Environmental Council
Minutes of March 16, 2006
4:30 pm Old Chapel, Rm 401
Present: Moriah Helms, Jon Warnow, Austen Levihn-Coon, Jack Byrne, Glenn Andres, Nan Jenks-Jay, Drew Macan, Matt Landis, Charlotte Tate, Diane Munroe, Brenda Ellis
Minutes of March 2 Meeting
Charlotte moved to accept the minutes, Matt seconded and the minutes were accepted unanimously.
Updates and Announcements
Brenda asked if the EC would be interested in a display case that will be taken from Starr Library for possible use in BiHall or Hillcrest for exhibits related to environmental studies. After a discussion of the pros and cons of taking on this opportunity Nan suggested we find out if there is interest at BiHall and to revisit this at our next meeting.
Socially Responsible Investing committee – Austen and Jon reported that they met with the President and the Treasurer to discuss a draft charter for this submmittee which would advise the Trustee's Investments Committee. Austen said that President Leibowitz has been very supportive of this student initiative and that he expressed his hope that it continue to be student-driven. It is great to see it come this far. There was general consensus that this provides a great opportunity to raise awareness about social and environmental issues related to college investments. The current draft calls for a membership consisting of 3 students, 3 administrators, 2 faculty, 2 alumni, and 2 trustees. There was some discussion that this may be an unwieldy number of people for an advisory group and that it might be more effective if it were smaller. There were several suggestions for how it is appointed, i.e., does it self select? or elected? Or does the President appoint members, or do the members recommend replacements? Austen and the others involved in the charter will consider these questions in formulating a new draft..
Nan asked that we think about the membership of the Environmental Council for the coming year. Is it working well? Do we want to have fewer members with stronger attendance requirements? Or more members so that we can accommodate more absences from meetings? Or the same as it is now? Jack suggested we consider having once a month meetings for the full council and committee meetings once a month as a way to do more work in between full meetings. We will discuss further at our next meeting.
Nan reported that the draft strategic plan for the college has a revised mission statement and that the new statement provides strong support for Middlebury's environmental values. The master plan is specifically mentioned as a tool for guiding the process of sustainable design and construction of the campus..
Environmental Council Grants
Jack provided a summary of the grants (attached) that have been awarded and mentioned that letters have been sent to all who applied notifying them of the status of their proposals. Several of the proposals are being modified to respond to suggestions of the review committee and will be finalized shortly.
Carbon Reduction Initiative - Follow up to Discussion at Previous meeting
Jack provided the attached summary of the meeting he had with Mike Moser and Tom Corbin following up on their meeting with the Environmental Council on how we might work together to move the work of Carbon Reduction Task Group further along. The focus for this meeting is to determine how the Council could be most helpful in assisting the Task Group between now and the end of the Spring Term. The conversation focused on the milestones/timeline that Jack, Tom, and Mike drew up in the discussion paper. The members of the Council concluded that it would be feasible for us to work with the Task Group to identify an inventory framework that would be used to track and account for CO2 emissions and to work with them over the summer to put the inventory in place. Glenn suggested that it would be good to consult with Becky Brodigan about this and get her advice about collecting and reporting the data that would be tracked. Nan suggested that we hire a summer intern to work on this with Jack and Mike and Tom. Jack will write up a job description. The Environmental Council Carbon Reduction Committee will work with Jack and Tom and Mike on identifying a suitable inventory framework between now and the end of Spring Term.
The meeting adjourned at 6:00 p.m.