Environmental Issues CommitteeStudent Government AssociationTexas A&M UniversityCOSGA 2011

What is EIC?

•Mission Statement As a representative of Texas A&M, we actively strive to provide and support: programs which enhance environmental education and awareness, programs which reduce the community's impact on the environment, and sound environmental legislation on and off campus, in order to improve quality of life.

EIC Values• Education: To bring forth and inspire learning

about the pressing issues of the environment to facilitate action

• Initiative: To be at the forefront of progress; leading the nation in environmentally sound practices and addressing situations before they become problems; in doing so securing a better today and a brighter future

• Commitment: To stay vigilant, informed and steadfast to the core value of environmental activism

Some Successful Programs

•Curbside•Kyle Field Clean Up•Earth Day•Tabling•Movie Screenings•Underground Food Court•Newsletter

Curbside Recycling• When: Bi-weekly. Sundays from 2-

4 p.m.Where: In front of Shuhmacher on Northside by the 30 min parking. 

• MotivationWe recognized that students and faculty are looking for ways to recycle beyond what the university provides. Since the fall of 2007, EIC has held recycling drives with the plan of increasing them as demand increases. We are hoping with events like these, individuals on campus can show that recycling is valued at Texas A&M and that recycling facilities should expand to meet the demand.

Kyle Field Recycling• Overview

Every Sunday after a home football game, we collect plastic bottles in the morning then sort them for recycling later in the evening. Texas Commercial Waste of Bryan (TCW) picks up the plastic for recycling.

• MotivationNot only do these recycling efforts divert thousands of pounds of waste, but they also save Texas A&M thousands of dollars in removal costs.

• Operations On the Sunday morning after home games at 7 am, EIC members and other recruited students and student organizations meet up below Kyle Field to empty, sort, and rebag all of the bottles.

• Development The program began in 2004. In 2006, EIC became aware that Texas Commercial Waste in Bryan, TX was recycling plastic bottles including the blue colored plastic. EIC then partnered with TCW who agreed to drop off a large receptacle after home games for the cleaned and bagged bottles. TCW would then pick up the receptacle the next day. This worked very well and has no financial cost associated with it. Now A&M representatives take care of carting away the recyclables. 

Earth Day• Earth Day 11- Wednesday April 20th, theme of Lighten Up!• EarthDay10-Collaborated with College of Education and Human

Development. There were many giveaways and prizes, over 30 student, campus, and community organizations represented, including a compost demonstration from Sun Chips, a trashion show, and a Prius and Smart Car on display.

• EarthDay09-On April 22, 2009, EIC hosted EarthDay09 Activities which included an informational eco-fair, an environmental issues forum, a concert, and an environmental job fair.

• EarthDay08-Hosted an event at Rudder Plaza to involve the whole campus in celebrating Earth Day on April 22, 2008. All events focused around having fun in an environmentally friendly manner! Other campus groups and community organizations also participated in tabling and providing participants with information on B/CS environmental efforts.

Tabling

•In an effort to collaborate with other similarly minded groups and activities, EIC tables at several campus wide events, including MSC Open House (January 23rd) , Texas Aggies Recycle Day, and Sustainability Day. We use these opportunities to promote the values and ideals of EIC as well as provide tips and resources for anyone who stops by.

Movie Screenings

•Once a semester we hold a movie screening open free of charge to campus and the community and show a film that educates the audience about a certain environmental issues. Free giveaways and guest speakers are involved as well.

•Past screenings have included The Cove, Food, Inc., Wall-E, and Blue Gold: World Water Wars.

•This Semester: The Idiot Cycle, March 22

Underground Food Court

•Work with University Dining and Brazos Valley Recycling

•Part of Dining Services sustainability movement

•Possible expansion

EIC’s The Planet

•Monthly electronic newsletter•Member contributions•Goes out to other student organizations,

departments of geosciences and sociology, administration

Other Projects/Events:

•Brazos Locavores Field Trips

•Residence Hall Challenge

•Sustainability Day•Green Fund

Proposals

Anything we put our hearts and minds to!

Member Involvement

•Attendance/ sign ups•Meetings•Website (Google docs, emails)•Retreat•Socials

Heyo! 

Last night's meeting featured Amanda Mancuso from Brazos Valley Recycling. She discussed BVR's relationship with Texas A&M and some details about how recycling and composting processes operate. Really interesting stuff!

 We then worked with our subcommittees to develop our specialized projects such as our flower bed near Evans Library, speaking at FLO's about EIC, contacting possible Earth Day donors, placing "Can you recycle that?" stickers on trash cans around campus, creating a graphical map of all of the on campus recycling bins, and furthering our Green Fund proposals.

 There are a lot of exciting events this week including:

 - The Underground bin monitoring shifts are still going on Thursday and Friday this week. Sign up here if you have any available free time to help out!- Our committee retreat this Saturday from 3pm to 7pm at The Tradition behind Northgate (301 Church Ave.) It is required so let me know if you cannot attend or have any questions!- Curbside recycling is this Sunday from 2pm to 4pm outside Schuhmacher Hall across from the Northside Post Office.- Our second intramural soccer game is this Sunday as well at around 3pm. If you're at all interested in participating email me back and I'll send you the details. If not, you can always help out at curbside recycling! If you'd like to give your input about recycling on campus, Kelly Wellman, Sustainability Officer at Texas A&M, will be having recycling committee meetings every couple weeks or so starting on Friday, February 25th at around 11am. I'll send more information closer to that date but if you'd like to give your two cents about how recycling should be handled then I encourage y'all to participate in these meetings

Working within SGA

• Exec team• Forms

▫Pre-Event Planning▫Concessions▫Risk/Release▫Facility Reservation

• Finance▫Purchasing Policies▫SOFC▫Fiscal Account▫Budgeting

• Public Relations▫Sandwich Board

Paperwork▫Banners▫Open Access Lab

Screensavers▫Battalion Ads▫Buttons▫Residence Hall

Flyers

Campus/Community Response

•Work with KBB, BVR•BV Earth Day•Previous programs:

▫Aggies Vote Yes!▫Energy Action Coalition▫Clean Revolution Concert▫Environmental Issues Forum▫Galveston Beach Clean Up▫Clean Energy Now▫Aggies Recycle

Q&A

Thanks and have a great day!