On December 7, UIUC sustainability representatives met with Coca-Cola and discussed the following:

Attendance: Jake Slager, Shawn Patterson, Dominika Szal, Sarah Carten, Thurman Etchison, Daphne Hulse, Liz Doeschot, Jen Fraterrigo

• Debrief from last week’s call:

  • Thinking about how we can integrate the Don’t Waste campaign into our existing initiatives that we have planned for spring 2023: Big Ten basketball game (February/March), ISTC waste audit (March), Earth Month (April), Earth Day (April 22), Housing/F&S Dump & Run (May).

  • Social media: Don’t Waste Wednesdays - spread the responsibility and partnership across F&S, iSEE, the Union, Housing/Dining, DIA so it is feasible to achieve.

    • Allows the different groups to specialize in their areas (e.g. iSEE sharing research-related news, Dining sharing food-waste related news).

    • Jake suggests that we could create friendly competition to keep the entities engaged and wanting to produce content.

  • Interest in exploring the Illini App for sustainability initiatives / GIS maps (water bottle refill stations).

  • Jen is planning to coordinate small internal group to talk through the reusable cup idea. It needs more exploration.

  • Interest in pursuing a zero waste basketball game in the spring (Big Ten).

• Cadence for next year: how often should we meet, who should be included?

  • May consider meeting less than once per week (maybe every other week) unless there is an upcoming event where we need to meet every week leading up to it.

• What do we need bin-wise?

  • Temporary bins tend to be inherently flimsy.

  • The cost of sturdier bins is much greater.

  • May be worth a revisit in the future to figure out an alternative.

• Feedback: what’s been helpful with Coke calls? What can they continue to support?

  • Helpful that Coke facilitates a synergy across different entities at U of I that don’t always get to communicate so regularly on issues of sustainability.

• Next week will be the assessment call for waste management.

• Spring planning: Earth Month, Earth Day, surprise & delight, events.

• Would need to contact concessions to see if they can track the amount of items sold.

  • having their input would help us get more accurate data.