February 17, 2004

Environmental Council Meeting 

Minutes of February 17, 2004

Old Chapel 401  4:30 p.m.

Present:  Nan Jenks-Jay (Co-Chair), Steve Trombulak (Co-Chair), Connie Leach Bisson, David Stoll, Jeff Munroe, Diane Munroe, Charlotte Tate, Gail Smith, Phil Aroneanu, Carolyn Barnwell, Kristin Fraser, Andrea Hamre, McKalyn Garrity, Erika Holsman, Robin Dean

Missing:  Anne Knowles, Suzanne Nagi, J.S. Woodward, Ashley Clark, Alyse Forrest, Ian Ausprey

Guests:  Alyssa Jumars

The meeting began at 4:40 p.m.

Environmental Council meeting dates for the rest of the semester were posted as follows:  March 2, March 16, March 30

April 13, April 27

1.  Announcements

Northeast Climate Conference is this Friday-Sunday at Harvard University.  A group of students from Middlebury are planning to attend and van pools are being arranged.  Contact Suzanne Nagi or Connie Leach Bisson

Excellence in Energy Efficiency Award
Middlebury College was honored at Efficiency Vermont's "Better Buildings by Design" conference last week by receiving the Excellence in Energy Efficiency Award.  The college in recent years has collaborated with Efficiency Vermont in over 50 electricity saving projects.

Brower Youth Award
EARTH ISLAND INSTITUTE is accepting applications through June 1, 2004, for the fifth annual DAVID BROWER YOUTH AWARDS.  People age 13 to 22 who have demonstrated outstanding leadership with projects in environmental Conservation, Preservation or Restoration are encouraged to apply.  Six winners from the U.S. and Puerto Rico will each receive a cash award of $3,000 and ongoing support of their development as environmental leaders. Recipients will be honored at a ceremony in the San Francisco Bay Area on September 30. Applications are available February 1 at http://www.earthisland.org/bya

National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology Fellowship
Philip Aroneanu and May Boeve have received a $1000 fellowship from NWF to begin a vermicomposting (worm composting) project at Dining Services greenhouse adjacent to the compost operation.

Members had a short discussion on how best to encourage students to apply for the Brower Youth Award.  After spring break, Connie will send another announcement about this award to ES Fac/Staff, ES Majors/Minors, EQ, MCOG, CRI and Env Council and ask Diane to announce at the Colloquium.

Minutes
The minutes of January 27, 2004 were approved as submitted.

Environmental Grants update
Connie outlined the advertising for the Environmental Grants (table tents, all campus e-mails, BLUE GREEN, MiddPoints, Flyer for dining and facilities management staff who have minimal access to e-mail.  The grant application and a mock completed grant proposal were available on the Environmental Affairs website and through key advertised contacts at Facilities Management and Dining Services.  Three Commons joined Environmental Affairs in sponsoring the grants:  Atwater $100, Brainerd $150, and Cook $300.  The Environmental Grants subcommittee (comprised of Charlotte Tate, Diane Munroe, JS Woodward, Carolyn Barnwell, Alyse Forrest, Franci Farnsworth and Connie Leach Bisson) will meet on Thursday to review grants.  One grant had been submitted.  Grant proposals are due by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, February 18th.

The Environmental Council members agreed that, given the short time line for accomplishing grant work, the grant subcommittee would submit their recommendations for grant awards to the co-Chairs who would review these recommendations and make final decisions on which grants to fund and the amount of each award. The full Environmental Council would not vote on the grant awards.  The subcommittee planned to provide their recommendations to the co-Chairs by Monday, February 23rd.

EPA P3 Award
Connie provided background material on a new grant program sponsored by the US Environmental Protection Agency.  The EPA P3 Award is a national student design competition for sustainability focusing on People, Prosperity and the Planet.  EPA plans to award up to 50 grants with maximum funding of up to $10,000 per grant.  The grant proposal should be submitted by an interdisciplinary student team (engineering, chemistry, architecture, industrial design, business, economics, policy, social science) and is due on March 25, 2004.  Collaboration with other colleges is acceptable and up to 40% of the total grant may be sub-contracted to another educational institution. In particular, EPA is interested in proposals dealing with technical challenges within the following categories:  agriculture, built environment, ecosystem, materials and chemicals, energy, resources, and water.  This Phase I competition is designed to provide flexibility for creativity to:  design a technical challenge to sustainability; discuss the relationship of the challenge to people, prosperity and the planet; and develop a design approach to address the challenge.  Projects awarded Phase I monies will be eligible to request additional funds from EPA for Phase II and compete for the P3 Award that will include a demonstration event on the National Mall in Washington, DC. 

The Environmental Council discussed whether Middlebury had the resources to support this type of grant.  Nan indicated that several of the likely faculty advisors were on sabbatical next fall and could not support a student team.  Connie will send the link around to ES Faculty and staff.  http://es.epa.gov/ncer/p3/designs_sustain_rfp.html

Fair Trade Coffee campaign
Alyssa Jumars presented information on the sustainable coffee campaign, indicating that it was a growing movement on many college campuses. (She had brought a powerpoint but we were lacking the right attachment to set up her computer.)  A group of students met with Director of Dining Services Matt Biette in the fall and learned that it would cost $20,000 more to supply the campus with Fair Trade coffee.  Alyssa noted that Yale had estimated the cost as an additional $10,000 for their campus.  In January, the campaign has supported a food waste reduction campaign as the means of saving money that could be redirected to Fair Trade coffee.  An estimated 100,000 pounds of food is wasted each academic year and Dining Services has placed an average value of $2/lb on wasted food.  Through strong educational efforts including plate scraping and weighing operations sporadically during J-Term, the campaign has seen a 15% waste reduction in Proctor and a 40% food waste reduction in Ross.  It is a lot of work to maintain the food waste reduction campaign, and while the Fair Trade coffee campaign members support the goals of food waste reduction, they wish to separate the two issues at the end of spring semester.  Pots of Fair Trade coffee were available in each dining hall throughout January – supplied by the college's current coffee vendor (New England Coffee).  The students will be getting an accounting of the amount of Fair Trade coffee and other coffee consumed during January in the next few weeks.  The Middlebury Blend has traditionally been the #1 flavor sold at The Grille but in January was replaced by the Fair Trade option.  This may be due to the increased education to the campus on Fair Trade coffee in January.

The Fair Trade campaign members are focusing on working with the Administration.  They have talked informally with Trustees when they were on campus and have been invited by President McCardell to make a presentation to the Executive Council in March.

Nan asked what kind of feedback they received from the Trustees.  Alyssa shared that they indicated it was an important issue but also another cause that would add costs to the college.  As they shared what they had been doing the Trustees became more supportive – liking their grassroots efforts and their dedication.  The group hopes to be invited to present their goals to the Trustees in May.  Nan offered that the more education the group can provide for the Executive Council the better. 

Steve asked if they had seen the numbers from Matt on the incremental costs of Fair Trade.  They had not and there was general discussion that the numbers seemed high.  Alyssa noted that the college's contract includes service costs as the business must supply the coffee serving equipment.  Steve suggested requesting a copy of the New England coffee contract to find out exactly what they are expected to supply and at what cost. 

Nan suggested talking with Charlie Sargent who oversees the purchasing for Dining Services.  He has worked with similar contracts and developed some very creative outcomes.  Phil shared that Dining Services will be hosting a Food Fair in March and Matt has encouraged the students to invite Fair Trade coffee vendors to participate.

Charlotte asked if the students had looked at what Williams was doing? The owner of Dean's Beans is a trustee of Williams.  They started by serving it in the café at the library.  The students have talked with Paul Ralston (Vermont Coffee Company in Bristol).  He has indicated he could supply the college with locally roasted Fair Trade coffee or would be willing to set up a roasting co-op to meet the demand. 

There was general discussion about the food waste and how to increase awareness from day one about this issue (high profile events, orientation).  Steve shared a visual connecting skyrocketing costs (tuition) and making a connection with wasted dollars through loss of cups, energy waste, food waste – "our tuition will depend on the thermometer level of wasted dollars".  There was a comment that Matt Biette's campus e-mail congratulating the Febs and suggesting that it would be an excellent time to return cups and other dining implements was an effective message.  Phil stated that he felt we always end up at the same dead end – wastefulness and the challenge of how we shift away from this.

Steve asked what the EC could do? Alyssa suggested a resolution, noting that the SGA had created one last year but it had not been used effectively.  Phil shared that they had a draft that they had asked Connie to review.  This could be brought back to the next meeting.  Phil also shared that they had just submitted an environmental grant.  Erika asked if the currently supplier incorporates Fair Trade.  Phil reported that they have a few lines and plan to offer a few more but they are not 100% dedicated to Fair Trade philosophy.  Nan asked if they could find out who is supplying coffee to other colleges in the state.  Could there be collective pressure?  Need to provide information on both the ethical issues and economics.  Steve noted that it would be great if the EC could offer support in ways that might be more effective than a resolution.  The EC thanked Alyssa for coming and participating in the meeting.

Other Business
Gail shared copies of the revised paper reduction posters they plan to tape to the printers in the public computer labs.  Nan noted that Dean of Library and Information Services Barbara Doyle-Wilch had told her during the CRI's presentation to the Executive Council how pleased she was to see support for paper reduction and that Maggie Paine (Director of College Communications) and Mary Hurlie (Senior Advisor of Organizational Effectiveness) also recognized the need and challenges of grappling with this issue at this institution.  Gail noted that they hope to get a smaller version of the poster into MiddPoints.

The meeting adjourned at 5:45 p.m.