Environmental Council Meeting
Minutes of January 27, 2004
Old Chapel 401 ~ 4:30 p.m.
Present: Nan Jenks-Jay (Co-Chair), Steve Trombulak (Co-Chair), Anne Knowles, David Stoll, Jeff Munroe, Connie Leach Bisson, Charlotte Tate, Erika Holsman, McKalyn Garrity, J.S. Woodward, Ashley Clark, Phil Aroneanu, Suzanne Nagi
Missing: Diane Munroe, Gail Smith, Carolyn Barnwell, Andrea Hamre, Robin Dean, Alyse Forrest, Kristin Fraser, Asher Burns-Burg
Guests: Will Motley
1. Minutes of January 13, 2004
The minutes of January 13, 2004 were unanimously accepted as presented.
2. Subcommittee Updates
Environmental Assessment – Connie reported that the assessment subcommittee plans to begin to gather data for sections of the Assessment where it is critical to access people who might be less available over the summer (Academics; Politics, Awareness & Education). We do not anticipate that we will be able to complete all the sections and are recommending that the remaining work be completed during the summer with the aid of a student assistant. Ashley plans to focus on the Dining section and Erika will begin working on the Energy/Water section. The subcommittee also plans to contact Becky Brodigan in the Office of Institutional Research to see if she has any resources or suggestions for improving the assessment. In addition, the student members of the subcommittee plan to conduct a survey of students with the hope that this will become an on-going component of future assessments. The current plan is to ask student s to complete the survey while eating. There was a suggestion to talk with Burke Rochford in the Religion/Sociology department or Susan Campbell for input on the most effective way to obtain the least biased participation. Could we send it out electronically and would students respond? Could it be anonymous? Connie will circulate the survey in case others have suggestions for improving the survey.
Earth Charter – J.S. announced that the Earth Charter subcommittee was dissolving. Given the transition in the Administration it was felt that energies could be better spent elsewhere. Members of this subcommittee will become part of the Environmental Grants subcommittee. Nan and Steve thanked J.S. and Becky Gould who was an advisor to the subcommittee for the work that they had done. Nan asked if the research on where other schools stood on the Earth Charter was in a form that could be archived. Steve shared that he had put it out on the NEES listserve and had several other schools respond that they had similar questions and would be interested in obtaining whatever responses were gathered. JS said that he would pull the research information they had gathered together for the record.
Lands Committee – Steve reported that based on Ron's recommendation, Nan, Andi, and Steve would begin to educate Bob Huth (VP Administration and Treasurer) as to the value of having this policy. Bob oversees all the people who manage lands at the College. It might be beneficial to have the full subcommittee brainstorm about this meeting and then the smaller team will work directly with Bob Huth. Anne's GIS class this spring will work on developing a map of the lands owned by the College. The Administration will not be providing recommended language changes to the policy this year. The subcommittee will assist in the completion of the College Lands & Development section of the Environmental Assessment. Anne shared that she and Bill Hegman had a meeting with Dave Ginevan (Exec. VP and Director of Facilities Planning) in which he requested a GIS of college lands so that Trustees could determine what to buy and sell. The co-Chairs supported continued dialogue with Dave Ginevan as it would be important for the subcommittee to understand the process the Trustees are involved with and to give input on why certain lands might be valuable. In summary, the subcommittee will push the lands policy as far as possible this year and do as much GIS mapping as possible.
Environmental Grants: Connie shared that Brainerd had contributed $150 and Cook had committed $300. Cook also requested that the Environmental Grant presentations at the end of the year be advertised in a more public way. Connie hoped to get the grant announcement out in the next day. Nan indicated that she is now working with College Advancement on supporting the Environmental Grants program.
4. CRI Update --
Will Motley '06 a member of the Carbon Reduction Initiative Working Group provided an update on the college's Carbon Reduction Initiative. He stated that much of the work this year has focused on an assessment of a partial switch to biomass for the heating and cooling of the campus. Heating and cooling is 70% of the college's emissions in the recent ghg emissions inventory. The Working Group tapped the expertise of the Biomass Energy Resource Center (Montpelier), Vermont Family Forests (Bristol) and ChipTec (Bristol) to assist with this phase of their analysis. On February 17th , members of the CRI will be briefing the Executive Council on their work to date. A status report will be available for additional information after it is presented to the Executive Council.
Are you looking at electricity and the wind energy potential at the Snow Bowl? Yes, the current research is being tracked for its carbon reduction potential. Are you beginning to develop maps for wood resources? The biofuels assessment conducted by VFF looked predominantly at private forest land in Addison and northern Rutland counties.
President McCardell signed a voluntary pledge in August 2003 committing the college to support the goals of the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers Carbon Reduction plan. The Working Group is not supporting the strategy of "buying our way out" through the purchase of offsets. It believes that carbon reduction is compatible with other Middlebury goals and has strong educational/academic components.
Steve Trombulak mentioned his interest in the possibility of a long array of small wind turbines (something innocuous) that could feed back in to BIH. He said he would follow up with Rich Wolfson.
Charlotte mentioned the Northeast Climate Conference at Harvard on Feb 20-22 that is being organized by students. Connie indicated that she has put the word out about the conference and will continue to encourage students to attend. It was suggested that you send an announcement specifically to ES majors/minors and ES faculty to announce in their classes.
5. Fair Trade Coffee
Phil reported that he and a group of students are proposing that the College make a 100% switch to fair trade organic coffee. The criteria for the coffee would be:
Roasted by and purchased from local suppliers
100% organic
Fair trade certified
Shade grown
The students believe that Middlebury's adoption of this purchasing policy would support the College's commitment to social and environmental responsibility. Phil said that the College purchases 10,000 pounds of coffee a year. Steve asked if local suppliers could provide that much coffee. Phil confirmed that the students have looked into this and that local suppliers can fill the demand. Steve asked which student group/s is/are putting forth the proposal. Phil will give us the names. Steve asked Phil to draft up a resolution for Environmental Council's review. Phil will do this and will include more background information.
EC meetings during spring semester will be scheduled on alternative weeks from CRI meetings. {Note from Connie: there will be some weeks when they fall in the same week} The next EC meeting will be on Tuesday, February 17.
The meeting adjourned at 5:50 p.m.