Charter Committee Annual Report to the Shared Governance Council

Committee: Sustainability
Report Year: 2025-26

Committee Chair(s)Adam Brummett, Shelby Reeves
Committee Members
  • Renato De Matta
  • Surangama Sharma
  • Hyesun You
  • Keegan Aggers
  • Briana Horwath
  • Heather Widmayer
  • Marco Morel
  • Lana Mckinney
  • Josie Welker
  • Abby Crabtree

Administrative Liaisons:

  • Stratis Giannakouros
  • Ben Fish
Committee Charge
  1. The Committee shall be governed by the terms of the General Charter.
  2. In addition, the Committee shall:
    1. Recommend and advise on matters pertaining to sustainability practices and formulation of university policies;
    2. Advise on the integration of sustainability with existing campus programs in education, research, operations, and community outreach;
    3. Assist in engaging the campus in an ongoing dialogue about sustainability and instilling a culture of sustainable long-range planning and forward-thinking design through their respective constituencies;
    4. Advise on the development and implementation of campus sustainability action plans. 
Current Year Meeting Dates

Planning meetings: August 28, September 18

Committee meetings: September 25, October 25, December 11, January 15, March 9, April 2

Project meetings

Please indicate the typical frequency of meetings (e.g., first Tuesday of month at 4 pm). If there are subcommittees, please indicate the frequency of those meetings, too.Monthly for entire committee.
Two planning meetings with liaisons and chairs prior to regular meetings.
Three project-specific meetings with liaisons and chairs.
Current Year Activities

Campus Roots project: https://sustainability.uiowa.edu/campus-roots

In partnership with Facilities Management’s Landscape Services, each winning group will be honored with the planting of a tree on campus. These trees will be added to the University’s official Tree Inventory, where they will be designated as Campus Roots trees and marked as dedicated to the winning group by name—creating a lasting record of your contribution to campus sustainability.

Topics your committee anticipates addressing during the coming yearContinuation of Campus Roots project; re-establish connections with various campus organizations to better understand how the committee can assist.
Other issues of concernNone.
What should we tell applicants for this committee regarding expectations of members (anticipated workload, existence of subcommittees, etc.)?One hour monthly meetings are scheduled around Outlook Calendar availability of the committee.

Does your committee have a website? If so, what is the URL?

 

https://president.uiowa.edu/sustainability-committee

 

What is your process for passing on previous agendas and minutes to the new committee chair(s)?A Teams site has been created to assist in continuity of the committee. There was previously no process in place, so it was started new.
Recommendations, if any, to the shared governance groups.None