Last evening, I went to a brainstorming meeting for environmental activists (representatives of ASUO and student groups) on the University of Oregon campus. The original goal of this meeting was to discuss what projects we would like to see implemented on campus next year on both the ASUO and university administration level. However, due to the time of year and other various reasons, only two other people attended this meeting: Emmalyn (the new ASUO Environmental Advocate) and Price (a new and interested graduate student to the U of O). Because of this low attendance, we did not do much brainstorming about next year’s Environmental Action Plan. 

The majority of the meeting was directed toward answering Price’s question about how ASUO functioned, its role in the university, and what projects have been proposed for next year (bike loan program). We diverged from the original purpose of this meeting to tell each other of personal anecdotes and our various experiences concerning education, sustainability, bikes, composting, etc. It was enjoyable talking with Price and Emmalyn even though the meeting did not go as intended. We concluded our conversation by deciding that this brainstorming meeting would be rescheduled closer to the fall term when more people would be able to attend. 

According to a story in the Daily Emerald today, there have recently been $3.1 million in donations to support international study programs at the University of Oregon, including one by Richard and Gerri Leeds of over $1 million to “create an international travel fund in their names that will provide stipends for students interning and studying abroad. Seventy-five percent of the endowment will support interns in developing nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America.”

This is huge.  How do we connect with these potential sponsors?

On the UO Sustainability list serv this week, Emmalyn Garrett of the Center for the Advancement of Sustainable Living forwarded an email from Steve Mital, Sustainability Director at the University of Oregon.  His email outlines a Sustainability Conference, tentatively scheduled for October 23rd and 24th, 2008, and requests ideas for its components:

We need your help designing a one-day leadership development conference for college students in the Oregon University System who are interested in making their campuses more sustainable. What are your needs?  What should the day’s agenda be? What kinds of workshops should we develop?  Who should we ask to come and speak?

In the spirit of opening discussion on the event, I thought I might blog my ideas.

To start off, I think it could be quite powerful to put all the documents related to planning online and editable by the community in a wiki-like format. I know there are numbers of students passionate about sustainability on campus; connecting digitally would be a manageable way of allowing everyone to get involved. This PBWiki for the 2008 Netsquared Conference is one example we could follow.

Secondly, with Oregon Direct Action in mind, it would be useful to us to have an international component to the conference. I’m not exactly sure what this would be at the moment, but one thing we’re seriously trying to consider is connecting the international development we would like to do with initiatives at home. For instance, if our project for this year were decentralised wind energy, it might be useful to build and maintain a wind turbine in Eugene as a part of the beta testing. We’ll have a better idea of what exactly we will be doing internationally in the next month, after we’ve decided on which project(s) we’re going forward with.

Having sustainability non-profits from the community at the conference, in terms of networking, would be an added bonus.

The last idea I have is one that’s been floating around in my head for a while.  Last fall, in working with the WDA team, I thought there might be potential benefits in developing a sustainability policy for the organization.  Sure, WDA is an organization all about promoting “economically and environmentally sustainable community development,” but what does that mean if the organization itself isn’t sustainable?  Unfortunately, I don’t have many definitive answers on what this means at the moment.  In specific terms, a sustainable organization or student club could be one that minimizes its use of paper by advertising online, instead of using flyers, and either buys renewable energy or offsets transportation by carbon credits.  This type of discussion, and the possible drawing up of a charter, might be relevant at the conference.

What do you think?