March 20, 2024

Attendance: Alex Kinsella, Liz Maloney, Morgan Anthony, Susan Sholi, Gretchen Swarr, Dina Pandya, Bryan Urquhart

#1 Beach cleanups (first Thursday of the month at noon)
• Alex will lead Apr 4
• Alan will lead May 2

#2 Lunch and Learns
• Beekeeping: Mar 27th at noon at Carriage House
• We’ll get there a bit early to test A/V
• Liz will publicize through events list. Alex will email postdocs.
• Data library/herbarium tour: Apr 9th at noon
• Pam says maximum is two groups of 10 or one group of 15. So it would be good to
get RSVPs and see how many people will come. Start with the STF list.
• Farming Falmouth
• Alex was in touch with Jeny at Farming Falmouth and she is interested in giving a
Lunch and Learn. She says that Thursdays work best for her. It seems that May
would be best for our LnL schedule. Alex will follow up about a good day.
• Idea from Gretchen: monarch/pollinator garden tour.
• Good time would be near end of July
• Could invite Lauren Leveque to talk about the garden. Would likely need to be able to
offer an honorarium.

#3 Garden updates
• Liz reported on a successful initial garden meeting. Planting will start early April and
continue in May. She will send an email to those who expressed interest in the garden.
• We need a source of compost for the garden. We didn’t use any last year and it showed. Liz
says one option is eelgrass from the beach, which would take some volunteers to transport.
Black Earth requires you to pay for compost. Town of Falmouth compost might be
contaminated.

#4 Earth Day event ideas
• The Earth Day 2024 theme is “Planet vs. Plastics”, so we can have some plastic-themed events.
• Idea is for two components:
• 1: An email to employees that highlights existing plastic mitigation strategies at
WHOI, encourages less plastic use, and asks for ideas about improvements that can
be made. Dina will make an initial draft.
• Some current mitigation efforts: gloves, pipettes, utensils at the Buttery, no
plastic water bottles, beach cleanups
• 2: A campus cleanup event where people will pick up garbage (especially plastic)
around WHOI. Followed by an event with cake? Liz will spearhead the walk.
• Village campus will probably have more garbage to find than Quissett. But the
edges of Quissett (e.g. the path to the beach) have garbage too.
• Possible competition between small teams if we can get enough people to
show up. Each team takes a picture and weighs their garbage at the end.
• Can also offer people the option to meet at a different time of the day and
send in a photo/weight of their haul.
• Another idea was to highlight some people who carpool or bike to work and feature them on the website and maybe give prizes. But this might be better for another time since the focus of this Earth Day is plastics.

#5 Carpooling: Link to spreadsheet for carpooling organization: https://docs.google.com/
spreadsheets/d/1Gi2FCnSJPuekmn0v53EYhu1V-B3kCJGGuAoqY0K78do/edit?
usp=sharing
• A handful have signed up so far. Liz will send the link out to the admin pros list to get a wider distribution.

#6 Energy efficiency updates from Facilities
• LOSOS HVAC is being converted to a heat pump system and will be completed next year
• Dave is preparing a presentation of GHG reduction strategies to broader leadership in July
• There is solar being installed on the David Center and North Quissett storage facility
• Clark 4 air handler replacement is done in preparation for future hot water system
• Heat pump and solar are being factored in for the new location of the machine shop during dock upgrade
• Dave Derosier will present about the Energy Master Plan at next month’s meeting

#7 Other ideas/discussion
• Jed pointed out that WHOI coffee services often use single-use plastic creamer containers.
He suggests that they provide a container of cream instead. Similar at the Buttery: there is a fridge now that has cream. Can we ask them to put a sign up to encourage use of that cream? Alex will ask.
• Jed found that one of the chargers at Shiverick lot is very slow (4.2 kW now) and something might be wrong with it. Liz will follow up.
• Idea: take a picture at the end of each monthly beach cleanup and make them into a collage at the end of the year. Could also weigh the garbage each time to have an annual total.