What is Sustain Champlain?

Sustain Champlain is a campus-wide initiative strives to infuse sustainability concepts and practices across Champlain College by coordinating and promoting best practices within four areas: our institution, academics, operations, and culture.


Thursday, October 11, 2012

Copy Paper Reduction


Good News! We're Cutting Costs, Not More Trees!

As you know Champlain College has made as strong push to reduce our paper consumption. We have made a big shift from desktop printers to shared multifunction printers, which reduce cost from 1 penny per page to 1/1000 of a penny per page. Those savings add up very quickly! We have also encouraged professors to utilize Angel drop boxes which has made a huge impact!   
  
How is this all paying off? 

According to recent analysis of our 2012FY paper usage it is paying of BIG TIME!
Thanks to your efforts we have cut costs by about $6000 in the last year alone! We spent 18% less on copying in the 2012FY than the previous year! We REDUCED the amount of paper we used by 10% compared to last year and 19% compared to 2006. That's right in just 5 short years Champlain College has cut its paper usage by almost 1/5, which is certainly progress from the Champ Support article written last year. But wait there's more! 82% of the copy paper that we use is made up at least partially of RECYCLED paper. Overall we are making a significant environmental as well as financial impact.
  

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

AN IMPORTANT AND SERIOUS ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING SHUTTLES by Carl Riden, Campus Public Safety


Over the past several years we have all become used to seeing the school bus type shuttle  making its way back and forth from main campus to Lakeside… if you look very carefully at the photo below you can actually see Ned Mahoney clinging to the roof.. he’s the one wearing a white shirt.


However there have been discussions going on at the very highest levels …

The Board of Trustees:


The President’s Office:


The Faculty Senate:



…to replace the existing familiar shuttle with something that has a bit more style.
                                                                                   
  Unfortunately the Batmobile was not available. But we continued to look…



And look…


Other means of transport were considered:





We even considered:
                                    
                                                             

We had managed to talk David Provost into being “test fired” out the prototype but at the last moment we (he) decided to go with another option: Jim Mackin. One of our own.  Unfortunately Jim revived during the loading process and put up such a spirited defense we had to stop trying to load him. The mission was scrubbed.

We even asked Joe Biden for an opinion but were unable to wake him up.

                                                                                     

Announcing and coming soon to a shuttle route near you: 

The 2013 Freightliner Sprinter Van

(At this point I’d like to ask all of you to quietly hum to yourself the “ Battle Hymn of the Republic” as you read the description of the van below. ‘Mine eyes have yada, yada..terrible swift sword.. grapes of wrath..you remember.)

With air conditioning, more comfortable cloth seats, a whisper quiet Mercedes low sulfur emission engine, tinted windows and increased headroom this new addition to our shuttle system will soon be running back and forth from Lakeside to main campus. And Yes, Virginia, there will eventually be a bike rack; we’re looking at options.

The primary vehicle that runs from 7am-6pm will have our name and emblem on it to help identify it.  The second Sprinter which will come online down the road (sorry- couldn’t resist) will run the peak times of 7:30-9:30am and 5:00-7:00pm.

It’s going to look a lot like this…



To promote the usage of this vehicle we are going to be offering valuable incentives to our faculty and staff.

First prize will be an evening shooting rats at the local landfill with yours truly.