Sustainability at Lake Superior College

Meeting Minutes 1-17-2014

8:30-10:00

Location: Student Life Conference Room

Attendance

Governing Council Members present: Deanne Roquet, Kristi Heintz, Theresa Hornstein,

General Members present:  Glenn Merrick, Dick Haney,

Guest Present:

Announcements

The Nelson Institute Earth Day at UW Madison is April 22^nd.  Deanne will be going; students are encouraged to attend as well.

Check out the Duluth Public Seed Lending Library, grand opening is on February 22nd!

The Lake Superior Sustainable Farming Association’s Annual meeting will be on January 25th from noon-4:30 at Peace Church in Duluth.

Work Group and Student Employee Reports

Policy and Procedure: employee reminders, education, and training needs (printing, recycling, supplies, computers, small appliance)

*Rachel, Carol, Kristi, Chad

No updates

Master Facilities Plan

*Dick, Cliff, Glenn, Kristi, Theresa

Dick gave an update on the Master Plan consultant meeting.  Cliff and Dick have put together maps and forwarded to the consultants for trail development potential.  Dick is working on some additional connections with City trails and will forward that information as well.

Sustainability Reporting/Benchmarking: GGI, ACUPCC, MnSCU Sustainability Reporting, Superior Compact, B3, publicizing info

*Kristi, Aaron, Deanne, Bruce

Kristi worked on the GGI a bit over break and was able to enter all data from B3 and update year’s past.  Denise updated past institutional data and also entered data for the past 2 years.  Kathy sent data to Kristi, but she hasn’t had a chance to enter all of it yet.

Sustainability Kiosk: energy dashboard/demo, sustainability signage

*Duane, Rachel, Student Senate Rep

No updates

Grounds Maintenance/Campus Appeal: annual flower planting, rainwater harvesting, no-mow areas, rooftop gardening

Theresa, Mike, Aaron, Kristi, maintenance rep

No updates

Sustainability in Curriculum

Theresa, Duane, Aaron, Kristi, Deanne, Glenn

Theresa reported she has been in conversation with Jenni about a potential land for the Food Systems articulation and also outlined some questions and concerns in an email to Jenni.  Jenni is still very intent on pushing this articulation through, although a timeline has not yet been established.

Other SE Updates

None

New Business

Deanne and Kristi visited Fond du Lac over break to talk with Bill Hilty about Co-hosting the next Sustainability Across the Curriculum Workshop.  He was very interested although both of us are concerned about the May date Ana and Erika have proposed.  The Council agreed it would be a time-crunch for faculty and would also lessen the chance we’d be able to get  student involvement.  Deanne will send a message to Ana and tell them we are very interested, but this year will not work for us and propose next year the workshop be scheduled perhaps in March.

The Business Office has twice requested a water bottle filling station for the S-building.  The Council supports purchasing a station if Gary Adams will have one installed.  Deanne will send an email to Gary.

Kristi and Wade worked on the FY15 Budget proposal and submitted a slightly lower request than last year.  We need to be proactive in utilizing funds each year to demonstrate the ongoing need.

An Earth Day committee will meet Friday. January 31st to discuss themes and ideas for Earth Day.  Deanne, Kristi, Theresa and Aaron will be part of the planning committee.  Kristi will invite Heather to the next Sustainability Council meeting to share committee ideas.

LSC will be hosting the still tentative Sustainable Twin Ports full-day training sessions in March.  Kristi will have more information about those trainings at next meeting.

Kristi mentioned the $30,000 conservation grant LSC received from Comfort Systems Duluth for the boiler upgrade project in both the main building and Art building.  Kristi did a blog post about it and forwarded the blog post to Mat for Newsplash.  It was not Newsplashed or mentioned in any campus correspondence.

Ongoing Business

Update SC Committee structure: members, Governing Council, and Council co-chair responsibilities (tabled until next meeting)

Old Business

The latest Sustainability Council AQIP Action Project initiated through the Sustainable Twin Ports Training titled “Early Adopter Project-Building Sustainability into Campus Process”, will be closed-out this month. (Kristi)

Budget

FY14 Budget: $9,000 

Encumbrances to date:

MN Waste Wise membership 2013-2014: -$150

Open PO for Menards (landscaping supplies: azalea mulch, planter flowers): -$200

Open PO for Menards (Interpretive trail supplies) – $200

AASHE membership: -$280

Airpark plastic bag recycling program: -$208

Rene Fall (Int Trail GIS mapping): -$320

UMACS Kristi travel and registration: -$758.39

ACUPCC annual 2013-2014 membership: -$750

Eden Brothers (seed mix for S-bldg): -143.96

Grainger for faucet aerators: -$85

BALANCE as of 1/14/2014: $5918.65

FY14 potential budget items

• Concourse lighting signage
• Bottle filling station for ERTC (did this happen in FY13?) and downtown campus
• Additional bike rack for main entrance
• Outdoor recycling cans
• Interpretive Trailhead sign
• Interpretive Trail bench, trash/recycling cans
• Parking lot info signs
• Legacy: fencing for exclosures
• Sustainability kiosk
• MnSCU Sustainability Across Curriculum workshop host costs

Next meeting

March7th, 2013, 9:00 am, Student Life Conference Room

Notes submitted by Kristi Heintz