Green Efforts Meeting - Minutes
First Fall 2009 Meeting Friday 8 AM, August 21, SU123-A
Present: Debby Berkowitz, Chrisitina Eide, Steven Emrick, Mark Floor, Mary Harris, Angela Mick, Jeanne Saint-Amour & John Thrasher
I. Old Business
A. Dry erase markers & compostable paper plates, etc. flyers circulated last year
i. Robert ordered erasers through Biology department; never delivered? Robert will follow up
ii. Paper wear flyer was distributed to Aramark and Trish Vogel (?); paper plates were used at Earth Day event, but not Convocation; Robert will follow up with Trish Vogel
II. New Business
A. Chancellor prepares to sign President’s Climate Commitment
An initial inventory is underway; We filled in items on inventory sheet and will continue to add over the next week
B. Annual Green staff award and student award
i. Students will be identified and honored in the Spring through the Student Recognition process
ii. We will send out e-mail request for staff award, and for student award via Green Tips (Christina)
C. Logo / Mascot: Christina will contact someone in digital art to determine criteria for a digital logo contest
D. 90 minutes on 350 http://www.nationalteachin.org/ another National Teach-In event, October 22, Thursday. Title refers to the maximum sustainable atmospheric concentration of CO2 to avoid catastrophic climate change. We will host an event from 11:30-13:00. Mary will provide basics of global warming, Robert will report on Recycle project (next item); need to invite other faculty, students, staff e.g. Johnnie Clemens May to read environmentally friendly/evocative poetry
E. Bio 182 – recycle project. Robert will have his students test the effect of recycle bin placement as part of their class. Results will be reported at the Teach-In October 22.
F. More Recycle Focus? – Signage?! The current ‘Recycle Bin Map’ on the campus webpage is not current. We should all look in our areas to identify bin locations and report back to update the map.
G. Steve Emrick wll put together a film series. Possible first film: Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’.
H. More films?
I. Pay-per print is coming this fall.
J. The first Green Tip included a request of faculty to put papers online. Use of Blackboard helps. Some discussion about what should be printed, based on class use. Basically, try to print handouts that are truly necessary; place other materials online.
K. Bike & carpool. A future Green Tip can ask faculty to tell their students that transportation is the largest source of CO2 emissions for campus. Faculty can suggest students in their class find a partner and if every pair of students carpooled once a week, our campus emissions would be reduced 10%.
L. Environmental Fund of Arizona is an umbrella group that fundraises for 29 organizations. MCCD has a payroll deduction available. They have asked us to help in their fundraising drive. Their organizations have presented on campus in the past (e.g. Wild at Heart – birds @ Focus the Nation) and will be available for future events.
M. Spring Events 2009:
i. National Teach-In, February
ii. Earth Day, April 22, Thursday
III. Fall Semester Meetings will be held the Second Friday, 1 PM. Location TBA