<ents will vote on a resolution to create a new CSA “Green Fund.” Applicable to products ranging from locally-grown produce to carbon offsets for car trips, the fund would pay the difference between sustainable and standard products. Although the referendum does not specify the size of the fund, it is expected to start at about $1,000 and grow in future years if it is successful.
The idea for Carleton’s Green Fund developed last fall during an annual conversation over whether CSA should increase the Student Activity Fee. A mandatory fee charged to students with their tuition and the main revenue source of CSA’s $385,000 budget, the Student Activity Fee typically increases by a small amount each year to keep pace with inflation. This fall, the Senate considered a number of options to specifically fund sustainability practices, including instituting a new and separate “green fee,” and creating a refusable/refundable fee like that charged by MPIRG. Senators ended up approving a small increase to the Student Activity Fee to incorporate a potential Green Fund.
Carleton’s proposed Green Fund is parting of a nation-wide trend of schools like Harvard and Macalester which have created funds specifically to improve their campus’s environmental practices. However, these funds generally deal with large-scale campus projects like college infrastructure, and are run by college administrators. Carleton’s fund is unusual because it is student run, and offers all student organizations the opportunity to participate. Bessie Schwarz ’08, CSA’s Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC) liaison, and an author of the referendum, mentioned this as one of the greatest strengths of the fund:
“It’s not stuff coming from one little community on campus, which often is what environmental action here and everywhere is. It has been specifically tailored to work well here at Carleton.”
Similar to the existing Third Center Fund, a new Green Fund would be administered by CSA’s Treasurer. Student organizations that have already been funded with by CSA will have the option of having their bid proportionally increased in order to make sustainable choices.
