Environmental Council Meeting--May 17, 2013

The purpose of this meeting was to review the EC Recommendations for 2012-13 to get a sense of our accomplishments and to generate recommendations for 2013-14. We also had a brief review of LeAnne Harvey’s complete greenhouse gas inventory report. As a way of reporting the minutes for this EC meeting, this year’s EC Recs with notes and suggestions follow in italics.

Environmental Council Recommendations for 2012-13

Major Environmental Stewardship/ Sustainability Goals & Projects:
  1. The Environmental Council will work closely with the Carbon Neutrality Committee to plan ways to move Millbrook toward carbon neutrality by 2020 in order to fulfill our pledge to Green Schools Alliance. Important to ensure that the new Head of Physical Plant will support the carbon neutrality goals and will keep good data on energy efficiency and energy billing. Mrs. Meigs was able to add several notes about sustainability, energy conservation and carbon neutrality to the job description for Head of Physical Plan.
  2. Undertake and complete a greenhouse gas emissions inventory. LeAnne gave a brief overview of her ghg inventory report. She recommends that we update the ghg inventory report annually. We hope that Mr. Powers’ sustainable economics class will have an interest in taking on this annual project.
  3. Implement and fund projects to increase energy efficiency and work to improve energy conservation behavior, thus lowering our greenhouse gas emissions. We have made significant progress towards this goal with the completion of EcoMotion’s list of over 100 energy efficiency measures for Millbrook which will save money and lower our carbon footprint.
  4. Plan a large-scale renewable energy project. The Carbon Neutrality Planning Committee has worked hard to make progress toward a 1.65 MW solar installation on campus. With the hiring of Ted Flanigan of EcoMotion, we have made great strides and are now considering solar proposals from several excellent solar developers. We hope to apply for NYSERDA funding for this project in August 2013.
  5. Consider purchasing a real-time energy monitoring and energy reduction program for dorms and other campus buildings. This is costly and would only be valuable if dorm faculty were to commit to use this system effectively in the dorms to educate about the value of saving energy and lowering our carbon footprint.
  6. Create a Green Revolving Fund to fund additional energy efficiency projects on campus. It is possible that the Purchase Power Agreement funding mechanism for the solar installation might generate income of about $30,000 annually which would be committed to upgrading energy efficiency on campus.
  7. Establish an incentive program for faculty to save money if their electricity and heating oil use goes down. Discussion about this, but not much progress to report.
Maintaining/Enhancing Environmental Stewardship/Sustainability Programs:
  1. Support and improve the composting system and expansion of the community garden/Green Team potato field project. Composting has improved with support from the Dining Hall staff and Drew Belotti. Lyuda Pope, with the assistance of Jane Meigs, Drew Belotti, and Kathy Havard, has made great progress in establishing a Green Team Gardening community service group. We hope to win a grant so that we can buy a winter hoop garden greenhouse which will grow veggies during the winter months. Lyuda Pope will attend the NAIS Sustainability Summit this summer to get input from other organic gardeners/farmers.
  2. Find and encourage more ways to reduce paper use at Millbrook. Academic departments were asked to discuss ways that each department can save paper with varying results. Laurel Stine offered the great suggestion that at the beginning of the new school year when all students register their computers that the correct software is installed to allow for double sided printing.
  3. Continue to improve community support of our recycling systems. Laurel Stine suggested that for the start of the new school year that all dorm rooms are equipped with a recycling bin and a trash can.
  4. Continue support for Meatless Monday and Phase Out Bottled Water. Meatless Monday is better received, but will still need curricular support from the science department to educate about the value of MM. Mr. Lewis suggested that we should communicate the big value of having the whole community participate on Monday, demonstrating community support for this project.
  5. Find more ways to encourage sustainable behavior more consistently and regularly. This is our catch-all clause. One demonstration of this goal was the report generated by Mrs. Meigs on how environmental stewardship is integrated into our curriculum. Mrs. Meigs gave a presentation at a NYSAIS and Green Schools Alliance conference in NYC about ways that a large number of our classes use environmental stewardship effectively in classes. Special hats off to the world languages and arts departments for showing the most creativity and leadership in this regard and to Mr. Powers for his new sustainable economics class.
  6. Add filtered water fountains with digital displays of bottled water saved (like the one in basement of School House) to Holbrook and to dorms. Because of a generous gift from a parent, most of the dorms have or will have filtered water fountains with bottle counters installed. A few more of these water fountains will be added to common spaces as well. Mrs. Meigs and SCAPE will add educational signs to all the new water fountains for the opening of school in the fall.
  7. Continue work of the Land Stewardship Committee to manage our land for biodiversity/ecological and educational value. We have consulted with Mr. Billington to ensure that the 100 foot buffer zone around our major wetland is protected and maintained. New stakes, delineating this buffer zone have been reinstalled so that buffer is respected. NY State Department of Conservation regulations require a 100 foot buffer zone around wetlands that are larger than 12.4. Our wetland is over 100 acres in size and deserves full protection.
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