The University of Montana
Sustainability Campus Committee
June, 2007
Annual Report 2006-07
to
UM President George Dennison
The Sustainability Campus Committee (SCC) reports significant progress on sustainability
efforts at the University of Montana (UM) in 2006-07, highlighted by the University becoming a
charter signatory to the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment
(ACUP CC) in February 2007. This action and the subsequent charge to the Committee to
implement the required Greenhouse Gas (GHG) inventory were central to the SCC’s planning in
spring and are discussed below. Other activities that show progress and/or led to
recommendations are also discussed and documentation on each of them is included.
As your memo of 20 June 2006, in reply to the 2005-06 Annual Report, urged the SCC to attend
to 4 specific items, the SCC’s work and recommendations on each of these are presented first.
1--Use of Recycled Paper: A SCC subcommittee, chaired by student member Dustin Leftridge,
addressed this issue. Subcommittee meetings included Printing and Graphics Services (PGS)
Director Ken Price and Vice-President Jim Foley, and in collaboration with them, a campus-wide
survey on paper usage was designed and is to be administered from the Vice President’s office.
The SCC looks forward to its results. The SCC believes that the ultimate solution to increasing
the usage of Post Consumer Waste (PCW) paper at the UM will involve centralized paper
purchasing, quite logically from PGS. After the use survey is administered and results compiled,
and subject to consultation and planning with Director Price and VP Foley, the SCC
recommends that UM establish policy requiring the purchase of paper from a single source
at PGS, with the goal of making PCW paper available at competitive costs to all UM users
through volume purchasing.
2--Energy Conservation: An SCC subcommittee, chaired by staff member Mike Panisko,
Facilities Services (FS) Project Manager and Analyst, addressed this complex of issues this year.
A fuller report is included below, detailing specific SCC questions about energy usage that were
answered by FS Assistant Director Laura Howe, as well as electricity and natural gas usage
charts that Howe compiled for almost all buildings on campus. This preliminary work will be
very central to the GHG inventory for the ACUP CC. In addition, outside visitors to
subcommittee meetings included Dan Hand of Chevron Energy Solutions, who presented on
Energy Performance Contracts, and Dale Horton from the National Center for Appropriate
Technology (NCAT), who provided an overview of institutional energy conservation. No new or
immediate energy conservation recommendations were made by the SCC; however, as this area
will figure centrally in the GHG inventory, the SCC anticipates more specific energy
conservation recommendations to develop as part of the ACUP CC comprehensive plan.
Page 1 of 5
The University of Montana
Sustainability Campus Committee
Annual Report
June, 2007
3--LEED Certification: Clearly, FS itself has professionals conversant with LEED systems and
already has a general goal of constructing toward LEED conservation standards where possible.
However, the SCC addressed this certification issue directly in its deliberation on Part #2 of the
ACUP CC document this spring (another recommendation from Part #2 is discussed below under
ACUP CC report section.). The SCC interprets Part #2 to require the UM to select 2 or more of
the 6 a-through-f ACUP CC options as soon as possible, while the comprehensive plan and GHG
inventory are being developed. Accordingly, and after discussion, the SCC unanimously
recommends that option 2a be implemented now, with slight modification based largely on
important input from FS’s Laura Howe and Mike Panisko. The SCC recommends that the UM
“establish a policy that all new campus construction will be built to at least the U.S. Green
Building Council’s LEED Certified standard.”
4--Recyling Computers: This issue is being addressed directly in the Recycling Oversight
Committee (ROC). The SCC has monitored the progress of the issue through close contact with
ROC Chair Vicki Watson, and the SCC endorses the recommendations and solutions related
to electronics recycling that have been developed and approved by the ROC and reported
to Vice President Duringer.
Other important areas in which the SCC has specific recommendations and reports are these:
FS Sustainability Coordinator (FS SC) Position: The first year of the FS SC student half-time
position was very productive. The SC attended SCC meetings, and sent reports to SCC. The
SCC looks forward to even more tangible results from this position in the coming year with the
evolution of student Sustainability Initiative Teams (SIT), the core of which is now working on
campus sustainability research and student outreach. An abridged report from the outgoing FS
SC Cindy Gilbert to the SCC is included here. As both of this year’s SCs moved on within one
semester, the SCC sees inherent continuity problems in a part-time student position. The SCC
notes that Cindy Gilbert discusses the challenges in accomplishing the amount of work needed in
a half-time position without significant volunteer and intern support, and also cautions against a
point of diminishing returns in terms of the number of students the SC can effectively direct.
SCC endorses the 5 specific recommendations in the abridged SC report included below.
Education and Outreach: A subcommittee chaired by SCC staff member Paul Williamson
addressed these efforts. One outstanding result was the full weeklong series of events preceding
Earth Day that included collaboration with several off-campus community organizations. (A
poster and schedule are included in this report.) Also, student member Ashton Fink attended the
Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) national
conference in the Fall 2006 on behalf of the SCC and wrote informal educational pieces for The
Kaimin to increase student awareness. SCC and ASUM members also attended sustainability
conferences at the University of Eastern Washington and at the University of Colorado, and
reported to the SCC on them. The SCC believes awareness and involvement in UM sustainability
efforts and events was greater than ever this year, due to this subcommittee’s work, the work of
the FS SC, and events and publicity generated by other students and campus groups. The SCC
makes no specific recommendations in this area other than to continue support from both the
President’s office and Facilities Services for these kinds of sustainability outreach efforts.
Page 2 of 5
The University of Montana
Sustainability Campus Committee
Annual Report
June, 2007
Sustainability in the Curriculum: SCC faculty member Lisa Swallow of the College of
Technology (COT) continued to take the lead on this issue. She and former SCC faculty
member Steve Schwartz of Communications conferred with former Dean of the School of
Education Paul Rowland and others on campus over the last two years and have proposed the
first important steps to integrating sustainability into the overall UM curriculum, as mandated by
both the Talloires Declaration and the ACUP CC. After discussion, the SCC unanimously
endorsed their Green Thread Initiative: A Proposal for Faculty Development in Sustainability
Across the Curriculum. Not only would this measure represent the first significant campus-wide
step toward sustainability in the curriculum, timeliness is crucial: If the UM can do this kind of
curricular training event before other schools in our region, future training sessions can become
self-supporting through fees paid by faculty from other institutions. The SCC recommends the
President support (or recommend same to the Provost), by early Fall 2007, full funding for
this Green Thread Initiative, so that the Initiative training event could occur in late Spring
2008. Full funding is approximately $33,000, including release time—see projected budget
included with proposal below.
Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) and the UM: In April the SCC discussed and
unanimously adopted a resolution (included in report below) in support of full and enthusiastic
compliance by the UM with MEPA and the establishment of a MEPA Compliance Officer at the
UM. It is the SCC’s understanding this is now the UM’s policy.
ACUP CC: As noted above, this significant development in Spring 2007 has occupied the SCC
as it plans for the coming year(s). While the SCC believes the progress and recommendations in
each of the above report sections all relate directly to overall ACUP CC goals, the following
specific reports and recommendations arose directly from SCC discussions of the ACUP CC and
the SCC’s goals and needs for next year.
As discussed above under #3--LEED section, the SCC did address Part #2 of the ACUP CC
document. The SCC believes that option 2d, relating to encouragement and access to public
transportation is currently being accomplished at UM, primarily through efforts of ASUM
Transportation and Facilities Services; however, the SCC believes that the UM should now adopt
2 additional policy options from Part #2, while the climate neutrality comprehensive plan is
being developed. As stated above, one option recommended by SCC is a modified option 2b,
establishing LEED Certified as policy standard for all new UM building. The other option
from Part #2 of the ACUP CC that SCC recommends is 2b: “Adopt an energy-efficient
appliance purchasing policy requiring purchase of Energy Star certified products in all
areas for which such ratings exist.”
To meet the goals of ACUP CC, the SCC instituted summer meetings to increase continuity in
planning for ACUP CC. Also, the SCC has discussed with FS the need for some of the new SC
position’s time to be devoted to the GHG inventory and CC comprehensive plan; in addition,
SCC student member and new ASUM President Dustin Leftridge is working with ASUM toward
funding some hours for an SCC intern in fall to work on GHG inventory issues; however, both of
these possible supportive measures have not been finalized or clarified at this time.
Page 3 of 5
The University of Montana
Sustainability Campus Committee
Annual Report
June, 2007
Accordingly, the SCC discussed how it might best coordinate the considerable work involved in
the UM GHC inventory, realizing that the accuracy and inclusiveness of the GHG inventory is
critical to generating the best possible campus comprehensive plan for climate neutrality. The
SCC requests and recommends a SCC support budget for fiscal year 2008 of $10,000 (in
cash or kind) to provide SCC with office space and equipment on campus, to provide for
CC-related travel, and/or to provide a small salary for intermittent office interns.
In summary, much has been done and achieved by the SCC and other entities on campus toward
sustainability at UM in AY 2006-07. And much work lies ahead. This summer the SCC hopes
to lay the groundwork for extensive work in Fall 2007 and early 2008 on the GHG inventory,
and from that, identify directions for the climate neutrality comprehensive plan for the UM.
The SCC’s recommendations and requests to you are thus, to briefly recap, the following:
Funding of $10,000 (cash or kind) as SCC support/office/travel budget for 2007-08;
Funding (and/or recommendation to Provost of same) of $33,000 (including release
time) to support the Green Thread Initiative for a sustainability curriculum training
program for UM faculty in May 2008;
Adoption now as UM policy of ACUP CC document option 2a re LEED building
(with slight modification of option 2a to read as stated above under #3--LEED
Certification), and of option 2b re Energy Star appliance purchasing;
Implementation of the UM paper use survey through the VP Foley’s office, and
subsequent implementation of policy to achieve goal of offering PCW paper at
competitive prices through volume purchasing by a central source at PGS.
Thank you.
The UM Sustainable Campus Committee, June 2007.
Students:
Administration:
Staff:
Faculty:
Ashton Fink, Jordan Hess, Dustin Leftridge
Perry Brown, Mark LoParco
Vice-Chair Kelly Chadwick, Mike Panisko, Paul Williamson
Chair Phil Condon, Curtis Noonan, Lisa Swallow
Page 4 of 5
The University of Montana
Sustainability Campus Committee
Annual Report
June, 2007
Supporting Documents for SCC Annual Report 2006-07
A: The Green Thread Initiative: A Proposal for Faculty Development – Sustainability Across the
Curriculum; from Steve Schwarze and Lisa Swallow
B: Facilities Services Sustainability Coordinator, Abridged Final Report: Review and
Recommendations, from Cindy Gilbert
C: SCC Energy Subcommittee Annual Report 2006-07, from Mike Panisko
D: UM Recycling Oversight Committee (ROC) Report for 2006-07, from Vicki Watson
E: 2007 Earth Week Activities, UM & Missoula, from Paul Williamson
F: SCC Resolution on MEPA and the UM, passed unanimously by SCC April 2007
G: ACUP CC Document, including Part #2 options referred to in Report
Page 5 of 5