This month, the Land and Water iCAP Team met on Teams on March 4th, 2026, at 9:00 AM for the team's monthly meeting. This month, the team discussed a report comparing the sustainable practices of peer and model institutions in landscaping, sustainable land management, and sustainable water management. Additionally the team discussed a student project on the team focusing on testing the permeability of pavers and asphalt on campus, the status of legalizing gray water usage in Illinois plumbing code, the possibility of irrigation monitoring, the status of prairie strips plantings, the status of milkweed plantings on campus, green stormwater infrastructure on campus, and upcoming events in relation to the Land and Water Team. To learn more about the topics listed above, please see the attached document containing the agenda and minutes for the team. 

RailSplitter Wind Farm provided the February 2026 Buyer's Share amounts by the hour, totaling 2,145.9 Megawatt hours.The February 2026 Buyer's Share Report is attached below.

Agenda

• Migrating from Google Maps to Mapbox after incurring charges last month
• Power BI charts discussion continuation

Discussion

• Migrating from Google Maps to Mapbox
  • Mapbox has a higher free tier (50K map views vs. 10K)
  • Converted maps:
    • Main Collections map (e.g. Campus Sustainability Tour map)
    • Main Themes map (e.g. Education & Energy map)
    • Place map (e.g. Illinois Fire Service Institute)
    • Project page mini map (e.g. Civil Infrastructure Systems (CIS))
    • Project large map (e.g. Map for Civil Infrastructure Systems (CIS))
    • Theme page map (e.g. Theme: Zero Waste)
  • Maps not yet converted:
    • Project Collection maps (e.g. Bicycle Related Projects)
    • SSC Project maps (e.g. ACES Farm Drainage Assessment)
    • Power Search: All Places (Map)
    • SSC Projects Embed: SSC Funded Projects & iCAP
  • Feature comparison (each of these features appeared on at least one Google Map previously):
    • Zoom in/out buttons: Yes
    • Full-screen button: No; is this important?
      • Yes, if easy
    • Camera controls (i.e. pan up/down/left/right): No; is this important?
      • No
    • Added scale component in lower-left; should we keep it?
      • Yes
    • Custom layer settings hiding various places of interest like businesses, attractions, parks, places of worship, and medical facilities): No; is this still important?
      • Yes, if easy
    • Map vs. Satellite
      • Yes, if easy
• Power BI charts discussion continuation
  • Example Power BI embed (still a work in progress)
  • Power BI only supports embedding entire project, not individual sub-pages. Options:
    • ✅ Create separate report for each metric graph (i.e. each individual bicycle & pedestrian counter + summary report for each type of counter)
    • ❌ Create page in report for each counter location; start each embed on corresponding page (users can switch pages - may be confusing)
  • Question: do we need individual reports for each bike/pedestrian counter location, or is summary report for each sufficient?
    • Summary report for each is enough - we can cut out dozens of individual metrics! 🥳

TODOs

• Maps:
  • Finish migrating to Mapbox
  • Investigate adding full-screen button
  • Investigate custom layer settings hiding various places of interest like businesses, attractions, parks, places of worship, and medical facilities)
  • Investigate adding Map vs. Satellite switcher
• Power BI:
  • Investigate making charts responsive
  • Create Bicycle Counter report with all bicycle counter data sources
  • Create Pedestrian Counter report with all pedestrian counter data sources
  • Add "Get Data" link to metrics to link to CSV(s) for a given report

January 2026 photos of the Florida Orchard Prairie have been added to the box folder.

RailSplitter Wind Farm provided the January 2026 Buyer's Share amounts by the hour, totaling 2,931.6 Megawatt hours.The January 2026 Buyer's Share Report is attached below.

Agenda

• Update: Quinn cleaned up permissions for a number of old users! 🥳
• Metric graphs - testing out PowerBI
• Long text field formatting - should we slim down the allowed formatting options?

Discussion

• Metric graphs - Michael demonstrated a sample Power BI visualization pulling data from CSV files in our Teams channel.
• Long text field formatting
  • Decided to slim down formatting options for consistency and simplicity
  • Clarification on decision not to share emails
    • Don't post private emails/correspondence - can post summary of decisions
    • Ok to post public emails
    • Not just posting link because links break over time
    • Future discussion: what should/shouldn't be posted in iCAP Portal; make decision tree & guidelines for Project info & Project Updates

TODOs

• Michael will continue investigating Power BI for charts
• Discussion for next meeting: clarify what types of things should/shouldn't be posted in iCAP Portal; make decision tree & guidelines for Project info & Project Updates

Click this link to view the announcement online.

The Zero Waste team met on February 10th at 9:30 am. Attached are the meeting minutes.

The iCAP Engagement Team met on Friday, February 6th, 2026, from 11:00 am-12:00 pm via Microsoft Teams. The team shared updates and developments on the status of OneIllinois engagement, a Boneyard Creek Cleanup Challenge for Panhellenic Chapters, and heard from an EcoRep on how this team can support their goals.

The meeting minutes are attached.

Email from Jacob Benjamin:

Pretty relaxed week overall. Approaching double digits on the number of For Sale bikes we have on the floor.  By end of week, we should be at a dozen or so. This is our prime building season, so we’ll take advantage as we can. Will also get some B-a-Bs prepped. Warmer weather this week usually correlates to more visits to the space, so we’ll see if that holds.

A Bike Project member met me on Thursday at the abandoned bike storage facility and pulled some stock to help their space. We plan to continue with that to help shrink the scrap pile.

The numbers:

Visitors: 24
Sales: $520

Bike (refurb): 1 for $180
Bike (B-a-B): 1 for $60
Memberships: 3 for $90

Tires/tubes: 2 for $30

Thanks!

The attached PDF contains performance metrics for Zipcar usage on campus for December 2025 & January 2026.

 At this ILO, students shut off 1535 light bulbs were shut off that otherwise would have been left on all weekend, saving $233.54 in energy costs. This also prevented 2.29 metric tons of CO2 equivalent from entering the atmosphere, which is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from 225 gallons of gasoline being consumed. That's a huge impact!  

The iCAP Education Team met on Feburary 9th from 9-10 am via Teams. The group shared updates on the Undergraduate Levenick Scholars Program and the Green Career Forum, as well as discussing updates with the Sustainability Literacy Assessment and Sustainability in Study Abroad. The meeting minutes are attached.

Veo is planning to resume campus service starting the week of February 16th with the return of 750 bicycles (class 2 e-bikes) back to campus.

See this newsletter to learn more.

This month, the Land and Water iCAP Team met on Teams on February 4th, 2026, at 9:00 AM for the team's monthly meeting. In the meeting, the team discussed future goals and potential projects for students to work on throughout the semester. Some of these goals/topics include sustainable landscape improvements, green infrastructure/indigenous plantings, monitoring and cleaning the C9 parking lot for permeability, monitoring the growth of milkweed plantings across campus, measuring water use for irrigation, and furthering the goal of future use of gray water. Additionally, upcoming team-related events were discussed. Attached to this update are the agenda and notes for the meeting. 

The Transportation Team met on Teams, 2:00 - 3:00pm on Tuesday, February 3rd.

We heard from Xingrui Pei about the usage of Level 2 EV chargers on campus in the year 2024 and the need for expanded EV infrastructure at parking lot B4. Parking is working with a company on an app, hoping to universalize information regarding campus availability and then combine it in the Illinois app, making it easier for people to understand where there are open EV chargers and other parking information.

We also talked with Matt Brown about partnering with Housing to pilot e-bike chargers at dormitories, which is looking promising. We will be drafting an SSC application over the next month to continue taking steps toward that.

Email from Jacob Benjamin:

Happy Groundhog Day!

Things have calmed a bit—thankfully! Warmer weather this week means I can get out and safety check the half dozen or so bikes that have been in the queue without risking frostbite.

The numbers:

Visitors: 32

Sales: 704.25
Bikes (refurb): 2 for $420
Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $60
Memberships: 3 for $90

Thanks!

Email from Jacob Benjamin:

Last week we opened for the semester and were positively inundated. Wednesday saw 40+ people come through, almost all with rusty bikes from leaving them out for winter break. Fingers crossed for some legitimate storage solutions down the line…

Friday was less busy but still all stands full for most of the day. Successfully convinced someone to tackle a build-a-bike instead of sinking time and money into a Walmart bike. I’ll call that a win!

The numbers:

Visitors: 60

Sales: $471.96*
Bikes: 2 for $420
Memberships: 4 for $120
Tires/tubes: 2 for $12

*Outstanding sales are still pending, as IT issues prevented us from accepting payment on Wednesday, Jan 21st.

Thanks!

A student on the Land and Water iCAP team, Lillian Gilbert, conducted research on Illinois state laws on graywater usage. Currently, in Illinois, the use of graywater is prohibited by the plumbing code, making it impossible to implement a system that saves and reuses water for non-potable uses such as toilet flushing and lawn irrigation. This research project was conducted to review Illinois and other states' laws on the use of graywater in plumbing systems to help us better understand how to implement a policy allowing graywater use in Illinois. Additionally, research was conducted on other institutions across Illinois involved in water conservation issues that could serve as potential partners in changing the Illinois plumbing code to allow the use of graywater. Attached are the products of the research project, including a contact list of other Illinois institutions involved with water conservation, a list of graywater regulations from other US states, and the final research project document detailing the project's findings.