Creating a campus sustainability committee
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Our campus is just starting to formalize the work of its "Green Team," a group of students, staff, faculty and administrators engaged in making the university more sustainable in its use of energy, waste, natural resources, and in other practices. We've created a basic charter, but we want the group to operate with a degree of authority and credibility when communicating with the top-level administration. So, we'd like to include in our charter a structured process for defining members, voting procedures, quorums and so on.
Can anyone share the charter or bylaws of a comparable group on your campus? We'd hate to reinvent the wheel (or flat tire)!
Thanks,
Paul Ventura
Faculty, MBA in Sustainable Business
Marylhurst University
Marylhurst, Oregon
Thanks so much, Niles. These resources will be very useful in our planning. I'll let you and the forum know how it goes.
Paul
Hi Paul,
If you email me at nadine.johnson@estrellamountain.edu, I can send you our Governance Structure. It took some time to get administration completely on board, however we are now a Recommending Body to our Administration Team! YA!
Nadine Johnson
We established a Campus Sustainability Council which is advisory to the Administration. I would be glad to share the by-laws (email: lizotte@uwosh.edu), but we have also posted the original charge from the administration at
http://www.uwosh.edu/sustainability/about/campus-sustainability-council
The plan is to operate as an advisory board for several years before determining whether the campus needs a more representative (i.e. political) body reflecting shared governance. We currently ask only one governing group to appoint a representative, The Oshkosh Student Association, for the very practical reason that they are effective at identifying strong student leaders.
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Hi Paul,
Here are two charters/bylaws from campuses that some colleagues forwarded to me:
Grand Rapids Community College: http://web.grcc.cc.mi.us/Pr/sustainability/2008/2008TeamCharterTemplate.pdf
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale: http://sustainability.siuc.edu/sustainability_council/files/SUSTAINABILITY_COUNCIL_Operating%20Papers.pdf
I checked in with how the structure of the sustanability task force at the University of Kentucky is setup (my alma mater) and it is covered under the umbrella of the by-laws that govern all Presidentially appointed advisory committees (http://www.uky.edu/Staff/Senate/regs/pdf/bylaws.pdf). The Taskforce's efforts are guided by the charge and function and the sustainability policy.
It sounds like you are on the right track already - you have the support of key decision-makers, and with a formal charter and mandate, the body will be empowered with the authority necessary to achieve the sustainability initiatives they set out to do.
I'm sure there are other campuses who have charters, if I come across more I will post them here. Please keep us up to date on your progress!
Best,
Niles