Meeting Minutes 10/14/16

10:00 – 11:30

Student Life Conference Room

Attendance

Governing Core Members present: Mike Francisco, Theresa Hornstein, Nathan Bronk, Kristi Heintz, Al Finlayson, Eric Brandt, Cliff Koski, Marissa Johnsen

General Members present:

Guest Present:

 

Announcements

 

 

New Business

Al gave an update on the status of the concourse lighting.  The control panel has been replaced and half of the lights are turned off most of the day when natural light is available.  Kristi and Jean have both made signs for the halls

 

Kristi brought the continued requests for heated foot rests to the council. It seems there is a trend for where those requests are coming, and it may mean a larger heating/cooling study or thermal comfort analysis needs to be performed.  The Council reiterated the responsibility to purchase heated foot rests lies with the department budgets.

 

Kristi shared that she’ll be sitting on a panel at Fond du Lac TCC with other campus coordinators (Courtney from FDL and Mindy from UMD) as part of the Sustainability Awareness Week (SAW). Those campuses have activities planned for the week; we are promoting our waste sort project at the Club Recruitment Day.

 

Old Business

Kristi gave an update on the NREL solar analysis.  We received the results a couple of weeks ago, and their analysis was not favorable for solar at this time (a $125,000 loss over the 25 year analysis) based on our relatively low electricity rates.  Citing a recent EITE and franchise fee increase, a primary ownership model and storage, Kristi, Al, Wade, and Jon will conference call with NREL and request some adjustments to their assumptions and some additional costing information.

 

Work Group and Student Employee Reports

Kristi gave a brief overview of the Toward Zero Waste project she is working on with our student employees, Alex and Luke.  The three met with Ryan and a graduate student he’s worked with on NRRI’s waste sort analysis last week, and we’re now designing our own waste stream analysis.  Mike will look at the Waste Management Contract to see when we need to make adjustments, if the study indicates savings can be made.

 

Motions

 

Budget

Kristi outlined a payment conundrum facing Jon Lintula for the Hartley Solar+Storage course he took in August.  A number of misunderstandings has left him with a $500 bill for which no money has been encumbered.  Workforce Development is managing the registration and payment for this course.  After long discussion, the Council declined to offer financial support for the course, citing improper timing and lack of previous discussion.  Kristi will continue to work with those involved to find a suitable solution.

 

 

Encumbrances to date:

  • Boreal Natives (fall maintenance): -$200
  • Human Svs Dept (plastic bag removal-annual): -$260
  • Menards -$400
  • Dan’s -$200.02 of $300 enc

BALANCE as of today: $7,290.00

FY17 Budget priority review/planning will follow November’s priority project planning

 

Review/revise FY16-17potential budget items (carryover FY15-16 list)

  • Ditch/swale/raingarden info signs
  • Picnic table under H skywalk
  • Additional bike rack for main entrance?
  • Interpretive Trail bench, trash/recycling cans, exclosures
  • Sustainability kiosk: pamphlet holder, plastic bag bin
  • MnSCU Sustainability Across Curriculum workshop

 

Meeting adjourned 11:30

Next Regular Meeting

November 4th, 2016

 

Notes submitted to SC blog and LSC Employee Portal>Committees by Kristi Heintz

 

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Meeting Agenda 10/14/16

October 14th, 2016 10:00

Student Life Conference Room

 

Announcements

 

New Business

Council Priority Discussion: continued from Sept

Concourse lighting signage, automated lighting update (Al)

Cooling study/thermal comfort

SAW: FDL, UMD, LSC

ACUCPP (now Carbon Commitment aka Climate Leadership Network, under the umbrella of Second Nature) has changed its reporting requirements.  We’ll discuss the merits and revisit the decision to maintain our commitment without reporting (or paying the $750 annual dues).

 

Old Business

NREL Initial Report review

 

Work Group and Student Employee Reports

Toward Zero Waste project, NRRI, Alex

Transportation or other project (?), Luke

 

Budget 

Hartley Solar/Storage installation class

 

Motions needed

Hartley Tuition: $500

 

Encumbrances to date:

  • Boreal Natives (fall maintenance): -$200
  • Human Svs Dept (plastic bag removal-annual): -$280
  • Menards -$341.71
  • Dan’s -$100

BALANCE as of today: $ 7,290

FY17 Budget priority review/planning

 

Review/revise FY16-17potential budget items (carryover FY15-16 list)

  • Ditch/swale/raingarden info signs
  • 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
  • MnSCU Sustainability Across Curriculum workshop

 

Next Meeting

November 4th, 2016

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A Win for Waste and Health

By now you’ve probably noticed the new soap and paper towel dispensers on campus. What’s the deal?!  Weren’t most of those pretty new?  Yes, but LSC’s super-savvy maintenance supervisor saw an opportunity to save money, so he took it…

How could he possibly save money on all new dispensers, you ask?  Simple, Mark did a life cycle assessment on a suite of new products (check out the LSC Sustainability policies).  Here are the new product high points:
hand-dryersThe Sustainability Council doesn’t like battery operated paper towels, and the Biology labs have better things to do than wave at those paper towel dispensers when there are really messy jobs to clean up.  The earlier compromise was bi- or tri-fold paper towels for some users, but rolls for most public areas.  Mark took a look at the invoices and noticed we were paying A LOT more for those fancy bi-folds (ahem, Biology?!).  He struck a deal with the users, and found a vendor that would replace ALL of our paper towel dispensers (for free) and give us a lower contract price for battery-free pull-down paper towel rolls.  Consistency across campus saves ordering and inventory time, manual dispensers are easier to fill so our “picky customers” can do it themselves, and dead batteries no longer require a maintenance request.  Also, did you know those things required 4 size D batteries to operate, EACH?  In heavy use areas, those batteries were replaced monthly!  We were literally throwing money in the trash!  So, we threw all of the old dispensers away, right?  Wrong!  The old vendor took them back, a REUSE win!

So what’s up with the soap and sanitizer?  You may not have even known there were sanitizer dispensers in the restrooms, because they looked exactly like the soap dispensers.  What?!  You needed a secret decoder ring  to figure out what came from where…another maintenance headache!  The new dispensers look completely different, and are consistent across campus.  Heavy users can manage their own product, so maintenance can focus on more important things.  What’s more, if you’ve ever had the privilege of changing one of those old soap containers, you would have noticed the little bit of product left at the bottom of the rigid plastic container.  You couldn’t get it out, no matter how hard you shook it!  Again, throwing money in the trash.  The plastic packaging was bulky, and who knows what was in that soap.  The new product is biodegradable, dye free, and certified GreenSeal™.  The soft packaging is a BPA free collapsible (less overall waste volume) SmartSac™ which contain 60% less plastic than the old rigid containers, and the packing is recyclable and biodegradable.

Lastly, not only are YOU using a better product, our maintenance team is using a similar suite of GreenSeal™ products for all of their routine cleaning.  Their new dilution and dispensing system means there’s less single-use packing and no more aerosol cans, we aren’t paying to have watered-down products shipped to us, a less caustic product with safe handling systems means healthier working conditions for our maintenance team (and all of us), less overall product means a simpler safety tracking system, and we’re saving money!  Whew!  Are you keeping tracking track of all these wins?!

Thanks Mark, thanks maintenance team (change is hard), and as cold and flu season sets in, use those soap and sanitizer stations often!

 

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Meeting Minutes 9/2/2016

10:00 – 11:30

Student Life Conference Room

Attendance

Governing Core Members present: Mike Francisco, Theresa Hornstein, Glenn Merrick, Nathan Bronk, Deanne Roquet, Kristi Heintz, Wade Gordon, Eric Brandt (new member)

General Members present:

Guest Present:

 

Announcements

Growing Sustainable Communities Conference Oct 4-5, Dubuque IA

Grants available for Minnesota playgrounds and athletic field upgrades

Recycling Assn of Minnesota’s Annual Conference Oct 5-6 in Bloomington

 

 

New Business

Kristi brought the FY17 co-chair nominations discussion to the table.  The Council reviewed current membership, quorum, and discussed the merits of co-chair shared roles.  The Council felt a faculty chair was beneficial along with Kristi’s co-chair role.  The Council agreed to think about the best fit for the co-chair and will discuss at November’s meeting.

 

Kristi suggested the Council discuss FY17 goals and priorities, and allow those goals to drive student employee hires for the year.  The Council has budged 20 hours per week for students and has hired 1 student already for landscape and plant watering responsibilities.  Using the Integrated Planning document developed for 2015-2016, a number of continuation projects were discussed:

  • Legacy Garden advisory and development assistance to Student Senate
  • Interpretive Trail signage “refresh” (adding a few and re-printing those that have faded)
  • Mapping and signage for north loop trail
  • Energy-related:
    • portal/kiosk
    • Sub-metering the main campus electricity meters, updating descriptors
    • Office area thermal audit (temperature and comfort zone analysis)
    • Streamline B3 data input and assessment (possibly direct input from MN Power?)
  • Purchasing:
    • Additional education about the Sustainable Purchasing policies and applicability for campus users, utilizing the Policies Prezi Kristi posted this summer.
    • Develop a sustainable supply purchase request process (request to SC, tracking in ISRS, request to budget request committees, etc.), open to all

These ideas will be sent out via email to the Council to review and priorities further at October’s meeting, each will be discussed for its student employment potential.

 

Stormwater-related landscape signs are printed, cedar supplies have been purchased for frames, and John Calcaterra will build the signs when he has student employees available.  Install may wait until fall.

 

Kristi gave a brief update on the Zero Waste initiative.  Kristi designed some sample templates for reduced paper towel use.  Mark is in the process of replacing most/all towel, soap, and sanitizer dispensers, so we’ll wait until the dispensers are replaced to initiate signage.  Kristi has talked with the new supply rep about signing the GreenSeal soap products that will now be used, and also inquired about highlighting the additional sustainability attributes (less packaging/waste, sustainable forestry, etc).  Based on conversations Kristi had with students at Welcome Week table, recycling and composting education is sorely needed.  This could potentially be a nice student worker initiative.

 

Additional discussions about SC responsibility as an Advisory body ensued, as well did discussion surrounding the appropriate use of Sustainability Council budget for facilities-related matters.  Additional heated foot rests have been requested, the conversation held at the onus being placed on facilities or individual departments to rectify the comfort in some of the building areas.  This conversation related back to the student employee project to assess temperatures of each space.

 

Kristi reported that she has set up food scrap pick-up service with WM for the kitchen.  3 of the 4 worm bins have been emptied and the bins are in cold storage.  Kristi talked with Bruce, Jill, Arlene, and Mark about getting food scrap to the bin.  Mark purchased bins and bags, Jill and Arlene are eager to comply.  Since Monday, the only compost bags that have been placed in the bin is the one Kristi brought from the Biology office.  Kristi will continue to monitor the situation, and contact WLSSD if additional assistance is needed.

Additional agenda items, deferred to October meeting: Gary Adams tribute, ACUPCC new commitment framework, and NREL assistance update,…

 

Old Business

 

Work Group and Student Employee Reports

 

Motions 

none

Budget 

FY16 Budget wrap report and FY17 priorities discussion

  • Landscaping, Atrium work

 

Motions needed

none

Encumbrances to date:

  • Boreal Natives (fall maintenance): -$200
  • Human Svs Dept (plastic bag removal-annual): -$260
  • Menards -$400
  • Dan’s -$200.02 of $300 enc

BALANCE as of today: $7,290.00

FY17 Budget priority review/planning will follow October’s priority project planning

 

Review/revise FY16-17potential budget items (carryover FY15-16 list)

  • Ditch/swale/raingarden info signs
  • Picnic table under H skywalk
  • Additional bike rack for main entrance?
  • Interpretive Trail bench, trash/recycling cans, exclosures
  • Sustainability kiosk: pamphlet holder, plastic bag bin
  • MnSCU Sustainability Across Curriculum workshop

 

Meeting adjourned 10:30

Next Regular Meeting

October 7th, 2016

 

Notes submitted to SC blog and LSC Employee Portal>Committees by Kristi Heintz

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Meeting Agenda 9/2/2016

Location: Student Life Conference Room

 

Announcements

Growing Sustainable Communities Conference Oct 4-5, Dubuque IA

Grants available for Minnesota playgrounds and athletic field upgrades

 

New Business

FY17 Co-Chair nominations/votes

FY17 goals/priorities, student employee hires

New e-recycling bin

Zero Waste campaign, poster, stickers

Heated foot rest requests

Sustainable Polices Prezi

Gary Adams tribute

ACUCPP (now Carbon Commitment aka Climate Leadership Network, under the umbrella of Second Nature) has changed its reporting requirements.  We’ll discuss the merits and revisit the decision to maintain our commitment without reporting (or paying the $750 annual dues).

 

Old Business

NREL assistance update

Stormwater and landscape signs update

 

Work Group and Student Employee Reports

 

Budget 

FY16 Budget wrap report and FY17 priorities discussion

  • Landscaping, Atrium work

 

Motions needed

 

Encumbrances to date:

  • Boreal Natives (fall maintenance): -$200
  • Human Svs Dept (plastic bag removal-annual): -$260
  • Menards -$400
  • Dan’s -$200.02 of $300 enc

BALANCE as of today: $7,290.00

FY17 Budget priority review/planning

Review/revise FY16-17potential budget items (carryover FY15-16 list)

  • Ditch/swale/raingarden info signs
  • 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
  • MnSCU Sustainability Across Curriculum workshop

 

Next Meeting

October 7th, 10:00 ?

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LSC’s Sustainable Purchasing and Efficient Use Policies

LSC’s approved Sustainable Purchasing (5.15) and Efficient Use of Water, Energy, and Other Resources (5.16) Policies offer suggested best practices for purchasing at the college.  Our commitment to environmental stewardship and fiscal responsibility are the foundation of these policies, and the intent is to prompt thoughtful discussion and decision making based on the US EPA’s definition and suggested utilization of Environmentally Preferable Products.  Beyond purchasing, the policies address unique opportunities to reduce overall resource consumption though product sharing, increased reuse and purchasing durable and fixable goods, and implementing practices that achieve efficient overall energy use goals.

The following presentation (best viewed in full screen mode) offers an overview of the policies and prompting questions to use in making purchasing decisions.

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Annual Stormwater Public Meeting

Curious about LSC’s stormwater management plan?  Wondering what the cities of Duluth and Hermantown do to manage their vast municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s)?  Maybe you just want free snacks and refreshments?  Whatever your motivation, join us on June 8th at the MN D.O.T. offices.

strmwtr

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Meeting Agenda 4/8/2016

Sustainabilty logo

Student Life Conference Room

 

Announcements

 

New Business

Earth Day poster view and updates

Legacy Garden – update and walking path (Cliff)

 

Old Business

NREL assistance update

Stormwater and landscape signs – review

Meeting with UWS, CSS, FDL, UMD – recap

 

Work Group and Student Employee Reports

Landscape (Kristi)

  • Landscape feedback, benches, picnic tables etc
  • hillside burn, hillside planting, groundcover, shrubs etc ?
  • Boreal 2014 seeded area 2016 management contact/plan (motion needed)

 

Budget

FY16 Budget: $8,400 

 

Motions needed

RSPT annual dues: $300

Encumbrances to date:

  • Boreal Natives (fall maintenance): -$348.68
  • Human Svs Dept (plastic bag removal-annual): -$280
  • AASHE travel (hotel for 2): -$601.58
  • AASHE registration for 2: -$575
  • Encumbered supplies (Dan’s, Shopko, Home Depot, Menards): -$700
  • Garden/Council supply shed: -$1000
  • AASHE dues: -$280
  • IOS (Earth Day supplies): -$9.97
  • Amazon (compostable bags): -$60.00

BALANCE as of today: $4,999.87 

FY15-16 potential budget items

  • Ditch/swale/raingarden info signs
  • Picnic table under H catwalk
  • Additional bike rack for main entrance?
  • Interpretive Trail bench, trash/recycling cans, exclosures
  • Sustainability kiosk
  • MnSCU Sustainability Across Curriculum workshop

 

Next Meeting

May 6th?

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LSC Earth Day | April 20th, 2016

Wednesday, April 20th is LSC’s Earth Day Celebration.  This year, we’re focusing on the amazing natural resource right outside our front door: Miller Creek and surrounding trails.  Find more information about our campus trails on the LSC Sustainability webpage.  This year’s exciting focus events will include a well-traveled hiker and educator with the Superior Hiking Trail, Jo Swanson, and a campus scavenger hunt with prizes and community information tables.

Earth Day_16

 

What’s so NEAT about trails?  Well, Jee Dangit, just ask Lenny:

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Third Annual World Water Day – 2016

Each year, UMD and LSC collaborate to offer events that Celebrate World Water Day.  This year, our discussion will focus on the importance of access to local water resources, and the role that access plays in fostering appreciation and respect for those places.  Watch Rock the Boat, learn what “navigable water” means, eat some popcorn, and help us build our annual bottle chain and plastics display.  First 15 people to bring us an empty plastic bottle for our chain gets a FREE “Superior” aluminum bottle!  Check out the press release for more info on ours, and UMD’s events.  Most events are free and open to the public!

WWD2016

Rock the Boat When satirical writer and avid kayaker George Wolfe organizes a boating expedition down the entire 52 miles of the notorious Los Angeles River, he and his motley crew become entangled in a legal controversy of national proportions. With startling images of the LA River, insightful interviews and a quirky sense of humor, Rock the Boat looks at the challenges society faces in providing clean water to urban populations, and delivers a bright alternative to the current spate of doomsday docs.

 

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