Temple Hoyne Buell Hall (TBH), built in 1996, was constructed to allow natural light into most classroom, studio, and office spaces in the building.  The building has no automatic lighting controls, however. In order to reduce energy use associated with lighting and cooling within the building, occupancy sensors, daylight sensors, and lighting timers will be installed. LED fixtures will be installed in a small part of the building and LED exit signs will replace the incandescent and fluorescent exit signs.

The Student Dining and Residential Programs Building (SDRP), constructed in 2010, was built to LEED silver certification, but continued improvements to the facility could enhance its green capabilities even further. The lighting system at SDRP has been identified as an area in which minor upgrades could be very beneficial to supporting the energy reduction goals of the iCAP.

TakeTheBike.com is a mobile website created by Professor Ming Kuo’s Fall 2012 environmental psychology class. The website is meant to help cyclists in Champaign-Urbana get around more safely and efficiently, and to encourage more people to bike.

Features of the site includes resources for repairing your bike, resources about safety, information and tips from cyclists in Champaign-Urbana, and an interactive Google map that shows resources for cyclists.

The Illinois Student Senate Environmental Sustainability Subcommittee has a vested interest in promoting environmentally responsible campus policies and projects in an effort to encourage responsible and sustainable practices at the University of Illinois. One of the projects which our committee has been discussing since the beginning of the semester has been encouraging the student body to wean off of disposable water bottles and promoting reusable water bottles, with the greater goal of curbing litter and wasteful discarding of recyclable bottling materials.

The University of Illinois Medicine Take-Back Program is a part of the larger Champaign-Urbana Area Medicine Take-Back Program. The program provides a legal and sustainable way to dispose of medicine, which helps to prevent accidental poisoning of children, the elderly, and pets; reduce drug abuse, misuse, and diversion; and limit the amount of pharmaceutical chemicals entering the environment.

EnviroPure is a food waste elimination system that is a self-contained unit that can be continually fed food waste and dispose the waste. The system is designed to solve the environmental, operations, and economic issues associated with the disposal of food waste. The unit keeps optimal temperatures and oxygen levels for aerobic decomposition to take place more quickly. This results in a complete elimination of food waste without odors, sludge build-up, and system clean out requirements.

Several other LED replacement projects also took place in 2012. In the Krannert Art Museum Gallery (LINK Gallery) renovation, 62 LED fixtures were installed. Track lighting in the Henry Administration was replaced with LEDs. LEDs were also installed in the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center conference room.

Exterior lighting was installed at multiple locations in 2012, with more locations planned for the future. LED fixtures to increase illumination around doorways are installed at Talbot Lab, the Computer Applications Building, Roger Adams Lab, and the Vivarium. Entry canopy lighting at the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC) and Allen Hall are also upgraded to LED fixtures.

Construction on a state-of-the-art facility for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) began on October 7, 2011. One of the features of the building is the use of LED bulbs in over half of the lighting fixtures. Nick Holonyak, University alumnus and inventor of the first practical visible-spectrum LED, is the John Bardeen Endowed Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics.

The 550 lighting fixtures in the lobby of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts were replaced with energy efficient LED fixtures in 2010. The new fixtures are projected to use 132,000 kilowatt-hours and cost $12,500 annually. This cost is about a fifth of the old system’s cost. The newer fixtures also lower cooling and maintenance costs. Another aspect of the installation is a computerized mixing feature that allows Krannert staff to change of the lighting color of each bulb to create a unique atmosphere in the building.