Sustainability Task
Force Meeting
Sarah Kelly,
Sustainability Program Manager
Fall 2015, October 23
Introductions
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Name
UH Affiliation (Student, Faculty, Staff)
STF Affiliation (Voting member, ex-officio, staff)
Major or Title
What are your major interests in sustainability?
What would you like the Sustainability Task Force to accomplish during
your term?
•  What’s the most beautiful place or moment you’ve experienced, and what
made it the most beautiful?
About the Office of Sustainability
•  Facilitate collaboration: campus and
community
•  Collect institutional sustainability data
•  Lead communications, outreach and events
•  Question UH processes
•  Recommend sustainability improvements
•  Direct student sustainability team
•  Support sustainability committees
•  Manage selected programs and projects
Sustainability Snapshot
•  History, reporting and governance
•  Buildings, water and energy
•  Academics and research
•  Campus as a living laboratory
•  Natural spaces
•  Engagement
•  Waste minimization
•  Transportation
•  Dining
Reporting & Governance
•  History
•  Campus Sustainability Policy
•  The Association for the Advancement of
Sustainability in Higher Education
•  Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating
System
•  Sustainability Task Force
•  SGA, Faculty Senate, Staff Council
•  Subcommittees
•  New committee
Recent developments
& ongoing projects
•  STARS
•  AASHE conference
•  TRACS
•  New structure and policy for STF
•  Princeton Review Green Guide
•  Campus Sustainability Plan
Buildings, Water & Energy
•  LEED building
•  Energy metering and retrofits
•  Water-saving measures
•  Central Plant
•  Solar array
•  Energy saving
Buildings, water & energy
From 2005 to 2013,
UH energy use was
reduced by 36% while
building square footage
has increased by 71%.
Recent developments
& ongoing projects
•  Integrating sustainability into campus master plan
•  Including more sustainability items in building design guidelines:
•  Rainwater management
•  Bike rack requirement
•  Calculating water refills and filter maintenance
Academics & Research
•  Energy & Sustainability minor
•  Technology
•  Natural sciences
•  Air quality monitoring
•  Biodiversity
•  Architecture: LEED & biomimcry
•  Engineering
•  Energy Research: Wind, Diesel, Solar, Natural Gas, Biofuels,
Superconductivity
•  Center for Environmental Sustainability And Resiliency
•  Hotel & Restaurant Management
•  Food security and safety
•  Law Center for Environment, Energy & Natural
Resources
Academics & research
The University offers
a minor in Energy &
Sustainability that is
open to ALL
students.
Campus as a Living
Laboratory
•  Greenhouse gas emissions
•  HVAC and living campus
•  Algorithms to control buildings
•  User input through apps and social media
•  Cooling tower
•  Wind-powered turbine
•  Archimedes Spiral Blade
Campus as a living laboratory
Recent developments
& ongoing projects
•  Improve collaboration with UH Energy and Energy & Sustainability
Minor
•  Permanent project: Greenhouse gas inventory
•  Offering guest lectures & presentations to classes and student
organizations
•  Garden improvement project with College of Architecture Students
•  Identifying potential list of projects and better publicizing it to faculty
Natural Spaces
•  Campus Community Garden
•  Established in 2009
•  All-organic vegetables, fruit and herbs
•  Focus on crop rotation, experiments to create a
closed-loop system
•  Tree Campus U.S.A.
•  Houston’s only sloped green roof
•  UH Coastal Center
•  300 acres of prairie
Natural spaces
In 2014, 808 pounds of
produce was grown in
the campus garden and
donated to food pantries
in low-income areas
surrounding UH.
Recent developments
& ongoing projects
•  Pocket Prairie Project
•  Campus Orchard, Leek Street Lots
•  Tree Campus U.S.A.
•  Campus Community Garden
•  Help with funding projects
Engagement
•  Social media
•  Newsletter: uh.edu/sustainablecoog
•  Blog: uhsustain.wordpress.com
•  Website: uh.edu/sustainability
•  Events and in-person outreach
•  Sustainability Meetup, RecycleMania, Earth Week,
Sustainability Fest, Clean Up Day, Rock the Campus,
BYOBottle, Bike to UH Day, volunteering, orientations
•  Community partners
•  TRACS, City of Houston, Bike Houston, etc.
Recent developments
& ongoing projects
•  Sustainability Fest, Nov. 17, 11:30 to 1:30, Lynn
Eusan Park
•  uh.edu/sustainfest
•  State of Sustainability, Jan. 25, 11:30 to 1:30, Rockwell Pavilion
•  Sustainable Coog Certification, Sustainability Champions, Office
certification
•  Potential partnerships:
•  Building coordinators, Harbach Ripley, NCAA Final Four, Green
Alliance Sports Summit
Sustainability Fest - RecycleMania
Earth Week - Bike to UH Day
Sustainability Fest
11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 17
Lynn Eusan Park
uh.edu/sustainfest
Waste minimization
•  Outdoor recycling in 2009
•  In house staff
•  2013: Single-stream recycling
•  Big Belly solar compacting units
•  Grounds waste
•  Hazardous waste
•  Composting pilot project
•  Indoor recycling
Waste minimization
What can you recycle on campus?
Recent developments
& ongoing projects
•  Big Belly solar compacting units redesign
•  Adding Recycle bin request to FAMIS; 96 gal. vs. small office size
•  Streamline event request for bins
•  Optometry School waste minimization project
•  Indoor recycling improvements
•  Food waste diversion
•  Partnership with Athletics/Venue Works
•  BYOBottle to the Stadium
Transportation & Dining
Styrofoam has been
eliminated in the campus
dining halls, diverting
90,000 boxes from the
landfill annually.
Transportation
•  Parking
•  Single-rider cars
•  Campus fleet
•  Public transportation
•  Shuttles
•  Bike program
•  Vanpools
•  Incentives
Recent developments
& ongoing projects
•  EV solar charge stations
•  Bike advisory committee
•  Bike survey, report and recommendations
•  Abandon bike reporting system
•  Suggested bike routes, safety maps
Dining
•  Vegan, vegetarian, halal, gluten-free options
•  Eliminating Styrofoam
•  Reusable containers
•  Recycled-content napkins
•  Tray-less dining
•  Recycled cooking oil
•  Fair trade coffee and fair trade campaign
2015-2016 Sustainability
Task Force Goals
STF 2015-2016 Goals: Restructuring and
renaming the Sustainability Task Force
•  Campus Sustainability Committee
•  Task force v. Committee v. Council
•  Additional members?
•  How do we improve campus and community
collaboration?
•  Adding alumni and community component
•  Sustainability Champions
STF 2015-2016 Goals: New Campus
Sustainability Policy
•  Current policy: uh.edu/mapp
•  What all should it include?
•  Scope of office vs. committee
•  Keep it general
•  Distribute new draft of policy
STF 2015-2016 Goals: Other
•  Establishing leadership
•  Meeting frequency and structure
•  Campus feedback and recommendations to
leadership
Open forum and other items
Does anyone have any other
issues or ideas to discuss?
STF action items
•  Identify projects you’d like to work on
•  Review new Campus Sustainability Policy
•  Review other university committee/council
structure
•  Provide feedback on proposed UH structure
changes to STF
•  Participate in upcoming events and assist
with identified projects
uh.edu/sustainablecoog
uh.edu/sustainability
Follow @UHSustain
sustainability@uh.edu
gardening@uh.edu
832.842.9051