The CU Youth Sustainability Committee, which is made up of local high school students, hosted their first CU Youth Sustainability Summit on Saturday, October 13th, 2018. This summit focused on Climate Change and the importance of Local Sustainability.
The University of Illinois ECE Building achieved LEED Platinum status on November 4, 2019. The project was awarded 81 of 110 total points on the LEED v2009 New Construction scorecard. The building earned a significant number of points in the Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, and Energy and Atmosphere categories.
Representatives from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation broke ground Wednesday, October 23 on a new, state-of-the-art greenhouse in the Research Park.
Illinois Street Residence Hall is receiving a renovation, including a new food hall space. The roof of this food hall will have a green roof installed on top. This green roof was added as part of their plan to improve building efficiency and sustainability, and showcase a vibrant residential experience to students, parents, and guests who visit camps, as well install climate control additions.
Atop the Undergraduate Library is a rooftop terrace that features the building entrances, seating, and look down into the lower courtyard. This rooftop also has tree pockets built into the roof, that are supported by building infrastructure featured in the orginal plans for the building. The trees in these pockets make the terrace into a green roof for the UNdergraduate Library. They provide protection from direct sunlight and the evaporation of moisure off of plant material that can cool the buidling's rooftops and lowering energy costs from cooling while increasing the roofs lifespan.
The roofing material on Bousfield is designed to reduce solar heat absorption, keeping the environment cooler and using less energy for air conditioning. In addition to other materials used to accomplish this, small patches of green roof located on the north and southwest sides of the building were also added. The landscape, including these patches of green roof, is designed with native and drought-tolerant plants to reduce dependency on potable water, as well as reduce the amount of maintenance that needs to be done to support the green roof plants.
According to the Control Mandate #13 - Solid Waste Management Act (415 ILCS 20/3.1 thru 20/3.1), each State-supported institution of higher learning shall develop a comprehensive waste reduction plan covering a period of 10 years which addresses the management of solid waste generated by academic, administrative, student housing and other institutional functions.
On April 11, 2019, Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory (IBRL) was awarded the LEED Silver certification. The Water Efficiency category was IBRL's highest scoring category, gaining 4 out of 5 possible points. These points were prioritized in water efficient landscaping and both the 20% and 30% water use reduction.
Geothermal energy foundations will be installed this summer as part of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s (CEE) Ven Te Chow Hydrosystems Laboratory addition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Substantial completion of the renovation is expected in Summer 2020.
The Lincoln Hall remodeling project consisted of the rehabilitation, restoration, and remodeling of Lincoln Hall on the main quadrangle of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Campus. Three small courtyard additions were also part of the project. Two small green roofs (designed as sedum meadows) were also planted on the coutyard on SE and SW side.
