Spring Sustainability Newsletter
The Spring 2011 Sustainability Newsletter is now available!
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LSC’s Sustainability Plan of Action
As a 2008 signatory to the American Colleges & Universities Presidents’ Climate Commitment, LSC is required to complete and submit a plan outlining our goals and intentions to reduce carbon emissions through various energy emission mitigation strategies and educational and community outreach efforts.
Over the course of one year, the Lake Superior College Sustainability Plan of Action was completed by students and staff within the college’s Environmental Council with input and support from administration, knowledge of many individuals on campus, and collaborative efforts with other colleges in our region.
View the full Plan here: Lake Superior College Sustainability Plan of Action
This document is a plan for LSC to achieve at least a 50% reduction in eCO2 emissions by 2030. Recognizing the fluctuating nature of environmental technology and social change, this Plan will focus on the next few years followed by five-year interim goals until 2030; bi-annual reviews of this document will address the years to follow. This review process will address LSC’s goal to achieve climate neutrality by 2060. To achieve this goal thoughtful planning and direction are necessary. This goal and Plan will prompt meaningful discussion and development of policies and procedures needed to get us there.
As of May 6th, 2011, the final Plan has been submitted to ACUPCC! This document will utilized in annual planning for campus sustainability projects and will be updated every two years and re-submitted to ACUPCC. If you have comments or suggestions for future drafts, feel free to leave them here!
Posted in: Good Stuff, NEWS
Leave a Comment (0) →Miller Creek Disc Golf Course PUBLIC MEETING
The City of Duluth is offering a public meeting to lay out plans on potential re-vegetation project for the Miller Creek Disc Golf Course. They will also be discussing the possibility of moving baskets located in sensitive areas near Miller Creek. The meeting will be held at Lake Superior College in their Atrium at 11:00-noon on Friday, April 29th. Check out the DGC Public Meeting poster and article in the Duluth News Tribune for more info! If you have an opinion on the future of the course, now’s the time to voice it!
Posted in: Good Stuff
Leave a Comment (0) →Meeting Minutes 4/15/11
9:00 Student Life Conference Room
Faculty/Staff members present: Carol Johnson, Cliff Koski, Glenn Merrick, Deanne Roquet, Kristi Heintz, Megan Bugge, Theresa Hornstein, Wade Gordon
Student members present:
Guests present: Katherine Hansberry (Student Senate), Kathy Larsen (student)
Announcements
Disk Golf Course Public Meeting is April 29th, 11:00 in the Atrium. Discussion will be led by the City of Duluth, more info as Kristi receives it.
Dick has been working with the City of Duluth on trail connectivity plans and submitted requests on behalf of LSC. Mark W. has mentioned that once the City’s plans are finalized, these should be noted in the newest Facilities Master Plan in 2012.
This year’s plant sale will be April 27th and 28th. Proceeds will go to the International Student Scholarship Fund. The idea was brought up that, in the future, this money could potentially be put into a Sustainability Revolving Fund.
Sub-Committee Reports
SPA timeline
–Pat will take the Plan to the President’s Exec. Cabinet for review on April 27th, Gary K. will discuss public release with them as well.
–Release to campus via blog post and email May 2nd
–Submit May 6th
Old Business
Earth Day Recap
Overall, the day was a great success, although the arrangement of tables (not in the corridor) made tables less visible. Heather did an amazing job organizing all events! Patty did a fantastic job with the Michael Monroe concert/workshops and it seems they were well attended and the Atrium was a great place to house it. Suggestions for next year’s Earth Day include: promoting more student booths representing more programs/courses throughout campus (solicit instructors for this at beginning of semester while they’re planning curriculum).
Rain garden signs: .pdfs have been given to Max. Wade will talk with him soon to get a materials estimate so we can encumber these funds by the end of April.
Waste Wise Success Story is finished and is available on the blog. A copy has been submitted to AASHE and Minnesota Waste Wise for publishing. Mat will also use part of the story for The Wave and possibly a press release.
New Business
Kathy’s Plaque: We should encumber funds soon to make the plaque that will accompany the tree we are dedicating to Kathy Nelson. The Council decided to use the same materials Max will be using on the rain garden signs and have them machine the plaque in a similar way. Wade will discuss this materials cost with Max as well. Wade and Carol will be work on wording for this plaque when we get to that point.
Sustainability Revolving Fund Wade, Deanne, Cliff and Kristi met with Kathy Dugdale and Mark Winson about the possibility of establishing a Revolving Fund. Mark told the group to establish some parameters to follow regarding sources for funds, delegation of funds, and individuals that will be responsible for overseeing/delegating the funds. Kristi will get in contact with Moorhead State and Bemidji State (the only 2 MnSCU institutions with a Student Eco or Green Fee) to see how they handle funds. Cliff, Kristi, Wade, and Theresa will work on drafting a proposal.
Budget Report
EC balance YTD:
Date Item (-) Balance
7/1/2010 Beginning FY11 Balance $ 5000
7/9/10 MN Waste Wise Membership dues $ 150 $ 4850
9/17/10 Waste Wise Annual Meeting Registration-Kevin & Kristi $ 70 $ 4780
9/24/10 MN Waste Wise Meeting Mileage-Kevin & Kristi $ 296.18 $ 4483.82
11/24/10 AASHE Annual Dues $250 $ 4233.82
2/7/11 Online Cert. in Sustainability Leadership, Ithaca-Kristi $550 $ 3683.82
2/8/11 Northland College Sustainability Meeting mileage-Kristi $72.42 $ 3611.40
3/1/11 MN Waste Wise: plastic bag recycler $150 $ 3461.40
3/1/11 Holtzman Betchel Co: 2 Rubbermaid compost bins $253 $ 3208.40
4/5/11 Bobcat of Duluth: rent auger for trail head sign installation $140 $ 3068.40
4/8/11 Four Seasons Outdoor Services: limestone for trial head $125 $ 2943.40
4/11/11 MN Waste Wise: 2nd plastic bag recycler $150 $ 2793.40
3/15/11 Printing YTD $34.48 Current Balance: $ 2758.92
The Council agreed to look into the cost of purchasing a “Elkay” water bottle filling retrofits for a drinking water fountain. This until will serve as a demonstration and use the remaining funds from our cost center. Wade agreed to take the idea to Mark and ask that facilities match that fountain with another. Kristi and Wade will look at the cost of purchasing and installing these units.
Motions
No motions made
Next meeting
Next EC meeting will be on April 22nd at 9:00 in Student Life Conference Room
Submitted by Kristi Heintz
Posted in: Minutes
Leave a Comment (0) →Meeting Agenda 4/15/11
9:00 – 11:00
Location: Student Life Conference Room
Announcements
Sub-Committee Reports
New Business
-Kathy’s plaque
-Sustainability Revolving Fund
Old Business
SPA Updates/Timeline:
–Meeting with Pat
–President’s Exec. Cabinet Review April 27th
–Release to campus April 28th
–Submit May 6th
Earth Day Recap
Rain Garden(s) signs
Waste Wise Success Story
5R-questions, updates, volunteer in STARS!
Budget
Funds for this FY need to be encumbered by late April to be used.
Balance as of 4/1/2011: $3,193.40
4/5/11-Bobcat of Duluth auger for trail-head sign – $140
4/8/11-Four Season Outdoor Services-limestone for trail head – $125
4/11/11-MN Waste Wise-2nd plastic bag recycler-$150
YTD Printing: -$34.48
4/15/2011-CURRENT BALANCE: about $2,743.92 (does not include all posters/flyers/hand-outs)
Expenditures upcoming: rain garden signs/posts, plaque for Kathy’s tree dedication
purchase recycle bins (Kevin)
Next meeting
April 29th, 2011 at 9:00 in the Student Life Conference Room
Posted in: Agendas
Leave a Comment (0) →Lake Superior College Shreds Landfill Load
Lake Superior College Shreds Landfill Load
April 14, 2011
Lake Superior College has been a member of Minnesota Waste Wise since 2008. In 2008 and 2011, Waste Wise conducted site visits and made many valuable suggestions including strategies to reduce our solid waste. This has prompted LSC to evaluate waste hauler contracts, establish a waste tracking system, and examine our overall solid waste system handling from purchasing to disposal. Also, as a member of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), and as a signatory of the American Colleges and Universities Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), LSC will submit its Sustainability Plan of Action in May 2011 which outlines the campus’s goal to reduce solid waste, purchasing and food waste by 50% by 2030. In conjunction with this Sustainability Plan, LSC is in the process of creating a campus-wide sustainable purchasing policy which will include tips on helping campus purchasing agents make product choices with less overall environmental impact, and at the same time, reduce the amount of single-life packing material that reaches our campus.
What do you do with large chunks of unavoidable styrofoam that ships along with fragile equipment as packaging? It can’t be recycled, it isn’t biodegradable, its combusted bi-product is toxic to respiratory systems and the atmosphere, and it stays in landfills for centuries taking up almost 30% of landfill space in the United States. LSC’s Integrated Manufacturing Program has created a solution that that will make this product reusable to community members and businesses alike.
This year’s Integrated Manufacturing Team, including students Nathan Zobel, Pete Alms and David Hauff, took their styrofoam shredder to the two-day SkillsUSA competition in Bloomington, Minnesota. The project competed in the Community Service category and won a gold medal, advancing them to the National SkillsUSA competition in Kansas City, Missouri this June. The machine, designed as a prototype for a new and improved machine already in production, has been in service at LSC for four years. Designing and building the shredder, though, is only half the story. The machine has shredded over 8,000 cubic feet of large styrofoam packing material over its life and the team has spent over 160 hours shredding campus styro and also material dropped off by the public.
But they didn’t stop there! Throughout the four years of service, the Integrated Manufacturing team has been taking notes on design shortfalls of the current machine. The team is utilizing their CAD/CAM design knowledge, machine skills, previous experience, and is also adapting and developing trouble-shooting skills to produce a machine that will give them a more usable end-product with consistent-sized pieces, and, “with the new design the shredded pieces will be more uniform and have less static…” says team member Zobel. This will make the material more appealing to commercial businesses and the more efficient machine design will mean they can take in more from the community; thereby diverting even more of this nuisance material from the landfill. Besides the shredded material’s obvious use as packing material, individuals have found use for it as filler for bean bag chairs, dog beds and outdoor planters.
This project not only serves to promote our Integrated Manufacturing program through college publications, but when the new machine is completed, it will also serve as a tangible community outreach project for the college with on-line advertising of shredded styrofoam. “At the same time, the project will help us to reach our college’s sustainability goals by keeping styrofoam out of landfills,” says Deanne Roquet, LSC’s Environmental Council Chairperson.
This project is an excellent example of hands-on classroom learning and fills a very necessary niche within the campus and ultimately the community, as no place else in the region has the capacity to manage the product after its initial purpose has been exhausted.
For more information on this or any of Lake Superior College’s Sustainability initiatives, email Kristi Heintz at sustainability@lsc.edu.
Posted in: Good Stuff
Leave a Comment (0) →Meeting Agenda 4/1/2011
April 1st , 2011
9:00 – 11:00
Location: Student Life Conference Room
Announcements
Sub-Committee Reports
New Business
Spring newsletter items, please send other ideas to Kristi by April 8th. Stories Kristi is working on:
-SPA Submitted to ACUPCC
-Plant Sale
-Disk-Golf Course Re-Vegetation Project
-Disk-Golf Course Maintenance Crew
-Interpretive Trail and Annual Tree Planting
-LSC Rain Gardens: Spring Workshop and Maintenance
-Watershed Festival & WLSSD rain barrel/composter sale (rain barrel composter flyer)
-LSC Earth Day Re-Cap
-Shredder Wins Gold!
Rain Garden(s) signs
Choose Waste Wise Success Story
Old Business
SPA Updates/Timeline:
–Kristi met with Student Senate Friday afternoon
–Carol finished proofing the SPA this week and Kristi is finishing up changes this weekend.
–Kristi will send plan to Kathy D., Mark W., Cathy C., and Gary A. next week
–Meeting with Pat-meeting time scheduled? (Wade)
–Release to campus April 14th
–Submit May 6th
Earth Day Updates
–posters galore
Budget
Funds for this FY need to be encumbered by late April to be used.
Balance as of 2/8/2011: $3,596.40
3/1/2011-MN Waste Wise: Plastic Bag recycler + shipping: -$200
3/1/201-Holtzman Betchel Co.: 2 compost bins: -$253
YTD Printing: -$4.42
3/18/2011-CURRENT BALANCE: about $3,138.98 (does not include Earth Day or e-junk posters)
Next meeting
April 15th, 2011 at 9:00 in the Student Life Conference Room
Posted in: Uncategorized
Leave a Comment (0) →2011 e-Junk Day at LSC!
LSC is teaming with 5R Processors to collect and recycle e-waste on April 22nd. Click here for the facebook event page and more info or here ( e-waste recycling at LSC ) for the .pdf!
Posted in: NEWS
Leave a Comment (0) →Minutes 3/18/2011
April 18th, 2011
9:00 Student Life Conference Room
Faculty/Staff members present: Cliff Koski, Deanne Roquet, Glenn Merrick, Kevin Futhey, Kristi Heintz, Heather Grillo, Patty Dorn, Wade Gordon
Student members present: Amy Alves, Kent Olson, Tom Deschenes
Guests present: Rebecca Ronning, student
Announcements
USGBC/LHB discussion forum is April 7th at 7:30. Contact Deanne for more information on attending.
Sub-Committee Reports
Earth Day
-Patty gave us the finalized workshop schedule for Michael Monroe
-Student Life will pay to print event posters for LSC Earth Day activities
-The Environmental Council and Patty’s grant will share costs to pay for posters related to the concert/workshops. Janet Blixt and Sandy Pederson are in charge of these 2 poster designs and will get the designs to Kristi when they are finished. Kristi will work with Mat, Janet, and Patty to decide how many to print. Patty and the Council would also like postcard sized flyers made to be handed out.
-After discussion, Patty decided to try to avoid as much paper use as possible and do concert “programs” in a PowerPoint format.
SPA timeline
–Kristi will meet with Student Senate March 25th
–EC complete draft to Carol March 28th-31st for proofing
–Kristi will send relevant sections to Kathy D, Mark W, Cathy C, Gary A after proofing is complete
–Wade will arrange meeting with Pat, tentatively for April 11th , Kristi will get a copy of the Plan to Pat before this meeting.
–Release Plan to campus on Earth Day, April 14th
–Final revisions done by May 6th and submit.
April 21, 22 Duty Day
-Mat is working on the promo posters for the 5R e-waste collection. Kristi will follow-up. That printing cost will come out of the $500 set aside for Earth Day poster printing. Kristi will also have postcard sized flyers printed to be handed out at the Earth Day concert and LSCs Spring Open House April 15th.
-Glenn suggested we keep the outside projects grouped as 1 activity to sign-up for in Stars, then we can divide people as needed. The 3 outdoor projects will be:
1. Parking lot trash, debris and sand clean-up
2. Interpretive Trail Maintenance, ie limestone placement, tree trimming (trail conditions permitting)-Glenn
3. Rain Garden and Rock Swale Workshop/Clean-out-Jeri
Kristi will send this info to Mary.
New Business
Spring Sustainability Newsletter will be sent out after Earth Day and Duty Day
Duluth Trail and Bikeway Plan Glenn will discuss this with Dick.
Rain Garden(s) Signs
The Council looked at some preliminary wording for signs. Input included the need to make the information directly relevant to all levels of understanding ex: how much water it catches, less technical wording…Glenn will work with Kristi on wording. Wade will talk with Max about materials.
Review Kate’s Waste Wise Report and choose success story-tabled until next meeting
Purchasing Agent call for hiring committee members The Council agreed it would be a good idea to have a representative on the committee to hire for Dave Olson’s position as buyer for LSC. Dave was in the process if helping us with the Purchasing Policy, and we’d like to have a voice in hiring his replacement. Kent agreed to sit on the committee as a student representative. Thanks Kent!
Old Business
Energy Walk-Through results of the walk-though were discussed, Deanne brought info on toasty toes foot warmers. The Council decided we would bring this information to Pat along with the SPA discussion in April.
Budget Report
EC balance YTD:
Date Item (-) Balance
7/1/2010 Beginning FY11 Balance $ 5000
7/9/10 MN Waste Wise Membership dues $ 150 $ 4850
8/24/10 Print/Laminate 2 compost posters $ 7.50 $ 4842.50
8/25/10 Print/Laminate 2 energy miser posters $ 7.50 $ 4835
9/17/10 Waste Wise Annual Meeting Registration-Kevin & Kristi $ 70 $ 4765
9/24/10 MN Waste Wise Meeting Mileage-Kevin & Kristi $ 296.18 $ 4468.82
11/24/10 AASHE Annual Dues $250 $ 4218.82
2/7/11 Online Cert. in Sustainability Leadership, Ithaca-Kristi $550 $ 3668.83
2/8/11 Northland College Sustainability Meeting mileage-Kristi $72.42 $ 3596.40
3/1/11 MN Waste Wise: plastic bag recycler + shipping $200 $
3/1/11 Holtzman Betchel Co: 2 Rubbermaid compost bins $253
3/18/11 Printing YTD $4.42
balance: $3138.98
Motions
No motions made
Next meeting
Next EC meeting will be on April 1st at 9:00 in Student Life Conference Room
Submitted by Kristi Heintz
Posted in: Uncategorized
Leave a Comment (0) →Agenda 3/18/2011
9:00 – 11:00
Location: Student Life Conference Room
Announcements
Check the EC SharePoint calendar for April updates
Sub-Committee Reports
SPA timeline:
–Meet with Student Senate March 25th
–Send relevant sections to Kathy D, Mark W, Cathy C, Gary A?? March 21st-March 25th
–EC complete draft to Carol March 28th-31st for proofing
–Meet with Pat sometime week of April 4th-8th
–Release to campus on earth day, April 14th.
–Final revisions done by May 6th and submit.
April 21st Duty Day Clean-Up Project ideas:
—Freshwater Society debris and sand clean-up?
–Interpretive Trail maintenance, ie limestone placement, tree trimming…,Glenn
–Rain Garden Workshop/Clean-out, Jeri
New Business
Spring newsletter items, release date (April 11th)?
Duluth Trail and Bikeway Plan (Ricardo Haney)
Rain Garden(s) sign deign
Review Kate Waste Wise Report and choose success story
Old Business
Energy Walk-Through: results, toasty toes
Meeting with Pat and Mark W.
-items for discussion (energy walk through, grounds no-mow proposal, SPA, revolving fund, purchasing policy)
Budget
Balance as of 2/8/2011: $3,596.40
3/1/2011-MN Waste Wise: Plastic Bag recycler + shipping: -$200
3/1/201-Holtzman Betchel Co.: 2 compost bins: -$253
YTD Printing: -$4.42
3/18/2011-CURRENT BALANCE: $3,138.98
Next meeting
April 1, 2011 at 9:00 in the Student Life Conference Room
Posted in: Agendas
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