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Environmental Studies Department |
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Campus Environmental Issues CommitteeJanuary 31 , 2006
Attendance: Brett Smith (co-chair), Mark Dickinson (co-chair), Claire Briguglio, Philip Chen, Nancy Toff, Timothy DenHerder-Thomas, Megan Bjella, Alese Colehour, Ellie Rogers, Mark Stonehill, Dillon Teske, Andrew Meeker, Angelina Lopez, Asa Diebolt, Lauren Morse, Gretchen Solomon, Helen Warren, Hannah Gelder, Richard Graves. Brett opened the meeting with some good news: first, Macalester has received a $50,000 grant to assist in design and planning for the greening of the athletic facility. This money will be used to help pay INTEP, a consulting firm specializing in green buildings, that has been hired by the college to work on the athletic facility planning. Second, there is a program, called HourCar, being run by the Neighborhood Energy Consortium that allows the rental of a car for short periods of time. The program is looking to move into an area around Macalester, and it is possible that the rentable cars may be parked in the Macalester run Patagonia parking lot. Prairie Planting In the fall of 2004, Thomas Ibsen, a Macalester alum who is knowledgeable in prairie plants and gardening, proposed the creation of a prairie restoration garden. The garden will be in the area next to the wind turbine between Olin-Rice and the tennis courts. Seeds have been planted and plants will be coming up in the spring. Tom is looking for help to with the garden this semester as well as perhaps two summer interns and maintain the garden during the summer. MacBike Dillon Teske, the new MacBike student worker, reported on the status of MacBike’s bike share program. At the end of last semester, eight new bikes were incorporated into the program, which is now being run out of the info desk in the Campus Center. A student may sign out one of the available bikes (which also includes a map, a lock, and a helmet) from the info desk for one week. MacBike has long-term goals which include obtaining several mountain bikes for easier riding during the winter (currently there are two mountain bikes, hopefully three or four soon) and an overall expansion during the spring. Green Roof Alese Colehour and Ellen Rogers updated the CEIC on the progress of the green roof. The green roof will be on the fishbowl as a preliminary test to hopefully allow for larger green roofs on various other campus buildings in the future. Currently MacCares, the campus org running the project, is in the process of collecting materials. The funding for the green roof is coming from MacCares as well as from donations. They noted that the green roof’s base will be made of a mix of 75% inorganic material and 25% decayed, organic material, and plantings should occur this semester. The group is looking at such energy saving devices as storm water and insulation to help promote the benefits of the green roof. Brett suggested that MacCares should educate the campus about the green roof, and it is also suggested that they consider applying for an intern to help work on the roof especially during the summer. Recycling Program Initiatives Brett reported that he has talked to Jim Davidson, who is getting a recycling task force underway. Possible initiatives include actions such as the re-labeling of recycling bins, creation of a group to increase public awareness, update the recycling webpage, creation of a plastic bag reuse program, and asking campus programs about recycling during events, as well as others. Brett reminded the CEIC that Macalester is selecting a new company to perform both trash hauling and recycling by forming a contract with a company that will commit to waste reduction. He noted that Eureka has partnered with a trash hauler and put in a bid as several other companies have as well. Timothy Den-Herder noted that he and others are looking at recycling at the dorm level. Timothy also suggested that several students attend the task force meeting on the evening of Feb.8 th. Asa Diebolt responded that he ran a test program of putting recycling bins in the dorm lounges, which showed an increase the lounges’ recycling, and hopes to instate this in all dorm lounges. Megan Bjella noted that there seems to be excessive use of plastic use and waste at the grill with the portable plastic containers. Mark suggested that perhaps the Grill could create a promotion encouraging students to bring their own plates and cups for use at the Grill. (Brett noted that food and food waste should be on the CEIC’s future agenda and perhaps dedicate an entire meeting to this topic.) Paper WasteReduction Brett announced that unfortunately the two main pursuers of reducing paper waste, Claudia Leung and Kathy Johnson, will be unable to work on this project as Claudia is away for the semester and Kathy has been assigned to a new, time-consuming project. However, in Adrienne Christianson’s first year course, students were asked to write consultant reports addressing paper waste reduction focusing mostly on computer labs, printing on reused paper, duplex printing, and campus wide awareness of recycling. If anyone is interested, they can talk to Brett or Asa and consider forming a task force to address the proposals of paper waste reduction and confront the problem. (Email Brett, smithb@macalester.edu, if you want a copy of the proposal summaries or Asa, adiebolt@macalester.edu, for full copies of the proposals.) Biodiesel MacCares is currently working on the biodiesel project. They noted that they are looking for a space on campus to store their equipment so that they may soon begin work. MacCares is considering designing an internship related to biodiesel for a student(s) to help with the project. They offered the idea of advertising it to chemistry or biology majors and possibly working it into the curriculum so that it may be an ongoing project. Natural Step Seminar Terry Gips is a major leader in sustainability and is a trainer for environmental refocusing plans that are mostly used by businesses. The CEIC is looking at using Terry’s initiatives at Macalester and possibly having him come to Macalester to give a session on how Macalester may be able to adopt his “Natural Step” initiatives into the sustainability effort. Brett suggested inviting Terry to attend a CEIC meeting which should occur at the next CEIC meeting on Febrary 14. Updates From Mark Dickinson: Wind Turbine Mark has talked with his counterparts at Carleton and Gustavus Colleges, who are interested in engaging in a partnership with Macalester to have shared ownership of a wind turbine and energy production. Proposals are being discussed but no definite plans have been defined yet. GreenBuilding Mark noted the grant that Macalester has received the grant mentioned earlier which will greatly help the process of greening the athletic and recreation buildings. He also noted that INTEP, Macalester’s consulting firm for the green building, has looked at the plans for the athletic facility in conjunction with the new athletic director and has made good progress. Mark is also meeting with Joel Schurke from INTEP this week to discuss deconstruction and materials. Future meeting topics include a possible renewable energy, climate action, sustainability conference with other schools (weekend of April 1-2) and Earth Week planning. Meeting is adjourned at 12:50 p.m. THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE AT NOON ON FEBRUARY 14, 2006, IN OLIN RICE 250. TERRY GIPS WILL TALK ABOUT CAMPUS SUSTAINABILITY AND THE NATURAL STEP. |
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