On October 28, Meredith Moore, Colleen Ruhter, Betsy Richardson, and Daphne Hulse met with Bradley Vogel and Matt Adler from GSA. The following was discussed:

• Introductions
  • Betsy Richardson: works in environmental compliance with Colleen Ruhter. Their work revolves around regulations with EPA and permits. They signed up with GSA in 2019. Garrett Wong presented at the Green Infrastructure Conference, which is how UIUC became connected with GSA. They are trying to roll this out of compliance and into the world of Athletics, where it should be.
  • Colleen Ruhter: Civil engineer, background in stormwater, currently works on sanitary and drinking water projects as of late.
  • Bradley Vogel: Senior Memberships and Events representative. Bradley works with major athletic events to do waste diversion at games.
  • Matt: Works in the corporate and non-profit side of their services (ex: technological resources used to achieve goals).
  • Daphne: newest to the university, Zero Waste Coordinator.
  • Meredith: Sustainability Programs Manager at iSEE. Keen to see Athletics take initiative and want to help them achieve goals.
• What is athletics currently doing?
  • Are they tracking waste, energy, and water use?
    • UIUC thinks we should be able to track their energy, because they are a campus operation.
    • F&S recently (July 2022) acquired responsibility to take care of the waste at all of their facilities (previously, Athletics contracted with other waste haulers for some facilities).
• Approach Athletics with a money mindset.
  • How much could they theoretically save in costs by reducing their resource use?
• Play to Zero platform.
• Next steps
  • GSA will send UIUC a guide, and we can see about how to track their utilities in the meantime.
  • We should set up another meeting with GSA, especially if we can get Athletic leaders on the call. Keep the conversation going.