Mount Union College Sustainability Task Force
NEWS : See the latest version of the
draft sustainability plan or learn more
about our participation in the STARS sustainability tracking
program
MISSION It is the goal of Mount Union College’s Sustainability Task
Force to meet the growing concern for sustainability on our campus. Through
education and communication, we will encourage and facilitate awareness and
action on our campus and throughout the Alliance community. We will assist the
College in its decision making process in these aspects, and will search out
opportunities that are socially, financially and environmentally sound in order
to create a sustainable, efficient, and healthy atmosphere for our students,
faculty, and staff.
Visit Mount Union College's sustainability web page at the President's Office
updated
January 23, 2010
Campus Sustainability Planning
The task force is currently working on developing a campus sustainability
plan. The plan will include a Climate Action Plan as is required by our
institutions commitment to the American College and University Presidents
Climate Commitment (ACUPCC).
A draft of the plan is available here in MS
Word format or PDF Format
or as a MS Word overview
The task force has organized itself into three working groups:
- Education
- Operations
- Administration and Finance
These groups reflect the organization of the sustainability reporting and
assessment tools (STARS) that we are
piloting, thus allowing us to use the same structure for both assessment and
planning. This plan must be submitted to ACUPCC no later than May 15,
2010.
Documents that we are using in developing these plans can be found at the
following links
ACUPCC Implementation Guide - Describes what we need to do to comply with
our climate commitment
STARS
(Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System) - A guide for campuses that are
using the STARS program to tracks their sustainability efforts.
We are one of about 100 charter campuses for 2010.
Mount Union College President Dr. Richard F. Giese
has committed to reducing and eventually eliminating
the College’s global warming emissions, and
accelerating educational efforts toward
sustainability.
The pledge came with Giese’s signing of the
American College & University Presidents Climate
Commitment, joining the leaders of more than 450
other institutions across the country.
“Sustainability is a global issue that we all
have a responsibility to address,” Giese said. “This
means taking serious action today to assure the
planet’s existence as we know it in the future.
Mount Union is committed to leading the way.”
The American College & University Presidents Climate
Commitment is a high-visibility effort to address global warming by garnering
institutional commitments to neutralize greenhouse gas emissions, and to
accelerate the research and educational efforts of higher education to equip
society to re-stabilize the earth’s climate. Under the guidance and direction of
the Leadership Circle of presidents, the American College & University
Presidents Climate Commitment is being supported and implemented by the
Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE),
Second Nature, and ecoAmerica.
As part of this commitment we made a report on March 12,
2008. You can find that report here
TWO-MONTH REPORT
Below is a summary of Mount Unions GHG emissions for the FY
ending June 30, 2008 compared with average results for 115 similar baccaluareate institutions that are
part of the ACUPCC
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Total |
Per Full-Time Enrollment |
Per 1000 Square Feet |
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metric tons of CO2 equivalents |
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Gross emissions (Scopes 1 + 2) MUC
Mean of 115 |
15,011
NA |
7.1
7.0 |
14.0
11.5 |
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Gross emissions (Scopes 1 + 2 + 3)
MUC
Mean of 115 |
16,882
NA |
8.0
8.9 |
15.8
15.1 |
Pertinent documents can be found here:
The
commitment
The
implementation guide PDF (requires free
ADOBE reader)
INVENTORY OF GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS IN CARBON
DIOXIDE EQUIVALENTS
Here is a summary of our inventory data taken from the
clean air cool planet inventory work done by Blaine Lewis and Ron Crowl.
FY 2008 figures are extrapolated. For more information on how these
figures were determined contact Chuck
McClaugherty
This chart has been revised from previously released
numbers to reflect the generation source for our power supplier. A new version
of the Clean Air Cool Planet software has been released and these figures have
been updated with the new calculations in November 2008. Revisit to the natural
gas consumption discovered inconsistencies in billing units and the new figures
reflect those corrections
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Scope 1 |
Scope 2 |
Scope 3 |
Summary |
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TOTAL |
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Fiscal Year |
Other On-Campus Stationary |
Direct Transportation |
Purchased Electricity |
Faculty / Staff Commuting |
Student Commuting |
Directly Financed Air Travel |
Solid Waste |
Scope 2 T&D Losses |
Total Scope 1 |
Total Scope 2 |
Total Scope 3 |
Total Emissions |
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MT eCO2 |
MT eCO2 |
MT eCO2 |
MT eCO2 |
MT eCO2 |
MT eCO2 |
MT eCO2 |
MT eCO2 |
MT eCO2 |
MT eCO2 |
MT eCO2 |
MT eCO2 |
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2001 |
3817.28 |
93.88665 |
7394.968 |
262.9486 |
474.5781 |
529.9064 |
571.7559 |
731.3704 |
3911.167 |
7394.968 |
2570.559 |
13876.69 |
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2002 |
3885.373 |
94.84556 |
7090.435 |
271.6827 |
478.1912 |
535.259 |
579.6689 |
701.2518 |
3980.219 |
7090.435 |
2566.054 |
13636.71 |
|
2003 |
4189.49 |
95.68688 |
7792.809 |
281.1958 |
475.5186 |
540.6657 |
582.7973 |
770.7174 |
4285.177 |
7792.809 |
2650.895 |
14728.88 |
|
2004 |
5236.651 |
96.80664 |
9545.029 |
293.1442 |
463.5383 |
546.1269 |
596.4149 |
944.0139 |
5333.458 |
9545.029 |
2843.238 |
17721.73 |
|
2005 |
4839.045 |
97.78448 |
9440.095 |
298.287 |
455.0546 |
551.6434 |
580.773 |
933.6357 |
4936.83 |
9440.095 |
2819.394 |
17196.32 |
|
2006 |
5187.764 |
98.77221 |
9657.99 |
290.5727 |
431.9544 |
557.2155 |
555.562 |
955.1858 |
5286.536 |
9657.99 |
2790.49 |
17735.02 |
|
2007 |
5006.712 |
102.8714 |
9552 |
291.8584 |
437.4739 |
562.844 |
552.9857 |
944.7033 |
5109.583 |
9552 |
2789.865 |
17451.45 |
|
2008 |
5211.467 |
99.2198 |
9699.878 |
310.3627 |
439.2417 |
562.863 |
559.0584 |
959.3286 |
5310.687 |
9699.878 |
2830.855 |
17841.42 |
Recycle Mania competition
We are involved again in 2010. We are in the
"competition" Division. This table will show both total for the campus
and per capita including students and staff.
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week |
ending date |
solid waste |
cardboard |
All recycle |
%recycle |
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TOTAL FOR CAMPUS |
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week |
ending date |
trash |
cardboard |
total recycle |
% of waste |
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RECYCLE |
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cumulative |
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Recycling rates at MUC by week for 2008 Recyclemania were
Total 26757 pounds
10.5 pounds per person over ten week period |
| Mount Union College recycles paper, cardboard, glass,
metal and plastic. Our materials are collected from large blue and
smaller green bins on
campus, lined with green bags to avoid confusion with solid waste, and
transported to our waste center We are studying ways to decrease our overall waste stream and
increase the percentage that is diverted into recycling. |
Typical recycling bin (below)- photo by Cheryl Paine,
Library
.JPG) |
Task Force membership
The Task Force membership includes representatives from across the campus
(updated January 2010)
| Students |
Staff |
Community |
Faculty |
|
Brandon Alexander (Student at large)
Heidi Babos (SEA)
Shannon Kelly (Student Sustainability Assistant)
Ashley Walker (Janus)
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Danielle Cunningham (AVI Food Service Director) John Frazier (Student Affairs)
Pat Heddleston (Business Affairs)
Blaine Lewis (Physical Plant)
Harry Paidas (Public Affairs)
Rod Peterson (Auxiliary Services)
Jim Rhodes (Physical Plant)
Tina Stuchell (Information Technology) |
Sandra Giese (President's spouse)
Tiffany Gravlee (Alliance
Mayor's Task Force)
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Jeffrey Draves (Chemistry) Al Gotch (Chemistry)
Steve Kramer
- Sustainability coordinator (Psychology)
Chuck McClaugherty Chair of Task Force (Biology)
Paul Tidman (Philosophy)
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Task Force Meetings
Meeting dates: The task force meets approximately ever four weeks with
subgroups meeting between task force meetings.
SPRING 2010 MEETINGS
Wednesday January 20, Monday February 8, Monday March 1, Monday April 12 at
3pm in Bracy 128
Task Force Minutes - click on
date to go to minutes
October 4,
2007
October 18, 2007
November 01, 2007
November 15, 2007
November 29, 2007
January 17,
2008
January 31, 2008
February 14, 2008
February 28, 2007
March 27, 2008
May 5, 2008
June 12, 2008
July 8, 2008
August 14, 2008
September 11, 2008
October 16, 2008
November 6. 2008
December 4, 2008
January 29, 2009
Minutes were not recorded for spring 2009
November 16, 2009
COOPERATION WITH THE CITY OF ALLIANCE
Mount Union College and the City of Alliance have created a statement of
cooperation to encourage their working together on issues relating to
sustainability. The agreement was signed by the President of the College
and the Mayor of the City of Alliance on February 12, 2008
To read the agreement, click
here.
To go to the
website of the Alliance Mayor's Green task force, click here.
We
are a member of AASHE, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in
Higher Education. All members of the Mount Union College community can access
the sustainability resources on their website. To get a password go to
GET AN AASHE PASSWORD.
As part of out work with AASHE, Mount Union College is one
of about 90 colleges and universities that will be piloting the
AASHE STARS program to assess and rank
the sustainability of institutions of higher education
STARS
Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System
|
Given the rapid growth of sustainability initiatives at institutions
of higher education in the United States, measuring and assessing
progress toward sustainability goals has become increasingly
important. While many institutions have undertaken campus-wide
assessments of their progress toward sustainability, and while a
variety of sustainability assessment tools and frameworks are
available, there is currently no system that translates disparate
sustainability indicators into a single metric that would enable
easy comparisons across a large number of campuses in terms of
overall level of sustainability achievement.
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CONFERENCES AND OTHER OPPORTUNITIES
Next AASHE Conferences is in Denver October 10-12, 2010
Greening of the Campus VIII Indianapolis September 20-23, 2009
Heidi Babos, Steve Kramer and Chuck McClaugherty attended and presented at this
conference.
www.bsu.edu/greening
AASHE CONFERENCE November 9-11, 2008, Raleigh, NC
Link to Conference website
Mount Union was represented by three faculty and three students. We
also presented a report on our experience with the STARS Pilot.
Summary report from conference
attendees
Greening of the Campus VII Ball State University.
September 2007 Mount Union was represented by two faculty and two
students
CAMPUS CLIMATE CHANGE INITIATIVE
click below to visit websites at other colleges
http://www.stolaf.edu/green/
http://www.bowdoin.edu/sustainablebowdoin/
http://apps.carleton.edu/campus/sustainability/
http://www.unity.edu/sustainability/
http://www.lclark.edu/dept/lcsc/
http://greenliving.conncoll.edu/
http://www.warren-wilson.edu/environmental/initiatives.php
http://www.oberlin.edu/sustainability/index.html
