Green My Crib is a competition between sorority houses to see which chapter can make their house the most sustainable. The University of Illinois Greek community represents 23% of the undergraduate population on campus, over 7,300 students. Most of the Greek students at the University reside in their sorority or fraternity houses for at least a year. The current recycling and energy efficient efforts by sororities are lacking and with such a huge population comes responsibility. Chapters will receive points based on 4 categories: energy, waste, green purchasing, and education.

This project was to reduce the need for burning coal to fulfill the campus steam energy demand, by reducing the steam load at the Main Library.  The Library’s annual utility expense is almost $1.3 million with steam accounting for $775,000 of it. Much of the steam distribution equipment is original and in need of replacement. 

This project was initiated after the F&S Retrocommissioning (RCx) team completed RCx.  The RCx report includes a nice summary of the Main Library’s systems:

The goal of this project is to construct an area for students, graduate students, faculty, and staff who frequent the Chemical and Life Sciences Building and Roger Adams Laboratory to stow their bicycles in a secure location throughout the day (or night) that is sheltered from the elements.  Proposed locations of this structure would be either one of the grassy spaces between these two buildings on the south side courtyard.

This project will improve the waste process in and around the Quad.  First the project will provide a recycling bin to be placed next to each existing bin.  Then signage will be changed and color coded to clearly indicate that the new bins are for recycling and the existing bins will be used for only landfill material.  In addition, additional signage will be placed in buildings on the Quad to launch new standards and clarifying what can be recycled.  These new signs will assist to inform a community that currently believes all material is sorted on site.

This year’s University of Illinois Homecoming game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers is about more than Orange and Blue – it is also about Green.  For the first time, various campus and community partners are working together to raise awareness and have a positive lasting impact at the inaugural Zero-Waste Football Game.  Hundreds of volunteers from all over the Urbana-Champaign community will assist the thousands of spectators in reducing waste – from the money spent sending materials to landfill to the volume of materials that impact our water, air, and soil.

The Sustainable Electronics Initiative (SEI) and its host agency, the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC), are coordinating meetings of individuals interested in fostering research, education, and policy related to sustainable electronics on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The foundational meeting was held at ISTC headquarters in Champaign, IL on October 2, 2013. Meetings are arranged around the broad topics of research, education, and operations; some meetings may represent an overlap of one or more of these themes.

Krannert Art Museum is upgrading their existing incandescent lamps to LED lamps in two of the main gallery spaces that are reinstalled several times a semester. In addition to participating in the campus's goal of becoming an all LED campus, this project will improve on sustainability by lowering the energy costs and waste for the museum. The project will be located in the Gelvin Noel and East Galleries within the museum.

The Illinois Green Business Association (IGBA) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that assists businesses in reducing their ecological foot-print through green certification.  IGBA looks at a business’ current environmental performance in nine areas of certification and works with the business owner to discover what applies to them and what fits in with their business' culture, providing educational resources and support along the way.

RecycleMania was a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign participated in RecycleMania in 2014 with a Game Day Event on February 26 and an e-Waste Collection on March 18.

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.