Time: 9:00 am
Present Dennis Easley, Julie Klassen, Phil Camill, Laila Parker, Richard Strong, Alyssa Thomas, Wayne Beierman
Absent Norm Vig
Secretary: Max Wilson
New Business
Environmental Mission Statement Forum
Max Wilson gave a report on the All Campus Forum to discuss the language of the environmental statement of principles that took place on 24 January 2001
– the forum went well with over 35 students, faculty, and administrators attending
– Wilson said he thought that most people who attended left with a good understanding of the purpose of the statement and were in general agreement about the form it should take: it sould be a short statement that would be vague enough to endure but carried some force
– the idea to create a vision of where the college wanted to be environmentally in 10 to 20 years came out of the forum
— this would be a document with specific goals that we would want to try to reach to try to illustrate what is meant by the more vague language of the Statement of Principles as well as to give us a benchmark to work against and to measure our progress by
It was brought to our attention that the trustees passed some sort of statement on environmental responsibility in the last few years – a sign that they would probably be receptive to our initiative of the environmental statement of principles
-Trustee’s statement addressed issues of using recycled materials, using less energy, and issues of air quality among others
Richard Strong is going to be meeting with some of the trustees later in the day and will present some information on the initiative for an environmental statement of principles to them so that they are aware that the process is occurring and people are interested in the issue
Two student groups should be formed:
1) a group to work out the details of the language of the statement
2) a group to develop a more detailed proposal of where we want to be environmentally in 10 or 20 years
Energy Usage
The idea of trying to meet the standards of the Kyoto Protocol on our own was brought up
– we will be getting the details of this program soon but very generally means that by 2007 we would have to cut our greenhouse gas production to 93% of our 1990 levels
– Wayne Beierman is developing a database on energy use since 1989 right now that will be crucial for this project if it goes ahead
– Wayne is also interested in understanding how we stand against 5 years ago re: energy use
— we have added about 15% in total energy use
— looking if we became more or less efficient per square foot
When work was being done on the steam break behind Watson Wayne counted that 49% of the windows on one side of Watson were open on one of the coldest days of the year
– this very disturbing fact underscored the importance of addressing personal consumption habits and decisions
– reacting to the open windows the temperature in Watson was turned down 5 degrees – this resulted in only 19% of the windows being left open
– Alyssa Thomas is going to work with the RA’s in Watson to educate that population about how to operate their heaters and who to call if they can’t get them to operate correctly
— Alyssa will report back about her progress
– Issues of temperature difference on the North and South sides of the building
– Wayne is going to develop an information sheet for the RAs in Watson on the heating
The idea of having a link on the Carleton Student page to information on environmental “how-tos” was discussed provide information on how to duplex, what exactly is recyclable where, details of the mug program (proposed), how to operate the heating systems in the different dorms, contacts for more info
CSA is engaged in a campaign to get people to turn out the lights in academic buildings before they leave for the night
– a few nights every week a group of students goes to all the academic buildings around 11:15 and records which lights have been left on, turns those lights off, and leaves a small sign urging people to turn the lights off
– in the first two weeks 25% of the lights that had been left on the first night were being turned off
– CSA is doing a long term study and will report back the results when more time has elapsed
One of the students in Phil Camill’s Global Change Biology class is trying to calculate the amount and cost of energy wasted by leaving lights on all night
Committee Member Update
It was revealed the Alyssa Thomas was the EAC/CSA liason
A new member to replace Laila Parker when she graduates will be chosen early spring term
Dorm Composting
The issue of what kind of container we needed to have at the local drop stations was discussed; we don’t need something that will compost just something that will keep the smell in and the vermin out
Look for biodegradable liners for the containers to reduce the mess and to make sure the compost does not freeze to the container
Locations for the drop stations:
– two bins for the townhouses
– one bin for Chaney House, Watson House, and Watson
possibly: one for burton, davis, and musser; one for nourse, meyers, and evans
Facilities will move the compost out to farmhouse
We should collect plastic pickle buckets from the snack bar for the apartments in the townhouses
Discount for Duplex Copying
right now there is no reflection in the price of different size copies of the resources used
– a 11×17 costs the same as an 8×11 one
– duplexed sheet costs as much as two one sided sheets
it was noted that with some machines jamming was a big problem when people duplexed
-this is a maintenance or technology issue and should not effect changing the prices
**ACTION** EAC supports the effort to change the prices of copies to reflect the resources used in copying; specifically lowering the price of duplexed copies
Recycle Mug Use
Work on getting mugs given to all incoming classes and increasing the price differential for those who use mugs at the snack bar and those who don’t continues
The foreign language departments are giving out 100 mugs to students and 400 to faculty, staff, and visitors
– there is not much possibility of working together on the distribution of mugs but there is a strong possibility of making a connection for publicity and education on mug use next fall
Event Waste Management
A group of students are working on identifying ways to reduce the amount of waste generated at large events such as graduation and spring concert and also increasing the percentage of recyclables that are actually recycled
The best scenario is to have everything either be recyclable or compostable
– there would probably be a somewhat significant price increase with this over normal
– this might be a cost the college is willing to take considering the high-profile nature of large events
Other ideas explored include having volunteers stationed as central trash and recycling stations to encourage and help with recycling
Also looking at haulers who can separate waste from recyclables after the trash is taken away
Meeting Adjourned