Members Present: Alex Miller, George Vrtis, Denyse Marquez Sanchez, Mike Nishizake, Martha Larson, Tanya Hartwig, Andrew Farias, Sneha Narayan, Beck Woolen

Members Absent: Erica Zweifel

Guests: Sarah Allaben, Karen Chen, Caroline Hall, Emma Leither, Gracie Little, Kyra Ngai

Minutes taken by: Andrew Farias & Alex Miller

Agenda:

  1. Introductions to new member- Beck!
  2. Update on Real Food Calculator (guests from Bon App, CCCE, and STA Caroline)
  3. Update from Energy Club re: light meter project (guest STA Kyra)
  4. Stewsie Award Nomination review
  5. Setting up for Next Year (CAP 2.0)

Minutes: 

  1. Introductions to new member- Beck!
    1. Beck Wollen is a first-year who has joined the EAC as the liaison member for CSA. Members took turns introducing themselves to him at the start of the meeting. 
  1. Update on Real Food Calculator (guests from Bon App, CCCE, and STAs)
    1. Primary way of calculating the College’s sustainable food purchasing. 
    2. Karen, Chen, Caroline Hall, Gracie Little, Emma Leither, a team of six representing three offices (Bon Appetit, CCCE, and the Sustainability Office)
    3. Defining Real Food as community-based, humane, fair, and ecological (organic or Rainforest Alliance Certified)
    4. Pick two representative months (Jan and Sept) to calculate real food
    5. Real food percentage dropped last year because dairy was incorporated into another group
    6. 22% tentative result – not much has changed
    7. Kim Smith’s class did an RFC survey in Fall 2017, and based off of this students wanted product shifts towards more sustainable and organic choices
      1. Product shifts in Kadejan Chicken, organic smoothies, organic peanut butter, and organic veggie sausage
    8. Next steps on publicizing information and leadership changes
    9. Martha asked about product shifts and the reasons behind them
      1. Emma responded that Bon Appetit is open to making these shifts even though they are not required to make them per their contract
    10. Martha asked about Carleton compared to other colleges
      1. Emma answered that we do fairly well or average, similar to Macalester, but not all of our peer institutions do RFC
      2. Caroline said that we are above average, and this is likely because we are more rural with access to local farms and can have our own farm
      3. Alex stated that many institutions set a goal of 20% by 2020 and we have consistently been there
    11. George asked about how COVID-19 might affect real food options in the dining hall
      1. Caroline said that the future of RFC is uncertain in the Fall in the case that we are not on campus. Meat plants have also been shutting down and people have been growing more local
      2. Emma said they will be meeting with Bon Appetit to discuss food shifts in the near future
  1. Update from Energy Club re: light meter project (guest STA Kyra and Sarah)
    1. Background: Xcel Energy conducted Turnkey audits of the majority of the buildings across campus. All recommendations were compiled into one spreadsheet and bundled according to type. The Energy club selected bundle H and conducted a two-part study in February 2020. 
    2. Bought ten HOBO light/occupation sensors with EAC funding. These log lighting and occupancy in a room temporarily to inform behaviors and identify the need for permanent occupancy sensors to be installed. 
    3. Data collection in two stages. 
      1. Bathrooms in Boliou (2), Nourse (6), and Davis (2) collected data every 30 seconds over a two week period
      2. David lounges (4), CMC conference/ lab rooms (5), Burton laundry room (1)
    4. Findings: 
      1. Shared bathrooms had the lights left on more than single-bathrooms.
      2. Nourse tended to be high between 55-80% of lights being on
      3. Davis, on the other hand, was only on for 2-8% of the day
      4. Boliou 59.8-68.5% of the time
      5. CMC 26-48% of the time
    5. Next Steps:
      1. Continue with data analysis and auditing on campus
      2. Compare with Xcel predictions
      3. Sustainability Revolving Fund proposal to pay for the high-impact occupancy sensors to be installed. 
  1. Stewsie Award Nomination review
    1. The Sustainability Program Coordinator, Alex, sent out a call for award nominations for the annual award. The Stewsie Award is given to a student and a faculty/staff member each year. This year, 17 student nominations and two faculty/staff members were nominated. 
    2. The group discussed the nominations and selected Andrew Farias ‘21 for the student nomination and Amy Swenson for the faculty/staff nomination. 
    3. Winners receive $150.00 and a certificate. The Sustainability Program Coordinator will notify them of their recognition. 
  1. Setting up for Next Year (CAP 2.0)
    1. We won’t meet again as an EAC for spring term, so we wanted to prepare for the 2020-2021 academic year. Next year will be the 10-year anniversary of the current Climate Action Plan. 
    2. The Sustainability Office staff are recommending a task force to help update this plan. What should this task force look like?
      1. EAC focuses on this task for the next year. STAs take on research assignments that relate to the climate action plan.