Time: 9:00 am
Present Phil Camill, Laila Parker, Jamie Long, Norm Vig, Richard Strong, Wayne Beierman, Laura Hmelo
Absent Dennis Easley
Secretary: Max Wilson
New Business
Tree Free Presentation
Dan Shinn-Krantz from the Tree Free Coalition was present to answer questions about the Tree Free campaign and to ask us to sign the “Paper Products Procurement Proposal”
The main point of the proposal is to increase the budget of Printing and Mailing Services by $6,000 so that they can purchase paper with post-consumer waste content
The proposal asks for institution support for post-consumer waste paper
Badger Paper Company is the supplier of post-consumer waste paper that CarletonØs distributor carries
Post-Consumer waste paper was tested ten years ago and lint from the paper proved to cause problems with the copiers
The Tree Free group recognizes that the move to post-consumer waste paper is contingent upon the paper working well in the machines that the college uses
It was noted that it may be worthwhile to explore other options in terms of paper or copiers if the badger paper does not work well with out technology
– possibly move to a lower post-consumer waste content in a larger percentage of the paper to ameliorate the problem with lint
– talk to copier and paper companies to determine if there are some copiers or papers that would work present fewer problems than others
It was noted that if the paper caused more problems with the copiers we would be charged higher rental rates for the increased service
It was asked whether we had other options of copier rental companies and the representative had not looked into that possibility
Central services purchases the majority of the paper on campus and all of the paper that is used by students in copiers and printers
Departments individually order the paper that they use in their department but normally go through central services
The source of departmental letterhead is not known
The question of whether there would be any difference in how the paper would work in printers and copiers was raised because we own and service the printers and this might be a good place to start phasing in post-consumer waste paper if it presents a problem for copiers
Right now 8% of the paper used is post-consumer waste – this includes colored paper
The Badger paper that the school is considering is also chlorine free
The cost of moving to post-consumer waste paper will inevitably be felt in tuition prices
If this resolution were to go into effect 30% of our paper would be 100% post-consumer waste
– why not shoot for 100% of the paper 40% post-consumer waste?
– post-consumer content might be subject to diminishing returns to scale where we can spend our money more effectively on lower post-consumer waste contents
The question was asked whether people are talking to departments about requesting post-consumer waste paper since departments individually chose and order paper – not currently being worked on
The representative was asked if he knew of any success stories on other campuses and he replied that the effort to switch to post-consumer paper has been fairly successful at U of M Twin Cities
Possible courses for action for the EAC on this proposal were identified by the representative as:
1) Pass the proposal as a resolution of the EAC
2) Introduce this proposal to the Faculty Affairs Committee (FAC)
3) Lobby the administration on behalf of the proposal
Norm Vig ruled out bringing this proposal to the Faculty Affairs Committee on the grounds that there was little potential for any action to be taken by that group
Members of the EAC generally supported the proposal as presented but took issue with the wording of the third resolution: “Resolved, until the proposed policy is fully in place, Carleton College shall, by default, order paper with the highest percentage of recycled content available”
Members thought that this clause would preclude more advantageous possibilities unnecessarily
As discussed earlier the college might be able to have more post-consumer waste in its paper stream if it had a greater percentage of its paper with some post-consumer content rather than having a lesser percentage of its paper be completely post-consumer waste
The EAC replaced the wording of the third resolution with: “Resolved, until the proposed policy is fully in place, Carleton College shall, by default, order paper with the highest percentage mixed of recycled content feasible for the collegeØs copying and printing needs.”
**ACTION** The EAC unanimously passed the Carleton College Paper Products Procurement Proposal
The timing of when to present the proposal was discussed and it was recommended by the EAC that the Tree Free group continue to build support for the rest of this term and wait to present the proposal to the administration until fall term when the administration would have more time to consider it
Questions for Excel Energy
A representative from Excel Energy is going to be present at the 24 May meeting of the EAC to answer questions about Excel and green energy
A quick brainstorming session of issues we would like to discuss with the Excel representative resulted in the following topics:
1) Buying green energy
– what does buying green energy practically mean and what does Excel do to supply this green energy?
– what restrictions or accountability exist for Excel Energy when they sell green energy? if we buy enough green energy will they be forced to expand their capacity of renewable energy?
2) Local power generation
– what is the general feasibility for generating energy in Northfield?
– what is the current state of wind power technology and what is the outlook for wind power generation in the Northfield area?
New Co-Chair
The current co-chair of the EAC, Laila Parker, will be graduating and a new co-chair is thus needed
Laura Hmelo will be off campus in the fall and will return for winter term so she cannot be co-chair until the winter
In the interest of maintaining as much continuity as possible it was decided that LauraØs seat should be held vacant until she returns winter term
The candidates to be the co-chair for fall term are Jamie Long and the CSA/EAC liaison
The CSA/EAC liaison has not yet been determined and Jamie Long is not at the meeting so any decision will be tabled until next meeting
Waste Reduction at Commencement
Greg McCracken is the contact person for facilities on any special plans for waste disposal at graduation and should be informed of any changes in plans for the graduation lunch
Visibility is important for any new initiative in waste reduction or composting at the graduation lunch both to make people aware of the correct disposal method and to raise general awareness
– Signs, T-shirts for volunteers, and information on tickets or the program are all possibilities
Currently the lack of compostable containers with lids to hold fruit salad or pasta salad on the commercial market is the only technical block to being able to put together an entirely compostable and recyclable lunch
Because compostable food service elements are vary new and under constant development this need could be filled in the next few years
Even if the lunch cannot be entirely compostable or recyclable, the EAC believes that the college should use as much recyclable and compostable material as possible and phase in more compostable material as it becomes available
Meeting Adjourned