Council
ACSSAdvisory Council on Stewardship and SustainabilityConsonant with our Jesuit and Catholic identity, respect for creation and the integral development and flourishing of the human person are inseparable from a faith that does justice. Thus, the Advisory Council on Stewardship and Sustainability (ACSS) is an ad hoc University committee responsible for making recommendations to the Cabinet regarding the University’s impact on and stewardship of the environment. The ACSS is composed of Gonzaga faculty, staff, and students who are concerned about environmental stewardship and sustainability. A Brief History of the ACSS Results of the Stewardship and Sustainability Survey Contact the Council: sustainability@gonzaga.edu |
 |
|
In September of 2008, Monica Bartlett set out to join an environmental sustainability awareness group at GU as she was sure we had such a movement already under way and wanted to participate. After talking to several people, she discovered that such an endeavor had begun some 2 or 3 years ago, but had disbanded when the AmeriCorps member who initiated the group left campus. She suspected that GU had many faculty and students who were passionately interested in this topic and thought that we might have enough energy to again try creating such a group. As a starting place Monica sent out an email to a dozen or so people requesting a meeting. It was at this point that she connected with Brian Henning, a new faculty member in the Philosophy department, who had much experience creating and organizing a stewardship committee at his former institution. Throughout fall semester (2008) the group (consisting of faculty, staff and students) met regularly to discuss how we should organize ourselves and what our larger purpose and duties should be. We knew that many wonderful projects/classes/research aimed at reducing waste and cutting energy consumption were already happening at GU (and had been for some time). Yet, as a community we were not receiving recognition for this work. Our hope was to change this. We wanted to systematically gain knowledge about what was already happening on campus, find a way to publicize this, see where we might be falling short and then help to propose or facilitate ideas that would address those areas of concern. We quickly realized that it would be presumptuous and ill advised to set our agenda without first surveying the community so as to learn from its collective experience about what is being done and what should be done. Further, we realized that we couldn't really survey the community without first gaining some official status within the University. Yet, it wasn't at all clear where the Council should be "located." After several spirited discussions, there was general consensus behind the view that the work of the Council does not neatly fit into any one administrative unit. Our work naturally ranges across the traditional divisions of the institution, including but not limited to students and student life, mission, university relations, budgeting and finance, physical plant, and academics. Having realized this, we approached the President's Office in the hopes that the Council could report to the President and/or the President's cabinet. The President and his Cabinet officially approved the creation of the ACSS and its Steering Committee on January 29, 2009. 1. The ACSS reviews current and proposed projects and policies concerning energy use, waste disposal and recycling, water use and quality, water and air emissions, air quality, conservation, land use and preservation, biodiversity, and sustainability and makes recommendations to the Cabinet and other individuals or groups on campus who are or become involved in such projects. 2. The ACSS considers ways to increase environmental awareness and education on campus. 3. The ACSS will function as the primary conduit of and clearinghouse for information regarding environmental stewardship and sustainability issues on campus, in part through the creation and maintenance of a stewardship and sustainability website and email address. CO-CHAIRS STEERING COMMITTEE STEERING COMMITTEE SUBCOMMITTEES Waste Reduction Subcommittee Ecological Awareness and Education Subcommittee GENERAL MEMBERSHIP Students |
|
