Sustainability is a living-learning community that welcomes students to live and learn about diverse aspects of sustainability in a variety of ways: academically, organically, and experientially. Located on two floors in the Lincoln Avenue Residence Halls, students with similar interests and intents from a range of different backgrounds are invited to experience this new community, where opportunities abound to learn not only from professionals, but from each other and from shared experiences.

For many years, the UI has grown significant quantities of biomass plant products at the Energy Farm on South Farms. There have been a few preliminary attempts to identify a post-research use for this material, including the cancelled Vet Med Combined Heat and Power (CHP) project and a study of the compatibility with existing boilers at Abbott Power Plant.  Meanwhile the biomass material continues to be stockpiled at the Energy Farm. This project is looking to convert the existing (and future) biomass from the Energy Farm into power for the on-site Energy Farm facility.

Bousfield Hall LEED® Certified: Bousfield Hall, which opened in Fall 2013, became the third university facility to achieve LEED Platinum status, the U.S. Green Building Council’s highest certification level, joining the Business Instructional Facility and Lincoln Hall.

The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center a division of the Prairie Research Institute is part of a pilot project on the University of Illinois campus that will explore methods to capture carbon dioxide from the gas- and coal-fired Abbott Power Plant. The ultimate goal is to reduce CO2 emissions and developing industrial markets that would reuse the recovered CO2. The Department of Energy is funding the $1.3 million engineering and planning phase, representing the DOE’s first sponsorship of a large-scale research and development project for the capture of CO2 emissions.

For many departments on campus, energy and utility costs do not impact research, teaching, or departmental budgets.  The  academic departments are supplied with utilities through the campus administrative budget.  For these departments, an incentive program has been implemented to encourage these units to conserve energy. 

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Facilities Standards shall be applied for all remodeling and new construction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  These Standards are intended to achieve the value consistent with an institute of higher education.  Where these Standards exceed minimum Code and/or Capital Development Board (CDB) requirements, the Standards shall apply.  Where the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Facilities Standards and CDB

Campus researchers are installing a geothermal monitoring well in the northwest corner of the John Bardeen Quad during December 2018.  The borehole will be 450 feet deep and it will allow campus to investigate the applicability of using geothermal heat exchange at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The Ikenberry Commons Dining Hall was awarded the LEED Silver Certification on August 17, 2011. The dining hall received 34 of the 69 possible points on the LEED Scorecard. Energy saving features of the facility include recycled content in 20 percent of the materials used to construct the building; water-efficient plumbing fixtures; energy-efficient lighting, heating, and cooling; low-VOC paints, coatings, and sealants; and a white reflective roof that reduces the need for cooling.

The Illinois Natural History Survey was awarded the LEED Silver Certification on August 1, 2012. The building received 36 of the 69 possible points. With a staff of over 200 scientists and technicians, the Illinois Natural History Survey is recognized as the premier natural history survey in the nation. The resources needed to effectively support the Survey have changed considerably since their current headquarters building was completed in 1942.  

The Lincoln Hall Renovation was originally awarded the LEED Gold Certification on July 9, 2010. As of November 2013 the project has achieved LEED Platinum Certification having achieved 52 of the 69 possible points on the LEED Scorecard and becoming the second LEED Platinum Building on the U of I campus. The construction was especially strong in the Energy & Atmostphere, having achieved 14 of out 17  possible points in that area with ten of those for optimizing energy performance. 

Nugent Hall (the Champaign Housing Residence Halls Phase A) was awarded the LEED Silver Certification on January 20, 2011. Nugent received 34 of the 69 possible points on the LEED Scorecard. The construction was especially strong in the Indoor Environmental Quality, receiving 13 of the 15 possible points in that area. Nagle Hartray was selected as the Architect of Record in order to ease the transition in the unusual project delivery approach.

Retrocommissioning (RCx) is an analysis of a building's Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning systems as well as their maintenance program. The purpose of this group is to restore the most favorable operating conditions while optimizing energy conservation, sustainability, and client comfort satisfaction. This group is important on our campus because deferred maintenance is becoming very detrimental to campus buildings.

The 20.8 acre Solar Farm on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign South Farms is a Power Purchase Agreement with Phoenix Solar South Farms, LLC, producing an estimated 7, 864 MWh/year of solar energy used solely by the Urbana campus.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign built a Thermal Energy Storage (TES) tank for the Campus Chilled Water System
(CCWS). The tank is located on South Oak Street in Champaign, adjacent to the NCSA Petascale Computing Facility.

The 6.5 million gallon tank will help meet ~7,000 tons of additional cooling requirements for building projects being completed in 2010.
Anticipated loads include:

“University Housing is pleased and proud to have been awarded LEED Gold certification for Wassaja Hall,” said University Housing Director Alma R. Sealine. “This is just one more example of our commitment to sustainability and resident-centered design, and this recognition is an honor.”

To achieve its Gold-level certification, Wassaja Hall was judged on several factors, including water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, and innovation.

Among the Wassaja Hall LEED highlights:

The Campus Bicycle Center — a collaboration between the University of Illinois and The Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign — is dedicated to empowering individuals with knowledge about how to repair and maintain bicycles and encouraging mode-shift away from single-occupancy vehicles.  This educational center offers hands-on experiential learning that students can’t get in a classroom.  By empowering people with the ability to fix a bicycle and providing a connection between the campus and the community, the Bicycle Center promotes bicycling, collaboration, and community spirit.

Bicycle lanes, paths, parking and repair stations all help to make the campus more bicycle-friendly, and encourages campus users to travel and commute by bike. The University is working to improve existing features, and aims to create a network of high quality infrastructure that supports, encourages, and enables safe bicycling behavior. 

In this region of the electric grid, an electric vehicle typically emits fewer GHG emissions than a conventional gas-fueled vehicle of similar size. The Parking Department is supporting sustainability through implementation of public use electric vehicle charging spaces, with 20 “Level 1” charging spaces now on campus, and began installing “Level 2” stations in 2015. The campus could support additional electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are a focus of the University’s continuing efforts in reducing fossil fuel emissions. Petroleum-based vehicles are powered exclusively by fossil fuels, while electric vehicles are powered by a range of energy sources including fossil fuels, nuclear power, solar power, and wind power. Golf carts are one type of electric vehicle the University has been using on campus.

This project is meant to map the sustainability related programs, facilities and organizations in the Champaign-Urbana Area. The purpose of this project is to inform the community of the sustainability programs the University is undertaking. There is also an educational component to the project, since a Univeristy of Illinois class will be involved. Visit the map at http://www.opengreenmap.org/greenmap/champaign-urbana-green-map.

Bee Campus USA is a nation-wide movement to support pollinators on university campuses. A university that is Bee Campus USA-certified proves that they are progressing in awareness, native plant landscapes, and safe pest management. The Bee Campus committee developed an official web page in spring 2018 and worked with Facilitites & Services to develop a University Habitat Plan. In addition, with funding from the SSC, we will be installing pollinator signage on campus in fall 2018.

The Boneyard Creek is a wonderful water resource for education, research, and stormwater management for campus.

This project documented individual trees on campus, using a GPS device and collecting tree details into the ArcGIS data layer.  The previous Tree Inventory was last updated in 2006, and it included trees that had subsequently been removed and it was missing new trees that have been planted. Through this project, the Tree Inventory was updated to include all and only existing trees on campus.

Campus projects for green infrastructure include the construction of green roofs.  The Business Instructional Facility contains a green roof that involves plantings on part of the roof area to reduce rain run-off and the impact of heat on the building heating, ventilation and cooling systems. These plantings were specifically chosen because of their regional use and ability to thrive without irrigation or fertilizer. The Mt. Geoffrey Yeh Student Center also features a green roof.

The Lincoln Avenue Residence Hall Living and Learning Community (LLC) is aware of the interest in increasing the number of campus locations with native plants.  They would like to join the effort to plant Native Plant Species in selected areas around Campus. The goal of this project is to locate plants in places like the unused space between Allen Hall and Lincoln Ave. Residence.

Community gardens built on the farmlands at Orchard Downs are available to use for growing their own food. They are managed by volunteers who assign and take payment for plots for the Family Housing Council. Housing pays for the water via funds that are collected, and they manage the plowing, clean-up, and maintenance of the garden area. Gardeners range from University administrators and students to community members. This program has been active since at least the 1990s.

Rain gardens take advantage of rainfall and runoff and, therefore, reduce the need for watering. These gardens are also a helpful design in areas that are prone to flooding. The gardens are designed to withstand the chemicals and nutrients that are often present in rainwater. They reduce runoff since they allow stormwater to soak into the ground, instead of slowing into storm drains and cause erosion, water pollution, flooding, and diminished groundwater. Rain gardens are attractive and may support birds and butterflies.

The 2015 iCAP, chapter 5, objective 2 is "Improve the water efficiency of cooling towers by limiting the amount discharged to sewer to less than 20% of water intake for chiller plant towers, and less than 33% for stand-alone building towers, by FY20." The results of the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center’s True Cost of Water Study yielded five action items and two pilot studie

The Sustainable Student Farm is a small-scale vegetable farm operated within the Crop Sciences department of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign located on 10 acres of land at Lincoln Avenue and Windsor Road.  The farm serves as a production farm to supply our residence halls with locally grown, low-input sustainable food. In addition, the farm acts as a living laboratory to connect students, community members, and the state at large with regional, small-scale food systems.

Campus is recognized as a Tree Campus USA, as of 2015.  This program recognizes college and university campuses that effectively manage their campus trees, develop connectivity with the community beyond campus borders, and strive to engage their student population utilizing service learning opportunities centered on campus and comunity, forestry efforts.  At Illinois we recognize that trees are an important asset for our campus and the community.

The Woody Perennial  Polyculture (WPP) Research Site at the University of Illinois is working create a research farm in which the arrangement of plants is similar to that of the climate’s natural ecosystem, but uses plants that are more practical for human consumption. This research site is the first attempt at a large-scale WPP system in a temperate environment. The research from the farm is intended to show that the WPP system is a sustainable and economically advantageous alternative to the corn-soybean rotation that is commonly used on farms across the Midwest.

The Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) is responsible for leading campus sustainability efforts. To set an example for students, faculty, and staff, iSEE is proposing a markable — and visible — program that will reduce waste and beautify campus.  
 

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.

F&S has requested a proposal from the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) to get waste stream audits for select buildings across campus.  The program will repeat the efforts completed by ISTC at their building, on a larger scale.  This project could eventually extend to cover all campus facilities, or it could be done at select locations on a recurring basis to measure progress.

The Resilience Commitment is focused on climate adaptation and community capacity-building to deal with a changing climate and resulting extremes.

The Resilience Working Advisory Team, formed in 2019, was charged because of a joint climate resilience proclamation from the University of Illinois and the cities of Urbana and Champaign. Its charge is to liaise with SWATeams to develop recommendations that may be sent to the iCAP Working Group, the cities, or both.

The UIUC Biodiesel Initiative (or Illinois Biodiesel Initiative) is a project that evolved from Engineers Without Borders and has collected Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) from dining halls on campus in order to convert it to biodiesel fuel. This fuel has been used by campus vehicles at the Facilities & Services (F&S) Garage and Car Pool since spring of 2006.