Ad Hoc Committee on the OSU Carbon Commitment

Voting members present: Lety Cavazos, Ed Dever, Jon Dorbolo, Jillian Gregg, Keith Jayawickrama, Leela Magdaleno, Cinnamon Moffett, Shelley Signs, Brandon Trelstad, Beth Filar Williams,
Voting members absent:  Roberto Albertani, Marlys Amundson, Tess, Collins, Jeff Gautschi, Kim Hannigan-Downs, Qinglai Meng, Gary Miller, Jacob Putney, Marianne Vydra
Guests present: Nikolay Galtsev

Friday climate rally and march

• Corvallis chapter of the Sunrise Movement will have a rally today at 12:00pm.
• Brandon has been working with them to highlight the projects OSU has been working on that are focused on reducing carbon reductions. Collaboration is partly focused on changing language from “lack of commitment” to “inadequate speed of action.”
• March coincides with Fridays for Action and COP25 happening in Spain today.
• Eugene and Bend are participating with Sunrise Club/Movement.
• Should we invite some student from the Sunrise Movement to sit in the C3 committee? Two students joined last C3 meeting and were invited for this meeting but were unable to attend.
• Sunrise Movement is involved with the city. They participated in the Climate Week of Action in September 2019, and they have been part of the Corvallis Climate Action Advisory Board meetings.
• As C3, how do we relate to other units at OSU and outside of OSU? We’re not a movement, we’re a committee trying to create a positive change, and this should be part of our communication plan, as well as seeking partnership with the new president.
• Student Legislature recently acknowledge that there is a climate emergency.
  • ACTION ITEM: Brandon to send list of actions/projects OSU has done to lower carbon emissions.

Workgroup updates

• ACTION ITEM: Jon Dorbolo to officially invite Coral Avery (ASOSU) to the committee.
• Conservation and Efficiency
  • Maximizing energy efficiency in OSU capital construction projects
  • Met several times over summer and fall.
  • Members of this workgroup have been working on Green Office Certification (GOC) in their respective units. Are members from other workgroups interested in starting GOC?
  • Question from Keith: How is the announced investment of $277 million of OSU construction dealing with energy efficiency?
    • There are new green building standards, known as the OSU Requirements for Sustainable Development.
    • Installing flexible systems in new buildings. Example: Solar in new Arts building, and heat-pump driven heating/cooling. Another example is Berkeley, CA earlier this year banning natural gas service to new homes.
    • What about insulation? Oregon code will be changed in 2020, and if Energy Trust of Oregon funding is wanted, projects need to go above code. Window insulation is not a priority since window replacements are very expensive, and usually not the most cost effective measure, and climate is not cold or hot long enough to create significant savings from widow replacement.
    • One proposal is to create a position paper based on third parties like Net Zero Standard and 2030.
  • ACTION ITEM: Sustainability Office to send Keith and Jillian email on GOC.
• Education and Curriculum
  • Met several times this term. There are 4 ongoing projects this workgroup is working on:
  • 1^st project: Create a mechanism to assure all OSU graduates are climate literate. The Bacc Core is the way to achieve this goal. OSU is doing revisions to the Bacc Core and there were 4 sessions open to the public. Members of the workgroup attended all sessions. The proposal brought up was to change one of the science requirements to a “Healthy Planet” category. Next steps from Bacc Core committee is canvasing student groups. Several people and units such as Bill Ripple, CEOAS, Sustainability Double Degree, Sustainability Office showed up to the sessions.
  • 2^nd project: Creation of a sustainability/climate content repository that would serve as a resource for faculty.
  • 3^rd project: Sustainability Involvement Program. 2-part transcript visible, non-credit courses for students. This program would serve as a resource for students who would like to get involved in sustainability programming at OSU.
  • 4^th project: Grant program (not yet defined). Program in which any student could apply to get funding for sustainability projects. Nikolay has been working with others on a similar project. Education workgroup and Nikolay will connect.
• Reporting and Communication
  • Draft outline of the 2019 annual report is in the workgroup box folder.
  • Workgroup will roll out the report in February for Faculty Senate to allow a full year of activity to be included in the report.
  • The communications strategies to inform the OSU community about the projects of the C3 Committee includes a newsletter and website, and leveraging existing communication vehicles such as Life@OSU, OSU Today, OMN, myOSU and the Barometer
  • Workgroup would like to create forums related to informing the OSU community about the carbon commitments. To encourage participation, professors could give credit to students who attend the forum(s). This could be a partnership between communication and reporting workgroups.
    • For forums, create a list of actions anyone could do to lower carbon emissions – 3-5 things in a half-sheet of paper
    • Forums should be held in a place that is open and invites participation, such as the MU Lounge.
    • Workgroup will create a generic forum format that includes information on each topic, call to action and a mechanism for community feedback. After each forum, should we recruiting people to propose content/direction for the following forums?
  • Could we offer internships to students to participate in our committee?
  • ACTION ITEM: Brandon to add all members of the C3 Committee to Sustainability Office newsletter.
• Transportation  
  • None of the members of this committee was present in this meeting.  Brandon provided an update.
  • Voluntary travel carbon offset program
    • Web form is being developed to pilot opt-in program.
    • There are many nuances regarding providing internal funding for projects vs buying carbon offsets in the open market.  The latter is the interim measure we can take right away.
    • The true cost of carbon offsets could be one of the topics for the open forums.
    • Another action/activity that could be offered though this workgroup is programs focused on educating the OSU community on using remote meeting technology

Workgroup text descriptions

• ACTION ITEM: Lety to check with transportation workgroup if they have their description.
• Sustainability Office to create C3 webpage.
• C3 could create a guide for OSU graduates to apply sustainability in the workplace. This could be accomplished as an Honors thesis.

Connection with OSU Foundation and status of letter to OSUF

• Letter has not been sent, and it will not be send until after Brandon meets with the Foundation on December 12^th.
  • Very informal meeting that will explore how to work with the Foundation.
  • One of the topics to be discussed is setting aside a % of a capital campaign to carbon reduction initiatives.
  • All funding has to go through the Foundation. Crowdfunding sourcing can be set up, however all work to get people donating is on us not the Foundation.
  • Carbon reducing project can be included in Giving Tuesday and Dam Proud Day
• Transportation is working on a 10-year transportation demand plan. Different than master plan. Anybody that is interested can give feedback.

10-year carbon planning update

• Leadership is meeting on December 16^th to discuss funding.
• Strategy for funding is packaging specific projects with 2-year cycles.
• There is a high interest in solar. Installing solar can be leveraged with private funding and donations. One example is the new Arts Building. Retro commissioning does not attract much interest from donors.