AF – So when you say their degree in hand indicates that they have an understanding of sustainability, so that’s they took a course or two in environmental sciences or just it’s (sustainability) influence into curriculum wide? BR – So what I was looking at was called learning outcomes. AF – Okay BR – So, every major or every degree program has learning outcomes. So basically what this is is a document that says every student who’s major is biology is going to meet these 10 learning outcomes. Learning outcome number one: will learn about cells. Learning outcome two: will learn out genetics. Learning outcome three: will learn about wildlife conservation. Learning outcomes are just basically kind of what are people expected to know or master on completion of that degree. So I was kind of looking at sustainability related learning outcomes at Marquette and at these other learning institutions. And I found that Marquette is sitting at, this was back in, so this this data is from that Stars report, which was 2013, but they were using (2009)9, (2009)9 – (2010)10 data. So this is old data but Marquette was at 11% of students were graduating from degree programs that had sustainability learning outcomes. Our peer, the average amongst our peers was 17(%). AF – Okay BR – So, for this question. Marquette is not performing as well as our peers. So the, I got way off topic sorry. AF – That’s okay. BR – The point of all of this is that when we are comparing our performance to our peer institutions it just all depends on what the question is. AF – Okay. BR – And what data we’re using to make that comparison, but just kind of anecdotally I would say that, umm. Our peers have a head start on us. Just based on, you know, it’s new here. I hate to say that sustainability it new here because probably since Marquette’s very beginning there were people here who cared about sustainability, but maybe they weren’t calling it that at the time. And people have been doing sustainability stuff here for awhile, but an organized, intentional, strategic approach to sustainability that’s just 6 months old here at Marquette. So in that sense a lot of universities have a head start on us. AF – Okay, Umm, I’ve seen programs around campus. So our recycling program which is streamline and I also say a Compost Crusader bin outside Cobeen Hall, I was wondering about those initiatives. Are those through you at all or how are those getting started on campus? BR – Yeah, so I had very little to do with getting either of those started. The Compost Crusader, that initiative was led umm my understanding was that that came about mostly through dining services. Umm. AF – So more Sodexo, that’s the dining service, than Marquette? BR – Yes, yes. I am trying to think who else might’ve been involved in that. Umm, yeah I think that was just dining services. Um, Sodexo is a great partner in terms of sustainability. They might be the department or group on campus that’s doing the most in regards to sustainability.They actually have a sub-page, umm, highlights a lot of the sustainability initiatives that are just dining services focused. Umm, including composting, their reusable containers, their efforts to reduce waste including tray-less dining, napkin dispensers, how they wash their dishes. So in terms of sustainability Sodexo is a great partner. They are doing great things. Recycling, my understanding is that Marquette went to a signal stream recycling system in the mid early 2000s. So, that’s and that type of system with a single stream recycling system you can put all your recyclables in one container. So, prior to that Marquette was probably sorting like they might have had somewhere on campus there was a trash can where you could put your aluminum cans and maybe there was somewhere where you could put paper. Maybe there were bottle or plastic bottle collection bins somewhere. But somewhere in the mid or late 2000s Marquette went to the single stream system where typically you have a trash bin paired right with it is a recycling bin and any type of recyclable material can go into that recycling bin. That initiative was probably started by this department, the Department of Facilities Planning and Management. So Facilities Planning and Management kind of includes operations. All of the things that kind of go unnoticed by most people but that are constantly in motion around the university. Such as our waste management, getting our waste out of the buildings, taken to the landfill, getting our recycling all corralled up and taken to the recycling center. Um, so that operation, that recycling operation is kind of run out of this office. I do not directly supervise that program. Actually the kind of custodial staff and our grounds crew handles recycling. AF – Okay, so kind of similar to your point earlier that Marquette might have. aspects of sustainability going on already here we just don't have, we just didn't have a centered..? BR – Right AF – Like you know Sodexo's this and the grounds crew happen to be doing this that are sustainable... BR – Exactly AF – But it's not coming from a central source to keep an eye on everything? BR – Right, exactly...Yeah. AF – Okay BR – Yeah so when, um, pretend you were an investigative reporter for the umm Milwaukee newspaper and you called Marquette in the past and you said Hey Marquette what are you doing in terms of sustainability? In the past answering that question was probably like a "What is sustainability? I don't know I don't what we are doing call back later" Umm, when in fact dining services was doing sustainability stuff and um, our custodial and grounds crew was doing sustainability stuff, but there was no organization no coordination to umm describe that as sustainability or tell that story and make sure that everybody is kind of playing together and cooperating. So that's why they brought me on board is to, is to make those connections. Is to umm give sustainability a kind of more clear vision here. Um, I had another thought zoom through my head while we were, what were you just talking about? AF – Um, before I asked about how you like, its separate entities that are sustainable but there isn't one central one? BR – Right, right AF – But then before that, we were talking about Sodexo, custodians BR – Crap I don't remember, okay go on (pause, quiet laughter) AF - (pause, quiet laugh) Okay, Marquette obviously has our big master plan of... BR – Oh, ah AF – Yes, go ahead. BR – I remember. I told you I don't I don't supervise the custodians for example AF –Correct, yes. BR – But uh, I'm still involved in kind of the composting and recycling in other ways like creating literacy. So creating education signage. One of the things I'm working on right now is a new recycling sign.So this is a good example, so this will take one second. AF – I can bring my phone with. BR – Okay yeah. AF – We are going on a field trip BR – Yep, we're going on a field trip AF – Alright (Pause while we walk out of the conference room and around a corner to a recycling bin nearby) BR – So this is a good example of a recycling sign that you might see somewhere on campus but in terms of kind of best practices and signage, this is really kind of uninspiring people probably don't even notice, no one is going to read all this, a lot of this data is not actually true. AF – Okay (Pause quiet laughter) BR – So, um, there's a need to improve our signage and make recycling easier and more engaging and more fun. So, we're going to come back in here. (Pause while we return to conference room) BR – One of the projects that I'm working on with the Office of Marketing and Communications right now is designing a new recycling sign. Um, just have to find it...oh wrong inbox. So this is just a draft, we're still umm trying to makes some edits to it, but so I'm working with the...Yeah so, we are trying to design a new sign that's just you know better looking. Recycle these things, don't recycle these things. Less text, so yeah I'm not, I didn’t create the recycling program and I don’t supervise the custodians that go around and collect the recycling out of these bins for example but I'm still interested in improving our recycling with things like this. Um... AF – So again working at that ground level of student body and kind of working your way up? BR – Right...yeah AF – And then my next question was, so Marquette has our Master Plan that we're getting into with new buildings and taking down old buildings, is sustainability factored into that much? Do you know? BR – Um... AF - Did they take on some sort of anyone to help them out in that way? BR – Yeah, so the Master Plan had I wanna say (Pause while BR counts committees) they had 13 committees. AF – And it is listed up there as the...6 themes BR – They were called working groups. Um sorry I can find this somewhere, this is just timeline, process... okay working groups so when they were developing the Master plan there was a steering committee, this was the committee that kind of guided the Master planning process. They broke out into 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 working groups. One of the working groups was sustainability. So this was kind of a sub committee of 10 or 12 people. And the question that... or they met kind of regularly during the process to incorporate sustainability into the Master Planning process. AF – Okay BR – Um, so when you, if you look at the master plan you know I don't think, I don’t think that there's a sustainability chapter in the Master Plan. And I don't think the Master Plan has specific sustainability goals, but it was something that they were talking about during the process. AF – So it was incorporated, they just don't outline where? BR – Yeah, so I think I have a draft of the Master Plan. So this is just a draft, but um, let's do a search for sustainability. So this is referencing the strategic plan. These were the working groups, a list of the working groups. This is talking about, I don't really know. But you'll see here that there is not really like a... AF – It's really just used as a general term, they really don't got into it all. BR – Yeah, yeah. It's kind like sprinkled throughout the plan. AF – So it's there, but you can't really pinpoint.. BR – Yeah, right AF - Where we are going to see it long term?. BR – Yeah, yeah. AF – Would you know anyone that I could... BR – So here's an example talking about how new buildings should be designed. "The general principles of design will be expressed in all buildings." So one of the things that the Master Plan suggests is that sustainability should be considered when determining building materials. Okay so like what exactly does that mean...? AF – Not quite sure. BR – Who knows ...who knows? But you know they are listing is as one of the things we should be thinking about. AF – Okay, do you know if that committee that they had, that sustainable that was... BR – For the working group? AF – Yeah, the working group. Were they inside or outside Marquette based? Do you know? BR – Inside, yeah, those were um, I have a list of those people somewhere. This was, this working group existed before I got here. But I do have a list of people that were on it. AF – And do you if any of them would be interested in sitting down for an interview as well? Because I am curious... BR – Yeah AF – about where they would be fitting it into the Master Plan. Because if that is Marquette moving forward. BR – Yep, so this is a list of people that were on the working group. Um, the chair was Chris. So when this working group got together, I don't know how often they met during the Master Planning process, maybe met once a month or once every two weeks or something. But Chris was kind of the leader of this group of people. And Chris is great. He works here in this office. AF – Okay, do you mind if I take down his information there? BR – Yeah, yeah. The interesting thing that might happen is if you contact Chris and say Hey I want to meet to learn more about how Marquette is going to incorporate sustainability into implementing the Master Plan, Chris will probably say good question you should talk with BR about that (Pause, laughter). So umm be prepared for that, but he can still, since he was involved in this process he has a really good perspective and he might eventually point you to some resources that I already have. So this folder is some outcomes that working group had. So they made a … so one of the things that working group developed was a foundation statement. Which I think the purpose of this statement maybe to address what you're talking about. Maybe how sustainability will be incorporated into the Master Plan, um, I can send all of these things to you, if you are interested. AF – Yeah, that would be great. I don't want you to step on any toes though, on like what you can send me... BR – This is all fine AF – But if you can that would be awesome. BR – Here's a... this is a kind of list of strategies that would come up during the working group's meetings and they tried to organized them so. "How will we implement a cleaner vehicle fleet? How will we improve the sustainability of our Limo Service?" AF – Okay BR – Anytime that they kind of had ideas or talked about stuff, I think they did a pretty good job of documenting it and then they eventually developed this list, a priorities list. Umm, of, it's not necessarily a to-do list and it's not necessarily prioritized even though it's in the name. This are just some of the things that that committee was talking about, um. AF – Okay. BR – But yeah I would be happy to share. I can just zip up this folder and send it to you. AF – Yeah, that would be awesome. BR – Yeah. AF – Thank you. BR – Maybe the best way for you to pursue would be to look through this stuff and then reach out to Chris. AF – Okay. BR – Be like, Hey Chris Brent already shared with me you know the products and the outcomes of the working group, I have a couple follow up questions about how this will be implemented into the Master Plan, that may be a better way to proceed. AF – More directed questions for him. And then I had one other question. (Pause as I find my follow-up question) Oh, so I mean it's mentioned on there too. It's the St. Francis pledge, I saw it as the name, I saw it as something else. Oh the Catholic Climate Covenant? BR – Yeah. AF - I believe President Lovell signed that year and a half ago, has that seen, again I know you came in July, but has that seen, has that caused any major changes? Or I guess you being brought on is one of them, but has that brought anything else? BR – Let me ask you this, how did you learn that Marquette had signed that? How did you know? AF - I... I googled, first I did, I first was trying to get a lay of the land, first a contact person for Marquette. Like a sustainability official of some sort so I googled something along the lines of sustainability and Marquette and it brought up an article from it was talking about just Catholic Universities in general and where they are going eco-friendly... BR – Yeah, yeah AF – Have you seen that one? And it mentioned the Catholic Climate Covenant which I then googled that and Marquette and that brought up, I believe it was, I think it was a Marquette article then that had President Lovell, the Students for Environmentally Active Campus. (Pause while he looks up the article) AF – I'm trying to think if it was the Wire. It might have been the Wire. BR – I need to clean out my bookmarks this is a mess. Anyway, I know exactly which article, I know both articles that you are talking about. AF – Okay BR – So the reason I asked that question was because just like a lot of people don't know that sustainability is one of our six strategic themes, I'd say even fewer know that we've signed that commitment. But that's a big deal, that was the president saying, (Pause while he pulls up St. Francis Pledge) Um, so this was the president of our university, Marquette "to respond to the moral call or action respond to the moral call for action on climate change. By pledging, you commit to praying, acting, and advocating to solve climate change," so here's the kicker "how you fulfill those commitments is up to" so back in 2015 President Lovell signed this but it's kind of, and this is kind of a um, I guess I don't want to say, definitely not a controversy, but it's a challenge. We've signed this pledged that says we're committed to taking action, but we don't really have a lot to show for it. AF – Okay BR - In one of the questions, when I'm talking about sustainability literacy umm, one the questions that I typically bring up is the exact same question you posed me, we signed that pledged have we taken action? Has this inspired us in anyway? What does this pledge mean to us here at Marquette? We don't really have answers to those questions yet. AF – Again it might be scattered answers that aren't really necessarily part of this, but we need to coordinate those together. BR – Right, yeah, yeah....yeah. AF – Okay BR – One of the things that I'm trying to do is raise awareness that we have signed this umm.To help people realize how closely sustainability aligns with our mission statement here at Marquette.And that this is a moral call for action so this is not just recycling because it feels good, but we have a moral obligation to take action towards sustainability and uh, Are we doing enough? Are we doing it the right way? So as I, for example when I was giving that presentation to the biology lecture, when I was giving that biology guest lecture I brought this up. And I said raise your hand if you were aware that Marquette had signed this pledge? And of course none of them did. I wasn't expecting them to. You know I kind of posed that question to them, okay just kind of contemplate whatshould this mean? What could we do? What should we do to respond to the moral call for action. AF – I mean like, yeah I wouldn't have fallen upon it if I wasn't doing this research project. BR – Yeah...yeah AF – I guess I have one last question and you have been saying this along the way, but I guess if you could just layout one or two major long term goals that you have for Marquette's sustainability on campus what would they be? BR - A major, long term goal... AF – Major or long term your call, whatever. I guess when you come into work everyday and you're like I want Marquette to be working towards this. You might have to do all these smaller goals to get there, but where would you like to see Marquette going? BR – Um, yeah. So what you're asking is what is my sustainability vision for Marquette? AF – Yes, I like that phrasing of the question. BR - That's interesting because I want to go through this exercise with the Marquette community so when I was when I was working as a consultant prior to working here I would meet with you know key leaders at other institutions and ask this question, " What do you want the sustainability to be at Creighton University? What is your sustainability vision 10 years from now 30 years from now?" And going, we would go through that exercise at all levels of the organization so we would ask the presidents and vice presidents and kind the mid-level employees, we'd survey all the students. So I don't necessarily want Marquette's sustainability to be mine, but if you are asking for my personal vision it would be that Marquette is a net zero campus. Soessentially that would me in terms of emissions we are not adding any emissions to the atmosphere we are not making climate change worse by our own operations. So that would be my vision. And in order to get that that would mean things like renewable energy and a lot of other things, but that's my vision is that we have very little or no impact on Climate Change. But at some point when I have the opportunity to kind of go through this visioning exercise with the entire university who knows what we'll come up with. Maybe Marquette doesn't really care about being net zero, um, maybe the vision for Marquette sustainability is that um, we'll be doing ground breaking water research you know there's a lot of water related research happening already so maybe that's sustainability vision. I guess I don't know what the community will say when posed with that question but my sustainability vision for Marquette is net zero. AF – Well thank you answered all of my questions very well so BR – If you have any follow up questions let me know. I'm going to send you these files, right? AF – Right, that would be awesome. Thank you and thank you for being so willing to talk to me. BR – Yeah, no problem. (Pause as we adjourn) BR – Did I give you information that was helpful or did I just make it more difficult? Or more complicated? (Pause, mild laughter) AF - You definitely gave me a better understanding of first of all where Marquette stands on sustainability and you definitely gave me good places to go for further research like the AASHE place and even just looking at Mar...well, what Marquette is saying about sustainability and the fact that we have to words, but we might not necessarily have the actions right so that's definitely a better understanding. And just knowing what Marquette has in terms of staffing for sustainability. BR – Yeah I think, I think sometimes students and staff want to meet with me and say how's Marquette doing in terms of sustainability or what's next and I'm just like blah, it's really complicated. There's not really an easy and exciting answer to that question, it's kind of like ugh, difficult to describe. AF – Yeah, cause I feel like, first of all one person this is a lot to take on for one person especially being new and coming in. BR – Like I said I'm pushing a big, huge boulder.