(CU Independent/Adam Milner)
After the College Sustainability Report Card ranked CU among the top 15 sustainable colleges of 2010, the CU Environmental Center has been working on and developing a new project: the Energy and Climate Revolving Fund.
Director of the Environmental Center Dave Newport said CU is moving as a campus to become more sustainable: Save energy and carbon, and meet goals of the governor’s executive order.
The project is requesting a one-time deposit from SORE, also known as the student government’s rainy day fund according to the Environmental Center Web site. The revolving aspect of the title alludes to recycling the money that is given to the project so it will not need additional funding.
After being funded once, the savings accrued from the project will go towards paying that loan back with additional interest to SORE. These savings are collected from previously completed projects.
Sustainability Director Dan Omasta, a 21-year-old senior political science major, said he would like to expand availability of the Energy and Climate Revolving Fund to more than the three cost centers it currently serves.
“We would like to start this sometime in the next month,” Omasta said. “We could influence 10 percent of the campus fleet by next year because ordering of the new vehicles and changes in the fleet are ordered in November.”
This program will not raise student fees, and in fact, Newport said it is currently saving money. The proposed bill was moved to second reading and will be voted on Oct. 29.
The UCSU zero-waste initiative plans on expanding to all 13 cost centers, while setting new directives for zero waste as Omasta detailed.
“This will impact purchasing policies,” Omasta said. “We’ll be working with vendors in the UMC to make sure all materials discarded are compostable or recyclable.”
With all the change going on in Boulder, several students have said they are trying to help out-of-state and even internationally, said President of Legislative Council Blaine Pellicore. Pellicore, a senior international affairs major, helped the Alternative Breaks program in requesting to expand their use of student fee dollars to international travels.
Allie Mills, a 21-year-old senior broadcast production major, said she is planning the next trip for Alternative Breaks for the spring of 2010.
“I’m very excited. Right now we’re planning a trip now to Nicaragua,” Mills said.
Students can apply to the program and go on a service oriented trip during spring break. They then do projects assigned by the university as Mills detailed.
The new stage in expanding fee regulation would allow these types of programs to be expanded upon on an international scale. The CU student fee legislation says the fees can’t go towards international travel. This would allow groups to fund their own advertising, to help the members generate money themselves; student fees wouldn’t actually pay for the trips.
Some students may not be interested in traveling across the country, but being in an international setting could interest them.
Essentially, students would have to fund the trip themselves which is why Mills said they are working on grants to reduce those fees. The request was moved to second reading.
All items moved to second reading will be addressed at the next meeting, Oct. 29 and voted on whether to be passed or not.
Contact CU Independent staff writer Adrian Kun at Adrian.kun@colorado.edu.
