SSC Semesterly Report: Illini Union Recycling Center Shadow Boxes
SSC received a semesterly report for Spring 2021 for Illini Union Recycling Shadow Boxes project on 9/15/2021. Please see attached.
SSC received a semesterly report for Spring 2021 for Illini Union Recycling Shadow Boxes project on 9/15/2021. Please see attached.
SSC received semesterly report for Spring 2021 for the Illini Formula Electric project on 9/17/2021. Please see attached.
SSC received semesterly report for Spring 2021 for the Root to Roof project on 9/16/2021. Please see attached.
Cynthia Klein-Banai, Assistant Vice-Chancellor and Director of Sustainability at UIC, provided this summary of UIC's interest in Solar Farm 3.0:
"Rob Roman approached VC Coronado last fall about lending support to their efforts to amend the DUP in order to allow for renewable energy procurement, specifically through a Power Purchase agreement. The evaluation of the project was referred to the Office of Planning, Sustainability and Project Management and to Campus Utilities and Energy Services. It was determined that these groups were not only interested in supporting the amendment but also in participating in the RFP process to procurement 80,000 MWh/yr of renewable electricity through a Power Purchase agreement (aka Solar Farm 3.0) for a project in Illinois. On February 3, 2021, John Coronado, VCAS, Dave Taeyaerts, Associate Director of Planning, Sustainability and Project Management, and Cynthia Klein-Banai, Assistant Vice Chancellor and Director of Sustainability met with Chancellor Amiridis to gain his approval for this. Chancellor Amiridis said he was supportive of both the amendment change and engaging in the RFP process together with UIUC."
From: Majerus, Elizabeth
Sent: Thursday, September 16, 2021 12:25 PM
To: White, Morgan
Cc: Gharpure, Prajakta Milind; Kovitz, Kyle Paige; Low, Khee; Davis, Peter ; Collins, Halie Jean; Kroencke, Janet Lynn
Subject: Re: Following up with Solar Decathalon Design Team
Hi Prajakta, Peter, Khee, and Kyle,
I really loved the work you did on envisioning an energy efficient retorfit and addtion for Uni High's beautiful historic building. Uni will be moving forward in the next five years with a fundraising plan for an expansion and update of our building, and we'd love to be able to consult with some or all of you as we lay that groundwork.
Halie, we'd also love to have any current ISD students/staff involved, if there's interest. I'm also CCing our Director of Advancement, Janet Kroenke, who will be in the lead of the fundraising efforts that will make our future building update possible.
Please let me know if you'd like to be part of a conversation about drawing on the Uni High Solar Decathalon Design project for our future planning.
Take care,
Elizabeth
___________________
Elizabeth Majerus, Ph.D.
[She/her]
University Laboratory High School
Provost/VCAA Admin
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
From: White, Morgan
Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2021 10:00 AM
To: Majerus, Elizabeth
Cc: Gharpure, Prajakta Milind; Kovitz, Kyle Paige; Low, Khee; Davis, Peter; Collins, Halie Jean
Subject: RE: Following up with Solar Decathalon Design Team
Hi Elizabeth!
This is great to hear. And congratulations on being named the Director.
I’m copying all the students you named, and the current ISD lead, Halie Collins. Please let me know if there is anything else I can help with!
Thanks,
Morgan
======================================
MORGAN B. WHITE
Associate Director of F&S for Sustainability
Facilities & Services | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1501 S Oak Street (MC-800) | Champaign, IL 61820
fs.illinois.edu/services/sustainability
From: Majerus, Elizabeth
Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 2021 12:06 PM
To: White, Morgan
Subject: Following up with Solar Decathalon Design Team
Hi Morgan,
I'm interested in following up on the wonderful Solar Decathalon project that the student design team presented on in May 2020. This was something that I had hoped to do during the 2020-21 school year, but the pandemic really shifted my expectations and task list.
I wondered if you might have contact information for any of the students who worked on the Uni project. Prajakta Gharpure, Khee Kim Low, Peter Davis, Kyle Kovitz were the students who presented that day.
We are hoping to stay in our present Uni building, and ideas like those that these students shared are an inspiration for what might be possible in terms of the greater space and updated infrastructure we'll need to sustain our school.
Thanks for any help you can offer on this.
Take care,
Elizabeth
This is a list of projects that need students to work on. It will be updated periodically by sustainability staff members, the last update was 9/16/21:
This project is a collaboration with the Illinois State Section of the American Planning Association; we have been asked to create a community land use and revitalization plan for a small town in Kankakee County. It is a rural community, predominantly people of color, originally settled by folks leaving the South during the Great Migration. There are many layers to the story, but it is ultimately a story of environmental equity as The Nature Conservancy and Field Museum have been collaborating with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to acquire land to create the Black Oak Savana nature preserve. The majority of residents are opposed to this preserve, primarily because land has been purchased via tax sale and foreclosure, therefore taking land out of Black ownership. This also further burdens remaining property owners because the nature preserve land becomes tax exempt, shifting the property taxes that are no longer paid on nature preserve property to a smaller and smaller portion of land owners.
Students interested in this project could assist with GIS analysis and help identify opportunities to balance environmental sustainability goals and land preservation with social and economic sustainability goals and to identify economic opportunities that accomplish all three. Contact Lacey Rains Lowe at lacey.rains <at> champaignil.gov.
Expand on existing statistical analysis with ArcGIS and spreadsheets of potential race/income disparities in provision of street trees, sidewalks, urban heat, parks, bus stops, etc. Data sets provided. Contact is Scott Tess at srtess <at> urbanaillinois.us.
LIVESTOCK FACILITY DECOMMISSIONING at the Imported Swine Research Laboratory - The push to expand the UI Research Park will require decommissioning of the waste lagoons associated with the Imported Swine Research Laboratory (ISRL). This presents an nice opportunity for a class to develop and design a decommissioning plan with associated costs and timeline. Colleen Ruhter is the point of contact, cruhter <at> illinois.edu.
If you have a project idea, please contact us at sustainability@illinois.edu, or submit it through the iCAP Portal Suggestions page.
Charge letter from Interim iSEE Director, Madhu Khanna, to the Education iCAP Team for the 2021-2022 academic year.
“Dear Faculty Members,
I hope you and your students are enjoying a safe start to the academic year.
EPA is pleased to launch its 10th annual Campus RainWorks Challenge, a green infrastructure design competition for American colleges and universities that seeks to engage with the next generation of environmental professionals and showcase the environmental, economic, and social benefits of green infrastructure practices. Stormwater pollution is a problem that impacts public health and water quality in communities across the country. The Campus RainWorks Challenge invites today’s students to be part of the solution.
To learn more about Campus RainWorks check out the official 2021 Campus RainWorks Challenge Competition Brief. The brief contains details on the challenge's design categories, submission requirements, and rules for participation.
Calendar
Registration: September 1 – October 1, 2021
Deadline for Entries: December 10, 2021
Winners Announced: Spring 2022
Please share this announcement with college students and faculty in your networks. If you have questions about the Campus RainWorks Challenge please direct them to RainWorks@epa.gov.
I hope that you and your students will consider participating and help celebrate 10 years of Campus RainWorks.”
-Matt King
“Good afternoon: several of you were involved in an email chain about establishing a interdisciplinary student chapter of the IAFSM, others were involved in the USEPA Campus Rainworks Challenge in previous years, others have been part of the ISEE Land & Water SWATteam. I am writing to see if we can coordinate among our disciplines/departments and help interested students put together a team for this challenge.
As you know, in 2017 UIUC won this design competition with a team that represented many disciplines across campus. I strongly believe that our success in 2017 was directly related to the many disciplines/perspectives of the team. I have forwarded the announcement for this challenge to students in my classes and already have a few that are interested. I am hoping that this year we can help our students from our different disciplines connect for this challenge. I am willing to serve as a faculty advisor; I think it would be great if we could have advisors representing our different areas. Please let me know your thoughts/interest in this.
Thanks for your consideration.”
-Art Schmidt
“Hey Professor Schmidt,
Thank you so much for working at this! Sorry for not responding right away. We are interested and I just asked the group if they would like to meet with you (web meet) next week. I figure they will, but it’s nice to ask. What is your availability? Did you get much feedback from other campus sectors? Rolph Pendall seemed very interested.”
-Brian Chaille (09/14/2021)
“Hi, Brian:
Really good to hear from you. I would love to meet and see what can happen. I had about half dozen CEE students express interest. Eliana Brown said that she would be happy to help. No response yet from anyone else. I wonder if some other groups/areas are already doing a team by themselves or more likely my email got buried in all the beginning of semester emails. I really hope that we can get a cross-disciplinary cohort of students interested in this. I’ve copied many of the people from the original email in case this did get lost in the shuffle.”
-Art Schmidt (09/14/2021)
“Hi all, especially faculty/instructors:
To back up Prof. Schmidt's comments in his original email, I strongly encourage the CEE students to work together with LA and UP students on the Campus RainWorks Challenge. For obvious reasons, it makes the project stronger, the solutions better, and helps the students gain an experience of the working world and appreciation for the skills, knowledge, and talents across campus. Other disciplines would enhance the project further.
What's the easiest way for the CEE students to meet potential collaborators outside of their disciplines? Back in 2017 while guest lecturing for LA 452, I invited the CEEs to pitch the project for 5 min and they did the rest. Could be as simple as that. As Art mentions below, that team won first prize.
I added Bridgette Moen, current LA 452 instructor, to this email. And Prof. Andrea Faber-Taylor as her students in HORT 344 Biodiversity and Aesthetics may be interested too.”
-Eliana Brown (09/15/2021)
Attached is a letter from the president of the Arbor Day Foundation congratulating our campus for once again receiving recognition as a Tree Campus Higher Education institution.
Bike Day 2021 was organized on September 14, 2021! Here are some of the numbers from the events from Bike Day 2021.
Bike to Work Day:
Light the Night:
General feedback was very positive from the campus community members. Several mentioned that holding these events in September felt like a welcoming event and gave the returning and new students an opportunity to explore the campus and community on bike and learn about the bike program at the beginning of school year!
The Bike Month Planning team and Light the Night Planning teams are considering organizing both of these events in the fall semester going forward.
President of "Students for Environmental Concerns", Alec Van Patten, reached out to propose a green rooftop project for a building on campus. Morgan White replied suggesting the Newmark Civil Engineering Lab first floor roof as the building for the project. A meeting to discuss further details was scheduled between Morgan White, Alec Van Patten, Betry Liggett, and Brent Lewis.
Picture of the Newmark Civil Engineering Lab roof is attached.
Today, Madhu Khanna, Interim Director for the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment distributed the following charge letter to the members of the iCAP Transportation team.
Today, Madhu Khanna, Interim Director for the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment distributed the following charge letter to the members of the iCAP Energy team.
iSEE's Interim Director Madhu Khanna sent the Zero Waste iCAP Team a formal charge letter on Tuesday, September 14 detailing their campus sustainability duties this academic year. Full letter is attached.
iSEE's Interim Director Madhu Khanna sent the Engagement iCAP Team a formal charge letter on Tuesday, September 14 detailing their campus sustainability duties this academic year. Full letter is attached.
Charge letter from Interim Director Madhu Khanna to the Land and Water iCAP Team for the 2021-2022 academic year
iSEE's Interim Director Madhu Khanna sent the Resilience iCAP Team a formal charge letter on Tuesday, September 14 detailing the team's responsibilities for the upcoming year. The letter is attached.
Scott Tess, at the City of Urbana presented the results of an analysis of tree canopy as it related to environmental justice at the Sustainability Advisory Commission meeting for the City of Urbana. Follow the link below for the results!
https://www.urbanaillinois.us/node/9608
From: Hiser, Daniel William <dwhiser@illinois.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2021 9:25 AM
To: Trimble, Syd <sydneyt2@illinois.edu>; Varney, Peter W <pvarney@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: Sensor Pilot Update?
*Update
I don’t have access to the app that would allow me to program the RFID tags. The tags were purchased from atlasRFIDstore.com and the watch that is supposed to do something with them is SLS RFID Solutions www.slsrfid.com. I took a minimal amount of time to try to piece those clues together with no success and have not returned to the subject. The system is still just a pilot and will remain as such until we have a dedicated Zero Waste Coordinator.
The arm system on our truck had the ARM400 and power cable go bad on it so between calls with loadman to diagnose the issue and for them to finally get us the parts resulted in a 3-month lapse in data and the parts are evidently not covered under warranty (not that it's significant other than I think they should be) The system itself when working “properly” requires frequent calibration and it “learns” the driver. This is not good for us as drivers change and the results are frequent negative loads and misreadings.
I think you can get data from these trucks to an extent, but at the same time I would be hesitant to use it as a method to charge customers or with great certainty know the weights are accurate. At this time we are not equipped to consistently troubleshoot the system or have garage staff on standby to fix issues with the system as they arise. Long story short, it's almost good at what it's supposed to do but it will require more babysitting than I am willing to put into it at this time.
Thank you,
Dan Hiser
F&S Fleet Operations
Direct (217) 300-8545
From: Sydney Trimble <sydneyt2@illinois.edu>
Sent: Friday, September 10, 2021 2:22 PM
To: Hiser, Daniel William <dwhiser@illinois.edu>; Varney, Peter W <pvarney@illinois.edu>
Subject: Fwd: Sensor Pilot Update?
Sounds like we gotta talk about this pretty soon. Dan, hopefully you got the time to come up with an update on this?
Best,
Syd
From: Janssen, April Lynn <alj5@illinois.edu>
Date: Fri, Sep 10, 2021 at 1:55 PM
Subject: Sensor Pilot Update?
To: Trimble, Syd <sydneyt2@illinois.edu>
Cc: Samaras, Zach <zsamaras@illinois.edu>
Hi Sydney,
I hope this new semester and planning for your October audit is going great!
Quick question for you, we know from Shantanu (and keep referencing admirably) that F&S is/was implementing a six-month pilot program with weighing sensors installed on the lift arms a waste hauling truck, and that the weight recording, paired with the bar codes on each dumpster, enabled the University to track the weight of material collected from each dumpster. You know this story.
The point - could you provide us a brief update on how that’s going? Is the pilot over or is this now a standard practice? Is it Sensoneo technology or another? I definitely want to stop by next time I am in Champaign and see how this all works 😊 We just spoke with a hauler on that services a university here in Chicago and they could definitely benefit from this technology.
Enjoy your weekend!
April
APRIL JANSSEN MAHAJAN
Sustainability Specialist
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Prairie Research Institute
Illinois Sustainable Technology Center
217-244-0469 | alj5@illinois.edu
www.istc.illinois.edu
Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act any written communication to or from university employees regarding university business is a public record and may be subject to public disclosure.
Reduce Energy Use on Campus By Going ‘Green’
The start of the semester is the perfect time to "green" our campus environment! Visit the Certified Greener Campus Programs page to learn about simple steps students, faculty, and staff can take to improve the sustainability of their workspaces, activities, and living environments through the Certified Green Office, Certified Green Events, and Certified Green Chapter programs.
Facilities & Services and iSEE have also developed a Greener Labs Inventory Toolkit to help analyze the energy used by lab equipment and identify opportunities for more sustainable lab practices. Together, all of these programs support the Illinois Climate Action Plan's goal of reducing energy consumption and promoting campus sustainability!