SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE MEETINGOCTOBER 30, 2017

OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY

Full-time Sustainability Coordinator

Housed under Facilities Services

Visit the “Green Cave” at NSM F-127!

3 General Sustainability Interns: volunteer & for-credit

2 Native Plant Interns: volunteer

1 Sustainability Research Intern: research project on reclaimed water

Left to right: Ellie Perry (Sustainability Coordinator) and Sustainability Interns Andrea, Brandon, and Angela/ Native Plant Interns: Chrystene and Anthony

AGENDA

Report on projects & progress

Energy (Energy Manager, Kenny Seeton)

Other projects (Sustainability Coordinator, Ellie Perry)

Student Solar Petition Letter (Ecology Club President, Chrystene Newman)

Campus Farm Update (Facilities & Student, Hawk McFadzen)

Launch of sub-committees/working groups

Open Discussion

Feedback and opportunities for collaboration

New ideas

ENERGY

New LED bulbs for Theater dressing rooms (3 month payback!)- save ~$1k/yr in energy costs

1 MW Battery Storage installation

New cooling tower launch

OCTOBER SUSTAINABILITY MONTH

Week 1- Carbon Challenge Tabling

Week 2- Green Jobs Week (Career Center Expos)

Week 3- Native Plants Week

Week 4- Green Campus Week tabling

Week 5- (TOMORROW!) Central Plant Halloween Trick or Treat Tour/Open House- 10am-2pm at Central Plant

RSVP for a tour at www.cptour.eventbrite.com

CARBON CHALLENGE TABLING

10’ x 10’ x 10’ Carbon Cube

101 pledges from students, faculty, and staff

New understanding of how daily habits impact carbon footprint

Free prizes!

GREEN JOBS WEEK

18 students day 1, 20 students day 2

Limited understanding of what “green” jobs or sustainability was

Indicates basic sustainability literacy is very low for our campus

Need more lead time to recruit “green” vendors

NATIVE PLANTS WEEK- 10/17

DIY Native Seed Bombs ~50 participants

Native Plant Workshop (Connie Vadheim)

15 participants and 5 logistics volunteers

CDC/ITC Garden of Dreams practice

NATIVE PLANTS WEEK- GREEN APPLE DAY OF SERVICE

41 total volunteers, 165 hours of total service time

Maintenance in:

CDC/ITC Garden of Dreams (pruning on natives)

West Basin Garden (removed Pampas Grass and eucalyptus)

Heritage Creek (cleared path and overhang on street)

Thank you SLICE, Dr. Vadheim, Dr. Bryan, (Master) Kelley, and all the volunteers who attended!

10/19 volunteers by grade level

Freshman 5

Sophomore 3

Junior 15

Senior 8

Alumni 1

unknown 1

Community 8

Total 41

GREEN CAMPUS WEEK TABLING

Lighting, water, and recycling sorting display quiz.

61 participants (despite 100 degree heat!)

RECYCLING UPDATE

Marketing designed signage for all stone bins and defunct specialty bins

Mostly up on main campus corridors

Expanding branding and education to interior buildings soon.

Mixed recycling guidance sticker still being printed (will go up soon).

Mixed recycling available throughout main campus as of tomorrow (LSU and Housing to come later)

Free battery recycling collection bins- just ask!

Recycling bin inventory to start placing stations in more convenient locations for interior buildings and corridors

STUDENT SOLAR PETITION LETTER

Led by Ecology Club (Chrystene Newman)

Expresses student interest in solar and support for adding generation on campus.

Over 120 student signatures!

CAMPUS FARM UPDATE

Grant announcements in November (fingers crossed!)

Facilities providing clean-up this upcoming month.

Farm Club awareness event on Monday, November 20th (tabling/scavenger hunt in front of LSU 11am-2pm)

WORKING GROUP ASSEMBLY

Identified Topics:

Sustainable Landscape Working Group- November meeting date

Tree Campus USA framework-> Sustainable Landscape Plan and Committee

Start drafting elements and making notes about what to include

Academic Infusion/Faculty Working Group

February meeting to discuss AASHE STARS academic inventory findings.

Earth Day Working Group

January meeting to start planning. Space (East and West Walkways) already booked for Thursday, April 19, 2018.

Sign up with and/or reach out to Ellie Perry at eperry@csudh.edu or call x2303

OTHER UPCOMING PROJECTS

Recycling education and continued branding of bins (exterior and interior)

AASHE STARS Reporting

GHG inventory for the campus

Academic inventory

Sustainability Website Revamp

Working Group Projects: Sustainable Landscape Plan, Earth Day

Spring semester programming: Race to Reduce Month, other events as needed

OPEN DISCUSSION

Q&A

Feedback

New Ideas

NOTES

Visit Central Plant’s Open House for a free tunnel tour and/or snacks anytime on Tuesday, Oct 31st 10am-2pm. Visit cptour.Eventbrite.com for more information or to RSVP for a special prize.

To see the current draft of the campus Master Plan and to provide feedback/thoughts, visit this link: https://www.csudh.edu/fpcm/campus-master-plan-update/

Professor Janine Gasco is offering a sustainable agriculture course that goes on a 14-day trip to Mexico during the Winter Intersession (Anthropology 495 Special Topics: Traditional Mesoamerican Agriculture and Sustainability). Please encourage students to sign up!

If you are a faculty member interested in incorporating the new farm into your courses, please e-mail Hawk (ahawkmcfadzen1@toromail.csudh.edu) to get on the invite list for the Course Syllabus Meeting (date TBD).

If you would like to sign up for a Working Group, or join the Sustainability Committee meeting distribution, please e-mail Ellie at eperry@csudh.edu