Location: Facilities Conference Room

Time: 3:15 pm

Present Kim Smith, Martha Larson, Steve Spehn, Amy Sillanpa, Zander Deetz, Matt Whited

Absent Jackson VanFleet, Bereket Haileab, MacKenzie Persen

Secretary: Courtney Dufford

       I. Introductions

New members of the Environmental Advisory Committee and campus Sustainability Assistants (STAs) were introduced. Martha Larson reviewed the mission of the EAC and the Sustainability Office organizational structure.

    II. Summer Updates

Martha Larson and Summer STA Courtney Dufford updated the committee on summer projects and ongoing initiatives including

  • Eat the Lawn publicity and outreach
  • Campus energy audits, especially the LDC lighting upgrade which is expected to reduce the LDC’s electricity consumption by 20%
  • Outreach for this year’s bottled water-free reunion
  • Waste Buster Committee field trips to the Rice County Landfill, Tennis Sanitation recycling center, and the Mulch Store composting facility
  • New Student Week sustainability programming and STA training

 III. 2013-14 Look-Ahead

This year, the Sustainability Assistants will be undertaking a myriad of projects including continuation of Real Food Calculator purchasing tracking, completion of a summer farm intern manual, development of a fixtures and equipment (FFE) campus reuse system, and continual outreach on our campus’ waste streams.

Kim Smith asked about the status of a bike rental program which was discussed last year.  Martha noted that the local partner decided not to take on the risk and liability, but has offered to sell refurbished bikes to students.  He also set up a booth at the New Student Welcome Tent this year  Martha and Steve Spehn noted that revised Carleton construction standards will be finalized this year and will include green building elements.  The LEED silver requirement for all new buildings will be revisited to confirm whether LEED is still the best reference standard for this purpose and to evaluate whether it should also apply to gut renovations. Martha also noted that work will begin this year on the 2015 update to the Climate Action Plan (CAP); the committee decided that biogas technology for campus boilers, education and outreach, and offsets are three areas that will need to be looked at closely for CAP 2.0.

 IV. Funding Request

The committee discussed soliciting and sponsoring student attendance at this year’s AASHE and/or UMACS Conferences. It was agreed that Carleton should be represented at these national and regional sustainability conferences to encourage student engagement in sustainability projects and research, as well as to advertise the strides that our campus is making. The committee decided it will advertise for the UMACS conference at Luther this year and will begin advertising for the AASHE conference in the spring of next year. Martha will be sending an email vote with suggested stipend amounts.

    V. Meeting Adjourned