Green Committee Minutes of October 20, 2008

In attendance: Ray Bailey (MA), Callan Bentley (AN), Ruth Stanton (MEC), Kathleen Odige (MEC), Denny May (AL), Doug Boe (WO), Dan Wells, Victor Zabielski (AL).

Ray Bailey opened the meeting at 3:35pm, and discussed the missing portion of the committee members: while the teaching faculty were well-represented (only one from Woodbridge was missing), the Senate had not yet appointed the provost, business manager, or student that are to be members of the committee.

The first order of business was to establish officers. Ray Bailey agreed to continue serving as chair, and was elected to that post by acclamation. Callan Bentley agreed to act as meeting secretary, taking minutes and posting them on the Green Committee website.

The second order of business was to discuss recycling. Ray Bailey noted that though a coherent College strategy for recycling paper and beverage containers was a primary focus of the committee’s discussions all spring (2008), very little came of it. However, over the summer, the Loudoun campus began to move forward on its own initiative. The Loudoun business manager, Mitch Markon, and his administrative assistant, Sandy Payne, developed a recycling plan for their campus. Two groups from the Green Committee went to visit them and learn about their program: Ray Bailey and Callan Bentley paid a visit in September, and Denny May and his colleague Kathy Wax paid a visit last week. Ray Bailey, Callan Bentley, and Denny May reported on what they had learned:

Mitch and Sandy purchased a series of containers (~$2000), labeled them with what kind of materials were appropriate to place in that container for recycling, and then distributed them to all faculty offices and student cafeteria areas. They arranged with the janitorial contractors to empty these containers into the outdoor “toters.” They arranged with VHI company to rent those toters and to have them emptied on a weekly basis. The monthly cost for the toter rental and pickup is ~$150.

Overall, these costs are quite low for the benefit, and Ray Bailey pointed out that the Loudoun example changes the argument that recycling is too expensive or too difficult.
Ruth noted that Ron Davis is rewriting the maintenance contract now. We need to make sure that the recycling clause stays in there. (Ray volunteered to check on this.)

Denny noted that students are rating recycling programs on college campuses. They are serious and are publishing their results. Denny suggested that NOVA may really find its reputation harmed if one embarrassing report from a disgruntled student gets played in the media as an exposé of NOVA’s lack of commitment to the most basic green principles.

Victor said that he was meeting with just such disgruntled student later that same evening.

Callan echoed these remarks, pointing out that a likely reason we haven’t yet been run up the flagpole by angry students is that we are a 2-year institution, where students don’t have as much time to commit to making a change in the institution as they have recently done at places like William and Mary (where student demand for green principles has forced the college to adopt them). Callan also noted that Annandale students are increasingly upset about the lack of recycling options, and are forming a club to move these issues forward (with Callan as advisor).

Ray noted that in spite of the fact that NOVA is doing a lot behind the scenes, we’re not recycling beverage containers and paper, and those are what people see. “It gets attention if you do it well, and it also gets attention if you don’t do it,” he said. Ray suggested that Mitch Markon and Sandy Payne of Loudoun come to our next meeting to explain in detail his strategy and answer questions about contracts and costs. Committee members agreed that there was a need to clarify contractual details (campus or College).

Denny reported on the Alexandria Environmental Council on the NOVA-Alexandria campus, which met multiple times during the spring semester. One of the issues they discussed was the need for an overall strategy statement from the NOVA administration covering a wide range of issues. Denny suggested that all of the committee’s efforts would work better if the committee had direction and support from the top. As an example, he put forward the President’s Climate Commitment, which has been signed by 588 college and university presidents across the USA, but not by President Templin. About one-fifth of the signatories are community colleges, presumably with resource bases similar to our own. He mentioned three program areas they are focusing on for the year: recycling, food and gardening, and tree planting (Arbor Day).

The committee confirmed meeting times for the first Monday of the month, afternoons from 3:30pm-5pm. The next meeting was scheduled for Monday, November 3 at 3:30pm.

Dan Wells reported on a new round of capital projects (construction and renovation) for the next three years. The governor of the Commonwealth has issued an executive mandate to get the maximum number of LEEDS points possible in the mechanical and electrical systems of new buildings. With modern techniques of construction, many of these have already become standard practice in the architecture and construction trade. Beyond that, there are additional costs and procedures to get those additional LEEDS points. Every new NOVA project gets a full LEEDS review, wherein the planners asses what is achievable and what is not. Dan discussed Annandale Phase VI, Loudoun Phase III, Manassas Phase III.

Manassas Phase III is in preliminary design, and the architect has voluntarily made a commitment to achieve LEEDS Silver ranking. Ray Bailey shared the story of how the Manassas LEEDS certification agreement with the architect came to pass: as part of the committee planning the new building, Ray prompted the architect to take on the certification design and costs. “Architects don’t want to be seen as designing anything inferior,” Ray noted. Many architects are now in the position of wanting to demonstrate that they can design efficient, sustainable buildings, and may take on the LEEDS certification costs themselves just so they can add these green buildings to their professional portfolio of achievement.

New projects that are in the works include Woodbridge Phase III, as well as a Woodbridge support services building, a replacement for the Tyler Building at Alexandria, renovations and an addition to the Brault Building (College Administration), and a new higher education center at the Loudoun campus.

A final major issue that was raised was the question of advocacy. Last year, the committee had great success in organizing and facilitating a day of climate change learning on all campuses as part of the “Focus the Nation” campaign. The committee members present discussed whether we want to do this again, and if so, whether it should be in coordination with other colleges and universities across the country (The 2008 “Focus the Nation” event included events at 1800 institutions). Ray also raised the question of whether we wanted to participate in the annual Earth Day / Arbor Day celebration held at the Annandale campus.

Ray Bailey noted the “information exchange” function of the committee, facilitating information flow between campuses, to learn from each other’s lessons.

Denny May may be able to attend the “Greening Virginia’s Colleges and Universities” meeting at Virginia Tech later in the month. Ray and Callan expressed an interest in attending, but found that the date conflicted with their respective schedules.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:08pm.