The Sustainability Revolving Loan Fund, which had been rejected two years ago, was unanimously passed by the Student Council last Tuesday.
The proposal for the Sustainability Revolving Loan Fund requests one million dollars for the initial allotment and an additional $1 million after two years if a 20 percent average rate of return is met.
Freshman class President Dan Teran will be meeting with James McGill, senior vice president for finance and administration, this Friday to discuss the oversight of the revolving loan fund.
Currently, a temporary investment pool fund (TIP) exists at Hopkins, in which any department from the University can take out money for use in projects if the project would make back what was borrowed in five years.
But this investment pool is normally used to only fix things because it has such a low budget.
The Hopkins sustainability committee ran testing on the Hopkins Eastern Campus heating but could not pay for fixing the drafts because the TIP fund did not provide them with enough money, although it could have been paid back in less than three years. The TIP fund has a $5 million budget.
"The TIP fund is larger in scope than the sustainability initiative and the TIP was too large and the departmental budgets too small," Teran said.
Harvard established an initiative like the TIP fund in which individual departments applied for money, but later established a campus sustainability initiative.
Harvard University's "Green Campus Loan Fund" serves as an example of a successful revolving loan fund.
Within 30 months, Harvard saved $889,000 and since its creation in 2002, 147 projects of the Green Campus Loan Fund are projected to save Harvard $3,847,587 per year.
"I think if we have a unanimous vote on it, it will send a strong message," Teran said. "Given sufficient administrative support, sustainability revolving loan fund promises to inspire cost effective responsible development for the future of the Johns Hopkins University."
Teran believes there is a need for the revolving fund, especially to accomplish little projects that will save money, projects he calls "seemingly simple things that have tremendous payback."
For example, changing Christmas lights to LED lights and using vegetable oil to fuel a preboiler for our power plants rather than discarding it in a landfill are examples of sustainability projects that will save the campus money.
Senator Evan Lazerowitz supports the bill but is concerned about the expenditure of the money.
"The program and the goal itself are pretty good, but there are many cons. If the sustainability loan fund is not implemented correctly, it could cause problems. Also, a con is the initial investment in terms of the university being reluctant to give out a lot of the money," he said.
Justine Mink, vice president for student life, said, "I think the bill is a very good idea. The University should be at the forefront of making the buildings and infrastructure more sustainable. I would be more hesitant if I hadn't seen a success in Harvard."
Mink continued to say that the sustainability plans in the renovation of Gilman are feasible and should be extended around campus.
"It's nice that the students have a chance to have a say in University building infrastructure and have a bigger impact," she added.
