The Committee for a Sustainable Campus, formerly known as the Environmental Task Force, hopes to† ìcome up with a grand plan to move the college towards sustainability,” said† Dr. Susan Clayton, Chair of Environmental Studies and Co-chair of Campus Sustainability.
The CSC, created in a Nov. 2008 faculty meeting, reports to the President and Cabinet once a semester and to the faculty once a year. Their primary purpose, according to their charter, is to ìgather information in order to make recommendations to other groups, suggest strategic directions and facilitate sustainable initiatives.”
ìThis year, weíre starting with a well-organized committee and have clear administrative support and student involvement,” said Clayton.
The CSC has worked to support several programs on campus, such as the ìCowabunga” project of gathering clothing and household items left by students each year for Goodwill Industries and Friendtique, the WooCorpís COW Patch project for organic local vegetables and the ongoing ìTrayless Lowry” initiative associated with Greenhouse.
ìIn the last batch of statistics for the trayless Lowry movement [dated Aug. 27], 4 percent of students used trays at breakfast,” said Greenhouse President Austin Beer í10.
ìCompare this to the 80 percent that complained about the thought of trayless Lowry in surveys last year. I feel like, more than anything, people were just scared of change.”
In addition, lunch serving 1174 customers with only 98 trays in use and† dinner serving 1366 customers with 109 trays used means only 8 percent of customers use trays.
The CSC also hopes to sponsor one ìgreen” event every semester, in the interest of raising student awareness of what the Committee does and what they as students can do.
ìWeíre planning to enhance communication with all constituencies on campus and will be hosting an open meeting for anyone interested later this semester,” said Clayton.
Notable feats of the 2007-2008 Committee for Sustainability Campus (then known as the Environmental Task Force)
– Replaced over 500 incandescent light bulbs in Lowry in the dining room to compact fluorescent light (CFL), saving nearly 700,000 watts of energy each day.
– Utilizing local foods from Moreland Farms, Great Lakes Cheese and Sugardale for Family Weekend picnic, with signs indicating local and ìgreen” foods.
– Utilizing compostable/biodegradable items for carryout.
– Implementing reusable mugs, as well as reusable china, plastic and stainless flatware for meals at Momís Truck Stop and Winter Gala.
-††††††††† Utilizing biodegradable plates and forks at the Presidentís Inauguration Picnic Luncheon, as well as local foods and compostable trash can liners.