This month, the Land and Water iCAP team met on Friday, December 12, 2025, at 2:00 PM on Teams. The team discussed several meeting topics, including a research project a student worked on regarding gray water usage at other institutions, the University's Bee Campus USA status, the implementation and planting of seeds for prairie strips, and other news and updates from other departments on campus. Attached are the meeting agenda and minutes, detailing the topics discussed during the meeting. 

The iCAP Engagement Team met on Thursday, December 6th, 2025 from 4:00pm-5:00pm via Microsoft Teams. The team shared updates about the status of OneIllinois engagement, EcoReps, Employee Engagement & Wellbeing, and the ZeroWaste Training Module. 

Agenda

• Migration question: are revisions important?
• Remaining duplicate locations to merge (see 2024-12-11 - List of doubled projects in iCAP Portal.docx)
  • Helpful search tools: All Places and All Places (Map)
• (Continue discussion) Discuss metric naming convention - follow-up from Miriam & Morgan's discussion
• (Continue discussion) New iCAP Team
• Question from Miriam: creating accessible meeting notes - templates, resources, etc.?

Discussion

• Migration question: are revisions important?
  • Ok to eschew revisions in migration
• Remaining duplicate locations to merge
• Discuss metric naming convention
  • Review and remove old, unused metrics
  • Review titles of remaining metrics for consistency (different naming conventions for past iCAP eras)
  • Michael will export CSV of all metrics
  • Quinn will review over the break and bring suggestions for changes
• New iCAP Team (Sustainable Buildings) being formed - discuss what that looks like on the iCAP Portal
  • Wait for official 2026 iCAP to be released to create new group in iCAP Portal
• Creating accessible meeting notes:
  • Check out learning resources on the Digital Accessibility site:
    • Getting Started – general info, Accessibility Basics, 7 Fundamentals of Accessible Authoring, and document management recommendations
    • Creating Accessible Content – Documents, Emails, etc.
  • Check out CITL's Accessibility Training Opportunities – you can attend workshops to learn about document accessibility and/or watch videos from past workshops
  • Check out Accessibility Resources by role (e.g. developer, designer, content creator) for checklists and guidelines
  • Try to avoid PDFs when possible, but when necessary, making your document accessible will mean your PDF will start out mostly accessible with only minor tweaks needed (or none, for simple documents)
    • Use "Save as PDF" rather than printing to PDF (install Adobe Acrobat to get this option - available for free for staff as part of Adobe Creative Cloud from WebStore)

"Bicycle Reuse Programmes Report Threefold Return on Investment" by Helen Gates

Bicycle repair and reuse programmes generate measurable economic, environmental and social returns, according to analysis by FCC Environment. 
 
The company's white paper, Bikes: A Vehicle of Opportunity, combines operational data with external research to quantify the benefits of repair and redistribution programmes. FCC reports that across its current network, it has refurbished 2,424 bicycles through prison and community workshops, diverting 35 tonnes of waste and preventing an estimated 345 tonnes of CO₂e emissions. 
 
New bicycle sales in the UK fell to around 1.45 million units in 2024, compared with 3.1–3.3 million during the 2020-2021 pandemic peak, according to industry data cited in the report. The Bicycle Association recorded a 7 per cent increase in workshop volumes and a 5 per cent rise in value in 2024, while many independent shops reported workshop revenue growth of 10–50 per cent. 
 
The shift has created demand for trained mechanics, with 13-15 per cent of UK bike businesses citing staff shortages.

Prison workshop programmes

FCC currently operates bicycle repair workshops in nine prisons across seven local authority areas, involving around 100 prisoners. The company states that these schemes have generated £119,000 in recorded social value to date. 
 
Research from the City & Guilds Foundation cited in the report suggests each prison skills qualification saves taxpayers an estimated £34,000 per year through reduced reoffending and related social costs. 
 
The Wigan Cycle Project, run in partnership with Wigan Council and the charity Rebuild with Hope, has recorded a zero per cent reoffending rate among 24 participants since 2022, compared with a cited national average of 65 per cent. Between late 2024 and mid-2025, the project refurbished more than 300 bicycles and diverted 6.8 tonnes of materials from landfill. 
 
Mark Harrison, Director of the Wigan Cycle Project, said the collaboration has "unlocked capacity to get bikes to people who really need them, while passing on new skills and prospects to prisoners preparing for release." 

ReCycling benefits

The report notes that the majority of a bicycle's lifetime carbon footprint is generated during manufacturing. Producing a new steel-frame bike emits around 96 kilograms of CO₂, while an aluminium equivalent exceeds 200 kilograms. Refurbishment preserves this embodied carbon, requiring a fraction of the energy needed to recycle raw materials. 
 
Disposal data suggests significant volumes are available for reuse. The North London Waste Authority has estimated that more than 11,000 bicycles are discarded each year in the UK, while a Transport for London scoping study identified roughly 27,500 potentially discarded bikes in London alone. 
 
External research cited in the report also highlights the economic benefits. Sustrans modelling shows that a national 40 per cent voucher scheme for low-income individuals would cost around £18 million annually but generate £60 million in benefits. Cycling UK's Big Bike Revival initiative recorded £4.30 in health and productivity returns for every £1 invested, while a Lancet study found that increasing active travel in England and Wales could save £17 billion in NHS costs over 20 years.

Policy considerations

The report suggests that right-to-repair legislation for household appliances demonstrates the potential for regulatory frameworks to support repair sectors. FCC argues that similar policy measures for bicycle repair could provide clarity and funding stability. 
 
Gemma Green, Reuse Development Manager at FCC Environment, said: "Bicycle repair and reuse initiatives can address multiple challenges simultaneously – from waste prevention and skills shortages to public health and social inclusion." 
 
The report states that bicycle reuse should be identified as a model that combines waste reduction, carbon savings and community reintegration opportunities through repair programmes

A link to the full article can be found here.

The CTAC Fall 2025 meeting was held on Wednesday, December 10, 2025 at 9 am. Find the Meeting Recording and Transcript here. Also attached are the slides from the presentation. 

At last Fridays ILO event a total of: 

• 2,666 light bulbs were shut off

• $405.62 saved in energy costs

• 3.9 metric tons of CO₂e prevented from entering the atmosphere

• That’s equivalent to the emissions from 391 gallons of gasoline being consumed

• 92 student volunteers participated! 

Thanks again to everyone who came out to our last event of the semester! 

The attached PDF contains performance metrics for Zipcar usage on campus for November 2025

From Aaron Madrid:

Happy Holidays!
I hope you're both doing well. The operations team has currently commenced the process of winterizing the fleet for the year. Over the coming weeks, you should see a continual reduction in the number of vehicles in the community as we pull things in for our winter refurbishment process. 

With that said, I don't have much else to go over on our call today. I'm currently putting together a year end report that I am hoping to send along by the end of the week. I'd be happy to keep our call today if you all would like to touch base on anything specific. I'm also happy to cancel or just reschedule to Friday and we can use the time to review the data together if you like. 

Open to whatever works best for your team.

November 2025 photos of the Florida Orchard Prairie have been added to the box folder.

Email from Jacob Benjamin:

Slow week, as expected with the cold and messy weather. On Thursday, WCIA came by, and we got to talk about the Kids Bike Giveaway, so that was good. A post about the event also went out in the weekly newsletters. Hopefully all the press will help us get a few more donations. Fingers crossed!

Elsewhere, we’ve got some adult bike donations to work through, as well as the last of the storage container organizing to do—one last container to go through, which we’ll tackle this week. Beyond that is space optimization/organizing, as always.

The numbers:

Visitors: 20
Sales: $192.25

Memberships: 3 for $90
Tire/tubes: 6 for $46

Thanks!

The iCAP Education Team met on December 5th from 12-1pm via Teams. The group discussed reviving the Levenick Teaching Fellows Program with updated incentives, planning the Green Career Forum for February 18–19, and reviewing findings from the Sustainability Literacy Assessment. They also ran a demonstration of using the automated database for finding sustainability-related courses. The meeting minutes are attached. 

Email from Jacob Benjamin:

Last week of November was slow, as best I can recall, and sales corroborate that. We’re working through the kids bikes we have and will hopefully get more donations in the coming weeks.

We’ve got a half dozen regular bikes on the sales floor but with the wintry snowy weather we’re experiencing, I don’t see those moving quickly. Have another half dozen that need final approval.

This week we begin our M/W/F hours, which we’ll keep til the end of the semester and into next semester, as the colder weather tanks our demand.

The numbers:

Visitors: 48
Sales: 492.50

Memberships: 9 for $270

Tires/tubes: 16 for $95

Thanks!

The Zero Waste team met on November 14th at 1:30 pm. Attached are the meeting minutes.

October 2025 photos of the Florida Orchard Prairie have been added to the box folder.

RailSplitter Wind Farm provided the November 2025 Buyer's Share amounts by the hour, totaling 2,160.1 Megawatt hours.The November 2025 Buyer's Share Report is attached below.

This year’s competition drew a record 312 participants from 13 universities, with 62 judges completing the first-round evaluations. A group of 13 finals judges is now reviewing the finalists to determine the top award recipients. We are deeply grateful to all these volunteers for their generosity of time and for helping make this competition a success.

A list of finalists appears below. Warm congratulations to the 13 finalist teams on their exceptional submissions, and sincere congratulations to all participants for your thoughtful fact sheets and compelling ideas. The competition was especially strong this year. Your work is both inspiring and forward-looking, and we hope you will continue to develop these ideas in pursuit of a more sustainable future.

The 13 finalist teams will briefly present their projects on Saturday, December 6, 2025, between 10:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. (U.S. Central Time).  The ceremony will be held entirely on Zoom to accommodate our many participating institutions.

FINALISTS IN THE 2025 REIMAGINE OUR FUTURE COMPETITION
(In alphabetical order of the team leaders’ last names)

Anastasiia Albut, Kseniia Zviahintseva, Anastasiia Lichna – International Humanitarian University Ukraine

Andrea Jimena Arias-Diaz, Ricardo Robles-Fletes – National Autonomous University of Mexico  

Isabella Bird, Katie Kan, Emily Herbst – University of Birmingham

Briana Harris, Kevin Bustamante – Waubonsee Community College

Matthew Kwong, Isaiah Kim, Amina Mandzukic, Aarushi Tiwari, Kaushal Siruvuri, Lionel Yan, Andrew Low, Adi Jha – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Henna Naveed – University of Birmingham

Tricia Newman – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Angel Ofori-amanfo, Victory Ndibe-Onwuka, Elohor Oghorodi, Lukas Akyildiz – University of Birmingham

Akhil Raizada, Logan Justiniani, Anna Aler, Arush Chatterjee, Arnav Pande, Gianna Niecestro, Sarina Shah, Jack Visnjevac – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Brooke Rember, Olivia Fleury, Niamh Mclaren-Moreton, Phoebe Hill, Emily Thomas – University of Birmingham

Zaara Tariq Saeed, George Hodgson-Wilde, Xiaojie Deng, Julia Thornton – University of Birmingham

Ayush Thaker, Vidipta Roy, SaarthakJain, Marcus Lam – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign  

Crystal Zhao, Marlo Decapo, Valeria Echavarri, Yashwanth Nagarajan, Torin Schroeder – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The Land and Water Team met for its November monthly meeting on Friday, November 21, from 2:00 to 3:00 PM on Teams. This month, the team listened to a student conducting research on the usage of gray water systems in Illinois and other states and institutions. This research will help the team gain support from other organizations to potentially amend the Illinois plumbing code to permit the use of gray water in toilet flushing systems. The team was also updated on the status of the Florida Orchard Prairie maintenance, which will be taken care of by Red Bison, who is eager to work on this project. The team also discussed the pros and cons of maintaining our Bee Campus USA certification, which requires significant funds and effort to improve pollinator status, a task that is largely already accomplished by various campus groups. Attached are the meeting agenda and notes. 

Please see attached correspondence from Chancellor Isbell.

At this past Friday's Illini Lights Out event, a total of 245 volunteers shut off 3068 light bulbs that otherwise would have been left on all weekend, saving $466.78 in energy costs. This also prevented 4.78 metric tons of CO2 equivalent from entering the atmosphere, which is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from 469 gallons of gasoline being consumed. That's a huge impact! 

Email from Jacob Benjamin:

All,

This past weekend was the Bike Project’s Cranksgiving event, which we helped promote. The event raised over $2,000 worth of food/supplies for Wesley Food Bank and the McKinley Pantry at Garden Hills.

Elsewhere, I’ve got most of the abandoned bikes separated in each of the containers but not yet fully organized. Will continue work on that this week.

Next up will be our Kids Bike Giveaway event. I’ll get a count of current inventory between here and the Bike Project in urbana this week, and begin refurbishing them.

This will be our last week being open M – F as we are closed for Fall Break and will be M/W/F after the break.

The numbers:

Visitors: 58
Sales: 490.25
Memberships: 6 for $180
Tires/tubes: 13 for $103

Thanks!