University Environment Committee
Meeting of 9/25/08
Presiding: Jill Twark
Regular members in
attendance: T. Kelley, A. Gross-McMillan, J. Twark, M. Montgomery, D. Lawrence,
H. McKinnon, C. Hodson
Ex officio members in
attendance: J. Gill,
Guests: Hilda Bryan
The meeting was called to
order at 3:35 pm.
Actions of Meeting
1. Review and Approval of
Minutes from 8/28/08 meeting.
Minutes were approved by a
voice vote.
2. Introduction of Hunt
McKinnon and EC Scholars administrator Hilda Bryan.
3. Presentation of EC Scholars’
environment/recycling management plan by
As sustainability initiatives
project coordinator for the EC Scholars,
One project is Green Games,
a recycling and resource reduction competition among dorms.
4. Announcements (Twark)
Response from Andrew Griffin
on assessing a student fee for sustainability (Twark)
Twark will meet with Andrew
Griffin on this next week.
Pat Long has replied to Twark’s invitation to present at one of our meetings, and
has suggested the date of October 23rd. He will give a power point presentation on
his research.
Response from Dr. Robert
Chin to my request for an update on the status of the ECU sustainability
survey.
A graduate student is
working on technical details of the survey.
Twark will follow up with Chin.
5. Hunt McKinnon: Brief
summary of Faculty Assembly meeting information pertaining to new building
codes
The Faculty Assembly is the
system equivalent of our Faculty Senate. Both groups are composed of
elected faculty members and have the power to have a very strong voice on many
issues of faculty concern.
Senate Bill 668 mandating
energy efficiency in construction takes effect next month. Capital Improvements coordinators become
energy coordinators.
Koch: An informal group at
ECU will need to be formalized, energy coordinator will need to be
appointed. Efficiency is included in the
guidelines for designers for all proposals.
Goals: By 2013, 15% reduction in energy; by 2015, 30%; by 2050, carbon
neutral. This applies to all buildings. The
standard is 20% reduction in energy use for renovations, 30% reduction for new
construction. The committee should
invite Bill Bagnell to talk about energy.
Funding is always an issue.
McKinnon: Suggested adding
metering, Energy Star systems.
Koch: ECU needs to reinvest
energy savings and perform energy audits.
McKinnon: When we have
another bond issue, buildings will be more energy conscious. There will be a presentation by students at
the Voice of America site on Monday, October 21 at 8:30am; Students will
present their designs for making the building more sustainable.
6. Discussion of revisions
to ECU Environment Committee charge, which will need to be submitted to the
Committee on Committees for approval.
Here are the two proposed
additions:
G. The committee promotes sustainability efforts on
campus, which include energy and resource conservation, recycling, and the
reduction of waste.
H. The committee promotes the inclusion of
sustainability issues in the curriculum, as well as faculty research in areas
related to sustainability. The committee monitors efforts in both areas and
reports progress to the university.
Action taken: New language
approved unanimously by a voice vote.
Twark will send these additions to Lori Lee to forward to the Committee
on Committees.
7. Discussion of two
standing subcommittees of the UEC
a. subcommittee on green space
b. sustainability subcommittee
Action taken: Formation of
subcommittees approved unanimously by a voice vote.
Discussion of whether UEC has
access to the campus master plan. Koch
agreed to serve as the UEC’s liaison to master plan focus group.
8. Report from current subcommittee
on green space (Hodson,
Gill: see attached list, a
starting point; some of these trees are already being protected, also cared for
by Bartlett Trees. It would help to have
document that showed the committee’s and the faculty’s support for protecting
these trees from buildings and utility lines: a heritage trees and green space
policy (for submission to Vice Chancellor Kevin Seitz).
Hodson: The UEC needs to
present the policy as a formal resolution to the faculty.
Rigsby: It should be a
specific statement of policy, asking administration to come up with specific
regulations.
Twark will ask to have a
heritage trees/green space resolution on the agenda for Faculty Senate for
November. Hodson will e-mail green space
policy; committee members will review green space policy so that this can be
finalized at the UEC’s October meeting
9. Report from Bill Koch on
the status of the green space at the corner of
Blvd., based on information solicited from
Nick Floyd, Associate Athletics Director
Koch will arrange for Nick
Floyd in Athletics to present to the UEC in October.
10. Report on future ECU
Homepage video(s) on sustainability, based on a meeting from September 10,
attended by Brian Paris of Pirate Profiles, videographer Bob Dry, John Gill, Tom
Pohlman, and Twark. (Jill Twark and John Gill)
Proposed video content:
I.Video One—a
tour of campus which will explain the energy conservation efforts made by various
facilities
A. the cooling tower behind
Flanagan
B. the water-catching cisterns
C. recycling efforts, including
those initiated by ECU scholars (Brian and Bob would like to film an ECU
Scholars’
meeting in which this initiative is discussed to capture the ideas and opinions
of the students)
D. the tour may be conducted in
one of the new electric cars, showing hybrid buses and electric cars
II. Video Two—could highlight an
on-campus celebration of Earth Day, organized by the ECU Scholars and linked to
Barefoot on the Mall in spring semester (Hilda and Sally -- what do you think
about this idea?)
III. Video Three—could show LEED and other green architectural characteristics of the
new
IV.
Video Four—might highlight the
greenways/bike lanes/sidewalks included in the upcoming ECU Master Plan, as
well as any other environmentally friendly initiatives proposed by the
plan
** Any of
these ideas or others can be covered in shorter articles posted to the ECU
Homepage. They may not warrant a full, 3-minute video. Twark simply
summarized the ideas discussed at the meeting.
11. Suggestions for the
Environment Committee Goals for the 2008-2009 Academic Year.
Goals:
Green space and heritage
tree resolutions passed by Faculty Senate.
One video highlighting
sustainability featured on the ECU homepage.
Coordinate with faculty
members on sustainability and the curriculum.
Work with EC Scholars to set
up a sustainability management plan.
Establish two standing
subcommittees.
12. Tree update (Gill)
Gill: some trees that need
to be removed on campus:
2-3 trees in the woods near the
Frisbee golf course are totally dead and must be removed.
2 poplars in steam plant
parking lot.
7 trees in Joyner
woods.
About 11 total trees will be
removed. Each tree removed will be
replaced by 2 new trees.
Gigantic oak on the mall
still has leaves, but the whole tree is hollow, with no structure. Bartlett Tree Service recommended
removal. Two other certified arborists
recommended removal. Grounds will spade
in three 25 foot oaks in place of the red oak.
Oak tree outside of Rawl is similarly dead. Three experts concurred. The tree is too dangerous to leave standing. These two trees will be taken out over fall
break or over winter break.
There was a movement to
adjourn at 4:55pm and the meeting was adjourned.