^{Green Team Meeting Minutes, Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012}

^{Sun Room, Plaza 3rd Floor}

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^Attendance:

^{Gloria Biow, Pat Canan, Denise Culberson, Marian Englander, Wilbur Gregory, Bunny Hirtzel, Anne Johnston, Shirley Leung, Paul Norseth, Gerald Pires, Marian Rauch, Jerry Schneider, Frank Starr, Winnie Thomas Staff: Sam Narayan}

^{Call to Order & Welcome: The meeting was called to order by Chair Marian Rauch at 9:35}

^{Minutes: Wilbur Gregory corrected several items from his report including his own name on page 2 of the June minutes. The minutes were approved as corrected.}

^{Treasurer’s Report: Gloria Biow reported income of $59 from bottles and cans during the summer to add to the $164.25 (June 1) for a current balance of $223.25.}

^{It was moved, seconded, and passed that treasury funds be used to reimburse Bunny Hirtzel for clear plastic adhesive she purchased for attaching computer generated labels for the new recycling pails.}

^Reports

1. ^{Recycling Sub-team, Bunny Hirtzel}

1. ^{The Plaza is becoming our “model.” It has been cleared of extraneous cupboards, etc. The display board has also been dismantled and will be replaced by signs emphasizing the items that are currently problems such as NO LIDS. The County Sustainability office will be supplying these signs. Blue recycle bins from Oak Grove Disposal will replace the old brown ones. The large brown garbage cans will be replaced with smaller ones that will accommodate plastic liners. The can for glass bottles will be replaced with two smaller ones for ease of disposal. The old orange containers on the shelf below the recycle “board” have been replaced with new white ones (discards from the kitchen) and labeled in large black letters (courtesy of Bunny Hirtzel & her computer).}

2. ^{The Court is also going through major renovation. The door now opens with the wave of a hand. The number of recycle bins has been reduced from 5 to 3 and the dumpster for garbage will be replaced by smaller garbage cans that accommodate plastic liners. The red & yellow bins for refundables & plastics are there as in the Plaza above. Next on the work list is putting in a partition to separate out the area for resident use from that area used by staff since this room is very large.}

3. ^{Campus-wide – We continue to hope for renovations in the Manor – the continued delay is due to the need for a new location for the coke machine which is related to other renovations in the general vicinity. The Terrace also suffers from the lack of space with extraneous items that need removal. Harry will separate CFL and incandescent bulbs, so they do not need separate containers.}

4. ^{Discussion & Comments}

• ^{Frank Starr noted that it is not always clear as to what is recyclable - he was advised to use the printed documents and wall signs.}

• ^{He also noted that the coke machines generate a lot of money for the Foundation (he has the job of refilling the Manor machine).}

• ^{Bunny discussed issues regarding shredding documents. Oak Grove Disposal wants long strips only, as they cannot process confetti. If confetti goes into the garbage, it must be bagged. Mark Meyers (admin.) has suggested looking into a shredding service that makes monthly pickups but there are issues of security in the interim between pick-ups.}

• ^{Frank Starr asked about the waste basket plastic liners in the meeting rooms that are replaced when far from full. Sam Narayan noted the difficulty of requiring the cleaning staff to make judgment calls. He will consider changing the policy, but asks for clear direction as to what we want.}

• ^{Marian Rauch noted the problem of finding a useful home for disposing of working cell phones. Ann Shearer located Clackamas Women’s Services who welcomes them; there is also a mail in opportunity entitiled Cell Phones for Soldiers.}

^{Bunny agreed to look into asking the Manor Desk personnel to agree to collect them and see what the interest is before proceeding. Winnie noted that “Free Geek” will take old electronic equipment, and then resell it. She suggested that we look into having a Free Geek collection spot, and having a volunteer take it in when enough has been collected.}

^{b) Resources Sub-team, Jerry Schneider}

^{July 10 The Energy Trust Pilot Project took place with 20 Green Team apartments participating. ET replaced incandescent bulbs and high-flow shower heads & faucets. It took all morning to complete the replacements since the apartments were scattered all over campus. Average savings per residence was estimated by Energy Trust to be 550 kWh/year. At an estimated 7.5 cents/kWh, that is $41 savings per residence per year. If 200 of the 344 W.V. residents participated, that would be about a 1.6% savings in WV’s bill.}

^{Question: Should the Green Team request that the Energy Trust conversion be campus-wide?}

^{Bunny Hirtzel noted that this would be consistent with the Board’s adoption of the sustainability goal.}

^{Discussion: Frank Starr noted that the faucets in men’s restrooms on campus are set at a very high level of flow. If that could be cut down, it . . could be a significant savings in water & electricity.}

^{Gerald Pires asked if the team took the incandescent bulbs with them. Jerry said that this was a problem, that the team took neither bulbs nor shower heads. Winnie noted that these were left so that residents could change back if they didn’t like the results.}

^{Pat Canan noted that not everyone wants CFL’s, which don’t dim, and produce a different spectrum of light. Sam Narayan asked that old shower heads should go back to maintenance, as they have value. Marian Rauch noted that Harry Konsa seems to be the staff recycle person, and should, perhaps, be our contact on this.}

^{Shirley Leung suggested an article for Willamette Views & asked if Oregon Trust would just give us the bulbs and we replace but}

^{Jerry thought that accounting requirements would make this impossible. Gerald Pires understands that this is already being done by maintenance.}

^{Gloria suggested we might get together a committee to work out these details on a campus-wide basis}

^{Jerry’s Summary: He commented that we need more data before going to administration and that there is a lot of planning necessary before we are ready. He also suggested looking at the campus wide energy audit that was done about three years ago, and see if there are areas of public lighting that could be looked at, perhaps with greater cost/benefit. than resident apartments.}

^{c) Outreach Sub-team, Len Greger – not present/no report}

^{d) Miscellaneous Efforts}

^{ink cartridges: Vernon Huffer (not present) reported that many of those deposited are not recyclable}

^{plastic bags: Wilbur Gregory reported that things are better, but that in the Manor collection room, wet and dirty bags are still coming in. This may be due to the kitchen staff}

^{pharmaceuticals: Gerald Pires noted that there will be a drug pickup on Sep 28. Several volunteers.offered assistance..}

^{e) Willamette View staff/administrators, Sam Narayan}

^{Sam & several from Green Team met with Oak Grove Disposal and representatives from the Co.Sustainability Office two weeks ago. They will be changing all containers on campus – blue recycle bins will replace the old brown ones, hopefully by the end of the week. For trash and bottles, there will be smaller green ones that can accommodate liners. At this meeting it became clear that WV is responsible for cleaning the receptacles so soon staff will wash out bins weekly.}

^{The Terrace laundry room may have space that could be used for the coke machine which is currently taking up lots of space in the recycling area. Another piece of equipment which was once purchased for linen laundry is no longer functional. Sam suggests that the Green Team make a formal request to administration to dispose of that piece of equipment to make recycling easier for residents.}

^{f) Update by chair, Marian Rauch}

^{Marian reported 13 people on Sustainability Tour, 10 on Cracked Pots. She suggested that the diminished interest in Cracked Pots might be a signal to drop it in 2013 (perhaps do it every other year). Energy Trust Pilot project was already reported on. Mark Sorensen is gone, and Glen Whalen is our new link to administration but was on vacation this week so could not attend this meeting. We have several concerns that have not yet been taken to admin. We want to talk with Paige Vaughn about kitchen recycling and other issues but are holding off until some of the major food and dining changes are better established. Another major issue is that while the Resident Council, the Administration and the Board adopted the sustainability statement in April, we are not aware of broad scale implementation.}

^{Marian announced that she will be out of town from Sept. 22 to Oct. 16 – Vice Chair Winnie Thomas will be in charge.}

^Business

^{Nominating Committee – Winnie Thomas is chair and Wilbur Gregory and Bunny Hirtzel are members of the Nominating Committee.}

^{Positions to be filled for 2013: Vice Chair, Secretary, Recycle Chair (also Resource Chair & perhaps Publicity).}

^{WV Web Site – Shirley Leung serves with Jerry Schneider on the campus wide resident website committee. The Green Team will be able to put lots of recycling (and other) information on the site. Winnie asked if there will be a place for a blog, in particular a Green Team blog. She sees this as a way that people with special expertise or knowledge can share with rest of community. Shirley responded by noting that there are sticky questions of guidelines; for example legal and safety issues that must be filtered before anything goes onto the website. Recycling information, however, should not be a problem. Jerry notes that anything going on the website must be kept updated, and that means someone needs to take that specific responsibility.}

^{The meeting was adjourned at 10:45 a.m.!!!! (a record but we had no speaker)}

^{Respectfully Submitted,}

^{Pat Canan, Secretary}

NEXT MEETING – OCTOBER 10

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Updated: October 26, 2012       GT home     WV home

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