ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES COMMITTEE
November 21, 2002
Umpqua Room

ATTENDEES: Kay Coots, Robyn Hathcock, Christine Thompson, Julia Heydon, Jo Rodgers, Dean Livelybrooks, Dorene Steggell, Paige West, Jane Steckbeck, Karyn Kaplan, Bitty Roy, Vivian Vassall, Wayne Jewett, Gregg Stripp, Bob Jones

Guests: Harriet Merrick, Josh Ruddick, Spruce Houser, Peter Reppe, Alisa McNair, Mark Tobin, Ashlee Harrison, Dan Williams

Announcements

The Education Subcommittee will meet at 2:00 on November 22^nd in Century Room F.

Steve Mital has officially been appointed to the Committee as a faculty appointment.

A link to the new Sustainability web page has been added to the EIC site.

The Wood Products Purchasing Subpolicy was approved at a recent president’s staff meeting, and it will be posted on the appropriate web site.

Environmental Studies Residential FIG

Robyn Hathcock is interested in facilitating the formation of a core group of volunteers with environmental interests. Proposals for residential FIGs for fall term are being accepted until December 12. She would like to pursue this idea via faculty committee members and the Education Subcommittee.

CCAT Presentation

Jo Rodgers distributed a proposal for a sustainability demonstration house at the UO. The vision for the site combines classroom space, living quarters, resource center, and research facility. The project could potentially benefit almost any department on campus, including Environmental Studies, Architecture, Physics, Biology, and Landscape Architecture.

Spruce Houser (a community activist, coordinator of the Siskiyou Project, and column writer for the Eugene Weekly) shared information and slides of the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology (CCAT) at Humboldt State University. He emphasized that this is a student-initiated, student-funded, and student-run center. Mission of CCAT: to demonstrate appropriate technology in a residential setting; to provide hands-on experiential learning opportunities to Humboldt State University and the surrounding community of Arcata; to collect and disseminate information about appropriate technology; to examine the ethical and social consequences of technology; and to dispel the myth that living lightly on the earth is difficult or burdensome. CCAT is dedicated to sustainability and self-reliance and seeks to help others live likewise.

CCAT projects include: solar heated greenhouse, organic herb and vegetable garden, compost and vermiculture sites, solar cookers, pedal power workshop, bio-diesel refinery, composting toilet, rain water catchment for greenhouse and toilets, gray water treatment marsh, insulation retrofit, thermal curtains, wood burning stove, natural and nontoxic household products, cold cabinet for food storage, solar shower, solar hot water panels, 20 photo voltaic panels, small wind turbine (backed up by a bio-diesel generator), straw bale shed, yurt, cob demonstration bench, super efficient Sun Frost refrigerator.

Many interesting projects and classes have been birthed by CCAT, including an Appropriate Technology minor, new Environmental Sciences major, and the Masters in International Development Technologies.

Peter Reppe (former director of the Sustainability Program at the U of Michigan’s facilities services; current ENVS adjust instructor of "campus sustainability") discussed some technical features that could be incorporated in a house at UO. The goal is to produce an extremely energy efficient building through renovation using cutting edge technologies such as solar electric roofing shingles, solar tubes to bring daylight into the building, use of nontoxic glues, adhesives, varnishes, and sustainably harvested wood products, etc.

Potential interdepartmental collaboration and learning opportunities:

• Biology students could study indoor and outdoor ecosystems, indoor air quality
• Arts and Architecture research into thermal modeling, green materials, life cycle assessment
• Physics research on seasonal, annual, and diurnal thermal storage
• Business life cycle costing

Karyn Kaplan pointed out that this type of center would set an incredible model for students to institute sustainable practices on campus.

Alissa McNair is one of the four co-directors of the Ecological Design Center. She has seen mounting support for this type of center from faculty, students, community members and groups. EDC plans to showcase this project at the HOPES conference under the tract of campus sustainability. It integrates well with another ongoing project of sustainable development in the East Campus area. Work on this project could give students the opportunity to earn an ecological design certificate as an addition to certain degree program.

This project was recently presented at the West Coast Education for Sustainability & Best Practices Conference. Dan Udovic and John Baldwin have given their formal support to this project.

The Committee elected to form a CCAT Subcommittee. Jo Rodgers will serve on this subcommittee. Other members are welcome to join her.

The next Environmental Issues Committee meeting: Tuesday, December 3^rd, at 11:00 a.m. in the Umpqua Room.