With 2014 coming to an end, let’s take a look at what SSC has accomplished this past semester:
At our first meeting of the fall semester, we had 43 people in attendance—an over 700% increase from the first meeting of last semester! Ori Gutin resumed his role as director of SSC, while Annie Rice and Maya Spaur were appointed to director of the Committee for City Affairs and the Committee for Governmental Affairs, respectively. The Committee for City Affairs was created to handle environmental problems and create sustainable solutions in the city of College Park, while the Committee for Governmental Affairs has the objective of dealing with environmental issues, bills, and laws in the state of Maryland.
One of the first things that we set out to do was to conduct a poll asking UMD students about what sustainability issues are most important and urgent to them. We got 605 responses, and the results can be viewed here. After taking into account the poll results, we decided that at our meetings, we would split SSC into two groups in order to tackle the two main issues on campus: energy and waste. Here are some of the problems we confronted while in these two groups:
Graduation gowns are VERY expensive, only used once, and usually have very little wear and tear. So why not recycle them? Devon Howard and Valerie Gendelsman have been in discussions with the University Bookstore about expanding the collection of graduation gowns following graduation ceremonies in order to increase the number of gowns recycled.
We sent a notice out to all campus business managers reminding them of the campus’ Environmentally Preferable Procurement mandate that all campus paper must be from 100% recycled materials
Yoojin Park wrote this blog post about EPP policy
We are currently working with the Dept. of Fraternity and Sorority Life and Office of Sustainability to develop a “Green Chapter” program for Greek life (similar to Green Office program). We will be planning events for next semester to develop this program with students in Greek Life.
Over the summer, the University of Maryland officially became part of the Big Ten Athletic Conference. Director of SSC, Ori Gutin, wrote to all of the Big Ten schools and was successful in starting the Big Ten Sustainability Association: a coalition of environmental organizations at all of the Big 10 schools. While many people think that conferences only matter for sports, this coalition will give the environmental and sustainable clubs and groups at all the Big Ten universities a sense of community. Check out these articles regarding the association:
September 21st marked the People’s Climate March in New York City, where more than 400,000 people marched a few days before the UN Climate Summit. SSC organized a group of 85 UMD students to attend the march, which was the largest climate march in U.S. history!
Read more about the march in this blog post by Maya Spaur
And check out the Huffington Post’s article on the PCM here
We partnered with RHA to get ResLife, Facilities Management and Res Facilities to commit to a pilot composting program in two dorms in Fall 2015! Read more below:
DBK article by Morgan Eichensehr
Blog post by Annie Rice
After much brainstorming, planning, and discussing, we have gotten Dining Services to commit to:
Piloting a 20 cent incentive for students who choose to bring their own reusable bags rather than using plastic bags, starting in the spring semester
Arranging for the sale of SGA reusable bags to be sold in campus convenience shops
Listing the OZZI box as an option on the next order of stir fry sheets at south campus diner
Sending all incoming freshman a postcard that can be redeemed for a free OZZI box starting with Fall 2015
Offering a reusable bowl for dine-in eating at Salad Sensations in the Spring semester
Maryland Day, UMD’s annual festival for prospective university students, produces a LOT of waste. We sent a letter to the Maryland Day Steering Committee on behalf of the University Sustainability Council with suggestions for ways to make Maryland Day 2015 more sustainable
You can read the letter here
Ori Gutin wrote this blog post in support of making MD day more sustainable
The SSC successfully lobbied for $490,000 in funding for the hiring of a contractor to restore our Campus Creek. This issue was a very hot topic! Check out what so many people had to say regarding the matter:
Blog post by Ori Gutin
Response article to staff editorial by Ori Gutin
DBK op-ed by Ori Gutin
1st DBK article by Marissa Horn
2nd DBK article by Taylor Swaak
The Committee for Governmental Affairs has collected over 900 petitions in support of the campaign to expand Maryland’s Renewable Portfolio Standard to 40% by 2025. Check out these SSC member-written articles that touch on why this is so important for our state:
DBK op-ed by Marcus Fedarko
DBK op-ed by Scott Kivitz
Baltimore Sun op-ed by Sara Spaur
Members from SSC went on separate tours of the campus’ cogeneration heat and power plant and the Severn solar array, and we have developed a thorough plan and timeline to run a campaign around campus energy systems in the spring semester.
The Committee for City Affairs has been in talks with College Park bars about getting them to recycle. So far, we have gotten two (Looney’s Pub and Terrapin’s Turf) of the four main bars in College Park to commit to implementing recycling programs. Hopefully Cornerstone and R.J. Bentley’s will be our next to persuade!
Blog post by Cici Bisogno
DBK Article by Marissa Horn
This fall, we saw the introduction of composting, recycling, and landfill bins at Byrd Stadium! For the November 15th football game against Michigan State, SSC organized 35 students to oversee waste sorting stations in order to ensure the waste was being put in the correct receptacles.
On November 23rd, SSC hosted the UMD Sustainability Jam, an event attended by seventeen students that geared towards getting students to collaborate with staff to develop sustainability fund projects
Read more about it in this Center for Social Value Creation article
Sustainability Mini Grants are intended to provide small grants (up to $1,000) to encourage the development of projects that improve the sustainability of the UMD campus and enhance opportunities for students to learn about sustainability issues. In the inaugural semester of the Sustainability Mini Grant, we have funded 4 campus sustainability projects for $2,979:
GreenFest: $497 to support the purchase of organic cotton reusable bags to distribute at the annual GreenFest celebration
Butterfly Pavillion: $986 to support the development of a Baltimore Checkerspot Butterfly Garden on campus
Paper Reduction in Communications Dept: $566 to support the digitalization of material for the Communications Dept in order to reduce paper use
Sustainable Carpooling App: $930 to support the development of an app to encourage carpooling between University of Maryland students
To learn more about the sustainability fund and applying for a mini grant click here
Committee Statistics:
>Average meeting attendance was 28.5 people
>We’ve had 14 meetings this semester
>We’ve had 2 SGA resolutions pass
> We have increased our Facebook likes by 173, written 9 blog posts, and had 16 articles published about SSC efforts spanning 5 different news sources!!
Thanks for making this past semester so great!
-Jay Deep Rao
SSC Director of Communications