Mission WEED is an organization for Wellesley Environment and Energy Defense. Our model constitution for the 2002-2003 academic year, which is our first year, states that our mission is to: promote and enhance environmentally friendly practices on campus; coordinate a standardized recycling program across campus; assemble residence hall recycling representatives through the year in order to maintain the uniformity of the recycling program; expand to address other campus environmental issues in order to lessen Wellesley's impact on the environment; and continue to include all members of the Wellesley College community in improving our environmental reputation, including faculty, staff, union members, and the administration. The goal of the web site is to further WEED's goals, particularly in promoting environmentally friendly practices by educating the community. Members Here are the executive board members for the current academic year. In order to protect their privacy, we included pictures of Captain Planet, Gaia (the Earth Goddess), and the Planeteers (images found on http://www.turner.com/planet/):

President: Samantha L. Tackeff stackeff@wellesley.edu	President Emeritus: Phoebe Poole ppoole@wellesley.edu	Secretary: Relena Ribbons rribbons@wellesley.edu	Treasurer: Samantha Jones sjones@wellesley.edu
Supreme Commander of Recycling Representatives: Emily Knurek eknurek@wellesley.edu	Events Coordinator: Amanda Utevsky autevsky@wellesley.edu	Senator: Jessica Stein jstein@wellesley.edu	Publicity: Erin Rangel erangle@wellesley.edu
Treasurer in Training: Anli Yang ayang@wellesley.edu	Recycling Coordinator in Training: Amanda Poitevin apoitevi@wellesley.edu	Recycling Coordinator in Training: Tyler Blangiardo tblangia@wellesley.edu

History

WEED is the organization for Wellesley Energy and Environmental Defense. It is multi-constituency, drawing its members from the students, faculty, staff and union workers of Wellesley College. WEED began in the spring of 2002, organized by Ariel K. Diamond and Elizabeth DeSombre. Because it is multi-constituency, we weren't sure whether it should be a student organization, but we also knew we wanted a place in the college hierarchy, so we decided to constitute ourselves that way. It was constituted in the fall of 2002 and received funds from SOFC (Student Organization Finance Committee), primarily to buy recycling bins for the dorms.

2002-2003

This was a very active year. Here are some of our activities and accomplishments:

Recycling

• resuscitated the recycling representative program -- changed the job description in residence hall constitutions, took over the training and overseeing of recycling reps, made sure that residence halls had bins;
• instituted can/bottle recycling in some of the residence halls (using a student run recycling van), greatly increased paper recycling in residence halls, and raised general awareness of recycling;
• instituted battery recycling in the residence halls;
• recycled at the Ruhlman Conference; and
• bought several new bins to account for the residence halls that did not have enough.

Paper Purchasing

• arranged with purchasing to get 100% PCR paper made available to departments; and
• made contact with departments to get pledges to buy PCR paper.

Campus Center

• met with planners to make the Campus Center more green.

Energy

• brainstormed ideas about education and reducing energy usage;
• worked with an Environmental Studies policy class to eliminate disposables from the dining halls, and took over running the project once the Environmental Policy class was over; and
• carried out a leaky faucet crusade in many of the buildings on campus to report leaky faucets to maintenance.

Presence and Funding

• constructed an informational Web site;
• reported several environmental concerns to administration during Ruhlman conference; and
• made a presence with presentations at Senate.
• WEED President, Ariel Diamond, also got a NWF fellowship in WEED's name.

2003-2004

Campus Greening Symposium

• helped sponsor the Campus Greening Symposium with speakers from Oberlin, Tufts, Boston University, and Connecticut College. The key note speech was given by Sarah Hammond Creighton, author of Greening the Ivory Tower.

Institutional Accountability Committee

• talked to President Diana Chapman Walsh about Wellesley adopting an Environmental Mission Statement.

Dining Hall Committee

• helped set up an organic vegan bar in Bates Hall as a trial to incorporating organic/local foods throughout campus.

Bookstore

• started selling recycled and environmentally friendly products (with suggestion and input from Lindsey Habermann).

Executive Board

This year, the e-board comprised

• President: Claire Leamy
• Vice President: Cortney Boulton
• Secretary: Rebecca Kapler
• Treasurer: Kristen Granger
• Recycling Coordinator: Erin Usmen

2004-2005

Executive Board

This year, the e-board comprised

• President: Ariel Diamond
• Vice President: Kate Doiron
• Secretary: Claire Nelson
• Treasurer: Erin Usmen
• Recycling Coordinator: Jessica Buno

Speakers

• On Friday, October 15, 2004, Angela Lindner of the University of Florida spoke about Life Cycle Approach to Green Design

Sustainability Advisory Committee

• Talked with President Diana Chapman Walsh and VP for Admin and Planning Patricia Byrne to establish a presidential committee to address large college-wide environmental issues. The first task of the committee in the 05-06 year will be the creation of a campus-wide recycling program.

2005-2006

Executive Board

This year, the e-board comprised

• President: Phoebe Poole
• Vice President: Samantha Tackeff
• Secretary: Nikki Wright
• Treasurer: Samantha Jones
• Recycling Coordinator: Emily Knurek
• Senator: Lisa Damon

Sustainability Advisory Committee

2006-2007

Executive Board

This year, the e-board comprised

• President: Samantha Tackeff
• President emerita: Phoebe Poole
• Secretary: Relena Ribbons
• Treasurer: Samantha Jones
• Supreme Commander of Recycling: Emily Knurek
• Events Coordinator: Amanda Utevsky
• Senator: Jessica Stein
• Publicity: Erin Rangel
• Treasurer in Training: Anli Yang
• Recycling Coordinator in Training: Amanda Poitevin
• Recycling Coordinator in Training: Tyle Blangiardo

Wellesley Energy and Environmental Defense
Created by: Erin Usmen '06 and Anita Yip '07
Maintained by Scott D. Anderson (scott.anderson@acm.org)
Date Created: April 27, 2004
Last Modified: September 20, 2006