On July 7, 2023, Daphne Hulse met with Habitat for Humanity ReStore Director Chad Hoffman and Executive Director Brandon Fischer to discuss participating in the 2024 collection event.

• Daphne gave a brief overview of the history, and how the operations worked for the 2023 event
  • 8 undergraduate hall locations
  • All locations were shared between Goodwill and Salt & Light, so that hard items and soft items could be separated
  • Daphne indicated the desire to eliminate the "sharing" of containers and to instead have non-profts operate by locations, gathering all that is dropped off
• Habitat for Humanity does not take any of the soft items listed: clothing, bedding, linens, shoes
  • Suggested that Salt & Light or Goodwill could pick up the soft items left at these locations
• Would like furniture
  • Agree that it aligns better to target locations which would have furniture, more likely (family and graduate housing)
  • Do not want any damaged furniture
• Closed Sundays and Mondays, so could not pick up on these days

The following is an email conversation between Morgan White, Ahmed Hassan, and Johnathan Hasselbring.

On Jul 6, 2023 Morgan sent the following:

Hi Ahmed,

Thanks for sending another email!  I meant to get back to you earlier, so thanks for the additional note.

Jon, can you provide information to Ahmed about the current status of the geothermal system at CIF, or connect him with the appropriate people?

Ahmed, please use this info to request the energy data access:

The Energy Billing System (EBS) is a web-based software application that offers utility cost and consumption by month, building, and meter. It allows users to view current and historic information, compare buildings, and see trends over time. It requires Blue-Stem authorization and users must request access from F&S.

Thanks!

Morgan

------------

Dear Morgan, 

Thank you very much for the prompt response. Your contribution is highly appreciated. 

Best Regards 

Ahmed 

-------------

Hi Ahmed,

The geothermal system is in operation and coupled with a heat recovery chiller and radiant heating panels.

Geothermal provides about 75% of the heating and cooling needs for the building, with the heat recovery chiller and radiant panels supplementing the remaining 25%.

Please let me know what questions you might have, and I will gladly connect you with more members of the team.

Thanks,

Jon

June 6, 2023 Green Research Committee Meeting 3

Present: Shari Effert-Fanta, Paul Foote, Jennifer Fraterrigo, Stephanie Hess, Daphne Hulse, Tim Mies, Lisa Moore, Jeremy Neighbors, Chad Stevens, Sabrina Summers

Absent: Mitchell Bryant, Maisie Kingren, Morgan White

Charge 1

• Consolidated information document, provided by Jeremy
  
  • Walkthrough the document
  • We should be aiming to staff a Green Research Director
    
    • And then staff underneath the director
      
      • Could be student workers or full-time employees
  • Short term goals
  • Long term goals
• Chemical inventory - Stephanie
  
  • Central inventory funded by campus
  • Stuck out to Susan Martinis as an opportunity worth exploring
• Engagement role out - Jen
  
  • Integrate it with the annual lab meetings with DRS staff to ensure safety compliance
    
    • A great point in time to evaluate opportunities with sustainability each year
    • Allows opportunity for face time with green research. Especially considering how busy PIs are
  • Lab audits - Stephanie
    
    • Are already quite long - DRS has a year-long timeline to get these done
    • Can sprinkle in sustainability opportunities here and can combine safety and sustainability (shut the sash)
  • Lunch & Learns are great in theory but maybe are not going to show strong attendance in practice
• Where does this green research live? What does it tie into? - Jeremy
  
  • OVCRI, iSEE?
  • October timeline is best according to Susan, Madhu, and Ehab because spring is when budgeting takes place. Allows them to go and ask for funding
  • Extension is possible but the timeline for budgeting is improved if we can get it in by October
  • Chem inventory is digestible as we can save a lot of money if chemicals are better managed
    
    • Burden would be on the researchers to manage what comes in and out
    • Could argue for a person to do this, but Stephanie thinks it is more wise to ask campus to pursue purchasing a software and then researchers input the information
    • DRS does not have staffing or funds currently to do such a program
• Funding Inventory software - Stephanie shared document

Charge 2

• Comprehensive certification program - Paul
  
  • My Green Lab already has an existing certification program
    
    • Flat rate for certifying a bulk number of labs (at Vancouver University, 50 labs certified for $10,000).
    • 160-170 topics that are over viewed
    • On a sliding scale (3 tiers)
    • Do a first round assessment and then come back in 6-12 months to reassess
    • Right now it does not extend beyond labs - not fieldwork or farms
      
      • Could still apply a lot of the stuff but we may need to do our own version of it for our labs
    • Need to be careful of the line between green labs and green research
      
      • Some labs are disadvantaged by the building itself
      • Want to be careful of not handcuffing researchers to achieve sustainability; they are doing important work
      • Think about behavior-based (recycling) rather than mechanical-based opportunities
    • Rewarding labs based on safety, too
      
      • Some only work with ethanol
      • Some work with 8,000 chemicals
      • May not be able to be audit-based for this reason
  • Could create our own that is more robust and custom to what we do at the university
  • Chad thinks the chemical inventory could tie into this portion well. Forcing the labs to take a look at what chemicals they have before purchasing more (if they are above the fire safety limit)
  • In Paul’s observations, PIs that are not included in the creation/design process mean very few labs will actually sign up
  • Opportunities to reward many:
    
    • Most occupant engaged building
    • Most improved building
    • Most energy saved building

Charge 3

• Really a facilities question, Tim is thinking.
• Not on the researcher to be responsible for that
• Funds are already strapped
• Charge 3 is about how we prioritize funding for these.
• Where do transportation costs fall?
  
  • Behavior-based changes like with carpooling
  • Cutting down airfare (zoom meetings)
  • Transportation of presenting research
    
    • Incentivize behaviors)
  • Electric vehicles
    
    • F&S sustainable transportation is tackling this topic currently - electric vehicles within the university fleet
    • Increasing charging infrastructure on campus
    • Figuring out how labs fit into this

Homework

• Leave comments and suggestions on the two documents presented today

Good morning friend of the Reimagine Our Future competition,

We were wondering if you would like to continue to be a part of the competition for this upcoming school year. 

If so, can you please fill out this google form?

We appreciate your support and hope you will join us for another year of this amazing competition inspiring undergrads to come up with sustainable solutions.

Thank you so much,

Allie Garlin

Reimagine Our Future Student Assistant