Environmental Council
Minutes of October 27, 2005
Guests: Ron Liebowitz, Pam Fogg, Nadine Barnicle
First order of business: approved the minutes from the previous meeting
Nadine and Pam – invited to discuss paper project
Pam Fogg, Maggie Payne, and Nan began discussions of paper use on campus in regards to publications and printing, especially considering that the College has plans for a new campaign starting next yearNadine is a consultant hired to work on the paper use projectPam is working on a national level to infuse sustainability within a national design organizationNadine briefly presented the project, which strives to develop an institution-wide sustainability program for the production of printing and publishingExamining the economic, technological, institutional, and environmental aspects of printing and publishing on campusConsidering taking this program to other institutions of higher education eventuallyPlan to: look at sustainable paper industry practices, characterize today's campus practices, and query other institutions in green printingBriefly spoke about pulp and paper industry; explained that the school has looked at Mohawk Paper Company in Albany, NY, which uses wind power almost exclusively and has a large line of recycled paper, very little waste, a strong environmental record, and is committed to only buying North American pulpIdentified other companies that the College is considering negations with – Boise Cascade, International Paper, Neenah, Monadnak, othersExplained that $58,500 spent on paper for copiers and printers in 2004 fiscal yearTouched on a survey sent out to all coordinators on campus that indicated that availability is the most important factor in selecting paper for usSpoke with reprographics – open to sustainable practicesMany current publications are moving towards partial ore complete recycled contentIdentified paper allowances and duplex printing as current methods working to minimize paper consumption, and explained that we should look into responsible fiber sourcing and maximizing recycled contentNext steps include targeting paper suppliers, getting more information from other schools, characterizing student use from prior research, creating strategies for implementation, and crafting a time frameNadine and Pam answers questions from the Council, noting that the biggest paper user on campus is the library; briefly discussed the College's relationship with International Paper and the social implications of that business relationship; noted that most printers on campus use soy based ink with petroleum content.Explained that the project still needs to address communication issuesCharlotte expressed interest in paper reductionBrenda Ellis from LIS explained that the library has ordered paper tracking technology and software that will help reduce paper waste in library printing by requiring users to release print jobs at the computer at library printersTouched on printing quota
Update on the Brainerd Pool Party
Moriah and Nick reported on communications with Brainerd Commons – miscommunication with the Commons Council meant that the EC's message didn't get throughCharlotte Tate reported that, after communicating with folks on campus, the temperature of the pool is being raised from 81 to 87 degrees for the partyQuestion raised of how to mitigate the impact that this event is havingCommunicated some sense of relief that the degrees raised has been slightly amended and lowered, but a lot of money and energy is being spentAaron Tucker suggested the council buy green tags, Bobby Levine suggested offsets as a financially reasonable moveDecided to send Moriah and Nick to Commons meeting for a follow up discussion
Environmental Grants
President Liebowitz's office has given $25,000 for environmental grants this yearVolunteers taken to be on working group to chart out means for soliciting grantsDiscussed balancing manageable, smaller projects and larger amounts of moneyAlso want to balance new ideas and creative learning experiences with tangible projects, such as the magazine, hybrid cars, et cetera