Carbon Commitment Committee

Voting members present: Lindsay Andrews, Lety Cavazos, Tess Collins, Maricruz Gomez, Perry Hystad, Grant Jacobsen, Keith Jayawickrama, Leela Magdaleno, Cinamon Moffett, Laura Rees, Bill Ripple, Andres Schmidt, Drake Scrafford, Shelly Signs, Brandon Trelstad, Beth Filar Williams, Erika Wolters
Ex-Officio members present: Scott Elmshaeuser – OSU Foundation
Guests present: Chris Anderson, Bryan Kreft, Ava Wright

Welcome, Brief Self-Introductions

• Chris Anderson: Dining manager worked on various sustainability projects.
• Bryan Kreft: Student involvement with resident hall and dining working with academics for sustainability. Student Affairs
• Ava Wright: Student intern in sustainability

Approve March 13, 2023 Meeting Minutes

Action: Laura Rees moved to approve the March 13, 2023 meeting minutes, seconded. The motion passed.

Working Groups

• Merging two working groups – Education and Curriculum are agreeable to combining with Communications and Reporting. This would bring the number of working groups to two.
  • Thoughts from people in the working group
    • Beth: Working group finalize and start new year. Education, curriculum, and communication decided to join together.
    • Lindsay: Found that efforts were duplicated by the other working group and realized that it was best to combine. Not a lot of people now the work can be spread more evenly.
  • Other thoughts
    • Communication and reporting – Annual report to Faculty Senate submit on timeline related to communications – connect work to broader OSU community – OSU Earth week-path to carbon neutrality in department and things you can do personally.
    • Communication from the Carbon Commitment Committee (C3) to OSU. Get information to the media.
    • Education group – Focus is on looking at C3 in the curriculum, Bacc Core not able to impact Bacc Core.
    • Natural fit to merge communication and education group.
    • Provide resources to use in courses for faculty. Communication reporting if it is okay to merge. Is there any concern?
  • Discuss and Approve

Action: Keith Jayawickrama move to combine the Education & Curriculum and the Communications and Reporting group together, seconded. The motion passed.

• Conservation, Efficiency & Transportation (CET)
  • The Carbon pricing group did not work and disbanded. CET – Beginning two groups made sense to overlap.
  • Education, Communication and Reporting (ECP) and CET – 2 groups
  • Leela M.: 3 subcommittees merged into another one which made it into two subcommittees. C3 started in 2019. Pre/post merge
  • Brandon: CET – Conservation and efficiency concentrated not on transportation but need to bring transportation into it and discuss with transportation service. Sustainability builds infrastructure in conservation.
• Other groups
  • Cinamon: Presented topics/slides soundboard haven’t met once since Winter.
  • Beth: Need to meet.
  • CET – A lot of value high level/policy climate plan 2.0 very valuable to have a smaller group than C3 group-has been valuable work concluded but there will be other work.
  • Keith: Transportation helps but maybe not able to get into specifics.
  • Beth: Good time new co-chair – do we need new groups?
  • Brandon: Hood campaign CET fits in path to carbon neutrality.
  • Perry: Education committee not sure what it needs. Initiatives of working group – working groups where action is. Need to get the working group going.
  • Focus/goal/change/name for working group.
  • Beth: Started in 2019 met in person – worth thinking about it. In person you have the ability to brainstorm which is a good thing. Group rethink sustainability – carbon commitment – co-chair to do that – think and talk about it.
  • Leela: Something special to do in person group dynamics – power dynamics foundational – understanding in group dynamics helpful contributors to ideas and dynamics of the group.
  • Beth: Good time to rethink and refresh.
  • Somebody new from the library will come and represent not Beth.

Communications Working Group

• Summary of BINGO from Earth Week
  • Drake: Bingo game participation lower than expected – 19 printed in paper-tabling. Online bingo card-survey completed the response and email. In the Bingo card there is a center free space to write your own green activity. What city do you live in? The cities that were listed in the Bingo card were: Albany, Corvallis, Lebanon, and Wilsonville. Some examples of “write your own green activity” were planting your own garden, walking, reusable bags, and using parts to fix appliances.
  • Drake: If Bingo was more involved we could get more people.
  • Shelly: Called Bingo but encourages 25 actions thus encouraging people to do more. It took time to build the structure. Currently we need to distribute the prize. C3 needs to give certificates.
  • Pull results and send them to the communication group.
  • Game card lives in sustainability webpage – if it needs to be used next year-for the communication group it would be good to see these cards and update the cards.
  • The cards are a good introduction to activities for intro to C3. Not a moment in life activity but do something that lives on such as Bingo.
  • Beth: Bingo was prototyped this year and next year it could have more involvement.

C3 Annual Report due to Faculty Senate Office by July 15

• This working group takes the lead: Tess and Jacob did most of the work last year and agree to take the lead this year. We will ask for a review from the whole C3 mid-June to late June.
• Tess: What did they do last year that added to the report? It is best to contact education. Lindsay should keep an eye on the report and edits.
• Past reports are located in the Box folder. Everyone is invited to look as you work on the notes.
• If you need more from groups.
• Keith: Report went to trustee and president. It got noticed-concise and inclusive as possible. C3 active committee.

Status check on “Path to Carbon Neutrality” Document

• Brandon: Draft energy rule – sustainability more or less. C3 sounding board for policy-subject matter expert as part of faculty senate-include in report and path to carbon neutrality not sure if we can put in the report.
• In the folder-Summary check out OSU fume campaign-bright yellow essence try to get people with buildings with variable close slash-reduce heated/cooled sucking out. See significant money – major significant changes. Students and staff trained go weekly. Students go twice a week to check and close fumes when no one is there. It is important to consider how equipment lifespan is part of closing the fumes. In a month we will have observational data that shows five figure savings in metered data either at the end of the fiscal year or summer. The best guess is that it saved 110,00 saved on an annual basis. Big opportunity for fume campaign. Path to carbon neutrality. 9 action to reduce carbon
• Reduce efficiency of buildings
• Travel offsets: end fiscal year – travel and want to offset centralized purchasing. Link – leveraging travel offset pre-pandemic – bought, can do in past – work with travel and admin early to input.
• Meaningful in saving. Adding another. Ross needs to pull more data and wants a data driven case. Extending equipment lifespan results in mid and end of summer.
• Lety and Ava: Student engagement items. Space to bring forward students in office – collaborating OSU government – didn’t go anywhere. Department sponsor students come together to be involved in sustainability and propose projects to improve the university.
• Lety: Created a document/charter-operating guideline and what to do to request a proposal to come to sustainability council. Membership it would provide and feasibility of projects.
• Ava: Interacting different stability and structure building. Want stability and longevity. Charter document pathway to funding organization – coming to campus – so many sustainability clubs but council is central place of sustainability. If we want students to join the sustainability council send them to us and tell them to join if of interest send to Ava in the sustainability council.
• Brandon: ASU onboard, partnership, council provide continuity version 2.0 driver for conversation. ASU committed to funding sustainability, student driven, no forum but council provides forum. Sustainability carbon reduction going to the board of trustees in Portland.
• Keith: In Portland Community College doing a similar structure.
• Brandon: Department program not student club.
• Brandon: Solar preceding 3 or 4 in building. Moving forward in fall-secured funding athletic array-athletic longest roof and city of Corvallis. Funding in place for all potential to scale in total 2 megawatts of solar in 2 buildings valley football center, colosseum, begin a year-13 months utility approval started. Pacific Power sitting with inflation reduction tax credit. It reduces the cost to not partner with taxable directly pay the federal government this fall. Solar update energy conservation solar more than 2012, 3 megawatts with what is Tesla.
  • Valley Library Summer 2024
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• Cinamon: Housing in Hatfield sooner sustainability. Building refresh sustainability-McKinley contract HVAC, window installation.

Composting in Units

• Beth: Composting is good for the group to ask.
• Laura: Last year started to pilot compost in faculty-student workers – 31 weeks redirect 24% measure – small pilot motivated to student areas-faculty partner soil-not gotten compost near computer lab. There will be an update in the fall telling what happens- less compost from students.
• Beth: Library doing compost for a while.
• Keith: The College of Forestry coffee room has one person that is taking on composting.
• Brandon: It takes one person to do it.
• Laura: Sustainability and business club. If you want to join compost let Laura know and email her about it.
• Chris: Dining and compost there is a lot of food. Eco reps-employees.
• Beth: We can have the compost talk next year. Laura and Beth talk-Chris won’t meet until September new leadership Perry-co chair with Keith-go through official faculty senate procedure.

Any Other Business

• Keith: Met in March meeting.
• Brandon: It is important for the mission of college to speak about the mission of each college in C3. Template to talk as a group.

Next Meeting in September Under New Leadership?

Adjourn