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Agriculture, Land Use, Food, and Sequestration (ALUFS) SWATeam (Ongoing)

Recent Project Updates

  • ALUFS006 update

    3/1/2023
    Hi Jennifer,So on this one, Allen Parrish and I didn’t see eye to eye on this and came to an impasse.  In suggesting more trees, he was concerned about the turning movements of the tractors and having trees eventually growing into the swale...

  • Thank you to all FY19 SWATeams

    8/21/2019
    Dear FY19 SWATeam members, As another academic year is about to begin, we want to first thank you for all of your help moving campus toward the goals outlined in the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP). Each of the six SWATeams worked on multiple...
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Project Family

Description

This Team deals with agriculture, land use, food, and carbon sequestration. It is comprised of an enthusiastic group of faculty and staff from ACES, University Housing, and Facilities & Services, partnering with eco-conscious students who are focused on assisting the U of I campus in meeting its lofty iCAP goals for sustainability. 

Background

This team focuses on the 2015 iCAP objectives for Chapter 7, including:

7.1 Perform a comprehensive assessment of GHG emissions from agricultural operations, and develop a plan to reduce them, by the end of FY16

7.2 Design and maintain campus landscapes in a more sustainable manner; expand the specification of sustainable plantings in campus landscaping standards, and develop and implement a tree care plan by FY16 and an integrated pest management program by FY17

7.3 Incorporate sustainability principles more fully into the Campus Master Plan.

7.4 Implement a project that examines the food service carbon footprint for Dining and other on campus food vendors, while increasing local food procurement to 40% by FY25

7.5 Increase carbon sequestration in campus soils by determining the sequestration value of existing plantings and identifying locations for additional plantings, with a specific objective of converting at least 50 acres of U of I farmland to agroforestry by FY20

7.6 Reduce nitrates in agricultural runoff and subsurface drainage by 50% from the FY15 baseline by FY22

Related Projects

Website URL(s)

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Project Team

  • Primary Contact:

    Valerie Ramirez

    Project Leader:

    Reid Christianson

    Team Members:

    • Art Schmidt
    • Rabin Bhattarai
    • Bruce Branham
    • Brent Lewis
    • Eliana Brown
    • Allen Parrish
    • Jamie Ellis
    • Claire Samojedny
    • Vikram Sudhan Muthuvel
    • Ella Liskiewicz

Themes

Project details last updated on: 4/16/2022. Check Project Updates for recent activity.