December 13, 2019 Minutes President's Sustainability Advisory Committee

December 13, 2019 Minutes

President’s Sustainability Advisory Committee
Inaugural Meeting
December 3, 2019 A&F Conference Room 2-3:30 pm

Present:

Claudia Luke, Craig Dawson, Judy Ford, Mark Perri, Monica Wahl, Nancy Keller, Calee Spinney, Megan Varnadore, Adele Santana, Justine Law, Kindra Kautz, Nadiya Parekh, Madison Hayes, Marina Briones, Barbara Frohlech, Merith Weisman, Shay Furze, Elif Myers, Kirsten Tellez, Madison Annala, Paul Gullixson

Absent:

Jen Barnett

Agenda

2:00 Introductions and Announcements

Daniel Soto is representing SSU at ECCLPS Dec 11-12 and will be invited to give a report to PSAC in February
North Bay Forward Lunch is December 13 at the Environmental Technology Center. Please RSVP.

2:05 What are We Doing? (Claudia Luke)

Priorities - Reviewed obligations of the Presidents’ Climate Leadership Commitment (PCLC). Spreadsheet showing timelines, tasks and responsibilities is in shared Google docs. The content is highly flexible, allowing us to decide how we undertake our work. At SSU, we are aligning our efforts with the SSU 2025 Strategic Plan goals. We also acknowledge our commitment to UN Sustainable Development goals by strategically prioritizing our efforts and empowering those around us as we do our work. We have support from Provost Vollendorf and VP Admin Lopes to pursue this approach.
Working Group Processes – The working groups are the PSAC work horses. The monthly PSAC meetings allow us to coordinate working group efforts, share ideas, and to undertake efforts to spread information about sustainability efforts with the groups we represent.
Action: none.

2:15 Business

Regional Resilience Working Group Chair - Judy Ford is employed as a Center for Environmental Inquiry (CEI) Research Fellow to assist with PCLC efforts for the 2019-20 school year. She is currently serving as the Chair of the Regional Resilience Working Group but does not have a formal appointment identified in the PSAC charter. How does the PSAC want to resolve this issue?
Action: Claudia will draft a request to Lisa and Joyce with options for resolving issues and present to PSAC. The PSAC additionally requests that funding for Judy’s position be secured for next year.

2:25 Working Group Reports

Working Group Membership:

Zero Impact - Craig Dawson (Chair), Jen Barnett, Monica Wahl, Nancy Keller, Calee Spinney, Megan Varnadore (invited: Dan O’Brien) – WG report is attached.

Academic & Student Life – Mark Perri (Chair), Adele Santana, Justine Law, Kindra Kautz, Nadiya Parekh, Madison Hayes, Marina Briones (invited: Megan D’Errico, Kevin Fang) - WG report is attached.

Regional Resilience – Judith Ford (Chair), Barbara Frohlech, Megan Varnadore, Merith Weisman, Shay Furze (invited: Mikayla Martin) - WG report is attached.

Strategy, Communication and Advancement – Claudia Luke (Chair), Elif Myers, Kirsten Tellez, Madison Annala, Paul Gullixson - WG report is attached.

Action: The Strat, Comm Advancement WG will use the attached WG reports to integrate working group charges, visions, goals and deadlines.

3:15 Updates & Opportunities

Regional Planning Opportunities (Judy Ford) – The Regional Climate Protection Authority is in the process of revising the Sonoma County Climate Action Plan. The Kresgy Foundation has funded an initiative that brings in an external panel to review and update the Sonoma County Resilience Framework. These are both good opportunities to partner with community on SSU initiatives.
Green Fund (Judy Ford, Kirsten Tellez, Craig Dawson, Claudia Luke) – Kirsten Tellez has set up a donor fund in the end of year SSU request to provide funding for students to undertake initiatives that increase sustainability and resilience of SSU.
Actions:
- Judy, Claudia and Craig will continue to seek opportunities with RCPA to work together on Climate Action Plans.
- Working groups should be thinking about key community members to invite to serve on working groups.
- Kirsten will report back to PSAC on amounts donated to the Green Fund before the end of the year.

3:25 Next Steps

Next PSAC is Feb 4, 2020 in the Academic Affairs Conference room. Zoom will be made available for members unable to join in person. Working groups will present the following in reports to the PSAC:

Projects & Activities to Achieve Vision Priority
Projects with Schedule of Work
“Invited members”

Zero Impact Working Group
Dec 3, 2019 Report to PSAC

Scope of Working Group Efforts – What are the areas of responsibility of your working group?

Building Operations-
Vision – Eliminate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to electricity and natural gas used to operate buildings. Clear and quantifiable offsets for sources such as back up power that current technology cannot eliminate. Chair: Craig Dawson Members: Rinika Pulupudi, Daniel O’Brien

Facilities Operations-
Vision – Eliminate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related facilities operations needed to operate the campus. This will largely be accomplished through the electrification of the remaining petroleum- powered vehicles and equipment. Clear and quantifiable offsets for sources such as back up power that current technology cannot eliminate.

Solid Waste –
Vision – 100% waste diversion through re-use, direct recycle of materials as feedstock and composting of all organic materials. Chair: Craig Dawson Members: Calee Spinney, Monica Wahl, Possible Janet Henker, Xinci Tan (Organics Program Manager) Zero Waste Sonoma

Alternate Transportation –
Vision – Reduce Scope 3 Carbon emissions through incentivizing non-carbon producing transport and disincentives for single passenger commuters. Chair: Megan Varnadore

Culinary Operations-
Vision – More vegan dining options with vast selections of fresh healthy foods all produced with 250 miles of the campus and customers that have little or no desire for meats or dairy. Chair: Nancy Keller Comment from Mark Perri - More availability of vegetarian burger at campus venues.

Purchasing-
Vision – Leverage the buying power of SSU and the CSU to reduce trips to campus to one per week per vendor while ALL packaging is able to be directly recycled into feedstock for other materials. Pricing that reflects the costs of embedded carbon. Chair: Jenifer Barnett Members: Daniel O’Brien

Regional Resilience Working Group
Dec 3, 2019 Report to PSAC

Scope of Working Group Efforts – What are the areas of responsibility of your working group? What are the areas of overlap with other working groups?
Define region and partners. Understand complementary initiatives. Establish best method of measuring resilience and collaborating. Long term focus (not Emergency Services). Rely on Comm/Adv/Strat for communicating what and how we are doing things. Rely on Zero Impact for Campus resilience; rely on Academic and Student Life for student resilience and their position as community voters.

Vision: We envision a Resilient Regional Community; where resources, ideas, and relationships are valued. Our vision is to provide resources, events, and community relationship enhancements to our Region. A detailed vision needs to be developed in collaboration with campus and community partners. Following are some initial working group thoughts.

Financial (Economy): We see a community partnership where financial support is rendered for sound regionally resilient projects, utilizing the talents and ideas of our community partners, and projects are valued for the time invested for future endurance of the region. Hardening and localizing of economy to better weather natural disasters (EDB’s Survey); better sharing of internship opportunities (Handshake cards)

Natural (Environment): We see Community gardens, landscape restoration, and tree planting initiatives are active and vital regional activities. Environmental impacts have been mitigated, resources conserved, and sustainability vernacular has been incorporated into action for the region.

Physical (Infrastructure): The SSU President’s Sustainability Advisory Council presents a Regional Resiliency vision. Community oriented shared stakeholdership for sustainable infrastructures of the North Bay Region. We embrace and encourage open dialogue with community partners, shared resources/ideas/knowledge for initiatives within our localities.

Social (Social Equity & Governance): We see empowered, diverse, equitable stakeholders supporting regional efforts toward sustainable practices.

Human (Health & Happiness): We see clean air, fresh water, mental and physical health and community resources as a human right. These rights are available to all; nurtured through the values of kindness, compassion, and equity. Possible partners: Sonoma Community Resilience Collaborative

It is 2025. Looking back, how has your working group:

Improved the student experience “from academics to campus life to graduation” and ability of faculty and staff to provide those experiences? (Student Success)
Created “innovative academic programs that prepare students to flourish in a changing workforce and world” and “hiring and developing diverse faculty and staff?” (Academic Excellence)
Provided “students with opportunities to learn the knowledge and skills needed to build a better society both locally and globally” and faculty and staff with opportunities for leadership in the broader community? (Leadership)
“Transformed our region, our communities and our academic disciplines through service, research, programming, and outreach?” (Transformative Impact)

To support all four Strategic Goals, we’ve engaged students, staff and faculty in regional resilience initiatives, which have led to both stronger personal resilience, as well as the skills and empowerment to strengthening resilience in the region. We’ve offered opportunities to increase voice, involvement and a crucial sense of belonging, increase job skills and build CV’s, empowering students to solve big problems, while offering continuing education credits for staff and faculty.

What projects/activities did you undertake to achieve the vision described above?

In conjunction with other working groups, we surveyed students, staff and faculty on their attitudes and interest in sustainability and resilience to first benchmark and then measure cultural shift.
We surveyed of regional initiatives, resources and available training to understand areas of greatest potential impact.
We’ve held a workshop to conduct a ‘resilience assessment’ across the five dimensions defined by the reporting structure of Second Nature, in alignment with the Regional Climate Protection Authority (RCPA) Climate Action Plan and the county’s Resilient and Re. Aligning with the spirit of asset mapping, we’ve “look(ed) at components of resilience and develop(ed) indicators…(of)...the strengths and assets in our campus and community (that we could)...build on,...develop(ed) a vision/scenarios of the future…(and) analyz(ed) vulnerability against those scenarios”.
Specific indicators were established, using the suggested “starting themes...diversity, health and wellness, access to local food, the distribution of wealth, a culture of small business, policies that encourage renewable energy, natural landscapes that act as buffers, education and training, a sense of place, capital investment, community engagement, etc.“. These themes are reflected in the graphic to the right, suggested by Second Nature.
Once this vision, vulnerabilities and indicators were established, we set up working groups for each of the five dimensions to execute specific initiatives and track progress.

PSAC Working Group Work Plan What are your working group’s PCLC obligations and deadlines? (Internal) Membership of Working Group – due November 1, 2019
(Internal) Schedule of Implementation – due December 1, 2019
Campus-Community Structure Contacts and Report – due April 5, 2020
Campus-Community Resilience Assessment with baseline inventory, resilience indicators, vulnerabilities, goals, and implantation process – due April 5, 2021

Academics & Student Life Working Group
Dec 3, 2019 Report to PSAC

ASL Working Group Charge:
Draft and implement a plan for increasing sustainability and resilience learning on campus that will be incorporated into SSU’s Climate Action Plan by April 2022. To achieve this:

Advance sustainability in the academic curriculum, particularly in ways that boost graduation rates and generate career opportunities. Identify current sustainability offerings and implement a plan to expand offerings on topics such as resilience, environmental justice, and carbon neutrality across the curriculum. Develop incentives for faculty participation in this expansion of the sustainability curriculum.
Increase opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to conduct relevant research, engage in relevant creative inquiry, and participate in community resilience projects, workshops, and events. Develop incentives and enhance support for such research, creative inquiry, and community engagement.
Enhance student awareness of sustainability and increase student participation in sustainability events and programs. Infuse sustainability throughout student life. Support student wellbeing, particularly in ways that strengthen student and campus resilience.

As a result of these actions, help shape thoughtful, engaged citizens who are prepared to adapt to a changing climate and build a more sustainable, equitable world.

Working Group Vision: It is 2025. Looking back, how has your working group:

Improved the student experience “from academics to campus life to graduation” and ability of faculty and staff to provide those experiences. (Student Success)
1. Engage more students and increase retention
  1. Create sustainability-related summer programs, Alternative Spring Break experiences, student housing, and/or Freshmen Learning Communities
  2. Ensure that sustainability programs and events are inclusive (e.g. by opening up conversations, by focusing on dimensions of sustainability that engage all classes and races, etc.)
  3. Improve student wellbeing and resilience on campus, particularly in response to wildfires, but also related to food security, cost of living, etc.
  4. Include community service hours in the graduation requirement as Chico State does
2. Increase awareness
  1. Add campus sustainability to orientation
  2. Educate through student life (e.g. about residence hall composting programs, energy conservation, etc.)
  3. Increase the educational signage around campus
  4. Create a sustainability website with inventories of courses, what people are doing related to sustainability, etc.
  5. Hold a sustainability fair / conference / exhibition in early Fall for students to learn how they can participate
3. Provide complementary academic experiences
  1. Support research projects, or mini research projects that are interdisciplinary, on sustainability, possibly through a revolving Green Fund
  2. Award RTP credit for sustainability projects
Created “innovative academic programs that prepare students to flourish in a changing workforce and world” and “hiring and developing diverse faculty and staff” (Academic Excellence)
1. Expand sustainability offerings in the curriculum
  1. Create new courses related to climate change, resilience, environmental justice, carbon neutrality, etc.
  2. Help redesign existing courses to included elements of sustainability
  3. Collaborate with the Faculty Center to provide inter-disciplinary consultation for faculty who would like to incorporate sustainability into their programs.
2. Develop innovative, interdisciplinary academic sustainability programs
  1. Create team-taught, cross-cutting courses
  2. Create a Sustainability Sealane Create and/or adopt a CSU-wide sustainability minor, and/or
  3. Create a Sustainability FLC
3. Incentivize and support faculty to make these curriculum changes (e.g. through grants, RTP credit, a Sustainability Faculty Learning Community, etc.)
Provided “students with opportunities to learn the knowledge and skills needed to build a better society both locally and globally” and faculty and staff with opportunities for leadership in the broader community. (Leadership)
1. Develop a student-focused Sustainability Conference, to be held in the fall to garner student interest
2. Create opportunities to work on real world projects
  1. Integrate real world projects (e.g. retrofitting buildings, creating sustainability curriculum for teachers, measuring water quality, creating relevant art, writing research reports for local nonprofits) into upper-level courses, senior projects, summer research programs, etc.
  2. Help faculty find organizations to work with on real world projects (e.g. through CCE, Career Center, Wine Business, etc.)
  3. Support research projects, or mini research projects that are interdisciplinary, on sustainability, possibly through a revolving Green Fund (also 1ci)
  4. Form more partnerships to fund faculty and student research on real world projects
3. Develop opportunities for student leadership
  1. Increase student participation in sustainability efforts on campus (e.g. in dining, landscaping, residence halls, etc.)
  2. Form a sustainability cohort
4. Offer more sustainability internships
5. Create a sustainability website with inventories of courses, what people are doing related to sustainability, etc. (also 1biv)
“Transformed our region, our communities and our academic disciplines through service, research, programming, and outreach” (Transformative Impact)
1. Provide consistent programming throughout the year
  1. Hold sustainability events every month and/or hold more events like Earth Day, but smaller
  2. Utilize sustainability clubs, Greek life, and other student organizations
2. Increase outreach to the community
  1. Increase the educational signage around campus (also 1bii)
  2. Increase service hours (e.g. via JUMP)
  3. Develop a student-focused Sustainability Conference, to be held in the fall to garner student interest (also 3a)
  4. Create opportunities to work on real world projects (also 3b)
  5. Offer more sustainability internships (also 3d)

Strategy, Communication & Development Working Group
Dec 3, 2019 Report to PSAC

Scope of Working Group Efforts – What are the areas of responsibility of your working group? What are the areas of overlap with other working groups?

Charge: “Provide recommendations on strategy, enhance communication about SSU activities on and off campus, seek funding and logistics support for priority activities, e.g., annual conference, symposia, community meetings. The Chair serves as final sign off for all outgoing communication tagged with climate change, sustainability, resilience and the President's Leadership Climate Commitment.”

Enhance communication by:
1. Synthesizing and relaying SSU sustainability-related activities to campus and region
2. Coordinating flow of information among PSAC working groups (e.g., idea sharing)
3. Supporting or coordinating events
4. Assisting in transfer of information during student turnover in sustainability positions
5. Overseeing preparation of PSAC reports
Enhance strategy by:
1. Developing communication strategies and planning documents, including messaging goals (e.g., communication that leads to action, changing people’s perspectives)
2. Coordinating and compiling PSAC impact assessments (i.e., surveys of students, staff and faculty over time)
Enhance funding by:
1. Developing funding opportunities for donors with
2. Advancement Coordinating distribution of grant and contract opportunities with ORSP

Vision: It is 2025. Looking back, we see that the Strategy, Communication & Advancement Working Group has created a fluid well-oiled machine for gathering and distributing information about sustainability activities and programs that meet strategic objectives.

Through the actions of the working group, SSU has:

Improved the student experience “from academics to campus life to graduation” and ability of faculty and staff to provide those experiences (Student Success)
- Information and opportunities about sustainability are infused into all aspects of the student experience from academics to campus life to graduation (e.g., recruitment, orientation, advising, tours, CV preparation, etc.)
- Walking onto campus means being influenced by information about living sustainability (e.g., visual commitment)
- Key communication topics that enhance student success:
  - Students see sustainability experiences as a way to be part of on- and off-campus communities and develop a sense of belonging
Created “innovative academic programs that prepare students to flourish in a changing workforce and world” and “hiring and developing diverse faculty and staff” (Academic Excellence)
- Sustainability-related courses are easily identified
- Faculty in all disciplines know about resources available for integrating sustainability into their courses and research (e.g., training, grant support)
- Information about sustainability opportunities at SSU enhances hiring of diverse and innovative faculty and staff
Provided “students with opportunities to learn the knowledge and skills needed to build a better society both locally and globally” and faculty and staff with opportunities for leadership in the broader community (Leadership)
- Sustainability-related internships, employment and volunteer opportunities are hard to miss.
- Students, faculty and staff are an active “voice” on sustainability issues on and off campus
- Students, faculty and staff effectively share expertise on priority sustainability issues in the region (e.g., experts database, coordinated community participation on priority sustainability issues)
- Training programs enhance leadership skills in communicating sustainability (e.g., media training for sustainability experts, environmental literacy)
- This working group undertakes its activities in ways that create real-world learning experiences for students as part of course-work, employment, internships, and volunteerism
- Key communication topics that enhance leadership experiences:
  - SSU students have great experiences learning about sustainability experiences
  - Alums have successful jobs the incorporate sustainability (alum working in sustainability, alum sustainability awards)
  - An SSU degree means that graduates have gained experience in complex sustainability issues
  - SSU students, faculty, staff and alums have expertise in sustainability
“Transformed our region, our communities and our academic disciplines through service, research, programming, and outreach” (Transformative Impact)

Faculty, staff and students are aware of priority regional sustainability challenges and how to get students involved in ways that make a difference
Sustainable actions by students, faculty and staff are communicated and rewarded (e.g., awards, prizes, personalized impact reports, sustainability pledge, hidden heroes, hall of fame)
Communication forums provide opportunities for students, faculty and staff to present/share work
Regular and effective showcase for SSU accomplishments in sustainability
Key communication topics that enhance transformative impact:
- Stories of how donors, alums, students, faculty has brought change to region

PSAC Working Group’s PCLC obligations and deadlines

Membership of Working Group: due November 1, 2019
Schedule of Implementation: due December 1, 2019
Strategic Plan (with vision and mission) that aligns with SSU Strategic Plan: due October 1, 2020.
Communication & Marketing Plan: due October 1, 2020 – https://coschedule.com/blog/communications-plan-template/
Compile Working Group results into a compelling Climate Action Plan: due April 5, 2022

December 13, 2019 Minutes President's Sustainability Advisory Committee