The Associated Students of Madison Sustainability Committee held a small informal meeting Tuesday to discuss spring campaign options and outreach.
The new grassroots committee, which was created in the fall, was initiated by former ASM Student Council representative and current committee chair Collin Hughes.
According to Hughes, this semester is meant to be a starting point for the committee.
“We’re mainly focused on getting our name out there and working on smaller scale things,” Hughes said.
Hughes said the committee is considering a number of campaign options for spring semester, including a campus “energy audit” and recycling campaign, although campaigns will normally run for an entire academic year and may be difficult to tackle in one semester.
Hughes said the audit would look at the energy use of campus dorms, unions and academic buildings. This would allow the committee’s future campaigns to target buildings that are especially inefficient or out of date.
According to Hughes, the recycling campaign would have two goals: standardizing the look of bins across campus and educating students about what can and cannot be recycled.
Hughes said he has been told lack of recycling knowledge is a “pretty significant” problem across campus.
Kevin Mauer, who has previously worked with Climate 350, a student group that works to reduce climate change, suggested the committee work on a campaign to lobby the University of Wisconsin Foundation to end its investment in the use of fossil fuels.
Climate 350 is already spearheading a similar campaign, according to Mauer, and has met with UW Foundation President Michael Knetter, who seemed “receptive” and “persuadable.”
Mauer said the group is hoping to take a rational, institutional approach.
“We’re trying to target faculty more, especially scientists and economists, to come together and show one, that it’s necessary and two, that it would be effective and that it would be feasible for the foundation economically,” Mauer said.
Climate 350’s efforts are part of nationwide campaign to encourage divestment, ending financial contributions to oil, natural gas and coal use.
Mauer said other campuses are also lobbying for divestment, including students at Harvard who recently held a referendum at which 73 percent of students answered in support of divestment.
The ASM Sustainability Committee will appoint its leadership and vote on spring campaigns in its next meeting.
