WMSBF January 12 Membership Meeting

GVSU, Grand Rapids

Grand Valley State University

Norman Christopher, Director of Sustainability at Grand Valley State University, presented on GVSU’s participation with the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education including an overview of the program and methods that school is using to inventory and reduce its carbon footprint.  His presentation was followed by a Question and Answer period:

Q: How do you measure the amount of money/carbon saved through your transportation efforts?

A: GVSU has been measuring transportation costs for years, including fuel cost, fuel used, maintenance, and cost avoidance.

Q: Is there an organized student parking partnership between GVSU and the Meijer at Wilson & Lake Michigan Drive? 

A:  Meijer is working with ITP and providing space for students to park to then take Rapid buses, which run about every eight minutes to GVSU.

Q: What skill sets are needed in the field of sustainability? What does the GVSU program look like??  What are the daily activities?

A: In the past, the skill set needed to picked up from “real world” experience, but is now being taught.  The school is offering many classes including certification.

WMSBF Announcements:

§         A bag was passed around to offer those in attendance to participate in a job networking opportunity to help those affected by job cuts.

§         Kyle Ten Broeke asked all those in attendance to make sure they have added themselves to the WMSBF list serve.

Carbon Management 101

Clinton Boyd, PhD of Sustainable Research Group presented on the basics of carbon management, stressing methods for measuring carbon output and basic ideas for reducing one’s carbon footprint.  For more details, see the attached pdf of his powerpoint.

Attendance:

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