Supervisor to talk about incorporating more storm water management with the landscaping like rain gardens for example.
• Resource use/Recycling/Composting (Jen Parker & Chris Lunde)
• Things that are happening on campus
• Veolia is a recycling company that picks up all our recyclables and sorts them
• Residence Halls have recycling
• Spring Move-Out was a very successful event held at the school end where students could bring their used furniture, clothes etc. to be donated or deposed of properly.
• RecycleMania a nation-wide competition held between campuses, this is will be our 3rd year participating in the event. For more information visit this website: http://www.recyclemaniacs.org/Index.htm
• Dining Services- GreenSense a student run environmental club talked with Anne Thies, Director of Food Services about using EcoShells in the dining areas and they were asked to be on her advisory board.
• “Trayless” moment- some campuses are doing away with trays in dining services. This was used at UW-Eau Claire and it cut down on the food waste and the amount of water used to clean the trays. Some students have inquired with Ann Thies regarding pursuing this.
• Freshman Workshop for recycling and energy use reduction.
• ZENN Car- electric car that was purchased for on campus tasks.
• Stout received a loaner Mega Van for a month.
• Recyclable Art Competition held this Nov. 11th is for students and community members to create art out of recyclables.
• Recycling container- we need more recycling bins and better labeling.
• Krista suggested contacting Bob Dodge Buildings and Grounds Superintendent, for recycling container requests.
• Transportation (Amy McGovern)
• Built Environment (Derek Huber)
• Food (Jim Handley)
• Things that Jim has been working on
• Met with Ann Thies about getting locally grown and organic food.
• Stout buys food through Reinheart Food Services and they do offer organic options.
• But is there a demand from the students?
• It was suggested that we conduct a survey to see if students would be willing to pay the extra for sustainably grown food.
• Krista suggested asking Stoutonia to research and write-up an article about what other UW campuses are doing with sustainably grown food.
• Administration & Finance (Raina Clark)
• Mandy and Krista suggested that we ask Stoutonia to do a feature on the Sustainability Action Plan and invite a representative from Stoutonia to join as a committee member.
• Raina is going to find space on a shared drive where everyone can put there documents for data gathering. (Now available at O:\Sustainability Committee)

Networking:

• Sigma Lamba Chi will host a sustainability forum, focusing on LEED and renewable energy, on 10/24. Details at: https://www2.uwstout.edu/news/index.asp?event=news.get&ID=1517
• 2nd Annual Recyclable-Art Competition held on Monday, November 11th, 7 p.m. in The Great Hall of the Memorial Student Center at UW-Stout, Menomonie.

Note: Raina Clark will be leaving her position as UW-Stout’s Environmental Sustainability Coordinator, effective Nov. 1, 2008. Guidance for future committee work is forthcoming from the Vice Chancellor’s (ASLS) Office.

 

September 26, 2008

September 26, 2008
Minutes taken by: Hope Larsen
Meeting Start: 2:00 pm
Meeting End: 3:00 pm

Present: Derek Huber, Chris Lunde, Zenon Smolarek, Jen Parker, Amy McGovern, Diane Olson, Mitchell Spencer, Raina Clark and Jim Handley.

Absent: Noah Norton, Kimberly Martinez, Robert Salt, and Krista James.

1. Announcements
• The committee welcomes four new members; Chris Lunde with IRHA, Zenon Smolarek with Building and Grounds, Jen Parker Hall director, and Diane Olson with the College of Management. Jim Handley, from the department of Social Sciences, is also volunteering for the committee with a special interest in sustainable food. 
• The committee introduced the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment: http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/ to the new members and reasons for developing a campus wide action plan.
2. Work Group Reports
• There were no work group members present at the committee meeting this week.
3. Review of committee charge and approved mission/vision statement
• Committee Charge:
• Develop and recommend an environmental sustainability action plan including strategies to move toward sustainable campus operations, encourage the incorporation of sustainability into the curriculum, and increase public awareness and participation in the plan.
• Action Plan Mission:
• Promote environmental sustainability at the campus level to support the emerging green collar economy
• Action Plan Vision:
• Encourage leadership and innovative thinking to advance campus sustainability
4. Sustainability Action Plan Work
• Raina found three resources for developing tasks to propose for the action plan
• Indiana University Task Force on Campus Sustainability-Campus Sustainability Report

( https://www.indiana.edu/~sustain/sustainabilityiu/report/ )

• Sustainability Tracking and Rating System (STARS)

( http://www.aashe.org/stars/documents/STARS_0.5.pdf)

• Campus Consortium for Environmental Excellence

( www.c2e2.org )

• The committee will focus on the following 8 categories of campus sustainability (7 categories taken from Indiana University Task Force Report and one additional category from STARS)
• Committee members were asked to pick a category to gather information on and develop tasks for proposal. Blue highlighted items are those that are still open for other committee members:
•  Academic Initiatives
• Research - Diane Olson
• Course/programs
• Energy - Zenon Smolarek
• Environmental Quality/Land-Use/Strom Water Management
• Resource Use/Recycling- Jen Parker and Chris Lunde
• Transportation- Amy McGovern
• Built Environment- Derek Huber
• Food- Jim Handley
• Administration and Finance-Raina
• For each category, the action plan will briefly describe:
•  the current state at UW-Stout
• the obstacles and opportunities
• recommend action items
• Committee members were asked to gather information about what is currently happening on campus in regard to their chosen categories (just a simplified bulleted list). Bring your bulleted list to report to the committee at the next meeting.

Knowing what is already being done on campus will help us to formulate strategies/action items for the sustainability action plan.

• Raina also suggested looking through all resources before you begin asking questions of campus staff.  There is the committee audit, on-line clearinghouse, 2008 energy conservation report, physical plant project list, U-Res Renewal Plan, U-Rec sustainability plan draft, to name a few. Many activities from these sources can be found on the Environmental Sustainability Office website:  http://www.uwstout.edu/sustainability/index.html under the Sustainability Activities at UW-Stout; Academic and Administrative.
  
• If you do not know who to talk to regarding the status of your chosen area, contact Raina.
• Updated Meeting Dates (12 meetings in 2008/09)

9/27/08-Huff’s
10/10/08-Huff’s
10/24/08-Huff’s
11/07/08-Huff’s
11/21/08-Huff’s
12/5/08-Huff’s
-Winterterm-
1/30/08-Huff’s
2/13/08-Huff’s
2/27/08-Huff’s
3/27/08-Huff’s
4/24/08-Price Commons 144
5/08/08-Huff’s

 

All meeting will now start at 2:00 pm and end at 3:00 pm., every other Friday. The next meeting will be in Huff’s of the student center, on Friday, October 10th, and will include:

• Review and discuss information gathered by committee members on current efforts in the 7 major campus sustainability areas. Identify areas where further investigation is necessary.

 

 

April 11, 2008

Minutes taken by: Hope Larsen
Meeting Start: 10:30am
Meeting End: 11:00am

Present: Kitrina Carlson, Scott Griesbach, Amy McGovern, Ted Hendzel, Anne Hoel, Raina Clark, Kimberly Martinez, Derek Huber, and Diana Moen.

Absent: Noah Norton, Bob Salt, Mitchell Spencer, Andrew Steele, and Drew Barrette.

1. Today’s meeting will be cut short by half an hour so that committee members may also attend the Green Business degree meeting in the Glass Lounge at 11:00am
2. Methane Digester Trip (Five Star Dairy), April 18th 10am
• Anyone planning on going needs to fill out a travel authorization
• Kitrina and Raina are driving and there is no charge for the trip
• For more information about the Methane Digester project at Five Star Dairy check out this website: www.farmenergy.org/success/anaerobicdigesters_five_star.php
3. Work Group Announcements
1. Composting (Kitrina Carlson)
• Five Star Dairy sent back the report on the food waste at Stout, now there are questions about would we have to pay for processing of the waste and could it be used for fuel? 
• John Illgen is coming to Stout to look at the food waste and Kitrina hopes to create a collaboration between Stout and Five Star Dairy to have them come pick up the waste and burn for fuel.
2. Recycling (Krista James)
• The “Spring Move-Out” Group is in the process of writing a Great Menomonie Area Community Foundation (GMACF) grant proposal to cover the cost of a canopy for the event.
• Veolia will be providing food for the “Spring Move-Out” Event
• Amy McGovern and Emily Ascher have been advertising for the event through facebook
• The “Spring Move-Out” event is only for students on and off campus, it is not open the community.
3. Graphic Design (Derek Huber)
• The committee viewed the rendered designs that Derek and Noah have been working on.
• The committee liked the idea of having the choice between, an outline, solid and three-color design for printing purposes.
• Raina also suggested that there should be a water element to the design to go along with the Storm Water Management that Stout is working on.
• Raina will be presenting the design ideas Monday, April 14th at the Chancellor’s Issues meeting.
4. Strategic Planning (Anne Hoel)
• Anne had her Strategic Planning class look at our visioning notes, EPA, and the Environmental Sustainability Steering Committee Website to get ideas.
• She presented a couple Visioning drafts, a Mission draft and ideas for a Business Model for how we want to move forward.
• The committee was pleased with the use of, “Green-Collar Economy”
• Anne will send a copy of the drafts via e-mail so that everyone can have the chance to create input.
• The next step is to send Raina or Anne any input, so that can get together and write another draft that will then be sent around to the committee again for more input.

Networking:

1. Saturday, April 16th GreenSense, Earth Day Celebration held on the South Lawn, UW-Stout (by the Applied Arts Building and MSC), 2-6 pm.
2. April 18th-19th “Upper Midwest Association for Campus Sustainability Conference 2008”, held in Decorah, IA. http://www.umacs.org/Conference/UMACCS_2008.htm
3. Monday, April 21st “Eating as if the Planet Mattered” Sustainability and Organic Agriculture, presentation by Will Fante, 7-8pm in Room 144, Price Commons, UW-Stout.
4. Tuesday, April 22nd Blue Devil Productions and GreenSense are presenting an Earth Day movie, “The Eleventh Hour” 7 pm, Room 210, Applied Arts, UW-Stout. http://bdp.uwstout.edu/events/2008/apr/22.html
5. Tuesday, April 22nd Earth Day Celebration, presented by Sick of Waiting for the World to Change, 7-9pm, Menomonie Leisure Center (corner of 6th and 14th).

Our last meeting will in room 130 of the Price Commons (conference room) on Friday, April 25. The agenda will include:

• Approving the vision/mission to be recommended to the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee
• Approving the sustainability image to be recommended to the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee
• Look ahead for fall semester

 

 

March 28, 2008

Minutes taken by: Hope Larsen
Meeting Start: 10:30am
Meeting End: 11:05am

Present: Bob Salt, Drew Barrette (SSA), Derek Huber (GreenSense), Ted Hendzel, Raina Clark, Krista James, and Anne Hole.

Absent: Noah Norton, Kimberly Martinez, Mitchell Spencer, Scott Griesbach, Amy McGovern, and Kitrina Carlson.

1. “Early Earth Day Odyssey” Eco- Friendly Car Show (Monday, April 7th)
• Chris Schneider founder of Hope3.org a non-profit organization will be presenting alternative fuel vehicles.
• Dunn County News will be present creating a streaming video of the event
• GreenSense will have a table and Raina has invited The Menomonie Market Food Co-op to have a table as well.
2. Earth Day (April 22nd)
• GreenSense is working with BlueDevil Production to present, “The Eleventh Hour”
• GreenSense is holding its Earth Day celebration on April 19th during parents weekend
• Guess Speaker Will Fanntle will be speaking, April 21st
3. Recycling Work Group (Krista James)
• RecycleMania up-date: UW-Stout has fallen a bit in the Waste Minimization ranking, we are now 18th, but we are improving in bottles, cans and cardboard recycling.
• The group is working on a website for the “Recyclable Art Competition” that was held in November.
• “Spring Move-Out” up-date: Will be presenting to SSA Tuesday, April 1st to help with advertising.
4. Anne Hoel has joined the committee as the head of the new “Strategic planning work group” whose first goal is to present a draft of the Sustainability Action Plan vision/mission statement
• Ann has volunteered to put together drafts for ESSC’s Mission Statement, Vision Statement and Values, with the help of her Strategic Planning class of seniors.
• She will show the visioning notes and list of valued words to her class next week so that they may create 3-4 models, which she will e-mail to Raina.
5. Committee looked at more designs created for the UW-Stout Sustainability Campaign Contest made by Ambica Prakash’s Graphic Design class.
• Congratulations to Derek Huber! His design and motto, “Sustainable Stout” was chosen by the committee for the winner of the UW-Stout Sustainability Campaign Contest.
• Derek will head the “Sustainability Symbol work group” and work with Noah Norton to create drafts that will be shown at our next meeting.

Networking:

1. Monday, April 7th “Early Earth Day” Eco-Friendly Car Show, held the Memorial Student Center, Great Hall, UW-Stout, from 1-2pm.
2. Monday, April 7th, “Sustainable Dunn” meeting held 7:00pm, First Congregational Church (UCC) at 420 Wilson Ave., Menomonie. Raina Clark and Ed Todhal, Power Plant Superintendant will be there to speak about UW-Stout power plant.
3. Wednesday, April 9th “Presidents Climate Commitment Webcast” held in Room 201 of Millennium Hall, UW-Stout, 12:30-2:00pm.
4. April 18th-19th “Upper Midwest Association for Campus Sustainability Conference 2008”, held in Decorah, IA. http://www.umacs.org/Conference/UMACCS_2008.htm

All meetings will now start at 10:30 am to run till 11:30 am.
The next meeting held in Room 144, Merle Price Commons building, UW-Stout, Friday, April 11th will include:

• Reviewing vision/mission statement drafts created by Anne Hole’s Strategic Planning class.
• Reviewing sustainability symbol drafts of Derek’s design for the UW-Stout sustainability effort.

March 14, 2008


Minutes taken by: Hope Larsen
Meeting Start: 10:30am
Meeting End: 11:30am

Present: Kimberly Martinez, Scott Griesbach, Derek Huber (GreenSense), Amy McGovern, Kitrina Carlson, Ted Hendzel, Krista James, and Raina Clark.

Absent: Noah Norton, Bob Salt, Mitchell Spencer, Andrew Steele, and Drew Barrette (SSA).

1. Work Group Announcements
1. Composting (Kitrina Carlson)
• Kitrina has been working with the company, Microgy and the use of their anaerobic digester (Methane digester) for the deposal of campus dining waste.
• Kitrina has also been talking with 5-Star Dairy in Barron and they are willing to collect the food waste for free. They also give tours of their facility that the committee might be interested in.
• For waste storage 5-Star Dairy suggested they we get a large holding tank to pulp the food waste from for pick up.
• The Katie Lee Memorial Fund has $1000 to be put towards composting projects
2. Recycling (Krista James)
• Report for RecycleMania: Stout is still in the top 10-11 percent nation wide for Waste Minimization. For more updates check out: www.recyclemaniacs.org
•  “Spring Move-Out” update
• The event is held Friday, May 16th and Monday, May 19th
• Held for off-campus students to bring there used furniture and other donations
• There will be two times per day that will be designated for roll-off for throw away items
• They are looking for a large canopy for the event, if anymore knows of one that can be used please contact Krista James.
3. Focus Groups (Amy McGovern)
• In progress
2. “Power Down” and “Energy Wars” (Amy McGovern)
1. The events are taking place in the Residence Halls
• Lights are being turned off in the halls
• There has been a great student response
• The final results from the events will come out the end of March
• IRHA has a facebook page and the events are listed on-line
3. Kitrina suggested having Anne Hole from the Business Department join the ESSC committee to help
• Possible projects for Anne include developing the sustainable student culture shift and business model for streamlining recycling systems within Admin and Residence Halls
• Ann has a graduate student in Marketing and Business that could help as well
4. Looked at Visioning from the past two meetings. Pulled out key words for the development of our Mission Statement and Vision for UW-Stout.
1. Raina will send this out to the committee members
5. Looked at images created for the UW-Stout Sustainability Campaign Contest
6. “UW-Stout 2008 Optimal Health Fair” held Wednesday, March 26th 10-3pm in the Multi-Purpose Gym of the Sports and Fitness center.
• ESSC will be have a display table at the event, so please e-mail Raina with anything that might be good to display to the campus and community.
7. “Early Earth Day”, April 7th from 1-2pm held in the Great Hall. A featured item will be alternative fuel vehicle demos.

Networking:

1. Wednesday, March 26th “UW-Stout 2008 Optimal Health Fair” held in the Multi-Purpose Gym of the Sports and Fitness Center, UW-Stout from 10-3pm.
2. Monday, April 7th “Early Earth Day” held the Memorial Student Center, Great Hall, UW-Stout, from 1-2pm.
3. April 18th-19th “Upper Midwest Association for Campus Sustainability Conference 2008”, held in Decorah, IA. http://www.umacs.org/Conference/UMACCS_2008.htm

All meetings will now start at 10:30 am to run till 11:30 am.
The next meeting held in the Oakwood Room, Memorial Student Center, Friday, March 28th will include:

• drafting mission statement from key words and visioning notes
• Reviewing/deciding on sustainable campaign contest entries

February 29, 2008

Minutes taken by Hope Larsen
Meeting Start: 10:35am
Meeting End: 11:35am

Present: Derek Huber (GreenSense), Krista James, Bob Salt, Amy McGovern, Kitrina Carlson, Raina Clark and Tim Mertz (Stout Adventures).

Absent: Noah Norton, Kimberly Martinez, Mitchell Spencer, Scott Griesbach, Andrew Steele, Drew Barrette (SSA), and Ted Hendzel.

1. Announcements
1. UW-Stout Sustainability Campaign Contest
• Ambica Prakash has a Graphic Design course working on the designs for the campaign.
2. Raina Clark will send out a link to University if Indiana’s sustainability mission/report as a possible example for the committee to follow in drafting its action plan.
3. The Environmental Sustainability Steering Committee now has a Facebook group on-line.
• You can search and join the group, “UW-Stout Office of Environmental Sustainability” on www.facebook.com 
4. The residence Halls will be putting on an Energy Competition, “Don’t Blow a Bulb.”
• Events such as the 1970’s “Black-Outs” may occur to promote more energy conservation as well.
2. Work Groups
1. Composting (Kitrina Carlson)
• Kitrina Carlson met with Ann Thies of Dining Services and she is 100% on board for composting and reducing waste in dining.
• They already us a pulpier for the food waste that is currently thrown away, but it will be helpful for composting in the future.
• Dining services has already started changing the dishwashing liquids to be environmentally friendly. Demos for compostable, post consumer serving products is being looked at, such as biodegradable bowls, made of corn that can be composted and dish sorting ideas for students.  
• Earlier Krista James had mentioned Methane Digesters, and Kitrina now feels that the Wisconsin DNA Proposal Grant would be more suited for the Methane Digesters than the campus composter idea.
2. Recycling (Krista James)
• “Spring Move-Out” Friday, May 16th and Monday, May19th, advertising for the event will start in April.
• Krista James is working on funding and IRHA will fund $250.00 dollars for promotion use.
• “RecycleMania” UW-Stout is ranked #10 in the National and #1 in Wisconsin for Waste Minimization.  For more statistics and information about RecycleMania 2008 check out this website: www.recyclemaniacs.org
3. Focus Sessions for Sustainability on Campus (Amy McGovern)
• There will be three Focus Sessions consisting of 6-8 people from Stouts different departments.
4. Open Forum on Sustainability at Stout (Bob Salt)
• Two Open Forum Sessions open to students, staff, and the public. For dates and times look under “Networking”.
• Raina Clark has sent Laura Short an announcement to be placed in the Dunn County News to inform the public of the Open Forums taking place this week. 

Networking:

1. Tuesday, Mar. 4, Open Forum on Sustainability at UW-Stout, 2:00- 3:00 pm in the Glass Lounge of the Merle Price Commons building, UW-Stout.
2. Wednesday, Mar. 5, Open Forum on Sustainability at UW-Stout, 9:00- 10:00 am in the Great Hall of the Memorial Student Center, UW-Stout.
3. Tuesday, Mar. 11, “Planning Spring Move-Out” webinar from the National Recycling Coalition, 11:00 -12:30, Millennium 201, UW-Stout.
4. Wednesday, Mar. 12, “Spring Move-Out” planning meeting, 10:30- 11:30 am at the Menomonie City Hall, third floor.
5. Wednesday, April 9, Second “Presidents Climate Commitment” webcast, 12:30- 2:00 pm in Millennium Hall room 201, UW-Stout.

All meeting times will now start at 10:30 am and run till 11:30 am.
The next meeting held in Oakwood room, Memorial Student Center, Friday, March 14th will include:

• Review of the visioning brainstorming from the meetings and from the open forums and pick out the main/most important points to be included in the Sustainability Action Plan mission statement.
• Preliminary judging of the sustainability campaign contest entries (If Ambica’s class has turned them in).

February 15, 2008

Minutes taken by: Hope Larsen
Meeting Start: 10:30 am
Meeting End: 11:55 am

Present: Krista James, Kimberly Martinez, Drew Barrette (SSA), Kitrina Carlson, Ted Hendzel, Bob Salt, Mitchell Spencer, and Raina Clark.

Absent: Noah Norton, Andrew Steele, GreenSense Member, Amy McGovern, and Scott Griesbach.

1. Work Group Announcements
1. Composting Work Group- Kitrina Carlson
• Kitrina met with George Hayducsko, Dunn County Solid Waste and he said that they would be happy to help, but suggested that the City composting system would be better.
• Kitrina has also looking into the “Waste Recycle Reduction Demonstration” Grant, for funding the large scale composting system on Campus.
• Mandy Mulder (GreenSense President)- has told Kitrina that the students want to something, for ex. Awareness Program, Green Living Program, “Reusing mugs”.
• Another issue to be addressed is Reducing Food Waste on campus, Kitrina presented a document, “Getting an “A” at Lunch” on this topic, and she will send this out to the committee members.
• The idea was suggested to have someone in charge of Campus Composting and also having a constantly funded student position in Dining.
2. Open Forum Visioning Sessions- Bob Salt (Noah Norton and Krista James will be helping)
• Two separate Open Forums in early March
• Tuesday, Mar. 4th at 2-3pm, held in Price Commons, Glass Lounge. Seating for 75.
• Wednesday, Mar.5th at 9-10am, held in the MSC, Great Hall. Seating for 100.
• Promotion for the Open Forums
• Kitrina suggested getting the community input in the visioning for ex. Sustainable Dunn.
• Raina will contact Laura Short about a write up in the Dunn County News about the Open Forums and post it in the daily emails.
3. Focus Visioning Sessions- Amy McGovern is working with Tim Mertz (UREC Stout Adventures) he will be filling in for Scott Griesbach during the next ESSC meeting.
• Two Groups of 10 Department Representatives
4. Recycling Work Group- Krista James
• Krista spoke with Eileen Norby, UW-System Solid Waste Coordinator and she said, “that a River Falls student received a $7000 grant to determine how UW-System college campuses can compost at the institutional level”
• It was suggested that it might be good to talk to Kelly Cain about learning how to do composting within EPA/state regulations
2. Visioning for Sustainable Action Plan: Raina will send out the “Visioning” notes from the meeting to the committee members via e-mail.

Visioning Start: 10:50 am
Visioning End: 11:30 am

3. Campus Sustainability Auditing
1. Raina has received Audits (surveys) from the Art and Design Department and the College of Technology, Engineering and Management (CTEM).
4. “Upper Midwest Association for Campus Sustainability Conference 2008”
1. Krista James suggested that committee members and students could go to this Conference. For more information check out the website under “Networking”.
2. Raina will take a look at the travel budget for funding to attend the Conference.
5. “Third Annual Campus Sustainability Day” presented by the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP)
1. Bob Salt suggested using SCUP’s resources (ex. web cast) to hold a Campus Sustainability Day at UW-Stout, October 22 2008.
2. Here is the Campus Sustainability Day website for 2008: http://www.scup.org/csd/index.html

Networking:

1. Wednesday, Feb. 20th “Spring Move-Out” meeting, held in room 221 Jarvis Hall, Science Wing, 10:30 am to 12:00 pm.
2.  Mar. 20th “Green Communities Conference”, held in River Falls. Keynote Speaker Richard Heinberg, Environmental Scientist. http://www.wcw-synergy.net/green/index.shtml
3. April 18th-19th “Upper Midwest Association for Campus Sustainability Conference 2008”, held in Decorah, IA. http://www.umacs.org/Conference/UMACCS_2008.htm

All meetings will now start at 10:30 am to run till 11:30 am.
The next meeting held in the Memorial Student Center, Prairie/Pioneer room, Friday, February 29th will include:

• The committee will continue visioning how UW-Stout will look, operate and teach as an environmental sustainable campus. (last of two brainstorm sessions)

 

February 1, 2008

Minutes taken by: Hope Larsen
Meeting Start: 10:30 am
Meeting End: 11:50 am

Present: Kimberly Martinez, Drew Barrette (SSA), Kitrina Carlson, Ted Hendzel, Krista James, and Raina Clark.

Absent: Noah Norton, Bob Salt, Mitchell Spencer, Andrew Steele, GreenSense Member, Amy McGovern, and Scott Griesbach.

1. Reports from Work Groups
a. Composting- Kitrina Carlson

• Kitrina met with Mike Smith (Grounds Maintenance Supervisor), and talked about small and large scale composting.
• Mike was not at all interested in small scale composting, due to smell, and maintenance. For ex. Small composting areas behind dorms.
• Mike was in favor of large scale composting and suggested applying for a grant for an Institution Composter (equipment). He would then be willing to take care of the composting equipment.
• Kitrina will contacting George Hayducsko (Involved in “Spring Move Out) about collaborating on acquiring an on-campus large scale composter or composting campus. Off campus composting may involve farmers or others willing to pick up the waste to use for composting.

b. Recycling- Krista James

• Two students were hired to run RecycleMania 2008, Mandy Mulder and Heidi Behnke and they met with 56 groups from Bio 111 to develop service-learning projects to help and promote recycling for the next ten weeks.
• Krista has been contacting the Dunn County News, they want to interview Mandy and Heidi and write about the RecycleMania Events.
• Krista  suggested that Drew Barrette (SSA) meet with Mandy Mulder, so that SSA could get involved with RecycleMania, maybe distributing filers.

2. Visioning and Strategizing for Development of the Sustainability Action Plan
a. Campus Visioning: Bob Salt is leading the Open Invitation Visioning sessions and Amy McGovern is leading Focus Groups for visioning.
Amy McGovern has been working to put together focus groups. Kitrina Carlson suggested contacting Ann Hole for her management expertise to help organize focus groups.

• Drew will help Bob, but maybe also finding someone not in the committee to help as well.
• Visioning and strategizing within the Committee will be taking place over the next four meetings, 2/15, 2/29, 3/28, and 4/11.
• Raina will contact Bob and Amy to have them talk with BPA for help with organizing the campus visioning sessions.
• Kitrina and Krista suggested creating a discussion board forum to promote input for visioning, either on the ESSC website or the Learn@UW-Stout site.
• Permission is required for creating this so Raina will be looking into that.

b. ESSC Sustainability Audit

• Raina has already met with CTEM and they have already sent back some of their surveys for the Audit.
• Krista suggested that the survey gather information about social and economical aspects of sustainability as well as environmental sustainability done on campus.
• Kim Martinez is taking care of the SOE (School of Education) and will be talking to the Program of Directors.
• Drew will be contacting the club presidents of student organizations.
• If anyone plans to bring the audit to a department meeting, let Raina know if she should attend to help explain the audits objectives.
• The goal is to have responses to the audit in by February 29. Raina would like to review the Audit during the 3/14 meeting if not canceled.

3. Marketing Sustainability Campaign Contest

• Raina Clark will be resending the guidelines for the campaign to the committee.
• Krista suggested contacting, new faculty member Uttam Kokil, for proposing the campaign as a project idea for his art and design course.
• Another suggestion from the committee was to contact Bob Horan about honor students willing to participate in the image and motto campaign.
• Raina may also be meeting with Noah Norton this coming Wednesday, Feb. 6th to talk about the campaign as well.

4. NACUBO/ACUPCC Web cast
a. February 27, 12:30-2:00pm and March 12, 12:30-2:00pm (these times
have been corrected)

• There was confusion about the times of the events so Raina will send out the correct meeting times.
• February 27th, meeting is an important event for the committee, because most of the focus is going to be on the ACUPCC.

Networking:

1. Feb. 20th, “Spring Move- Out” meeting, held in room 221 Jarvis Hall, Science Wing, 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

All meeting will now start at 10:30 am and run till 11:30 am.
The next meeting held in the Memorial Student Center, Badger Room, Friday, February 15th will include:

• The committees first visioning session for steps towards the Sustainability Action Plan.

 

December 18, 2007

E-mailed by Raina Clark on December 18, 2007.

Meeting Canceled
Because few faculty members will be available and we do not have specific decisions to make at this time, the Environmental Sustainability Steering Committee meeting this Friday, December 21st, is cancelled.

Recycling Work Group
Notes from the recycling work group’s meeting with Sustainable Dunn and city and county officials regarding the “Spring Move Out” program, are available at http://www.uwstout.edu/sustainability/recyclingminutes.html.

UW-Stout Sustainable Activities Audit
As discussed in our last meeting, the auditing responsibilities for committee members are listed below. If you have questions or concerns with this list, please let me know.

Some of these areas will overlap and capture some of the same info. While compiling your audit you should look for environmental friendly activities in administrative offices (i.e. someone designated to check that all lights are out at the end of the day, or only allowing the use of “green” cleaners, etc.) and classes, class projects, service-learning projects, and other academic activities related to sustainability. I envision a brief bulleted list of activities in each area, but plan to post what I have for my areas sometime later in January so that you can use it as an example if you need to.

The attached “Energy Conservation Report” of 2006 lists ongoing and proposed conservation activities in administrative departments, and may help you with your audits.

IT departments-Chancellor’s Division: Raina Clark
College of Arts & Sciences: Noah Norton & Krista James (divide responsibility as appropriate)
College of Human Development: Bob Salt
School of Education: Kimberley Martinez
Faculty Senate (any current programs of initiatives sponsored by the senate): Kitrina Carlson
Physical Plant: Raina Clark & Ted Hendzel
University Housing: Andrew Steele
All other units of Student Life Services: Scott Griesbach & Amy McGovern (divide as appropriate)
Procurement and Materials Management: Raina Clark
Health and Safety: Raina Clark
Student Groups: Drew Barrette (consult Involvement & Leadership-Mary McManus)

Next meeting
Faculty-Please email me your spring schedules as soon as possible so that I can coordinate the next committee meeting.

 

December 7, 2007

Minutes taken by: Hope Larsen
Meeting Start: 12:15 pm
Meeting End: 1:20 pm

Present: Andrew Steele, Raina Clark, Krista James, Mandy Mulder (Greensense), Bob Salt, Amy McGovern, Mitchell Spencer, Kitrina Carlson, Ted Hendzel and Noah Norton.

Absent: Drew Barette (SSA), Kimberly Martinez, and Scott Griesbach.

1. Recycling Work Group
1. Group Members:
• Krista James- Professor in Biology Department
• Bob Dodge- Buildings and Grounds Superintendent (Academic Custodial, Moves and Recycling)
• Chuck Bomar- Professor in Biology Department
• Heidi Behnke- RecycleMania student co-coordinator
• Mandy Mulder- RecycleMania student co-coordinator
• Jessica Vanderwerff- student heading a recycling education workshop funded by the UW-System Solid Waste Student Research Fund.
2. Mandy and Heidi are being paid to coordinate RecycleMania 2008 through a grant
3. A major focus this year is on the the WASTE MINIMIZATION component of RecycleMania, which fulfils one the tasks for the ACUPCC.
4. Krista has meet with the work group and had a conference call with Steven Point and their recycling plans.
5. Krista is also meeting with county and city representatives about “Spring Move On”, an event dealing with student waste at the end of the year.
6. Andy Kawa was volunteered to join the Recycling Work group, he approached Krista about a research project, using information he has been collecting from gathering recyclables from the garbage.
2. Composting Work Group
1. Group Members:
• Kitrina Carlson- Assistant Professor in Biology Department
• Mandy Mulder- Greensense Member/RecycleMania
• Diana Witcher- Garden Designer
• Noah Norton- Faculty Advisor for Project Eco Imagination
• Timothy Parmer- Designed Recycling Train
• Mike Smith- Grounds Maintenance Supervisor
• Denise Goers- Advisor dealing with Community Learning groups
• Mike Kuhlman- University Dining Services Rep.
2. Committee voted and the Compost Work Group was approved.
• Working to form a group to and possibly a service-learning project to create a small scale composting model that could later
• Looking to collaborate with GreenSense to build the compost project in honor of Katie Lee.
• GreenSense is working on a campus wide survey about views on composting.
• Raina needs to find representatives from Rendezvous or Corner III, then she will set up the first Composting Work Group Meeting.
3. Reviewed steps to take toward drafting a Sustainability Action Plan
3. Goal: to propose a Sustainability Action Plan by the end of spring 2008
4. Audit- What is currently being done at UW-Stout?
• Each committee member needs to look at the area they represent on the committee or another assigned area. Then report back to the committee on what educational and operational sustainability activities, practices or classes are found. Raina will email members their areas of responsibility for the audit.
• Krista and Bob suggested that the Faculty Representatives could talk about the Audit during the Chair meetings.
• Resources for auditing: 2006 UW-Stout Energy Conservation Report and the Sustainability Project Management Matrix. (The Project Management Matrix is the combined tasks Stout is responsible for in regards to our Storm Water Management permit, the Governor’s energy conservation order 145, and the Presidents Climate Commitment. (Raina will send around the energy conservation report as well as the matrix when it is fully developed)
• Audit is due early March
5. The Committee talked about Visioning/Strategizing Sessions
• Bob Salt suggested having Open Sessions for the campus and community to get involved in.
• Amy McGovern suggested creating Focus Groups, invite 1 or 2 people from each representing area and ask guided questions.
• Have other Committees done Focus groups? Kitrina Carlson suggested contacting Ann Hoel to help create a model for a focus group.
• Kitrina Carlson also suggested the committee meet before the focus sessions proceed, to develop ideas and questions to ask.
• Mitchell Spencer suggested a combination of both.
• Two Open Sessions- Invite 3 or 4 Representatives from each area, Student Organizations and the campus. Maybe meeting on Tuesday and Thursday.
• Two Focus Sessions- Consisting or about 12-15 people and split the areas in two, have a Focus Session for ADMIN and another for Faculty and Student organizations. Maybe meeting on Monday and Wednesdays.
• At the session there would be a brief presentation about our committee and what we have committed to do for the ACUPCC pledge and ask for public input.
• After compiling the information collected from Focus sessions the committee would meet and create Vision Statement and Strategy.
• Bob Salt suggested pushing the schedule back 2 weeks so the month of February could be dedicated to collecting the information from the Focus Sessions.
• We could possibly gather talk about the Auditing during the Focus sessions as well.
6. Consensus was in favor of holding open and targeted focus groups.
• The committee voted to create a focus group work group headed by Bob Salt.
• Amy McGovern volunteered to help Bob.
•  Bob will talk with Honors Program, including Andrew Steele and Drew Barette (SSA) about helping with the focus groups
•  Amy McGovern will contact Amy Gillett to see if she may be able to help
• Raina will contact BPA for help with the focus groups.
7. Raina will update “steps toward the action plan” document to reflect the changes the committee had.
• The next meeting will be held on December 21st, at 12:15, in Price Commons, room 144.
• There will be no meetings held over Winter Break.
• Faculty: Please email your spring semester schedules to Raina, as soon as you can so we can decide on the best meeting day and time for next semester.

 

November 16, 2007

Minutes taken by: Hope Larsen
Meeting Start: 12:15pm
Meeting End: 1:20pm

Present: Mitchell Spencer, Andrew Steele, Raina Clark, Drew Barette (SSA), Ted Hendzel, Amy McGovern, Bob Salt, and Noah Norton.

Absent: Kitrina Carlson, Kimberly Martinez, Scott Griesbach, Krista James, and Greensense Member.

1. Krista James is working with the head of Academic Custodial,  Bob Dodge, and the head of University Housing custodial services, Martin Fritz,  to develop a campus-wide recycling plan.
2. Raina went over the Sustainable Campaign Contest (image and motto for the campus-wide sustainability effort). She has sent out the draft of contest guidelines to committee members immediately following the meeting. Please send back comments on the guidelines ASAP.  The contest will hopefully begin immediately following Thanksgiving.
1. Raina will talk to Drew, Noah, and others regarding the due date needed in order to allow design courses to work on the motto/logo as a class project.
3. ACUPCC Two Month Report
1. Report includes items 2b and 2g: http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/html/commitment.php
2. Raina will send out the report after the Chancellor has reviewed it.
4. Discussion with George Acker, Campus Planner regarding LEED certification on campus.
1. George went over the building issues of Jarvis Hall’s new Science Wing.
• Jarvis Hall planning has been in progress for 12-13 years and was started before LEED Certification became a state focus.
• The plan involves adding 90 thousand square feet.
• Architects estimated that the building could be Gold Certified, at a cost of $5 million dollars in addition to the $4.3 million currently budgeted.
• Bob suggested looking at the long-term effects of not being sustainable and the pay off that it would have in the future, instead of looking at the upfront cost.
2. GPR- General Purpose Revenue vs. PR- Program Revenue (Student fees)
• The State used to leave the Program Revenue for the Universities to decide what to do with. Now they have final say over both the GPR and the PR.
• Even if the university raised the money the State still has the right to say, “no” to the project because the State owns the buildings.
• “HOW TO BREAK THE CYCLE”, the committee came to a conclusion of two factors: Students must champion the cause and outside donors must be found to fund sustainable buildings.
3. Drew suggested looking for other sources of funding (Grants)
• Look at Grant possibilities and e-mail them to Raina, also anyone interested in volunteering for a special grant group, please contact Raina.
4.  Committee asked George if it was obtainable for Jarvis Hall to get the Gold LEED Certification and he did not think so, but suggested looking at future projects. Upcoming Capital Projects:
• Price Commons Second Floor remodel
• Hovlid Hall renovation and addition- new dining service
• Harvey Hall Theater
• Memorial Student Center

Networking:

1. Comment on the Campus Master Plan, Monday, Nov. 19, 4:00-5:30 pm, in room 152, of Jarvis Hall Science Wing.

All meeting times start at 12:15am and end at 1:15pm.
The next meeting held in Price Commons, room 144 Friday, December 7th will include:

• Looking at Sustainability Audits from other Universities/Colleges.
• Looking at sustainability action plans from other universities.

 

November 9, 2007

Minutes taken by: Hope Larsen
Meeting Start: 12:15pm
Meeting End: 1:30pm

Present: Bob Salt, Mitchell Spencer, Scott Griesbach, Andrew Steele, Drew Barrette (SSA), Amy McGovern, Kitrina Carlson, Raina Clark, and Mandy Mulder (Greensense).

Absent: Noah Norton, Kimberly Martinez, Ted Hendzel, and Krista James.

1. Krista James, is now the Recycling Liaison
1. She is going to be working on a campus wide plan for Recycling.
2. Committee looked at creating a Composting Liaison Group
1. Greensense is working on the Composting, and Kitrina is interested in working with them to create a sub group.
2. Raina with be setting up a meeting with Kitrina and Greensense about forming Composting Liaison group for the committee.
3. Speaker Kelly Cain, Director of the St. Croix Institute for Sustainable Community Development.
1. Kelly’s St. Croix Outreach program has helped communities along the St. Croix and internationally, Nicaragua and China.
2. 19 members currently run UW- RIVER FALLS, SUSTAINABILITY WORKING GROUP (SWG): consisting of students, directors, faculty and one dean.
• They are currently institutional members of AASHE
• River Falls has signed the ACUPCC: http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/index.php
• One of their goals was to be part of the STARS program and use that as a benchmark for Energy Conversation.
3. River Falls is working with a non-profit electrical company WPPI (Wisconsin Public Power Inc.). http://www.wppisys.org/
• WPPI is footing the bill for their energy audit and wind research.
4. Another way that SWG is working towards their Energy benchmark is making a carbon footprint model
• River Falls is using John Batisse a grad/ intern to complete the President’s Climate Commitment emissions inventory (method: Clean Air Cool Planet’s Carbon Calculator) UW-RF will pay the intern an honorarium at the end of the internship. Having completed a carbon footprint for an institution will make John “a rare and valuable commodity” upon graduation, according to Kelly.
• The committee discussed the possibility of using a student intern to complete UW-Stout’s emissions inventory:
• Looked at having a Stout student take this position, and maybe bring in John to teach the Stout student.
• UW-RF is more than half-way done with their inventory and Kelly thinks that in total it should take about six months to complete.
• Kelly suggested looking for a student with great mathematical abilities, a biogeochemical interest, good at collecting data and detail oriented.
• Bob suggested contacting Rich Rothaupt and Chuck Bomar about possible students for an internship.
5. UW- River Falls heating plant is moving towards burning Biomass (corn stalks, grasses, and tree waste)
• The biomass pellets are shipped from a company in Mason City, IA
• Possibly better BTU’s per dollar
• The plan is already in action they are just waiting for the shipment of the pellets.
6. Committee members discussed creating a lobbying group of UW Campus Sustainability efforts/ offices/ students to lobby for UW system and State policy change.

Networking:

1. November 12, America Recycles Day Art Competition and Live Band, Great Hall, 7pm.
2. November 19, Sustainable Dunn meeting, United Congregational Church, Menomonie, 7pm.

All meeting times will now start at 12:15am and end at 1:15pm.
The next meeting held in Price Commons, room 144 Friday, November 16th will include:

• George Acker, Campus Planner will speak to us about LEED certification.

 

October 26, 2007

Minutes taken by: Hope Larsen
Meeting Start: 12:06 am
Meeting End: 1:05 pm

Present: Noah Norton, Scott Griesbach, Andrew Steele, Drew Barrette (SSA), Kitrina Carlson, Raina Clark, Charles Erickson (Greensense), and Mitchell Spencer.

Absent: Bob Salt, Kimberly Martinez, Amy McGovern, and Ted Hendzel.

 

1. The committee reviewed the Presidents Climate Commitment at http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/html/commitment.php.

     The first report is due to the Administration by November 15.

1. Looked at 2a: “Establish a policy that all new campus construction will be built to at least the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Silver standard or equivalent.”
• What is the definition of, “New construction?” Raina will contact the Administration and AASHE about the definition of “New Construction”.
2. Looked at 2b: “Adopt an energy-efficient appliance purchasing policy requiring purchase of ENERGY STAR certified products in all areas for which such ratings exist.” Raina will research if we already have this in place.
3. Looked at 2g: “Participate in the Waste Minimization component of the national RecycleMania competition, and adopt 3 or more associated measures to reduce waste.”
• The university participated in RecylceMania last year.
• Talked about the Ecoimagination composting project from last year.
• The committee needs to find someone to create a campus wide recycling policy.
2. The committee is looking to have Kelly Cain come talk to us. Raina will investigate funding to pay his mileage.
3. Drew suggested bringing Kelly Cain to the University to talk to a larger student venue and then SSA might be able to help with the funding.
4. Logo Competition and sustainability award: Raina will be sending out an e-mail about this next week. 
5. The committee wants to appoint a “Recycling Czar” to create a unified recycling program on campus: Kitrina will contact Krista James about filling this position and reporting to the Environmental Sustainability Steering Committee.
6. Committee rules of conduct were adopted from the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee, with the following exception: “reach decisions by consensus” was changed to “reach decision by majority vote if a consensus cannot be achieved.”
7. The committee took a look at surrounding UW-systems and what they are doing to make their campuses more sustainable. Refer to the Review of Campus Sustainability Activities for more details on UWs and other Midwest campuses.
1. UW- River Falls
• Funded, part of the state energy independence project
• St. Croix outreach- Kelly Cain
2. UW- Stevens Point
• Funded, part of the state energy independence project
• Just assigned a sustainability coordinator
• Nature Wise program- buying about 20% green energy for campus.
3. UW- Oshkosh
• Funded to Have an energy audit
• Worlds largest Earth Charter Community Summit
• Using about 11% green energy
4. UW- Eau Claire
• Not funded
• Signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment
5. UW- Superior
• Planning a Focus the Nation event
6. UW- Milwaukee
• Center for environmental sustainability education
• Ecotone- Campus Environmental Council
8. Noah and Drew suggested lobbying Excel Energy to begin offering green energy in a program similar to Nature Wise.
1. We could then create a pledge to buy green energy.
9.  Film recommended by Bob Salt was shown, about Berea College and their campus/community sustainability.

Networking:

1. America Recycles Day Art Competition now has a live band, Little Willie.

Monday, November 12, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. in the Great Hall, UW-Stout.

All meeting times will now start at 12:15am and end at 1:15pm.
The next meeting held in the Glass Lounge on Friday, November 9.

Items for future meetings:

• George Acker, UW-Stout Campus Planner, to discuss the implications of LEED certification on campus.
• Kelly Cain, Director of St. Croix Sustainability Initiative at UW-River Falls, to discuss sustainability at UW-RF and make suggestions for our sustainability action plan.
• Review what sustainability activities are going on at Stout
• Brainstorm sessions to collect sustainable action items for our major areas of focus: campus operations, curriculum, marketing/outreach, budget.

 

Ocober 15, 2007

*These minutes are provided by Raina Clark. Future minutes will be provided by a dedicated student minute taker.

Present: Scott Griesbach, Kimberly Martinez, Amy McGovern, Andrew Steele, Mitchell Spencer, Ted Hendzel, Bob Salt
Absent: Kitrina Carlson, Noah Norton, Drew Barrette, Sasha Labrenz




1. Bob Salt recommended adding “funding” as a fourth major area to be addressed in the Sustainable Action Plan

2. The committee requested that the coordinator send around the Presidents Climate Commitment document. This link, http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/html/commitment.php, will take you directly to the document that Chancellor Sorensen signed. This page outlines the requirements of the commitment. If you are interested, the following is a link to the statement made by the Chancellor of UW-Madison in regards to the pledge: http://www.chancellor.wisc.edu/climate-statement.html

3. A number of training/learning opportunities for the committee were suggested including:
   Kelly Kane from UW-RF
   Speakers from the Midwest Renewable Energy Association
   Northland College in Ashland
   UW-Greenbay
   UW-Stevens Point

4. It was agreed that the next meeting will be dedicated to an overview of what other campuses are doing in the area of sustainability, with an emphasis on UW campuses. Please send to Raina Clark any further recommendations (especially any short video or internet clips you may know of) on examples of other campuses doings. Raina will gather a sampling of materials/media and present them at our next meeting.

5. Please send Raina Clark any information you get about student, faculty or staff projects on sustainability to be added to an on-line clearinghouse. In addition, send any meeting or event dates relevant to sustainability and Raina will post them on the upcoming UW-Stout sustainability website.

6. Raina Clark will identify the committee’s regular meeting time via email.

Networking:

1. An America Recycles Day art competition and possibly band will be sponsored by GreenSense and Sustainable Dunn on November 12.

2. Sustainable Dunn has a website at www.1ness.org/sustainabledunn/ (address will be changing eventually). There next meeting will be on October 22 at 7pm at the United Congregational Church on Main Street in Menomonie.

3. Sustainable Dunn is hosting upcoming workshops on storm water management and on celebrating the holidays using less energy-contact Bob Salt for more info.

The next meeting on Friday, October 26, will include:

• An overview of what other campuses (especially other UWs) are becoming more sustainable

• Adoption of rules of conduct