Why does the student go to see the professor? What does the professor imply about the university’s Green Committee?

Listen to a conversation between a student and his studio art professor. (S = Student, P = Professor)
S: Hi, Professor Jones. Do you have a minute?
P: Sure, Martin. What’s up? It’s about the class assignment this week?
S: No, no. I’m almost done, really enjoying it.
P: I’m glad to hear that.
S: So, well I’ve been talking to some of the other students in our studio art class and we were wondering who’d talk to about maybe buying art’s supplies that are more environmentally safe for the art classes.
P: Well, that’ll be me. As the chair of the art department, I do in saying purchasing decisions but of course everything is voted on by the department faculty. You know we already buy some eco-friendly products, for example, the easels in your painting studio. They’re made of wood from South American eucalyptus trees. The trees grow really fast and new trees grow from the stumps of trees that have already been harvested. How’s that for a renewable resource?
S: I didn’t know that. That’s great. We were thinking about like drawing paper and pencils. There are some really cool companies that use recycled paper to make drawing paper and some pencil companies that make greener products of wood from sustainable forests.
P: Wow, I can see you’ve done some research, and I want you to write a proposal. You can give us a list with the prices of the eco-friendly supplies you’d like the department to consider and the faculty can compare that to the cost of supplies we’re buying now on our next meeting.
S: Oh, yeah, I should have realized that all comes down to cost.
P: Well, yes, in part. I mean we do have a budget for supplies and most of that money has been spent for this year. But you know the university has been allocating extra funds for a lot of eco-friendly initiatives. It’s part of their new Green Campus initiative.
S: Yeah. Solar panels were recently installed on the roof in my dorm. And actually I read an article about the initiative in the campus newspaper. There’s a committee. I think there’s even some student representation that makes the decisions about how the university will implement some environmentally friendly practices.
P: Right. The Green Committee and the solar panels you’ve mentioned are just one of the many things they’ve done. So I don’t know. Given the university’s commitment to becoming more environmentally friendly, and the faculty of university does receive partial funding from the state government to support this initiative. You never know.
S: Okay. Urn, when do you want the figures?
P: Well, the next meeting of the art department faculties is the beginning of next month. It gives you about three weeks. Well, get to work on it right away. Thanks for your help.