Green Revolving Fund Presented by Elizabeth Anderson 14, Chair of - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Green Revolving Fund Presented by Elizabeth Anderson ’14, Chair of the Student Sustainability Task Force

Student Sustainability Task Force ● Not an ordinary club ○ Started as a President’s Cabinet project ○ Works with faculty, staff, and administration in addition to students ● Two main functions: ○ Greening RPI ○ Supporting other environmental clubs ■ Publicizing club events and news through Sustainability Newsletter ■ Encouraging cooperation and communication

Green Revolving Fund Money GRF Green project Money saved from project Project gets built

Why are we bringing this before Senate? ● Publicity ○ We need more members ○ We need student support ● Transparency ○ We want as much input as possible ○ We want to be certain to be transparent ● Advice on how to proceed

Potential Structure ● Project proposals can come from anyone in the RPI community ● Committee chooses which projects receive funding ○ Focus on ROI and sustainability improvement ● Set guidelines for funding

Where would the money come from? ● Possible options ○ Endowment ■ Projects would have to have a higher ROI than endowment ● Median ROI: 28% ○ Operating fund ○ Alumni contributions ○ Grants ■ For GRFs ■ For projects

Success of GRFs ● Harvard ○ $12 million fund ■ Started as a $1.5 million fund in 1992, had such success that more money was added to it ■ 11 year limit with returning funds ○ Lighting and HVAC projects ● Many other colleges have GRFs, including MIT, BU, and Stanford

Benefits to campus ● Reduce environmental impact ● Promote student research of sustainable technologies ● Save money (energy, water) ● Provide funds for projects that will benefit campus and the environment

Need for Sustainability at RPI ● Sustainability Report 2014 shows that RPI is behind many other colleges in terms of sustainability ○ Cornell has a “gold” rating ○ CMU and BU have “silver” ratings ○ Not all of the credits were looked through, but RPI did not score high enough for a “bronze” rating ■ Find it here: bit.ly/RPISustReport

What We Have ● Research for one proposal (solar energy) ● Research on how GRFs work in general

What We Need ● A proposal of how the GRF might operate ○ Where the money comes from ○ Committee structure ○ Grant research ● Three fully written project proposals ○ Solar panels ■ Need to write out full proposal ○ Energy efficiency? ○ Another project

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due ● Project idea: ○ Kenny Campbell ’16 ● Other students who have worked on GRF research so far: ○ Evan Barr ’16, Kelly Dearborn ’16, Jesse Ryan Diaz ’17, Zheng Fangning ’16, Courtney Fiala ’17, and Jesse Noviello ’15 ● Project Lead: Dan Sze ’18 Background photo: Anasha Cummings

Take-aways ● Fall 2014 Meeting Time: Wednesdays at 8pm ○ In Environmental Education Center (EEC) in Union Games Room ● A GRF could greatly lessen RPI’s environmental impact