SOUL Built Environments Subgroup Meeting In attendance: Annie Laurie Cadmus, Christa Lamendola, Mackenzie Henry-Hoegler, Megan Graver, Katie Lasco, Hallie Zarbakhsh, Catherine Blyth April 2, 2014 Business Items: Culinary Services is working hard to incorporate local food more and are taking initiative to make that happen. Discussion Points: Benchmark 14: Increase purchase of local food •
Tier System created for tracking locality of food: 1) Local(250 miles) 2) Smaller companies, further away 3) National or international
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Focus being put on Tier 1 for now, as it is the easiest to track
Benchmark 16: Improve sustainability profile of student, staff, and faculty vehicles; Benchmark 27: Decrease use of Single Occupancy Vehicles (SOV) •
SOUL Administrative intern Jackie Fain is currently working on a proposal for vehicle tracking to Parking and Transportation Services
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Baseline date collection for BM 16 is priority
Benchmark 18: Improve sustainability profile of campus fleet •
Information available but must be sorted; summer employee of The Office of Sustainability to take on
Benchmark 28: Increase purchase on non-food local goods and services and environmentally preferable goods •
Office of Procurement is interested in integrating sustainable purchases practices; SOUL can help
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Meeting scheduled to develop sustainable purchasing policy
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Need to better define project and what sustainable and local goods mean
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New inclusion of sustainability clause in contracts
Action Items: Megan and Katie: collaborate on developing plan for parking survey Hallie: create proposal for native species installment in Emeriti Park Pond
SOUL Built Environments Sub-Group Meeting November 6, 2013 Meeting minutes, taken by John Benson Discussion Points: Benchmark 13: Prohibit installation of irrigation systems Last meeting: Discussed how practices in construction already exist that we don't use that kind of water (potable and non-potable) But no formal policy has been created- So what are things that can be changed to implement the policy? Benchmark 14: Increase Purchase of local food on campus Met with people from auxiliaries that gave us the University Status Monetary numbers based on the amounts and total of food purchasing= 5% is local So we may have sustainability committee to oversee the future contracts with suppliers. Benchmark 18 and 27: Campus fleet - single occupational vehicles -received and email from Brad and he is forming proposal on how to manage the fleet in present and the future- one method may be in instructional tutorial Benchmark 33: encourage residency for OU employees How do we implement the policy? Maybe a welcome packet for new employees? Action Items: Basecamp: Guidelines making request of current suppliers to report on local, track “P” cards Research OSHEA movement (for basecamp!) SOUL Project leader Matt Kovarick (14) create teams
Basecamp -assess with human resources what info are employees are provided upon
arrival- how can we incorporate more sustainability
SOUL Built Environments Sub-Group Meeting In attendance: Annie Laurie Cadmus, Katie Lasco, John Benson, Hallie Zarbakhsh, Nick Kroncke October 2, 2013 Meeting minutes, taken by Hallie Zarbakhsh Discussions: *All- SOUL Meeting on October 30th!* Benchmark 13: prevent permanent installation of irrigation systems that rely on potable water: • Create recommendation for systems that can use grey water instead of potable water Benchmark 14: Increase the purchase of local food on campus • Statistics from the sustainability report: the dining halls have 5% locally purchased food • Possible Sustainability Commission amongst the dining halls • SOUL requested to create a list of guidelines that define local food • for the a sustainability contract Benchmark 18: Improve sustainability profile of campus fleet • Bobcat Buy's new policy requires purchased vehicles meet LEFE standards (Low emission, fuel efficient) Benchmark 27: Decrease us of single occupancy vehicles • Education on alternative transportation options • Communicating with the Office of Campus Affairs and Student Senate Benchmark 33: Encourage residency in City of Athens for Athens campus employees • Calculating commuting miles can track GHG emissions to show new employees • Education on biker and driving laws suggested to make alternative travel safer
Action Points: Create tracking system for food purchases via spreadsheet- Nick Kroncke Meeting scheduled between Annie Laurie and the VP of Finance and Transportation o Services Construct design standards for the Office of Design and Construction for o irrigation systems - set up a 30 minute meeting with Annie
Sustainable OU Leaders: Built Environments Sub- Group Meeting minutes, taken by Hallie Zarbakhsh September 4, 2013 In attendance: Bradford Grant, Matt Kovarik, Nick Kroncke, Maya Tomberg, Hallie Zarbakhsh, Becca Mathews, Nabanita Talukdar, Katie Lasco, Annie Laurie Discussion Points: •
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Benchmark 14: Increase purchase of local food o
Issue raised; the University has no tracking mechanism for purchased food
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Plan to advise/ support food purchases
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Meeting planned between purchaser, Director of the Office of Sustainability and later a student liaison
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Transitioning possibility; start with one dining hall and record progress
Benchmark 18: Improve sustainability profile of campus fleet o
Coordinate with parking services via liaison
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Find/ track registered OU vehicles
Benchmark 27: Decrease use of single occupancy vehicles(SOV) o
Proactively inform future purchases that maximize sustainability via education ( i.e. pamphlets)
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Contact Student Senate to find ways to make the CATS Bus more accessible
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Use social media to gather feedback from bus riders
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Advertise list of “gas-saving” tips on social media sites ( i.e. Twitter)
The next Built Environments Sub –Group meeting will be held on October 3, 2013 from 3:30 to 5:00 pm. Action Items: Director(Annie Laurie) and student member(Matt Kovarik) to meet with employed
purchaser Graduate assistant(Brad Grant) to contact Parking Services to set up a partnership in
tracking OU current OU vehicles Contact Student Senate(Alex Slaymaker) Everyone: Research gas saving tips, and send to hz553411@ohio.edu Everyone: Check availability of digital advertisement board in Baker Center Everyone: Encourage student tweeting about the inefficiencies of the current CATS bus
system to raise awareness https://twitter.com/outransport
Sustainable OU Leaders: Built Environments Sub-Group Meeting Minutes, taken by Katie Lasco April 3, 2013 In attendance: Rebecca Mathews, Nick Kroncke, Megan Graver, Jaymie Tighe, Markie Miller, Matt Kovarik, Chase Robinson, Annie Laurie Cadmus, Katie Lasco Discussion Points: - Benchmark 13: Prohibit the installation of permanent irrigation systems that rely on potable water o Already practiced by Design and Construction, but there is no formal standard o Discussed difference between potable and non-potable water o Focus is on the installation of new systems o Need to analyze Design and Construction standards and recommend where this policy would fit - Benchmark 14: Increase purchase of local food o Culinary Services has been expanding local food purchases and working with the Chesterhill Produce Auction; difficult to obtain large volumes of food locally o Current challenge is that there is no system in place for measuring local food purchases o Auxiliary Services is the department in charge of purchasing/tracking
SOUL members will collaborate to develop a university definition of local food then assist with development of a tracking system Benchmark 27: Decrease use of Single-Occupancy Vehicles (SOV) o Benchmark 16 is a relevant conversation as well o Target is 85% of students and 20% of faculty by 2015, but there is currently no tracking mechanism in place to measure this o Discussion about ways to measure students and faculty who use Single-Occupancy Vehicles o Idea to recruit students to develop a system as a class research project Benchmark 33: Encourage residency in City of Athens for Athens campus employees o Original idea to create a welcome packet about sustainability for employees relocating to Athens o Currently no sustainability staff member with the time for this project o New project management software will provide space for multiple individuals to collaborate on this in the future This is the last Built Environments meeting of the semester; meetings will reconvene in the fall o
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Action Items: - Everyone: Review Design and Construction university standards at http://www.ohio.edu/facilities/design-construction/documents/standards_4-12.pdf. Email ideas for potable water policy or other sustainability standards to sustainability@ohio.edu by Wednesday, April 17th - Gather info on existing potable water irrigation systems on campus (Annie Laurie) - Everyone: Analyze list of Princeton Review local food questions (sent in email) and select top 5 to prioritize in tracking purchases - Chase to speak with demographics professor about potential for future class project on developing a tracking method for SOV drivers