Location: Sayles-Hill 252

Time: 12:05 pm

Present Dave Holman, Tricia England, Phil Camill, Richard Strong, Kirk Campbell, Gary Wagenbach, Kelly Kollman, Dennis Easley

Absent Andrew Navratil

Secretary: Lauren Miller

On last meeting (Sep 30) and minutes:

~ Lauren asked for feedback on meeting and on minutes. Does anyone mind if agenda printed on scratch/one-sided paper? No objections raised.

~ Lauren stated that in the past, EAC minutes were posted on the ENTS webpage. This seemed to have been discontinued only accidentally, and she would like to resume, but Phil had wondered if there were any privacy issues we should be concerned about. Kelly stated that she favored transparency when possible. It was agreed that Lauren will send minutes out to the EAC first, and post them online if no one on the EAC responds with suggestions for privacy or other modifications.

Campus Ecology:

~ Lauren brought and passed around printed enrollment forms she’d received from Richard. Campus Ecology is a group formed by the National Wildlife Federation to unite college and university campuses in environmental/sustainable development/related issues. (More info at http://www.nwf.org/campusecology/). Lauren proposed enrolling Carleton at the Campus Enrollment level, which includes 10 individual enrollments, for 2004-2005.

~ Lauren will bring forms to the next meeting and we will discuss enrollment and choosing focus issues from their “List of Issues”

Community Liaisons:

~ Northfield Environmental Quality Commission: ENTS Educational Associate to attend EQC mtgs; other continuous liaisons optional.

~ St Olaf: Dave and Lauren have both been promoting St Olaf environmental and other events, but have not attended regular meetings. Dave suggested that sharing minutes might be more feasible than attending meetings, given everyone’s full meeting schedule. Phil agreed to make an effort to communicate with St Olaf faculty to find out about events/projects.

Composting:

~ Carleton/St Olaf: Richard said Pete Sanburg may be able to meet with us in the future to discuss details of giving St Olaf our compost. He said we will probably not be able to work with them until next year, due to the additional paperwork necessary to have a non-onsite compost source (Carleton) in addition to their onsite compost. He confirmed that they have more than enough space for both colleges, however.

~ Northfield Community Composting Project: Lauren brought up this group – they are a small Northfield group that picks up household compost on bikes. They are currently looking for more composting space from either of the two colleges or the city. Lauren thought it would behoove Carleton to try to assist them. Dennis brought up concerns about PCA guidelines and the “trash” phase of composting. A smaller study group involving Dennis, Richard, and Lauren was proposed to deal with this issue, meet with the composters, discuss PCA and other requirements, and report back to EAC.

Building at Carleton:

~ Richard informed the group that current building plans for the art gallery are being reassessed. Lauren wanted to know if he or others knew what the best way to involve the EAC in the planning process might be. Phil again discussed the idea of setting standards with MN Sustainable Guidelines being a baseline minimum, and incorporating full-cost accounting, including tax breaks, energy costs, etc. in assessments. Kelly pointed out that it’s important to think of buildings as a process, with potential for improvement before, during and after being built. Phil would like to see incentives being redirected, and zero emissions a goal. Lauren suggested that members of the EAC begin to draft a statement on building at Carleton, with the goal of getting the college to commit to certain principles/guidelines; EAC could then lay out some means of adhering to these principles and set some specific goals relating to individual projects. Lauren, Phil, and Richard to work on this first stage.

Paper use/recycled content:

~ Kelly opened ~ Use of recycled paper has sagged, via central purchasing, but exact reasons still unclear. E-reserves may have increased paper use. Much brainstorming ensued, with potential course of actions as follows: Contact Central Services, call ITS and find out about copiers/printers (Kelly), find out contact among Staff at Carleton (Lauren), research paper use/recycled content at library (Rika/SOPE), conduct a departmental survey. Rika volunteered to make this a SOPE project. Other thoughts circled about perceptions of paper/recycled paper – eg. Admissions’ wanting “sparkly white” when many EAC members felt recycled paper labeled “recycled” might be a good idea.

Solar Panels/funding and Alternative Energy:

~ Dave presented on his research: 2 useful links = bpsolar.com and dsireusa.org/. dsireusa provides info on incentives for renewable energy for each state. One incentive:

Minnesota Power – Solar-Electric (PV) Rebate Program

Last DSIRE Review: 06/21/2004

Incentive Type: Utility Rebate Program

Eligible Technologies: Photovoltaics

Applicable Sectors: Commercial, Industrial, Residential

Rebate: $2,000/kilowatt

Terms: Maximum award of $4,000; may be combined with state PV rebate

Dave also reported that there is an incentive of no sales tax for solar panels, and that any value they add is not added to property tax. CSA was mentioned as a potential funding source; Dave estimated that they have about $83 thousand in capital reserves. He said that MN is supposed to get ~ 150-160W/m2 (165 being the maximum)

~ Phil asked about the cost comparison of solar panels v. wind turbine, and it was acknowledged that a wind turbine has higher profit margins; however, Dave and some others thought there was still potential value in linking solar panels to individual houses/buildings on campus.

~ Phil asked/Richard answered that the current turbine site can hold 5-7 more turbines.

Environmental Audit: Needs to be found!

Local food: To be addressed in the future – Lauren pursuing

Service Learning: ACT is doing a lot of work in this area – Lauren will continue to work with them and report to EAC.

1:05 – Adjourn

Next Meeting: Thursday, Oct 21, 2004