MSTE lunch presentation on renewables
Morgan Johnston gives a MSTE Friday Lunch presentation called "Renewable Energy at the University of Illinois".
Morgan Johnston gives a MSTE Friday Lunch presentation called "Renewable Energy at the University of Illinois".
Last chance to learn about solar at a Power Hour tomorrow at Common Ground
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The Office for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education in the College of Education hosted Morgan Johnston as a guest speaker on February 27. One part of the overall Climate Action Plan is to increase the use of renewable energy generation for our campus power requirements. This presentation reviewed the progress toward increased use of renewables for our campus, and discussed current efforts underway, including the forthcoming Solar Farm.
The first formal meeting with the Student Sustainability Leadership Council (SSLC) under iSEE's guidance was an introductory meeting about iSEE and the proposed iCAP SWATeams.
The meeting was called by and coordinated by:
The key points discussed included an overview of iSEE's goals and structure, education and outreach plans, and an overview of the SWATeams.
Morgan Johnston met with a delegation from Mumbai, India, to tell them how we are making our campus more sustainable.
Jack Dempsey has been asked to speak to two different delegations this June about the same topic. The first group is from a group of private universities in India, sponsored by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), and is coming on a program promoted by Pradeep Khanna and his staff in Corporate Relations. The second group is from a group of institutions in Pakistan with whom we have had a longstanding relationship: COMSATS Institutes of Information Technology.
At the spring iCAP Forum, sustainability staff presented a status update about progress towards meeting our commitments in the Illinois Climate Action Plan. This included a broad overview of the various initiatives that are currently underway and a summary of the next steps in this process. After the presentation, participants were asked to work in groups to provide feedback about setting priorities for further iCAP implementation. A summary of the feedback will be available after the Spring 2012 semester.
The April CCNet meeting featured local active transportation advocates Cynthia Hoyle and Gary Cziko, discussing bicycles, bike safety education opportunities, and the importance of bicycle infrastructure improvements.
Engineering News Record is doing a story on the University of Illinois about green buildings/LEED certification.
Daily Illini article about campus sustainability progress.
Staff created flowcharts for sustainability themes, as preliminary step to filling in the content on the Sustainability Portal website. Staff provided field definitions and sample data for the database tables that will be available through the portal. Also, we met with staff from MSTE and drafted the page layouts for the website, which will be shared at the iCAP Forum in April.
We participated in meeting with representatives from Columbia, Missouri about their transit goals. Articles were written about the visit: http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2012/mar/13/gold-standard/, http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2012/03/13/final-bus-trip/, and http://wjf.im/xkmY5f.
We also provided information to Arizona State University about our bike registration system and intentions.
On February 16, CCNet hosted Angela Adams, the Recycling Coordinator at the City of Champaign, to explain the proposed bag ban in the city; Pattsi Petrie, a Champaign County Board Member, to discuss local foods; Mike Monson, the Urbana Chief of Staff, to explain the Electrical Aggregation proposal; and Marya Ryan, from the Urbana Sustainability Advisory Commission to review the City of Urbana’s Climate Action Plan.
Staff facilitated meetings with students and staff about potential letters of support for the City of Champaign Single Use Disposable Paper and Plastic Bags study item.
In an effort to standardize emissions calculations throughout the community and county, staff met with transportation planners from the Regional Planning Commission to share information about calculating transportation emissions.
Staff continued working with the Office for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education (MSTE) on the sustainability portal. The portal will host a database of the iCAP/sustainability projects for campus, with searchable details about the projects, people, funding, and metrics.
Staff met with Inside Illinois to develop an article about campus sustainability. The article is online at http://news.illinois.edu/ii/12/0301/sustainability.html.
The Alumni Magazine included a story about being a Bronze Level Bicycle Friendly University.
Office of Sustainability staff spent some time reviewing recruiting materials that is sent out by admissions. Efforts are underway to determine the best place to highlight sustainability in these publications.
Office of Sustainability Staff have posted the Fall 2011 Progress report to its website, along with the greenhouse gas inventories under the ‘Illinois Climate Action Plan’ section.
Sustainability staff met with Corporate Relations to discuss the potential for developing a database of sustainability research at Illinois. Corporate Relations already has a database for water related research that is very detailed. Future meetings are planned to move forward with this project.
The Office of Sustainability hosted the first monthly CCNet Sustainability meeting of 2012 on January 19. The meeting had 39 attendees, including faculty, staff, students, local government employees, and members of the community. There was a presentation and discussion led by SEDAC about the organization’s work and national energy trends. CCNet Meetings will continue throughout 2012, taking place at noon on the third Thursday of each month, at the Natural Resources Building, room 101.
Sustainability employees from campus, Urbana, Champaign and the Regional Planning Commission (RPC) continue to collaborate. In January, we discussed each agency’s respective greenhouse gas inventories. It was decided that Champaign and Urbana will include any University emissions which fall within their respective jurisdictional boundaries in their city-wide reports. For the purposes of local reporting, the University will be considered a separate entity that overlays both cities, similar to any other business entity, rather than a distinct jurisdiction. It was also decided that a separate meeting will be necessary to specifically address transportation-related emissions and how each entity is tracking and reporting on these.
The YMCA/YWCA on Wright Street requested a meeting to discuss their sustainability efforts and how the University may be able to assist. They are working on building improvements and changes to their parking and outdoor space. We gave them suggestions of people they may want to contact for input and advice.
Sustainability staff attended an Illinois Green Business Association (IGBA) networking event and talked with IGBA board members about potential future collaborations.
The City of Champaign Recycling Coordinator requested information about the impacts of plastic and paper bags on campus facilities and the campus waste stream. She also requested letters of support for a bag ban from student environmental groups.
Sustainability staff attend monthly conference calls/webinars of the Governor’s Green Universities and Colleges subcommittee. In January, there was a presentation at ISTC about weatherization of campus buildings, and the disconnect between LEED certification and weatherization practices.
The OS is working with MSTE to develop the Illinois Sustainability Portal, an online hub for sustainability-related information on the Urbana-Champaign campus. We met with MSTE several times in January to develop the site architecture and database structure for the site. A preview of the site will be shared during Earth Week (April 16-20). When complete, the portal will be the go-to place for people to learn about all iCAP projects and goals, to submit ideas for consideration, and to research historical data about emissions and other sustainability metrics. Additionally, project leaders will be able to report to the OS on their progress and plans. We envision this to be an incredibly useful tool going forward.