Meeting Minutes 1/13/17
10:00 – 11:30
Student Life Conference Room
Attendance
Governing Core Members present: Theresa Hornstein, Kristi Heintz, Eric Brandt, Dave Israel, Deanne Roquet, Nate Bronk, Marissa Johnsen
General Members present:
Guest Present:
December meeting minutes reviewed
Announcements
MREA meeting was supposed to happen 1/11 but was rescheduled for Jan 30th due to inclement weather. The focus of this first meeting would review solar deployment strategies we’ve been assessing for our own campus (related to our NREL assessment) and regional education opportunities ie, how MREA’s certification programming could partner with our institution(s). Workforce, Business & Industry, and Facilities, and Sustainability Council have been invited. UMD and Ecolibrium 3 will meet everyone at LSC in the morning for a 10:30 tour of LSC, we’ll meet for discussion at 11:00 in S2920. Everyone is welcome.
New Business
Kristi shared that Dave and Amy Freeman would be available to key note our Earth Day on Tuesday April 25th. The Council agreed that date should work. Kristi followed-up with Igrid Lyons to confirm, the Council will invite Heather and continue planning at February’s meeting.
Kristi brought the Bag It Duluth discussion to the Council for discussion. Kristi noted that Connie has been using alternatives to plastic bags in the LSC Store for over SEVEN YEARS (!) and asked for her feedback first. Connie shared that she had already signed support for both the LSC Store and Café. All agreed the Council could sign, simply stating support of LSC’s Sustainability Council, not necessarily representing the campus as a whole. Nate made an official motion to sign on to the Bag It Duluth support page, Eric seconded.
MPCA is hosting a free Climate Adaptation conference for Minnesota higher ed in St Paul on January 31st. Deanne and Kristi have already registered, anyone that would like to ride along should register at the eventbrite site. The Council discussed covering travel expense (mileage) for one vehicle. Connie motioned to cover mileage, Theresa seconded.
Old Business
Kristi brought, again, the heated foot rest discussion to the Council for discussion. Citing there have been additional requests for heated foot rests, and some difficulty to obtain the foot rests from their department budgets. Kristi has worked with Melissa Leno to offer suggestions. Kristi’s concern is two parts. First, we’ve talked at length about “fixing” the problems at a facilities level, but she wonders if this strategy is either a) impossible or b) going to be more expensive than just putting a band aid on the problems, on an individual basis. She’s also concerned that if these individuals are unable to get the foot rests from their department (for various reasons), the alternative is that they may bring in their own space heater, which is against policy and not what we want. Dave suggested that when requests are made, maybe we try to obtain some temperature data from those areas so we can better figure out if there are patterns. Max-min thermometers were suggested and could be deployed prior to offering a heated foot rest. The max-min reading wouldn’t dictate whether or not an individual gets a heater, but rather would give us a better idea of what is “comfortable” for our occupants and how that compared to our current standards. After lengthy discussion Deanne motioned to purchase 10 space heaters and $50 worth of max-min readers, Dave seconded. Nobody opposed. Kristi will work to fulfil past requests first then perhaps put out an open offer to the campus.
Work Group and Student Employee Reports
Kristi brought the topic of student employee utilization to the Council. She shared that both students working on the waste sort program have resigned their positions, citing other job and changing course loads, so the project is no longer active. There were some great outcomes from the first phase of this project, but students may not have felt fulfilled in their experience as the pace of the project doesn’t offer enough active employment hours (ie, they were spending 10 minutes a day every day collecting data, not exactly a money maker). Marissa offered students might not be recognizing the real value of these work opportunities, as it could be a resume builder. Kristi shared the difficulty in completing some of these ambitious projects with only student employees when time to manage the project can be immense, students need to be self-starters, and the Sustainability Club was unable to muster interested participants to volunteer time to work on the project. It may perhaps make a better class project with support from a student employee. Deanne will continue to work on course driven research opportunities. Kristi offered that it might complement the MAP Theme 3 “Graduate with Distinction” goal if Sustainability were defined as a “distinction”. The MAP team is assembling now, and Kristi has asked to be a part of these discussions (although it will be a faculty driven development process).
Kristi added she would still like to go ahead with the behavior change idea that was generated, discouraging paper towel use using stickers. Baseline purchasing information was compiled, new products are now being utilized, so it would make sense to continue gathering that data to see how improved signage/education might affect need to purchase paper towels. Deanne motioned to support the print cost for dispenser stickers printed in the Copy Center, Nate seconded.
Budget
Encumbrances to date:
- Annual AASHE dues: -280
- Boreal Natives (fall-spring maintenance): -$600
- Boreal Natives (fall maintenance): -$200
- Human Svs Dept (plastic bag removal-annual): -$280
- Menards -$400
- Dan’s -$300
- Printing -$12
- Travel reimbursement (Deanne, Kristi to St. Paul Climate Adapt Wkshp 1/31/17) – $161.57
BALANCE as of today: $ 6,358.26
FY17 Budget priority review/planning
FY16-17potential budget items (carryover FY15-16 list)
- Bottle filling station near Student LIfe
- Picnic table under H catwalk
- Additional bike rack for main entrance?
- Interpretive Trail bench, trash/recycling cans, exclosures
- Sustainability kiosk: pamphlet holder, plastic bag bin, compost bag dispenser
- MnSCU Sustainability Across Curriculum workshop
Meeting adjourned 11:30
Next Regular Meeting
February 3rd, 2017
Notes submitted to SC blog and LSC Employee Portal > Committees by Kristi Heintz
Posted in: Minutes
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