I.  Welcome and Introductions                        

Shana welcomed everyone and introduced the new academic co-chair, Professor Elie Bou-Zeid, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Professor Bou-Zeid spoke about how he is using the Princeton campus as lab to study how local environments affect and are affected by the global climate.    For more details please visit:   http://efm.princeton.edu/index.html

  II.   Updates/Announcements

• Bee Team/OA Project Expansion, Sarah Bluher ’13 and Hannah Safford ’13. 
• Student Garden Project at Forbes College, 2012 summer internship support Sarah Simon ’13. 
• Collective Motion 2.0 Developing Empowered Communities, Engineers Without Borders, P-UNICEF, Princetonians for Health Care Reform. 
• Bioremediation of Plastic Waste, Wole Soboyejo, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials, and Karen Malatesta. 
• Producing and Characterizing Biothanol from (non-food) Cellulosic Biomass, Amanda Rees ’12.
• Spring ’12 FRS 142:   Princeton’s Ecological Footprint: Using the Campus as a Laboratory for Sustainability, Shana Weber, Office of Sustainability.

PSC Steering Council: This council will serve as the strategic planning body for the activities of the PSC.   They will recommend institutional policy-change, evaluate proposals to the High Meadows Foundation campus sustainability fund, and guide the process for engaging the campus as living laboratory for sustainability solutions through research and education.

The nomination process for the formation of the PSC Steering Council has begun.   Nomination documents were sent to PSC members.   Shana mentioned that it does not have to be a PSC member and requested nominations by November 14^th.

2011 Sustainability Report:

http://www.princeton.edu/reports/2011/sustainability

 Top Ten Highlights of Sustainability Report:

#1  CO 2 emissions have declined by 2.6% since 2008, while adding more than 560,000 ft 2

#2  TDM program resulted in over 700 campus participants in FY11

#3  Sustainable food purchases increased from 36% in 2007 to 66% in  2011; Local (within 250    miles) purchases increased from 27% in  2007 to 59% in 2011

#4  Overall campus landfill waste has declined 13% since 2006 to 732  lbs per capita

#5  Campus purchased 7 fewer tons of printer paper in the past year (69 fewer than in 2008)

#6  Overall campus water usage has declined 16% since 2006;  Resident hall water usage has declined 30% (18m gal.) since 2007

#7  More than 5 acres of woodlands restored in past year along Washington Rd and Boathouse Walk

#8  Rainwater collection at Frick estimated to retain more than 1.1m gal. on site per year

#9  60% of the class, of 2014, representing 40 countries, participated  in Outdoor Action in fall 2010

#10  About 20% of graduating seniors in 2011 participated in PEI’s undergraduate program during their 4 years at Princeton

III.  Defining Activities for the Year

Develop next sustainability strategic plan for Princeton sustainability:  For an example, Bill Broadhurst, Energy Manager, Facilities Engineering, gave an update on Energy Master Plan and on CO2 reduction.

IV.  Policies/Initiatives

Alternatives to postering: USG will give survey update at the next meeting

Food waste systems evaluation:   Kristi Wiedemann gave report on food waste systems that she is investigating for our 1,000 tons a year waste disposal. The systems under review primarily include in-vessel machines, one of which was pilot tested at Forbes last spring. Local farms have also been contacted to inquire whether they would be interested in composting the food waste on their land. The possibility of collaborating with the town on a solution is another potential avenue.