On May 14th, 2021, Project 4 Less submitted a report to the Student Sustainability Committee discussing their semesterly progress on areas such as student involvement, outreach and marketing. The report can be viewed below.
On June 7, 2021, Illini EV has completed significant car design work, but they are delayed in receiving funding.
RailSplitter Wind Farm provided the July 2021 Buyer's Share amounts by hour, totaling 685.4 Megawatt hours. See attached file.
All, We’re getting legitimately busy nowadays! We’ll be keeping an eye on overall capacity and having to limit some visitors soon.
I’m scrambling to finish more bikes to capitalize on the surging demand but we’ll likely sell out this week or next.
Over the weekend we’ve gotten over 50 bike registration notifications so it’s likely we’ll see an uptick in registration pick-ups here.
We had a patron come in on Friday who’s an RA at LAR and took all of our rack card flyers to hand out to his students—hopefully that’ll bump up our applications.
The numbers:
Visitors: 41
Sales: $1,362.60
Bikes (refurb): 6 for $940
Memberships: 6 for $180
Tires/tubes: 8 for $42
U-locks: 6 or $126
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator
Light the Night - free bike light giveaway event, is scheduled for September 14, 2021 from 4-7 pm
The following text was removed from this project description, with the update to the iCAP 2020:
"The core component of co-curricular education and sustainability outreach is strong and effective communication; therefore these objectives center around communication.
Pete Varney, Morgan White, Stacey DeLorenzo, Ria Kontou, and Yanfeng Ouyang met on August 12, 2021 to discuss the plans for EV Task Force, its objective, and its leadership. Please see attached the meeting notes.
Also see attached the final report by the EV Charging Task Force and Level 1 Electric Vehicle Charging Implementation in 2018.
Sutapa Banerjee, a Masters in Urban Planning student at U of I, will work with Sarthak Prasad with the Walkability Audit project in 2021-22 as her Capstone Project. She has an undergraduate degree in Architecture from Sir JJ College of Architecture, Mumbai. She joined MUP in Spring 2021.
Kane County Department of Environment and Water Resources, Management Coordinator, Ivy Klee reached out to get some information about solar panels. Specifically, they are proposing a solar project that is across some residential homes. The residents of those houses have growing concerns about living across from an eight acre solar field due to potential radiation. Ivy wants to know if this is a legitimate concern and if there is any research on this subject. Professor and Director at the Grainger Center of Electric Machinery and Electromechanics, Philip Klein, explained that any electromagnetic radiation stems from inverters and wiring, not from the panels themselves. Certified residential inverters must meet FCC Class B limits (similarly to air conditioners and other residential appliances). The only potential concern is communications interference which has only been an issue when solar farms have been installed very close to aircraft navigation radars or military radars. For more information visit: http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy17osti/67440.pdf.
Other information was shared regarding solar PV by Mechanical Engineering Emeritus Professor, Ty Newell:
-As homes electrify (heat pumps for comfort conditioning, heat pumps for water heating and heat pumps for clothes drying), along with EVs (Electric Vehicles), all solar energy (including wind) converted to electricity for powering our homes, buildings and vehicles is released back into the environment at exactly the same amount that was temporarily diverted to keep our food preserved, buildings comfortable, and providing transportation....unlike fossil (stored solar energy) that is an additional release of energy to the environment (along with a lot of other stuff)
-Every dollar removed from fossil fuel related electricity production creates 10 times more jobs in manufacturing and construction for building heat pumps, constructing solar and wind fields, and improving our buildings (~0.2to 0.3jobs per million$ of revenue for fossil fuel industry, similar to investment banks and health insurance companies versus 2-4jobs per million$ of revenue for jobs in manufacturing and construction...Fortune 500 data)
-Improving home and building efficiency will create a surplus of electric energy for a seamless transition to EV transportation
-EVs require about 200square feet of solar array (size of a garage car space) for 10-12,000 miles of driving per year
-The coal industry employs fewer people (less than 8000) in Illinois than the Univ of Illinois graduate each year.....clean energy and sustainable living technologies will provide those jobs
UI Ride shuttle service resumes Aug. 17
August 9, 2021 1:01 PM
Dear colleagues:
Reservations are again being accepted for UI Ride, the convenient University of Illinois System shuttle service that will resume operation on August 17.
This service connects the Urbana-Champaign and Chicago universities and the Discovery Partners Institute. For fall 2021, UI Ride will make two daily round trips, three days a week (Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays). The convenient and comfortable 18-seat buses offer onboard Wi-Fi and work stations, allowing those traveling between campuses time to work rather than focusing on the drive.
UI Ride also encourages and facilitates the growing collaborative efforts between our universities, and I hope you will take advantage of the service for your next trip.
Departure Times:
Urbana
Parking lot E-14 (1802-1834 S. Oak St., Champaign, southeast corner)
7 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Levis Faculty Center (919 W. Illinois St., Urbana)
7:10 a.m. and 3:10 p.m.
North Campus Parking Deck Lot B4 (1201 W. University Ave., Urbana)
7:20 a.m. and 3:20 p.m.
Chicago
UI Health (UIC West Campus, 1740 W. Taylor St., Chicago)
7 a.m. and 3 p.m.
UIC Behavioral Science Building (UIC East Campus, 1007 W. Harrison St., Chicago)
7:15 a.m. and 3:15 p.m.
Illini Center (Discovery Partners Institute, 200 S. Wacker St., Chicago)
7:30 a.m. and 3:20 p.m.
Arrival times are estimated to be 2½ to 3 hours after departures.
UI Ride follows COVID-19 safety protocols for transportation services. Face coverings are required for all riders.
I hope resumption of this transportation service makes your important work less stressful and more productive. I look forward to your feedback and am grateful for everything you do for the U of I System. For more information and FAQs, visit uillinois.edu/uiride.
Sincerely,
Avijit Ghosh
Interim Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Illinois Terminal (45 E. University Ave., Champaign) provides a central transfer point for the local MTD bus service, intercity buses, and Amtrak train service.
Greyhound, Burlington Trailways, Lex Express, Illini Express, and Megabus provide bus service to other cities from the Terminal.
In the 2021 Freezer Challenge, 222 labs participated from over 100 different research institutions across 17 countries. The combined efforts of the scientists and labs saved 4.6 million kWh of electricity over the past year, which is the equivalent of reducing carbon emissions by 3,260 metric tons.
Based on the U of I's submitted scoresheets (33 in total), the combined actions of the university saved a total of 1051 kWh/day across multiple labs throughout campus.
On August 12, 2021, the Illinois Geothermal Coalition hosted it's third webinar in the Geothermal Illinois Series.
The program, Geothermal Illinois: Community Models, discussed (1) decarbonization of the energy sector with a focus on the challenge of decarbonizing commercial and residential heating, (2) geothermal energy at the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District’s Administration Facility and converting a public sector commercial building to geothermal energy, and (3) the process of designing and implementing the community-based education and group purchasing program Geothermal Urbana Champaign.
These topics were covered by the following presenters:
See the recording of the webinar and slide decks:
Additionally, the complete materials from all 3 Geothermal Illinois sessions are available for viewing:
UIC has a Level 3 charging station in a parking garage on the east campus.
On Wednesday, August 12, 2021, Stacey DeLorenzo, Sarthak Prasad, Morgan White, and Avery Maloto met to discuss the Commuter Program.
During the call, the group discussed program logistics, next steps for outreach, and more.
See the attached file to read the meeting notes.
All, This update is a day late as I was out of the office on Monday.
Last week I was out on Thursday and Friday as well. Student staff covered Bike Center hours in my absence. On Monday last week we received a bike from Housing which we were able to quickly fix up and put out for sale.
This week we have a couple drop off repairs to catch up on, a few more bikes to fix up for sale, and some donations to process.
The numbers:
Visitors: 26
Sales: $1,167
Memberships: 6 for $180
Bikes (refurb): 3 for $500
U-locks: 5 for $105
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator
A link to the August Red Oak Rain Garden e-newsletter is provided below.
Please see attached the final bicycle registration sign design in JPEG and PDF formats. We have received approvals from Housing to put up these signs in the major high traffic bicycle parking locations, mainly in the SDRP, LAR, FAR/PAR, and Busey Evans bicycle parking areas. We are also looking at Illini Union and ARC for these signs in this cycle, but dependent on funding.
Sarthak Prasad has submitted a work order to fabricate and install the bike registration signs at these locations (as mentioned in previous project updates). The Work Order number is 10885468.
Dump and Run is BACK! After a 1-year hiatus, the University YMCA is thrilled to once again hold community collections and the Big Sale this August. All collections and the sale will be held at the U of I Stock Pavilion, in cooperation with the College of ACES and Dept. of Animal Sciences.
Dump and Run keeps over 30 tons of used, quality goods out of Champaign-Urbana’s dumpsters and landfills each year. This project reduces litter and consumer waste, saves space in landfills, lowers dumping costs for certified housing and apartments and provides inexpensive items for folks to purchase in the fall.
While we were unable to hold our normal spring collections this past May, we look forward to collecting as many great items as we can from our community and hope that you will join us in helping find usable goods a new home. Thanks to the community and the University of Illinois for making Dump & Run a success each year, and we will see you this August!
(From the YMCA Dump and Run website) More information here
August 2021 Collection Days:
All collections will be held at the UI Stock Pavilion, located at 1402 W. Pennsylvania Ave, Urbana IL, beginning on Monday, August 2.
Monday Aug. 2: noon - 4:00pm
Tuesday Aug. 3 - Friday Aug. 6: 9:00am - 4:00pm. Late collection on Wednesday Aug. 4 until 7:00pm
Saturday, Aug. 7: 10:00am - 2:00pm
Monday Aug. 9 - Friday August 13: 9:00am - 4:00pm. Late collection on Wednesday Aug. 11 until 7:00pm
Saturday, Aug. 14: 10:00am - 2:00pm
FINAL collection day, Monday Aug. 16: 9:00am - 4:00pm
Check out the YMCA Dump and Run website for more information.
Please look at the piece about student recycling at the U of Kentucky in the attached link.
https://www.asumag.com/green/sustainability-initiatives/article/21168170/profiles-july-2021
