A student government committee for sustainability reviewed ongoing campaigns and initiated conversations to finalize plans for a fair to take place at the end of the spring semester at a Tuesday night meeting. 

The Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group asked the Sustainability Committee to endorse its Ban the Bottle campaign, which would entail eliminating plastic water bottle sales in university buildings.

“We are interested in it, but once we know what it entails, then we can make a better decision sometime in the future,” Sustainability Committee member Kevin Englebert said.

Members of the Sustainability Committee also discussed the possibility of engaging with Student Orientation, Advising and Registration to have incoming students be involved with sustainability issues as soon as they arrive on campus.

According to Higgins, the Office of Sustainability suggested the strategy of incorporating one-minute information pulls for the committee within different activities throughout SOAR.

“We are trying to work within the boundaries and try to incorporate something more than just a sheet with websites on it,” Higgins said.

The committee also reviewed its progress of waste management and information in campus dorms.

Higgins said the next step for the committee is to talk to student leaders in the dorms about putting up signs temporarily that could become more permanent eventually. He said one of the committee’s goals is to put posters in visible locations on each floor that clearly show what can and cannot be recycled.

The committee also established the name of their student fair at the end of the year to be the “ASM Sustainability Fair.”

This event will take place April 27 from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. with the location to be determined at a later date, Higgins said. The committee’s goal is to have roughly 337 people in attendance, with 30 student organizations that focus on sustainability and environmental issues, he added.

The tentative schedule for the event, as decided by committee representatives, will have the first hour dedicated to a speaker, followed by roughly 45 minutes of fair time with the remaining time dedicated to discussing sustainability issues on campus and brainstorming solutions to these issues.

The committee also discussed potential speakers for the event, including various professors on campus, state representatives and members of the Office of Sustainability.

Higgins said the committee wants to have one locally-known speaker, either from campus or within the community. He added the committee divided this event into three sections: recruitment, media and logistics.

Committee members want this event to be well-publicized on student and academic sources, according to Higgins.

Englebert said this fair provides a great way for lesser-known sustainability organizations on campus to get greater advertisement and gain more recognition.

In terms of recruitment, the committee wants to go in front of large classrooms and spread the word to as many people as possible and to acquire volunteers from those interested.

The ASM Sustainability Committee will participate in a forum held Thursday by the UW Office of Sustainability, Higgins said.