Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Monthly Challenges/Awareness Campaigns

In the June 4 minutes, we discussed a method for regularly bringing the campus’s attention to sustainability related issues. We will do monthly challenges/awareness campaigns complete with resources, calls to action, in some cases events, etc. We will connect Sustainability Luncheons with the theme of the month. We tentatively selected the following:

September – Turn out the Lights Month – give away CFL’s, challenge buildings to use less electricity than September 2008, educate about turning off dorm lights, unplugging charges, turning off monitors, etc.

October – Local Foods month – spotlight community gardens, harvest, student activities, curriculum – Lyra will be in charge of this one!

November – Weatherization – partner with Northwester, resources and information for dorms, rentals, homes and offices

December – Conscious –consumerism month – waste-free gifts (local food bizarre is this month too), buy local

January – Faculty/staff education month – discuss optional payroll deduction with funds going to sustainability, how employees can get involved in changing campus culture and WHY they should!

February – Water month – Trayless in the cafeteria (may be doing this already!), shorter showers, water bottles

March – Recycling month

April – Gallatin Earth Celebration – campus clean-up, Don’t be a BUTThead!

May – Re-use month – Don’t Dump it Garage Sale

Jodie agreed to work with design staff to come up with a slogan or image to identify the monthly sustainability theme. It could even be a button on the home page that always looks the same that gets people to go to the sustainability page for new and updated information. We agreed to take these ideas to CSAC to see if they wanted changes, additions, etc. We will try to get different groups to take ownership of each month to limit the work of any one area. To begin the year we will have a news story detailing the commitment of the university to meet the President’s Climate Change agreement and all the things we’ll be doing. Once a month we’ll seek a place on the home page for a major feature.

What are your thoughts?
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4 comments:

  1. DebJune 11, 2009 at 8:45 AM

    Love the ideas - excited for the upcoming meeting! As an FYI, the local food bazaar is in Feb, not Dec. Also - if we have enough people and information, we could man a booth at orientations to let incoming freshman know what MSU is doing for sustainability, and if they are interested, which clubs they could be a part of and how to make contact...

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  2. gretchkinJune 11, 2009 at 9:32 AM

    I met with Blake Bjornson (NECO/ASMSU) about the Sustainability Luncheons and it turns out there are two for the fall that have been already scheduled. The dates are: October 22nd and December 3rd. No presenters or topics have been selected yet. If we stuck with the monthly themes above that'd be local food (Oct) and conscious consumerism (Dec). Anyone have ideas for presenters on these topics?

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  3. Pat KujawaJune 17, 2009 at 5:45 PM

    @gretchkin
    Local food could easily be done by Kate Malone (she taught the Sustainable Food & Bioenergy Systems class last semester) or someone from Friends of Local Foods (http://townesharvest.montana.edu/ or
    http://www.montana.edu/studentactivities/clubs.php).

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  4. DebJune 22, 2009 at 10:36 AM

    For the local foods presentor I would also recommend Alison Harmon - she's a definate authority on the subject.

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