Student Affairs Sustainability Committee
Meeting Minutes/summary
Thursday, January 24th, 2008 11:00-12:00
Present: Mike Anchors, Sharon Goodman, Mark Lacina, and Katie Taylor.
I.
Approvals
The meeting minutes from our 1/17/08 meeting were approved.
II.
Reporting on December 13th Tasks
Mark shared he has been working with Steve Johnson to determine if individually metering the
energy use for all residential buildings is feasible. To do so would be a powerful tool to increase
awareness of energy use for residents. He will report with the findings of his investigation.
Sharon shared Aramark is two years ahead of their 40% local/organic food purchase goal. As of
January 2008, they currently purchase 42% of all food from local/organic/or local-organic
vendors! Sharon says they are currently determining if the percentage can be increased without
significantly impacting the costs of Aramark or the consumer.
Katie recapped the Bookstore’s plan to become the central store for campus and the positive
aspects of the plan. While they are currently not pushing the issue with the campus due to their
vacant manager position, they intend to begin promoting it again soon after a manager has been
hired.
III.
Brainstorming a Plan of Action
The committee looked at each of the seven points in our charge and began to formulate an action
plan. Due to the lack of attendees at our meeting, this task will be a major focus of our next
meeting.
1. Investigate and identify opportunities for paper use efficiency, reduction, and
sustainable purchasing
-Establish a baseline by interviewing each office purchasing agent about their paper purchases
(see proposed survey). Katie will work on this task.
-Promote mindful printing practices by sending out an email with the email reminder. Sharon
will work on this task.
-Investigate ways to track paper use per day using internal printer counters. Katie will work on
this task.
2. Reduce single occupancy car travel to and from Evergreen campus for Student
Services staff members
-Create an optional carpool network by mapping staff homes and connecting those who live near
each other.
-Highlight alternative commuter incentive programs.
-Have Victor and/or Susie present at staff meetings/Division mid-year retreat.
-Investigate the feasibility of telecommuting.
3. Increase student involvement and participation in sustainability-based planning
within the division and on the greater campus
-Identify students who are passionate about the environment and get their assistance in
propagating ideas and referring others to participate on committees, in clubs, etc.
-Focus on Masters in Environmental Science students. Katie will work on this task.
4. Identify ways to reduce outdated and unnecessary electronic equipment
-What counts as electronic equipment? Calculators, fax machines, phones?
We need more information on this subject before we tackle it- Kitty will report on some aspects
in her reporting from the December 13th meeting.
5. Increase ways to buy food and other products locally
-Determine what purchases to focus on- office supplies? Home purchases?
-Research company policies of Office Depot to determine if we feel comfortable holding our
contract for office supplies.
-Research local companies and conduct cost comparisons with Home Depot (contract holder).
Account for products that are farther away but have a lower environmental impact (organics, low
chemical, etc).
-Work with Purchasing and the Bookstore to create a training program for purchasing agents to
make sustainable purchases- prioritize cost, location, manufacturing process, product features,
etc.)
6. Increase educational initiatives for the community about energy reduction seeking
a goal of 30% reduction by 2010.
-Establish a baseline- how much energy are we using currently? Send information to the division
about turning off computers, printers, copiers, etc.
7. Create a mindful sustainable community through education and direct
engagement.
IV.
Next Meeting
The committee agreed our next meeting will be held on Thursday, February 7th at 11:00 in the
RAD conference room on the 3rd floor of A building. We will review the charge and establish a
concrete plan of action for the committee. We will also make time to get updates from committee
members on the tasks they were assigned at our December 13th meeting. Thanks again for the
patience of those members who have yet to share their findings! The original minutes from that
meeting are included below:
For charge #1- Katie will talk to the bookstore about sustainable purchasing practices and Susie will be following
up with Kathleen Haskett about paper use for the college and her work on this task.
For charge #2- Susie will be looking into the research on commuting practices on campus for staff and students. It
was also discussed that in the future we need to look into educating the community about the fleet vehicle program.
For charge #3- Kitty will talk to institutional research about research data on students and involvement. Jesse,
Sharon, and Molly will continue to explore our theme halls can work with students on educational programming.
For charge #4- Kitty will be talking to the computer folks and Bill Gilbreath about electronic equipment and
printers for the college.
For charge #5- Sharon will follow up with dining services about our current action plan and research. We also
talked about having someone from the organic farm talk with us about how to educate the community on local and
organic purchasing practices.
Proposed Survey:
1. How often do you purchase items for your office?
 Daily
 Weekly
 Bi-Monthly
 Monthly
2. Do you purchase your paper directly, through the Purchasing Office, or through the
Bookstore?
 Directly
 Purchasing Office
 Bookstore
3. Do you purchase Harbor 100- local, 100% post consumer recycled paper?
 Yes
 No
 Not Sure, ask ______________________
4. How often do you purchase paper? Please fill out the following:
Month
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
Amt. Purchased (reams)
Month
Amt. Purchased (reams)
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
5. Does your office have a double sided printer?
 Yes
 No
 Double sided capabilities, but they’re not default settings
6. Does your printer have a sleep mode function enabled?
 Yes
 No
 No, but it is turned off at the end of every work day
7. Do you have a tracker/counter setup on your printer that displays the number of sheets
printed every day?
 Yes
 No
 Not sure, ask _____________________________