Great meeting with Josh Stoffel

Got to meet with Sustainability Coordinator Josh Stoffel this morning. As was expected he knows many of the key players at the University and has already done a great deal of work around these issues. In fact he has a proposal - which he'll be sending along - that he's already presented at the Vice Chancellor level that we can get involved with piloting. He's excited to have a student group on board and especially at Isenberg because it turns out we seem to be wasting more energy than almost anyone else on campus!

On the energy side we can begin to accumulate ideas for user behavior changes as well as system changes. We can then funnel these ideas through Josh and his team to create a program and then help implement it in the building.

In terms of trash and recycling, there's a different set of stakeholders but still an opportunity to make improvements. Josh also has a proposed program for this that we can base our efforts around. Again much of the systems are already in place, it's just a matter of connecting the users with them in some way.

By the way, the seemingly unrelated picture is of the bike rack being installed right now outside the window of rm 210 - green all over!

Overall very encouraging and we continue to make progress in leaps and bounds!

First Meeting [Communications]

Greetings from the second official meeting of Service Corps. On Tuesday, we had a great first meeting, establishing interests and identifying the primary points of research that needs to move on. Basically, we are starting from scratch. Thus, we are taking an exploratory approach to this project and will roll it out in two phases:

I. Research and Discovery
II. Campaigning

Our initial mission is to increase energy efficiency at Isenberg. This may be refined or adjusted as we learn more. We have split into four groups:

1. Research
2. Marketing
3. Energy Use
4. Auditing Investigation

As we move on, we may include materials use as part of our plan. However, we want to make sure that we start with investigating ways we can make the biggest initial impact in relation to energy and sustainability. We also want our efforts to be quantifiable and to manifest in a way that has longevity.

We have some initial contacts at UMass, some general points where we can find more information. Thus, we will allow the plan to form around our investigation. We have a great group of people, spanning from those with experience in engineering, marketing, library science, public policy, and finance. We even have a representative from the undergraduate business program. So, I am excited to seeing what our diverse and enthusiastic crew will come up with! Cheers to a new year of connecting business to sustainability!