Sustainability at Lake Superior College

Meeting Minutes 1/7/2011

9:30 Student Life Conference Room

Faculty/Staff members present: Carol Johnson, Cliff Koski, Deanne Roquet, Dick Haney, Glenn Merrick, Kristi Heintz, Megan Bugge, Wade Gordon

Students present:

Announcements

None.

Sub-Committee Reports

Living Green: Deanne and Kristi will work on a community partners invite for next year’s Conference next week.  It was suggested that Sarah Erickson from the Aquarium and Mindy Granley from UMD be added to the invite list.  We will try for a Friday morning meeting in early February.

Old Business

Double-sided printing signage: Kristi has put up small business card size notes advertising the new duplex printing costs on all the lab monitors in the distance learning, quiet and library labs.  She has also put posters on the printers in those labs.

Cliff will talk with the English Department about announcing the change to students.  Kristi emailed Dan Pioro and asked him to send out an all campus email with this information as well.

 Printer cartridge recycling boxes:  Kristi put out 6 large collection boxes for printer/toner cartridges and cell phones.  It was mentioned that they may need bigger signs as they look like they are boxes awaiting the recycling receptacle themselves. Kristi will let Kevin know that he should let his staff know they are not to be tossed and will also make larger signs for them next week.

Sustainability Plan of Action:  Overall, the Duty Day presentation went very well and we received a lot of fantastic feedback during and after the session.  All of the notes made by employees will be categorized and summarized and made available on the blog and will also be emailed out.

Hanna also requested that the PowerPoint be made available on the Strategic Planning Portal Page.  The Council worked on making the PowerPoint usable for this and will send it to Hanna along with the list of employee comments.

 New Business

None.

Budget Report

EC balance YTD:

Motions

No motions made at this meeting.

Next meeting

Next EC meeting will be on January 21^st at 9:00 in the Student Life Conference Room.

Submitted by Kristi Heintz

Meeting Minutes 12/17/2010

9:30 Student Life Conference Room

Faculty/Staff members present: Cliff Koski, Deanne Roquet, Kevin Futhey, Kristi Heintz, Megan Bugge, Wade Gordon

Guests present: Dan Pioro and Jamie Jepperson

Students present:

Old Business

Dan and Jamie attended today’s meeting to discuss the current policies, or lack of, related to printer purchasing and duplex printing.  Kristi mentioned the upcoming Purchasing Policy and the need to include approval from the Computer Service Department in the purchasing approval process.  Personal printers were mentioned as a wasteful use of resources.  Dan agreed and also mentioned there will be new office printers purchased with privacy settings so individuals can queue documents then enter a code to print once they physically get to the printer.  This will alleviate the need for personal desktop printers.

The default double-sided printers in the student labs have been changed to single-sided.  Jamie told the group that some students were printing and unintentionally getting duplex prints as some instructors are requiring single-sided prints.  This was causing a lot of head-aches in the lab, the Council agreed this needs to be address with faculty.  Dan agreed we would be able to charge a 2₵ reduced fee for duplex printing to entice students to print double-sided.  The first side will cost 5₵ the back side will cost 3₵.   Kristi will work with Christine to get signs put in the labs to make students aware of the change.

Announcements

Annual Watershed Festival, sponsored by RSPT and SLRA: Kristi was contacted by Sarah from the Watershed Festival Planning Committee.  They are hoping to have LSC host the annual event and possibly run it concurrently with the WLSSD rain barrel sale.  Potential dates are May 21^st or June 4^th.  Kristi put Sarah in contact with Hilary to work out event details. 

Printer cartridge and cell phone recycle boxes will be ordered from Innovative Office Solutions (IOS).  This program is completely free and proceeds go to the Susan G. Kowan Foundation.  Kristi inquired about the current collection boxes that Barry Dahl organized and he will no longer be collecting.  The Council discussed the best location for these boxes, Kristi will order 9 boxes and be responsible for placing empty boxes and collecting full boxes and shipping them back to IOS.

Mike Miller will soon be ordering 30% recycled content paper in the copy center.  It is only slightly more expensive than the virgin paper he is purchasing now.

Sub-Committee Reports

Living Green: More discussion was had about Living Green.  The Council came to an agreement that we will not hold the conference this year for reasons mentioned at earlier meetings, but planning should begin in late January or early February with potential community partners for next year’s event.  Deanne mentioned several key potential partners that should be invited: Julie O-Leary from Minnesota Environmental Partnership, Sarah and Suzie from WLSSD, Dean Talbot from Duluth Energy Efficiency Program (DEEP), the League of Women Voters, Peter Gravett from Hartley Nature Center, and DyAnn Andybur form the City of Duluth.  Deanne and Kristi will work together to organize this meeting. 

Wade mentioned he’d like to see Living Green become a 2-day event with Friday geared toward K-12 education and involving LSC students and Saturday having more of a community focus.  Deanne thought it might be a good idea to piggy-back the event with Earth Day and, if partnering with Hartley Nature Center, showcase their annual fundraiser which is held Saturday night following Earth Day.

Sustainability Plan of Action:  Kristi only mentioned that a meeting with Gary and Mark needs to be arranged to discuss the Energy and Financing portions of the SPA.  Kristi also mentioned that a meeting has been set up with Kathy Dugdale and Dave Olson in the Business Office for discussion on the Purchasing portion of the SPA.  The meeting will be December 28^th at 9:00 in the BO Conference Room.  Cliff, Kristi, and Wade will attend.

Old Business

January Duty Day:  The Council discussed the purpose and direction of the Duty Day SPA “unveiling”.  Kristi will put together a power-point next week briefly describing the history of our involvement with the ACUPCC, the Plan itself, and cite examples of how this relates to all employees.  The Plan description will take about the first 15 minutes of our 30 minutes and in that time will ask for small groups to discuss what they can see as areas of concern or places for potential change in each of their own areas.  We will then ask small groups to come up with examples that they can then share with the whole group.

Kristi will work on this over break and send emails for feedback.  Megan also volunteered to work with Kristi to put this together. 

New Business  

Budget Report

We put together a budget plan for FY12 with the assumption we will again receive $5,000.  Kristi forwarded this plan to Wade and it is also available to view on the SharePoint Portal.

EC balance YTD:

Motions

No motions made at this meeting.

Next meeting

Next meeting with be January 7^th at 9:30 in the Student Life Conference Room.

Submitted by Kristi Heintz

Meeting Minutes 12/3/2010

9:30 Student Life Conference Room

Faculty/Staff members present: Carol Johnson, Deanne Roquet, Dick Haney, Glenn Merrick, Kevin Futhey, Kristi Heintz, Mat Gilderman

Students present: Tom Deschenes

Announcements

None.

Sub-Committee Reports

Living Green: Much discussion was had regarding this year’s Living Green Conference.  The Council agreed that with time running short and a lack of volunteers from the group to lead the planning effort, the Living Green Conference may not be possible this year.  Megan suggested we make it a bi-annual event, Dick suggested we invite those community members who originally showed interest in organizing the event to a meeting to discuss our position.  With administrative changes and financial constraints, the EC feels more planning ahead of time is necessary to make this a successful event.  Kristi will email Wade and cc the EC with our comments/concerns and ask for feedback.

Climate Action Plan: The Climate Action Plan is now titled Sustainability Plan of Action (SPA).  Kristi recommended we incorporate policies into this document regarding issues important for sustainability practice.  Kristi gave examples of items in the Plan which could potentially become policies.  These items are highlighted in the SPA and available on SharePoint.  The group decided to work on this independently.  Deanne suggested we have a SPA work meeting and bring all ideas to this meeting.  Deanne suggested December 9^th at 9:00.  The Goals, Strategies, Tangible Outcomes, and Policies would be a great way to outline the SAP to faculty and staff at the January Duty Day.

Old Business

CAP Extension Request: Kristi submitted the extension request in Wade’s name on behalf of the Council.  We will get a decision in the next couple of weeks.

GGI annual data collection: Kristi followed up with LaNita regarding the possibility of getting work-study hours for spring semester to collect GGI data and put together a format for the Research and Development team to collect this data annually and forward it to us.  Tom reminded us that GLISTEN will also need w-s money to bring on a new liaison for spring semester.  LaNita informed us that Mark Magnuson will be making the decision as to who will get the remaining w-s money.  Kristi will email Mark and request 10 hours/week; 5/wk for data collection and 5/wk for GLISTEN.

Definition of Sustainability: The group worked on a definition for Kent.  Glenn will finish up the draft and email out to everyone for input today.

Double-sided Printers: Tabled until next meeting.  Kristi will invite Jamie Jepperson, Dan Pioro, and Dave Olson to the meeting to discuss this issue.

New Business

January Duty Day: Deanne was asked to put together a short paragraph outlining the purpose of our talk at January’s Duty Day.  A small group will worked on the request after the meeting and Deanne will submit the proposal to Kelli today.

Budget Report

Kristi set up a PO for the AASHE membership dues on November 24^th.  The PO was transferred to Wade’s credit card and Wade will make sure the dues are paid and the fee will still come out of the EC cost center.

EC balance YTD

Motions

No motions made at this meeting.

Next meeting

Next meeting will be December 9^th for SAP writing and the last semester meeting will be December 17^th at 9:30 in the Student Life Conference Room.

Submitted by Kristi Heintz

Meeting Minutes 11/19/2010

9:30 Facilities Conference Room

Faculty/Staff members present: Kevin Futhey, Wade Gordon, Dick Haney, Kristi Heintz, Theresa Hornstein, Cliff Koski, Glenn Merrick, Deanne Roquet, Jeri Schwerin, Megan Bugge

Students present: Tom Deschenes

Announcements
UMD’s Winter Campus Sustainability Fair is November 29th and 30th. More information available at UMD’s Sustainability website: http://www.d.umn.edu/sustain

Reminder, the last Duluth Energy Efficiency Program (DEEP) workshop will be offered on December 6th @ Evergreen Senior Center, more information can be found at http://duluthenergy.org/.

Sub-Committee Reports
Living Green:
-Deanne and Kristi talked with Suzie Darley-Hill at WLSSD about the possibility of partnering with the rain barrel/compost bin sale in late April; Suzie is open to the idea although the date wouldn’t be very flexible. Deanne will follow up.
-All agree the entrance fee should be lowered, possibly to $2-$3 or a food-shelf donation
-Cost to venders will depend on the cost to cover advertising
-League of Women Voters hasn’t gotten back to Wade yet
-Wade, Deanne, and Glenn will follow-up on possible partners/advertising avenues

Old Business
CAP Extension request: Kristi will work on wording for the request and forward to Wade for submitting. The request will include our need for an extension noting change in president and administrative structure.

New Business
CAP Meeting with President Johns: Members of the Environmental Council will meet with President Johns on November 30th at 1:00. At today’s meeting we discussed several key points that we’d like to bring up with him regarding the Climate Action Plan including a request to be part of sustainable planning such as retrofits, transportation, stormwater, etc.
-Dick shared a conversation he and Pat had regarding campus accessibility, including trail access, and he reported that the Facilities Master Plan will be up for renewal soon, the Council feels they should be included in discussions leading up to compiling this document.
-The Council agreed we need to approach the meeting informed of what’s contained in the document, Kristi suggested everyone take a look at the plan prior to the meeting. Glenn suggested we meet an hour prior to the meeting with Pat to go through the Plan. Kristi will contact Hilary to reserve the conference room for an extra hour.
-Deanne and Kristi will make sure Pat has a draft copy of the CAP to look through prior to the meeting.
-The Council agreed also that we should emphasize the time that has been spent on the Plan to this point and give a cost comparison of what other insitutions have put into formuatling their plans.
-Kristi recommended we put together an agenda to follow for the meeting with Pat, she will work on that before the Nov. 30th 12:00 meeting.

Jeri and Glenn will attend the noon planning meeting
Deanne, Cliff, Theresa, Kristi, Tom and Kevin will attend the 12:00 and 1:00 meetings

GHG Inventory Annual Data Collection: Cliff discussed the many hours needed to compile and convert information to usable numbers for annual GHG Inventory data collection. In the past, Cliff has had a work study do it, but theses work study hours were not allotted this semester or next. We also need to go back and collect past data for the Climate Action Plan trajectory which will take hours to complete. Deanne will talk with Hilary about additional work-study hours.
-A work-study position for our website compiler position was also discussed. We could possibly combine this with GHG inventory work.

Budget Report
-Due date for the AASHE annual membership fee: 11/1/2010. The Council agreed we could pay the $250 dues from the EC budget.
-The Council agreed LSC should be responsible for paying the “voluntary” dues to ACUPCC. Wade will discuss this with Pat and will also suggest they pick up the AASHE dues from now on.

EC balance YTD

Motions
Theresa motioned to pay the annual AASHE dues immediately, Deanne seconded the motion, all approved. Kristi will set up a PO for the payment.

Next meeting
Next meeting will be December 3rd, 9:30 – 11:00 in the Student Life Conference Room

Submitted by Kristi Heintz