This Week in Research
Ming Kuo recently contributed to an NPR piece that explored the benefits of spending time in nature, noting that getting your daily dose of nature is vital to your well-being.
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Ming Kuo recently contributed to an NPR piece that explored the benefits of spending time in nature, noting that getting your daily dose of nature is vital to your well-being.
These iSEE representatives presented an update of key efforts underway for the iCAP 2020: iSEE Associate Director for Campus Sustainability Dr. Jennifer Fraterrigo, iSEE Associate director for Education and outreach Dr. Luis Rodriguez, Sustainability Programs Manager Meredith Moore, F&S Associate Director for Sustainability Morgan White, and Sustainability Academic Advisor Eric Green. the key topics were:
The following links were also sent to be shared with the committee:
Also, if anyone is interested in participating in one of the Topical iCAP Teams, as a faculty member, please let us know. The topics are listed on the iCAP Portal at https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project/topical-icap-teams.
Stacy Gloss and Meredith Moore gave a presentation on environmental justice to an Eco-Lunch group, RSO Graduates in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (GEEB). The presentation from 4-26-22 is attached.
F&S organized the Campus Landscape Master Plan (CLMP) on April 27, 2022 from 5:30 to 7 pm. 182 people had registered to attend the session and nearly 70 people attended the event.
Please see the presentation used during the CLMP Public Forum: Campus Landscape Master Plan Public Forum presentation
I met with Robert O'Daniell on Wednesday, April 27, 2022. We covered several topics, including the electrification trend, Federal and State tax credits for EVs, but majority of the time was dedicated to learn about the EV charging stations in Champaign County as compared to other cities.
Robert also shared his own experience as an EV owner and the survey he is currently conducting to gauge interest in increasing the number of public-use EV charging and possibility of introducing DC Fast Charging to the campus and Champaign County.
I will create the survey on Google Forms, and then help deploy it on-campus. We also discussed where to promote this survey.
See attached the documents that we covered during this meeting.
From: Heidi Leuszler <HLeuszler at parkland.edu>
Subject: Tree Map partnership
Hello all, I hope this finds you and yours well!
I am on the Sustainable Campus Committee at Parkland College and we are discussing updating our campus tree map and digitizing it. I am including all of you in this email because I am wondering if we do not have to recreate the wheel and can join an existing tree map in our community.
I have worked with https://www.opentreemap.org/ in the past, but the $3000 price tag per year is rather steep for us. Do any of you use this program?
In a quick search, I found the following local Tree Inventory maps (all of which Parkland campus is missing from):
City of Urbana https://urbanail.treekeepersoftware.com/index.cfm?deviceWidth=1920
UIUC campus https://illinoisedu.treekeepersoftware.com/index.cfm?deviceWidth=1920
City of Champaign ROW Trees https://cityofchampaign.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=7e979451571143abbf5befb6eeb9b01b
City of Champaign https://gis-cityofchampaign.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/cityofchampaign::city-owned-trees/explore?location=40.130930%2C-88.279305%2C13.85
Champaign Park District https://cparkdistirct.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=88afa8b642a1464585eaad55a999dd5a
Urbana Park District https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aaX3IOinNA&t=23s (but I could not find public access to the inventory)
Is it possible we can add our campus data to an existing map? Perhaps we all partner and can add city, park, and campus data to make a more comprehensive community map.
If you are interested in this, have thoughts, know a better person to contact, etc., let me know and we can get a meeting together to discuss possibilities.
Thank you!
My best,
Heidi
All, Pretty quiet last week. Friday picked up along with the weather. And nicer weather meant our first successful Friday Ride of the season!
This week a couple new staffers will be starting. As the weather has warmed, we’re seeing an uptick in volunteer interest as well, which is welcomed.
Tonight is the Bike Project Member Meeting, which I’ll attend.
The numbers:
Visitors: 39
Sales: $862
Bikes (refurb): 3 for $550
Memberships: $3 for $90
Tire/tube: 3 for $6.25 (used/new)
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator
Plan to join the Campus Landscape Master Plan online forum on Wednesday. Conceptual design ideas will be presented at the event, and feedback will be gathered to ensure the new plans align with campus culture. Register for the event here.
The first-ever Sustainability Grammys, hosted by iSEE, SSLC, SSC, and the Illini Union Board was a tremendous success! Congratulations to Red Bison, Project4Less, and Grow2Give on earning awards in the Impact, Engagement, and Initiative categories respectively.
Below is an email invitation to an event at the Hydrosystems Laboratory:
Hello all,
On behalf of Illinois Solar Decathlon, I would like to invite you to our event, Reimagining HSL and NCEB, where our Concept Team will be presenting their semester-long projects to UofI Facilities and Services. Feel free to invite other faculty as well. More details below.
Title of the event: Reimagining HSL & NCEB
Venue: Hydrosystems laboratory, Room 1017
Time : Monday, 25th from 5:00 pm
Everyone is invited.
Schedule
5:05 - 5:25 PM: Photovoltaics and Green Roof Team
5:25 - 5: 45 PM: Building Automation Systems Team
5:45- 6:05 PM: Sustainable Landscapes Team
*15 mins for each team's presentation and 5 mins for Q&A*
We hope to see you there!
F&S published a Massmail about CLMP Public Forum on April 20, 2022. See attached the MassMail in .pdf format.
F&S Insider included an article about Campus Landscape Master Plan (CLMP) on April 20, 2022. We are organizing a Public Forum for CLMP on April 27, 2022 from 5:30 - 7 p.m.
Read the article here: https://fs.web.illinois.edu/Insider/2022/04/08/planning-the-illinois-landscape/
Please register for the CLMP Public Forum: go.illinois.edu/CLMPPublicForum
Please see attached the final presentation for the CTAC spring 2022. We also talked about abandoned bicycles and Campus Landscape Master Plan during this meeting. Also watch the meeting recording and read the chat from during the meeting: https://uofi.box.com/s/lv1xbqlcevdp6f2dfmiep2fpx3cq2zde
WCIA published an article about the CLMP Public Forum on April 19 2022, titled "U of I seeks public input on campus redesign" - https://www.wcia.com/news/u-of-i-seeks-public-input-on-campus-redesign/
Attached is the article in .pdf format.
From: Varney, Peter W
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2022 12:38 PM
To: FandS Executive Management Team ; Gordon, Malikah Asrayyah ; Breitwieser, Steven
Cc: Patterson, Shawn L ; Franzen, Neil
Subject: Ford Lightnings for F&S
As mentioned this morning, I have been able to secure two of the brand new 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning for F&S. These are all-electric crew cab pickup trucks with a ~200 mile range. The vehicles are equipped with a 9.6kW power system including multiple 120V and a single 240V outlet. Cargo payload is only about 1,600# or 2/3 of a standard F-150.
These vehicles should allow for my team to gain familiarity with all-electric vehicles in our fleet as well as campus visibility regarding F&S’ commitment to sustainable fleet technology. I believe one of the vehicles would be a good fit in my Transportation Shop but I’m open to suggestions for the second truck. ETA will be in the June/July timeframe.
Malikah – I want your team to be aware for any story/messaging opportunities. I also think we can use some special signage or wrap on the vehicle exterior.
Pete W Varney
DIRECTOR
Transportation & Building Services
Facilities & Services
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
All, Had some intense weather mid-week that kept folks away from visiting us. A new student staffer started this week and hit the ground running. We got two quality bikes donated last week that are in-progress and one very nice near-new bike that is already on the sales floor.
TBP prices bumped up slightly last week to no Ill effect here at CBC. In fact, the first mention of the higher prices was met with “A used tire for $8? That’s a great deal!”
On Thursday, I consulted with a student from University of Connecticut about starting a bicycle cooperative space at his school. He’d heard good things about our operations from a former TBP member. Small world, too, since I grew up 20 minutes from UConn.
This week is the Campus Transportation Advisory Committee meeting and the last week for one of my student staffers.
The numbers:
Visitors: 26
Sales: $912.50
Bikes (refurb): 1 for $180
Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $50
Tires/tubes: 2 for $21
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator
Wand TV published an article about the CLMP Public Forum on April 18, 2022, titled "Public invited to give input on U of I landscaping master plan" - https://www.wandtv.com/news/public-invited-to-give-input-on-u-of-i-lands...
Attached are the article in .pdf format as well as the Press Release.
Please see attached the list of avenues used to promote the Student input session and Public Forum for CLMP
The Resilience iCAP Team submitted the following recommendation to the iCAP Working Group on 4/7/22:
"iSEE should assign a staff person to meet with local governmental and community leaders to discuss how the University can plan to assist communities to address environmental justice challenges."
The Res003 Collecting Info About Environmental Justice Needs recommendation is attached.
Ali Khan and Dhruv Gambhire are now on the F&S payroll as grad hourly employees, in the Sustainability Department. Their funding is from the Student Sustainability Committee, in support of the SSC-funded project for HVAC and Air Quality Assessment.