Engineering 315, Learning in the Community (LINC), has a number of course sections dedicated to sustainability this semester, including UI Bikes (UIB), for which Facilities & Services is serving as the Project Partner. The UIB section has two student project managers and 13 undergraduate students, who will be focusing on three bicycle-related projects this semester: A. the continuation of the bike sharing market analysis started last semester, including a campus-wide survey and targeted focus groups; B. the development of a campus bicycle parking map; and C. testing various marketing tactics to try to encourage students to park their bikes legally at designated bike parking, rather than on trees, signs, ramps, or fences.

F&S and the Campus Bike Project (CBP) met with an MBA class who agreed to help the CBP become fiscally self-supporting through improved marketing. There are two student teams who will review this topic in the context of all bicycle-related topics for campus.

Logistics are underway for the Spring, 2012 offering of the Teaching Sustainability Workshop (previously the Prairie Project).  There will be an opening reception and keynote speaker on Friday, April 13 at Levis Center and the workshop will be held on April 14, 2012 at the Japan House.  The call for applications went out on January 25 with applications due by March 9.  In two days, we had already received 11 applications and are now up to 15.  This is the quickest response we have had to date.

The Scholarship of Sustainability Series is currently being offered for the third year.  The series is connected with 4 courses from 3 different colleges in addition to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.  Attendance each Thursday is expected to be around 100 people as the enrollment in the 4 courses are full (and the series will not be videotaped.)

Last fall, the SSC suggested an MOU with the Office of Sustainability regarding the hiring of a curriculum specialist to work one-on-one with faculty to integrate sustainability into the curriculum.  The OS submitted a letter of inquiry for committee response on January 27, 2012.

The Sustainability Coalition met with Chancellor Wise on January 30.  The students delivered a PowerPoint presentation describing what they would like to see from the Office of Sustainability, including specifically an OS with authority and capacity, a full time director, and an entity separate from the proposed Center for a Sustainable Environment.  They shared sustainability structures from other universities to help illustrate this point.  The Chancellor did not promise anything, but indicated she would take their input into consideration.

The Sustainability Council comprised of senior leadership and two student members also met on January 30.  Though there were other agenda items, the focus was largely on the proposed Center for a Sustainable Environment, its structure, leadership, etc.  There was also discussion regarding the possibility of an Office of Sustainability separate from the Center, and questions about where those resources would come from.

In continuation of the ACES conversations that began in the fall, staff met with Dr. Jeff Brawn, Head of NRES.  He indicated that NRES sees themselves as “cheerleaders” for the sustainability efforts on campus and they look forward to working with the OS over the coming months and years.

The battery recycling program is being expanded to four locations across campus, for both rechargeable batteries and single-use alkaline batteries. Facilities & Services confirmed participation, developed a fact sheet and instructional kit for participating locations, and has committed to funding the program up to $10,000 each fiscal year. The containers for the program will be ordered in February. 

The F&S Energy and Production Distribution Master Plan was kicked off in January.  This plan is the first step to achieving the goal of not burning coal at Abbott Power Plant by 2017. The plan will be developed over the course of calendar year 2012 and will include specific projects and cost estimates for implementing the plan in five-year increments. 

The Krannert Center for Performing Arts is seeking funding from the SSC for solar installations on their building.  They will be submitting a full proposal to SSC in March, and they will work with sustainability staff to submit a DCEO grant application under the Program Year 2013 Renewable Energy Production Program.

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.

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.

ECI (Environmental Change Institute) provided Facilities and Services with a list of 25 potential buildings for real-time meter upgrades.

SSC allocated $100,000 to the Illini Union Revolving Loan Pool.

see attached professional report from the Hort club.

Tracking of to do items for Sustainability, before development of iCAP Portal.

From: Thomas Ferrarell [mailto:tjferrarell@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2012 10:27 PM
To: Allen, Amy E; Beverage, McKenzie; Johnston, Morgan B
Subject: Re: Weatherization

I met with Dean, and I e-mailed all the groups, I'll send Julie a copy. I'll need to stop by McKenzie's office early this week to get their documents back so they can begin working on their lists. I'll also touch base with the additional buildings tomorrow morning before giving the teams their next assignments.

Dean gave me a new timeline. He would like the recommendation lists by February 1st. He'll give the lists to people that will find the money values for the line items. He estimates that will take roughly 2 weeks. Once that is done, we will meet with all the team leaders and have a conversation about how to best use the $50,000. We were going to set that meeting somewhere in the ball park of February 20th. So right around then is when we'll be done.

-Thomas Ferrarell

On Sun, Jan 22, 2012 at 9:15 PM, Amy Allen <allen16@illinois.edu> wrote:

Hey Tom,
       Were you able to get in touch w the teams about doing more buildings & presentations to Dean? Just an FYI, SECS' temporary weatherization group leader is Julie Fry(<fry6@illinois.edu>).
Best,
Amy

 A food-waste audit was done at University Housing facilities, which involved collecting and weighing waste from student’s plates that was put into the trash, as opposed to the disposal. Once the bag reached a full level, it was weighted and recorded. The weights measured food scraps and napkins, but not liquids. The average waste was about 4.6 ounces per person.

The SSC suggested they could contribute $200k and DCEO could contribute $600k. 

This is the first version of sharing an overview of the work jointly completed by sustainability staff at the Office of Sustainability (now the Center for a Sustainable Environment) and Facilities & Services.

The energy dashboard for UIUC was launched Monday, December 5, 2011. The site provides data and information to students and staff about selected University building's energy consumption rate.  Real-time energy use for electricity, heating (steam), and cooling (chilled water) are displayed.