April 1, 2003

Environmental Council

MINUTES ~ April 1, 2003

Present:  Nan Jenks-Jay (Chair), Connie Leach Bisson (Vice Chair), Meg Smith, Gail Smith, Charlotte Tate, Diane Munroe, Andi Lloyd, David West, Ben Wessler, Jesi Warren, Andrea Hamre, Nick Benjamin, JS Woodward, Suzanne Nagi

Missing:  Helen Young, Doug Dagan

1. Announcements

David Orr from Oberlin College "Learning Organizations" as part of UVM's Ecological Economics seminar series on Thursday, April 3 at 12:30 in Carpenter Auditorium of Given Medical Building at UVM

David Mulenex, Counselor for Env., Science & Technology from the US Embassy in Rome speaking on the "Future of Wild Places: Global Challenges to Parks & Protected Areas" Friday, April 4 at 12:30 at RA Jones House 

Stephanie Mills  "No Dream is too Fine, No Deed is too Small" on Monday, April 7, Bicentennial Hall Room 216, 7 pm

Jeff Hollender of Seventh Generation discussing "Capitalism at a Cross Roads"  on Tuesday, April 8 at 7:30pm in Warner Hall Hemicycle

Tulio Inglese  Ecological Architecture  April 14 in BIH 216 at 4:30 pm

Norman Myers from Oxford University "Perverse Subsidies and other Roadblocks on the Way to Sustainable Development" at Carpenter Auditorium, Given Medical Building, UVM on April 17 from 12:30-1:45

Recovery of Earth Place & Self – a symposium on Ethical and Social Issues in Landscape Restoration  April 25-26 at UVM.  Keynotes by John Elder & Eric Higgs from the University of Victoria and Chair of Society for Ecological Restoration International

Nan also reported to the Environmental Council that Environmental Affairs was holding a celebration to honor the individuals who have been involved in developing the use of green certified wood in new buildings and furniture over the last four years.  Loggers, sawmill and kiln operators, architects, carpenters, woodlot owners and foresters have been invited to Middlebury to tour the completed buildings and enjoy some reflections by several students whose academic experiences have been influenced by the locally harvested, certified wood.

1. Environmental Policy

Council members reviewed a draft policy presented by the ad hoc committee (Nan Jenks-Jay, Charlotte Tate, JS Woodward, Suzanne Nagi and Connie Leach Bisson).

Council members suggested deleting the text below the bullets to make the policy more concise.  The Ad Hoc Committee will tighten up the language and send it back out to the group.  Any additional comments from Council members should be sent to Connie.

1. Environmental Council Purpose & Membership

Nan stated that she felt the role of the Environmental Council is to make recommendations about environmental initiatives on campus and to develop environmental policies for consideration by the institution. Over the last five years, the Environmental Council has been involved in an environmental audit, pedestrian campus dialogue, creating the environmental grants program, drafting the guiding principles and recommending the establishment of the Project Review Committee that ultimately created sustainable design guidelines, drafting the original air conditioning policy, launching the carbon reduction initiative and currently developing land use policy.

While the EC felt the purpose could be revised to be more succinct, they felt it important to have common language between the purpose of the Environmental Council and the Environmental Policy. 

New elements to be addressed in the Membership portion of the Environmental Council section include

1. acknowledging that continuing membership beyond one year is encouraged
2. substantial work is done in subcommittees
3. exploring the possibility of having student members (except first years) appointed in the spring
4. attendance at the majority of meetings is essential; inactive members will be replaced

Nan wondered if it would be feasible to have an alum participate on the Environmental Council, though she acknowledged that the logistics of attending meetings might be challenging. 

The Ad Hoc Committee will revise and send out a new draft to the Environmental Council for review.

1. Environmental Peak Priorities

Nan shared that in the Peak Report that the priorities were listed by categories and that we would send them out in this format to assist the Council in their review.  Specifically, we are interested in knowing what is missing, what should be a higher priority, what has become obsolete?  Charlotte noted that the section on CO2 could be updated.  J.S. shared his personal interest in gaining Middlebury's support for the Earth Charter.  Nan suggested that it might be productive to establish an Earth Charter subcommittee comprised of faculty, staff & students to move it through appropriate channels at the institution.

Once Council members receive the priorities by categories, Nan asked everyone to review them and send comments to Connie to assist in updating Peak focus for next year.

1. Final Meetings

April 15  -- Dialogue with President McCardell

    Environmental Grant presentations

April 29 – Report from the Carbon Reduction Initiative Working Group; reports from the EC subcommittees; final recommendations for EC priorities for academic year 2003-04