SustainaReps soon to be appointed
The new office is in the final steps of selecting it's new team.
Published Sept. 18, 2009
MU's new sustainability office is in the final stages of assembling a team of six students to work as sustainaReps, sustainability coordinator Steven Burdic said.
The sustainaReps will work directly with students to improve communication and environmental efforts toward sustainability within various campus groups, Burdic said.
Each sustainaRep will be responsible for organizing and initiating different projects to help the campus take steps toward being greener and addressing environmental issues, student sustainability coordinator Ben Datema said.
"We've identified about 150 things (sustainaReps) could be working on," Burdic said.
They're looking into ways to encourage people to utilize sustainable methods of transportation, such as walking or riding bikes.
Eight issues the sustainability office will be looking at as a whole this semester include Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification, natural resources, alternative transportation, procurement, recycling, environmental justice, energy efficiency and research and academics.
"We're essentially looking at the entire Sustainability Task Force Report," Datema said. "We can go in any direction and work on things and make a bigger impact with them."
According to the MU News Bureau, MU reduced campus energy expenses since 1990 by 12 percent — annual energy costs have decreased by $4 million with each passing year.
The sustainaRep positions were created last spring when the sustainability fee was enacted.
The fee brings in $52,000 annually. It will be used to fund sustainability initiatives and projects and pay the two student sustainability coordinators and the six sustainaReps for their work.
The sustainaReps will be working five hours of paid work each week for the sustainability office and will work alongside faculty and student sustainability coordinators Burdic, Datema and Cherith Moore.
Moore and Datema are in the final steps of whittling the initial pool of around 30 applicants into the six student coordinators. Datema said the sustainability office received a broad range of applications for the sustainaRep positions, giving coordinators a varied group of students to consider for the positions.
"It's a very diverse range of people and that's really what we are looking for; as diverse a group of students as we can get," Climate Commitment Student Coordinator Pat Margherio said. "We're not just discounting freshmen because they are freshmen — we want to hire a freshmen or sophomore or two, we want to hire seniors, we want to hire marketing majors, we want to hire environmental science majors — the whole spectrum."
Burdic emphasized the importance of cooperation.
"Datema and Moore will be giving them their day-to-day guidance and they'll be fitting into the same big picture that we're looking at," Burdic said.
The sustainability office will be looking to work with any and all groups involved in environmental issues on campus.
"My job, essentially, is to support students' sustainability initiatives," Datema said. "I am here to help them and support them, as well as Cherith. And we kind of bridge the gap between the staff side of things and the faculty side, to provide support in any way that we can."
Gaining momentum from past sustainability efforts on campus is important, Burdic said.
The sustainability coordinators and sustainaReps will be looking to get out and talk to people about efforts they are making and goals they are reaching.
"I've just been trying to make people talk for the past four years," Datema said. "And that's something this office is going to work on also; just trying to make it a more comprehensive effort with more people working together and partnering and bringing their skills in."
The final selection of this year's SustainaReps might be announced as early as this weekend, Burdic said.
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