Thursday, August 3, 2006

12 noon to 1:00 p.m.

12 noon, Bloomberg Dorm Seminar Room 176

Committee Attendees: Michael E. McKay, Chair; Any Dobson, Katherine Hackett, Robin Izzo, Tom Nyquist, Barclay Satterfield, Shana Weber

Committee Members Absent: Peter Allen, Kathryn Anderson, Janet Gruschow, Emmanuel Kreike, Stu Orefice, Leila Shabender, David Wilcove, Don Weston

Guests: Jon Baer, Alex Barron, Amy Carmody, Stephen Elwood, Michael Gillenwater, Jeffry Domanski, Katie Hampson, Medini Padmamanabhan

Mike McKay welcomed every one to the meeting and introduced Shana Weber, Sustainability Manager, to the attendees. Mike stated Shana’s position was established to monitor and identify means to improve Princeton’s commitment to campus sustainability, which is a goal of the President. Specifically, Shana will:

• advance Princeton’s efforts to become a leader in sustainability
• elevate campus awareness of sustainability initiatives
• improve coordination between various campus entities and programs
• facilitate cost savings and identify grant awards in the area of sustainability

Mike McKay asked Shana to give a brief overview of her background.

Shana stated she joined the Facilities staff on June 26th. She has her Ph.D. in Environmental Science with a background in ecology and spent six years in California at Santa Clara University teaching undergraduate courses in environmental studies, and she served as the Executive Editor for the “Community Voice” newsletter.

In 1997 Shana began writing for public radio with the program Earth Note at WFIU-FM in Bloomington, Indiana and went on to produce the radio program, Environmental Voices. This 15 minutes program including environmental news and bulletins broadcast from Santa Clara University.

Shana shared some of her goals in her new role will be to:

• Advance Princeton’s efforts to become a leader in sustainability
• Educate staff, faculty, and students on sustainability best practices
• Promote and communicate Princeton’s sustainability efforts
• Update and improve the PEOC website
• Update the Greening Princeton Booklet which will be distributed to all students during move-in in September

Mike stated Katharine Hackett and Shana should work together to improve sustainability efforts among students, staff, and faculty.

Shana also stated she is interested in creating an “Office of Sustainability” and recommended the PEOC be renamed as the Princeton Sustainability Committee.

The next PEOC meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 11th, at 12 noon at Butler/Wu.