Hi,
To keep everyone updated on what the Sustainability Committee is doing, here are the notes from last meeting. If you have anything you want brought up next meeting, just comment or send me an email lcrewspless@mica.edu
Committee on Sustainability
February 1, 2008
Meeting Notes
It was expressed that there is a need for obvious leadership from the highest levels of the campus Administration. A statement from the President on MICA’s commitment to sustainability and the reduction of greenhouse gases would carry a lot of weight with the students. Students are being asked to make significant contributions and sacrifices, but they are not seeing a high level of commitment from the faculty and staff. It appears as though MICA Administrators are not taking these efforts seriously.
Currently it appears that there is no recycling effort at campus events. Is there something that can be done about this?
The idea of a Ride Share program was introduced. This will be looked into with Human Resources. This would need to be an opt-in program, with a meeting date set up for those to attend if they’re interested. It would be up to the individuals to participate and make their own ride sharing arrangements.
Trash Talk is taking inventory of cans for recycling and landfill trash in all the buildings, will put cans together where necessary, and will place stickers on all cans. Additional cans may be needed. Cans are needed in all studio areas; currently only a very few exist and there is no recycling effort. Recycling maps will be placed in all buildings to make it easier for everyone to find out exactly where they can take their waste.
In order to get students to switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), we may bring in a vendor to sell to students at the beginning of each semester. This would require a 10% fee from the vendor on all sales (as per MICA’s standard vendor agreement). There is also the possibility of Trash Talk buying directly from the vendor and selling CFLs at their Student Involvement Fair on February 22. A special deal could be arranged for students to get one free bulb when they buy one and bring in an incandescent bulb.
There is a solar decathlon in Washington, DC every two years. Is this something in which MICA could partner with JHU? For more information, go to http://www.solardecathlon.org/.
Rana Silver has offered to look into the possibility of partnering with other organizations for sponsorships (Whole Foods, etc).
Michael Hindle is looking into research and implementation of renewable energy and solar panels.
Daphne Porter is looking into the possibility of being able to shut down all computers at the end of the day. If this is reasonable, we will include this in the next community update email.
As part of an ongoing effort to get the word out to the MICA community, the Committee has come up with the following ideas:
Sustainability web site – needs to be updated and have more of a “fun and energetic” feel, with interactive links. Nicole Evanshaw will check with the Communications office to see how much flexibility in design exists, and if Trash Talk can share in design and maintaining content.
Installations – large or small scale installations across campus, which would incorporate the web site url (to drive traffic).
Bulletin boards – placed in key locations (Java Corner, Café Doris, and the Meyerhoff Dining Room) could have one side chalk board, and one side posters that will change periodically, and will include the web site url.
Email – a new email will be sent to update all MICA students, staff and faculty on the recent sustainability initiatives.
Trash collection – to visually illustrate the need for recycling, students may collect trash for one day (maybe in the Fox Building, maybe in Cohen Plaza) and then sort for recycling.
Showing posts with label Meeting Notes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meeting Notes. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Monday, February 4, 2008
For Next Week:
We are going to take a little more time with the Trash Cans so that they are very clearly labeled and so we make sure we make the recycling and trashcans different from each other. Why don’t we meet on Monday at Java Corner at 7:15 and we can quickly discuss what was said at the sustainability meeting on Friday, and then count/ re arrange the recycling and trashcans.
Brief Notes for last meeting:
Shorter-term goals: Work with Baltimore Sweep Action to…
*Count, map out and label trash and recycling cans in all buildings so that each trashcan is next to a recycling can.
*Advertise and promote the coffee at Java Corner to get Starbucks off campus
*Advertise and promote sustainability on campus
*Get blue boxes in all rooms
*Research the possibility of a community garden
* Baltimore Sweep Action project
*Make Energy audits easily accessible to students
* Working with JHU
Longer Term Goals:
*Pushing for composting on campus
*Pushing for supplementary power from wind and solar: solar panels on the gateway, etc.
Also Gov. O’Malley has the opportunity to sponsor the Global Warming Solutions act of 2008. Currently there is a letter writing campaign underway to get him to pass the bill that, according to the Chesapeake Climate action network, does three things:
Limits: It establishes limits on greenhouse gas emissions based on what is scientifically necessary. Maryland would need to reduce its emissions by 25 percent below 2006 levels by 2020 and 90 percent by 2050. The first limit is achievable with current technology, while the 2050 limit would require technological breakthroughs.
Timelines: It creates timelines for state agencies to design cost-effective programs to meet the emission limits. Regulations for policies that are close to the rulemaking stage already would get finalized by September 2009. Policies that need more work to develop would be done by June 2010. Complicated policies for which we want to use regulations developed by other states would have a June 2011 deadline.
Cap-and-Trade: It creates a cap-and-trade system so that companies can continue to search for the cheapest ways to comply.
For more info: http://www.chesapeakeclimate.org/pages/page.cfm?page_id=173
It would be great if we could get a lot of student signatures, because if this bill passes, then MICA would be forced to cut down on waist, and force President Lazarus to consider conservation methods that he currently conceders too costly.
Also: Feb. 22nd is the student involvement fair. At Friday’s sustainability meeting we discusses selling compact florescence to the student body if they bring in their old light bulbs. We will also, hopefully be selling our Trash Talk Calendar and trying to rally student support for the Global Warming Solutions act of 2008, composting on campus, alternative energy on campus and Starbucks off campus. If you could help out by sitting at the Trash Talk table, let me know.
- Lilah
Brief Notes for last meeting:
Shorter-term goals: Work with Baltimore Sweep Action to…
*Count, map out and label trash and recycling cans in all buildings so that each trashcan is next to a recycling can.
*Advertise and promote the coffee at Java Corner to get Starbucks off campus
*Advertise and promote sustainability on campus
*Get blue boxes in all rooms
*Research the possibility of a community garden
* Baltimore Sweep Action project
*Make Energy audits easily accessible to students
* Working with JHU
Longer Term Goals:
*Pushing for composting on campus
*Pushing for supplementary power from wind and solar: solar panels on the gateway, etc.
Also Gov. O’Malley has the opportunity to sponsor the Global Warming Solutions act of 2008. Currently there is a letter writing campaign underway to get him to pass the bill that, according to the Chesapeake Climate action network, does three things:
Limits: It establishes limits on greenhouse gas emissions based on what is scientifically necessary. Maryland would need to reduce its emissions by 25 percent below 2006 levels by 2020 and 90 percent by 2050. The first limit is achievable with current technology, while the 2050 limit would require technological breakthroughs.
Timelines: It creates timelines for state agencies to design cost-effective programs to meet the emission limits. Regulations for policies that are close to the rulemaking stage already would get finalized by September 2009. Policies that need more work to develop would be done by June 2010. Complicated policies for which we want to use regulations developed by other states would have a June 2011 deadline.
Cap-and-Trade: It creates a cap-and-trade system so that companies can continue to search for the cheapest ways to comply.
For more info: http://www.chesapeakeclimate.org/pages/page.cfm?page_id=173
It would be great if we could get a lot of student signatures, because if this bill passes, then MICA would be forced to cut down on waist, and force President Lazarus to consider conservation methods that he currently conceders too costly.
Also: Feb. 22nd is the student involvement fair. At Friday’s sustainability meeting we discusses selling compact florescence to the student body if they bring in their old light bulbs. We will also, hopefully be selling our Trash Talk Calendar and trying to rally student support for the Global Warming Solutions act of 2008, composting on campus, alternative energy on campus and Starbucks off campus. If you could help out by sitting at the Trash Talk table, let me know.
- Lilah
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