Committee on Environmental Quality -- Past Minutes (Fall 2006)

Past Minutes (Fall 2006)

To see minutes for other semesters:

November 30, 2006

Call to Order. 5:07 PM
Attendance
Adoption of This Agenda
Project team updates
1. Suppliers Team Update
  1. Melissa met with Alan Kuebler to discuss current and potential future efforts regarding environmentally-friendly suppliers
    1. Three years ago special pricing on recycled copy paper was negotiated so ordering “green” does not cost departments more, but it is the responsibility of individual offices to order the type of copy paper they want
    2. We spend ~$125,000/year on EPA-compliant paper products
    3. Approximately 10% of departments currently use recycled paper
    4. 17% of total WU copy paper is recycled
    5. There are affordable "green" options for many items
    6. 16.25% of total centralized WU purchasing dollars currently goes towards "green purchasing"
    7. Jan, a CEQ member, oversees much of this purchasing at the central level for the Danforth Campus
    8. CEQ may wish to make a list of green purchasing options for departments, and reach out to educate staff by explaining the benefits of green purchasing
    9. Bon Appètit supplies are separate from university centralized purchasing program
2. Karl will be meeting with Rick Turner about opportunities to buy more local products; currently all pork products accept for bacon are bought locally
3. The University is looking into the potential for implementing Yiye’s energy conservation recommendations
4. Karl did not have an opportunity to discuss the issue regarding refilling alternative mugs at the Food Committee meeting, but will continue to pursue the issue
5. Kaitlin asks that all project team meeting times be sent out to the whole committee and possibly posted on the CEQ website
6. Education Team
  1. Researched recycling off-campus
    1. Different areas have different policies, and multi-unit buildings sometimes have different policies
    2. In St. Louis City, there is no automatic curbside pickup, though there are 26 drop-off points around the city
      1. You can request curbside pickup if there are a significant number of people on a street who recycle
    3. In University City, you can get a bin from City Hall and pickup should be automatic
    4. Clayton does not have curbside pickup
Recycling
1. Student survey on recycling concerns
  1. Part of Residential Life survey
  2. Complaints about Greenway & Rosedale having a lack of bins
  3. Concerns expressed about overly small bins, mislabeled bins, and bins that don’t stand out from trash cans
    1. Any bins on campus marked “white paper” should be marked “mixed paper”
  4. Dissatisfaction with current recycling education
  5. Karl will e-mail the survey results
2. St. Louis County recycling and waste minimization contact – Jason Housen from St. Louis County health department, guest speaker invited by Donna
  1. One role of his job is to help businesses and institutions in St. Louis County with waste minimization and recycling programs, and trying to establish goals for diverting waste from landfills
  2. County has 50% waste reduction goal by 2010; base report was probably 2000, though some of the #s are from the 1990s
  3. Interested in what our concerns/goals are
  4. Contests to get students interested - Have art student design new flyers/ information
  5. Ideas – reuse – example - one month, have a contest for people to make a mat out of anything & make it usable
  6. Idea of holding an environmental film series
  7. End of year - move out - Microwaves, fridges - Habitat for Humanity, Salvation Army - Collects, Swap board- swap items
    1. The TKE Furniture Drive held every May to benefit charitable organizations already picks up microwaves and fridges in addition to other furniture, and will publicize this aspect more since it appears some people have been unaware of the willingness to take these smaller items in past years
    2. For other times of the year, note that the Salvation Army will pick up, while Goodwill will not
  8. Recyclemania will start in January
    1. Possibly use the theme of "Inconvenient Truths" to advertise this. EXAMPLE - It’s an inconvenient truth that WU students won’t walk __ steps to recycle.
CEQ Elections for 2007
1. Chair
  1. Erin Robinson won unopposed
2. Secretary
  1. Ankoor Shah was pre-declared
  2. Floor opened to nominations; Emily Miner declared
  3. Ankoor delivered speech
  4. Emily withdrew
  5. Ankoor won unopposed
3. Treasurer
  1. Aaron David won unopposed
Open Forum / Announcements / Brainstorming
1. Joe passed out second draft of proposed solar panel sign for additional comments
  1. Jonathan will look over and make comments, as well
2. Are there plans for green roofs on campus?
  1. We had heard that there was going to be a patch of green roof on the roof of the art museum, but we don’t believe it is there. We do not know of any current plans.
3. Yiye asked “Where does leftover food go?”
  1. If unopened, it goes to a food pantry; if it’s been served, it can get thrown out
  2. Composting could be quite challenging; there must be proper permits, and health issues to be dealt with include avoiding vector problems, bacteria, fires
    1. Worm composting of food scraps and waste would be among the more feasible types of composting
    2. There could be significant economic costs and trade-offs to any requirement for Bon Appètit or housekeeping staff to take time to collect and transport waste
4. Switching to plastics made from corn, particularly in dining supplies
  1. Most of what we currently have is plastic #6, which cannot be recycled
  2. We can contact the local managers of Wild Oats & Whole Foods, whose stores apparently use these materials, to find out more
5. The potential for the committee to achieve change in targeted areas that will enable increased knowledge within the campus community was noted
6. Kaitlin suggested that we do more to enable the general student body to take initiative environmentally
7. Jonathan thanked all in attendance for their contributions during the fall semester and all of 2006
Adjournment 5:55PM

November 16, 2006

Call to Order. 5:07 PM
Attendance
Adoption of This Agenda
Welcome to New Members (~3 minutes)
Project team updates (~10 minutes)
1. Education; three major projects being looked into
  1. Getting another solar panel info kiosk in the library
  2. Getting a sign about the solar panels in front of Rebstock
    1. Received OK from Biology in principle; text needs to be reviewed and 2 more people need to OK it
    2. Off-campus recycling
2. Looking into allowing Bon Appètit mug discount for ALL mugs - Yosef
Presentation of Findings From Yale Conference “Strategies for Institutionalizing Sustainability in Higher Education” and Jonathan’s Proposed WU Actions
1. Went to different seminars concerning things such as Yale’s sustainable food project & garden, faculty and sustainability, building credible carbon offsets portfolio
2. General Suggestions -
  1. Join Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education
  2. Faculty members appointed to CEQ & this committee placement regarded as highly as other committee appointments
  3. Identify and develop sustainability change agents in every department
  4. Brief & basic education about importance of environmental sustainability should be part of the orientation for all new students, faculty, staff
3. Suggestions on campus development
4. Operations suggestions
5. Academics suggestions
6. Discussion -
  1. More sustainability courses
Vice Chancellorship
1. The search is now going on
2. There is recognition of the need for support staff
Recyclemania
1. Emily, Joe and Danielle will share coordinator duties
2. January through April
CEQ Elections on November 30th (~5 minutes)
1. Position descriptions
2. Elections will be at our meeting on November 30th
Open Forum / Announcements
Adjournment

November 2, 2006

Call to Order. 5:07 PM
Attendance
Adoption of This Agenda
Event Wrap-up - El Mercado
1. It was a good chance to make our group known and to educate students and parents about environmental sustainability at WU and what parents can do at home.
Updates from each project team
1. Suppliers – status of meeting, etc.
  1. Melissa Legge - starting email to get group together. Staff member recommended connecting Alan Kuebler.
2. Any follow-up on solar panel signage, etc.?
  1. Environmental Engineering has a kiosk that is not being used, talk with Prof. Giammar.
3. Other team updates-
  1. Energy Team- Meeting this Tues at 5:30pm in Whispers
  2. The email with groups and who is in which group will be sent out again
Report from St. Louis Campus Sustainability Day
1. Donna Hall presented- covered all aspects of recycling & sustainability on WU campus.
  1. Contact Donna about a group that might be interested in working with WU and that has grant money to give in helping with projects.
2. Green buildings presentations and case studies were done looking at what different universities around country have done, including Harvard & Ms. Sharp.
3. Emerging Green Builders - work with students & their campuses!! Maybe a possibility for CEQ to work with them.
Recyclemania
1. Email Jonathan if you are interested - Emily Miner, Joe, & Danielle interested in liaison position
Workplace giving to Earth Share Missouri - (Meredith)
1. National Organization & offices on state level
2. This organization raises money & get resources for green organizations
3. Workplace giving- an employee selects an amount that is taken out of their paycheck before they see it & that amount is given to the organization
4. WU has workplace giving for United Way.
5. Is CEQ interested in pushing for WU to add this organization to workplace giving options?
CEQ Elections coming soon
1. Consider running for Chair, Secretary or Treasurer
2. Talk to current officers to find out responsibilities, time load, etc.
3. Elections will be at our meeting on November 30th
Open Forum / Announcements
1. AEPhi - Recycling aluminum cans on the Row -
  1. The money from it goes to Loop In Motion
2. Off-campus Recycling - It does happen. Just need to call and request it. There is no additional charge
3. WU Mugs - Is it possible to get a discount for all mugs in addition to WU mugs?
  1. Health issues?
  2. Karl will bring it up to SU Food Committee this week
Adjournment

October 19, 2006

Call to Order. 5:07 PM
Attendance
Adoption of This Agenda
Welcome to New Members and Guests
Event Wrap-up (Energy Week and Pack the Train) (~3 minutes)
1. Energy Week
  1. Good feedback
  2. 2 art students have an idea to use the light bulbs for an art project
    1. Make sculpture of a compact fluorescent light bulb using incandescent light bulbs collected during Energy Week
2. Pack the Train
  1. Our part was successful. Thanks to Kaitlyn, Karl, Carrie Lynn
Update from Education Team
1. Now working on contributing to El Mercado - student group putting on carnival type event to raise money for a charity & it provides an opportunity for us to get our name out at a big event
Project Teams – The Potential and Challenges of the Concept
1. Goal - Work on variety of different things, so many people can take leadership and the group can address different areas.
2. It’s up to individuals on the team to take charge and get things organized within their team
Suppliers Project Team
1. Has been working to clarify goals; Alan Kuebler is willing to work with the team so we can be working with someone who oversees almost everything in campus purchasing, rather than working department-to-department
Sustainability on the Medical Campus
1. Background - recycling program not as broad as on main campus. Only recycle office paper, and still not a great rate of participation. A big hurdle to collecting more materials is finding space to collect them in.
2. Focus group to study who is participating in the current program and what can be done to improve it
3. There is an active and vocal group of students, faculty and staff who are frustrated by the lack of recycling options
Solar Panel Project Follow up
1. Suggestion that we create another live feed kiosk and put in Olin library
2. Create sign to go outside Rebstock to direct people to look up and see the panels.
  1. Tom Simmons is on the sign committee, so we will talk to him about this
Sponsoring "Living a Carbon Free Life"
1. SIUE + Sierra Club - Getting a speaker Hunter Lovins to speak in St. Louis
  1. WU organizations could contribute a total of $1000 & she would speak at WU and do a panel discussion
  2. April 6th, 2007
  3. Could be an opportunity for partnership among campus "green groups"
  4. Bio
Concert volunteering opportunity
1. 4 free tickets for the 30 Seconds to Mars concert if volunteer to talk about environmental initiatives at WU and in St. Louis; contact Erin
Follow up from meeting with Professor Biswas (Jonathan)
1. Now in hiring process for the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Energy and Environment
Campus Climate Challenge
1. Goals- Have short-term obtainable ones, while having long-term ones as well.
  1. Short-term- ones school can obtain this year
CEQ Semester Timeline
1. Remaining Meetings 11/02, 11/16, 11/30
2. Elections for Chair, etc. will be on 11/30
  1. Contact Jonathan if you have questions about this
Reminder - St. Louis Campus Sustainability Day, Maryville University, October 25th
1. Takes place all day on Wednesday October 25th
2. Cost for students is $20
Open Forum / Announcements
1. MO Coalition for the Environment - involved in Art Gallery show called “Earthworks: Art For An Endangered Planet” at The Gallery at the Regional Arts Commission, 6128 Delmar, from October 20 – December 3
  1. Gallery talk on Wednesday November 8th; 6 PM reception, 6:30 PM talk
2. MO Coalition for the Environment has many environment-related volunteer opportunities for those who are interested
3. Mine Your Own Business – College Republicans showing a film about “the dark side of environmentalism” Monday Oct. 23rd 9pm in Friedman Lounge
4. Hybrid Living- save tops on aluminum cans for competition
  1. Also put plastic bags in every trash room on the Forty for collecting batteries
5. Questions about lights staying on in common rooms on the 40; Hybrid Living is looking into it
Adjournment

October 5, 2006

Call to Order. 5:07 PM
Attendance
Adoption of This Agenda
Welcome to New Members
Energy & Global Warming
1. Energy Week
  1. Change a Light
    1. Big success
    2. All but ~15 of 278 light bulbs exchanged on Wednesday and Thursday; remainder will be distributed on Friday
  2. Film Festival
    1. First night went well
    2. Earth to America on Thursday, An Inconvenient Truth on Friday
  3. Ecovillage at WILD
    1. Can anyone pick up tables after WILD?
    2. Need volunteers to
      1. set up / clean up
      2. host guests
      3. distribute info
2. Where do we go from here?
  1. Campus Climate Challenge
    1. We are officially a part of this national coalition with hundreds of other universities
    2. We can use resources developed by the Coalition and other members to advance our campus sustainability
    3. Our top goal for this year is moving towards carbon neutrality
    4. We will ask Ralph Thaman to come and give his presentation on current energy efficiency efforts on campus
Pack the Train – Environmental benefits of public transportation
1. Katie [sp.] is making business cards that list how to get to select destinations on the Metrolink, which we can distribute at the Pack the Train event next weekend
2. We need people to help and distribute cards on the day of the event – Email Carrie Lynn or Kaity Mattos if you want to help
Updates on environment-related activities of campus groups and departments
1. Social Sciences / Law building will be LEED rated
  1. All new academic buildings at this point will be LEED certified
  2. If LEED comes up with renovation standards we might try to have our renovations do that; much of our potential for increased efficiency at this point lies in renovations of older buildings
  3. Hopefully we can push for higher LEED ratings on buildings in the future
  4. Getting to the LEED Gold level on future buildings will require giving up aspects of our standard Collegiate Gothic architecture, but the campus is really not uniform in this style
  5. No commitment yet about LEED certification etc. for dorms; a natural area for us to focus on, potentially with Hybrid Living; contact email is JimS@wustl.edu
2. Paul Norman notes that bike traffic on campus has increased significantly
3. High efficiency light bulbs are generally used on campus
  1. The university spent about $1 million switching to high-efficiency lighting
4. Lights with infrared sensors set to shut off when there is no movement and no people have been installed in many classrooms, and will be installed in many more classrooms by next fall
5. For campus landscaping, we try to avoid high-maintenance plants, use disease-resistant breeds so we don’t have to use chemicals; look at safety factors; our campus was prairie; we’re in a transition zone between cold and warm climate; the only evergreen that grows naturally here is the red cedar; soil on this campus is very poor; trees and grass don’t naturally grow in the same places but we try to do both
6. Our campus is artificially leveled out; as they excavated for the Social Science Law building, they pulled out 4 million pounds of century-old cinderblocks and other waste that they used for fill in the early 1900s
7. Stephen Johnson, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is planning to come to campus October 11th at 11 AM [since changed to 10:30] to announce a major grant for compliance assistance for universities.
St. Louis Campus Sustainability Day, Maryville University, October 25th
1. Takes place all day on Wednesday October 25th
2. Cost for students is $20
3. We can probably subsidize the cost for some students to attend
4. Email Jonathan if you would like to go
Open Forum / Announcements
1. Meredith says check out EarthShareMO.org, the website of an organization she is interning with
2. Yiye says that Green Action is planning a panel discussion on business and environmentalism for November.
3. Kelley is a program leader for VERDE, which assigns students to elementary or middle school classes where you teach students about the environment once every two weeks. Let her know if you are interested in participating.
Adjournment

September 21, 2006

Call to Order. 5:07 PM
Attendance
Adoption of This Agenda
WU's Sustainability Efforts in the Last Four Months (Bruce Backus)
1. Background information given for new members
2. Chancellor met with Executive Vice Chancellor John Klein, Professor Biswas, etc.
  1. Created new position, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Energy & the Environment
  2. Will report to Executive Vice Chancellor John Klein and work closely with Professor Biswas
  3. Job description mostly regarding sustainability of campus operations
  4. Tasks for this position include, doing footprint analysis, prioritizing areas of improvement, educations & involvement with teachers and students
  5. Waiting for approval to advertise; talking to national search firms
3. Other update information
  1. All Hilltop academic buildings will now be LEED certified
  2. Ralph Thaman gave an energy conservation presentation to University Council recently
  3. Energy efforts will be posted on Environmental & Energy Research website
  4. Projects - Pilot study on increasing recycling on other campus, Timers/motion sensors in bathrooms - initially not well received by departments. Successful in other buildings, approaching first group again.
4. Environmental Management System (EMS) - ex. www.c2e2.org
  1. Develop a good database with compliance on hazardous waste, run times, water usage
  2. Input from undergrad & grad students
  3. Using footprint of Brookings Hall created by undergraduate architecture student (Tara Fridhandler) as impetus for improving sustainability in architecture on campus
Energy Efficiency Study Presentation (Yiye Zhang) –For LabSci 300
1. Annual Utility costs for having the room at -
  70 degrees = $30,000
  72 degrees = 34,000
  74 degrees = $37,000
2. Currently set at 76 degrees & changes with Professor’s preference
3. Have to dry out air by 20 degrees before send it through rooms
4. Price for gas in 2002- $1.5 million, 2006 $4 million
5. Proposal- set at 70 degrees
6. Action- Talk to faculty & staff and ask not to change temperature.
Energy and Global Warming (Erin Robinson)
1. KT Tunstall concert wrap-up
  1. Good feedback from community on information presented
2. Film Festival
  1. Promoted at KT Tunstall concert
  2. Working to get An Inconvenient Truth for Oct. 4th - 6th LabSci, & Brown 100- 8pm
3. “Change a Light” Campaign
  1. Elina working on it
  2. Want it to be free swap for students, working on funding
4. Eco-Village
  1. Went to festival at Earthways house
  2. Small group of tables at WILD; groups coming: St. Louis bio-fuels club, Sierra Club, REI & Whole Foods.
Education Team
1. Priorities of group:
  1. Recycling-education
  2. Public Transportation
  3. Advertising Green Projects
2. Pack The Train - working with Community Service Office to promote the environmental aspects of using the Metro
  1. Karl, Carrie Lynn, and Kaitlyn have been in contact with relevant people; Hybrid Living plans to support this event
  2. Ideas for Advertising
    1. Dispel myths on time requirements to use public transportation versus driving
    2. Reverse scavenger hunt- get card stamped
    3. Emphasize safety
    4. "Business" cards of some sort?
Composting- Green House in biology does large amount of it. Possibility of using food waste from campus eateries here?
1. possible issue with vermin
2. Ideas - partner with farm - they take our food waste & use for feed
Project Proposed by Bruce Backus
1. How are people calculating greenhouse emissions at other schools?
  1. Erin - her possible focus in the spring
Adjournment. 6:00 PM

September 7, 2006

Call to Order. 5:07 PM
Attendance
Adoption of This Agenda - Adopted
Activities Fair Wrap-Up
1. 69 people signed-up and applications have been sent to them
2. Only a few will be made members of CEQ as a whole immediately so CEQ meetings don’t grow too large; others can get involved in project teams for now
“Environmental & Energy Research”
1. Linked on WUSTL homepage and lists current activities
2. “Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering”- Professor Giammar
  1. New Dean in Engineering - Creating larger united department; department, currently 12-14 faculty, looking to hire multiple new professors in Environmental Engineering and biologists to work on energy
3. WU International Energy and Environmental Colloquium (May 5-7, 2007)
Conference of the Northeast Campus Sustainability Consortium
1. At Yale
2. November 2-3, 2006
3. Website
4. Potentially good opportunity to talk WU up to potential sustainability directors, etc.
  1. WU hopes to have a sustainability director by next year
5. Jonathan may attend
Energy and Global Warming Team
1. Erin - Energy & carbon neutrality- researching other schools’ actions
2. Event planning
  1. Film Festival- Put on with Sierra Club, on different energy issues
    1. Would run during WILD weekend
    2. Works well with Guster playing.
  2. Eco Village - Guster tours with.
    1. Information booth.
    2. Guster works through Reverb to be energy efficient in how they work.
    3. Not coming with Guster to WILD, thus WU would have to put it on.
  3. “Change a Light Campaign”
    1. EPA national effort that we are working with
    2. Table in Mallinckrodt - Students bring light bulbs & get fluorescent light bulbs
    3. The university installs efficient lighting, but this is for desk lamps and others that students supply themselves
3. Motion Sensor lights in Danforth
  1. Working to put them in all new dorms
4. MetroLink & UPass – Is CEQ publicizing it from energy perspective?
  1. We have not done so yet, but we definitely can and should
  2. We can promote the online Tripfinder possibly
    1. Include saves money, saves energy
    2. Encourage student groups to use it
    3. Paint underpass to advertise
    4. Pack the Train Campaign working on this as well - using it to get students to community service opportunities
    5. If freshman recycling video is revamped it could also mention MetroLink
    6. Maybe we’ll set up a transportation committee
5. Recycling
  1. Status of bin locations
    1. Recycling bins should be next to trash cans, but sometimes someone decides that it’s better aesthetics to spread them out, even if it causes contamination
    2. We have a limited number of outside bins; it’s not realistic at this point to have a recycling bin where every trash can is
  2. Contamination continues to be major issue
    1. Kika wonders if we should have a few large recycling collection centers for the use of those who are truly motivated to recycle, and that would not attract any trash contamination
Education Team
1. Recycling magnets- printed 2,000 been given out on Move-in day for Freshmen
2. Working to contact people in ResColleges & Academic Departments to be environmental liaisons to distribute environmental education
Renewables on Campus Team
1. Background information on solar panels
2. Idea of using Bio-diesel or other alternative fuels for WU vehicles
3. Wind power - possibly at Tyson Research Center
Construction Team
1. Mention of a new type of roof shingles that incorporate solar panels
2. A part of the new Art Building will have a Green Roof
3. University Center will go for LEED Certification
  1. All new academic buildings will be LEED Certified
4. No current plans for Residential Life buildings to be LEED certified
  1. We may try to change that
Food (Composting) Team
1. Yosef is interesting in leading in this area
Open Forum / Announcements
1. Meeting of EnvESA, the Environmental Engineering Students Association - 11:15am Wednesday, September 13th
  1. For more information contact David Hall - dhall@wustl.edu
2. Sept. 16 & 17 - EarthWays Energy & Recycling Festival. Fifth annual festival again includes recycling exhibits with a popular fall-fest energy focus. EarthWays Home and grounds are filled with demonstrations, exhibits, information, activities, presentations and displays to help all ages learn to reduce waste, save money and live more sustainably at home. Buy compact fluorescent light bulbs for only 99 cents each! Kids’ activities include solar car racing and recycled lantern making. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. Free. EarthWays Home, 3617 Grandel Square near the Fox Theatre in Grand Center. Website
Adjournment