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The Land & Water iCAP team met on Teams from 1-2 PM on Friday, October 6th. The team reviewed the iCAP Land & Water objectives, discussed area/projects of focus for the year, and brainstormed next steps in relation to projects that are underway. Meeting minutes are attached.
Hi, Steve. A News-Gazette Mailbag question for you:
"The University of Illinois has 2 large solar farms near Savoy. How are they doing compared to expectations? What percentage of the UofI power do they provide? Are there any plans for more? If so ... where and when will they be built?"
(I rooted around a bit on the F&S energy/utility pages, and found a lot of info. Figured I'd best ask you, though, for the most current data.)
Thank you,
KR
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Hi Morgan/Mike/Tony,
Do we have updated FY23 data that can be shared to answer the question about current output of both arrays as it relates to expected performance and the percentage of electrical demand?
A similar question was answered in March 22', please see attached. I have addressed the second part with the below statement previously (let me know if there is any update is needed there as well or if that can be used again).
The university is evaluating the potential procurement of additional clean energy through an off-campus virtual power purchase agreement to meet Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) goals.
I would like to finalize the information and reply by Wednesday, October 4. Thanks for your help with this.
Steve B.
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Steve,
Here is the information being requested. I would like Rob to have a chance to comment on the last sentence before you respond.
Both Solar Farms are performing as expected. Solar Farm 2.0 produced 99% of the vendor’s guaranteed production in the first two years of operation. Solar Farm 1.0 produced 96% of estimated production over a two year period. In FY23 the solar production was 6.6% of the campus electricity demand. The University is considering another solar project, but the location and timing have not been determined yet.
Best,
Tony
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I would suggest that the final sentence state something such as: “While there are no immediate plans to add further solar capacity to the system, the University continues to evaluate and consider a multitude of carbon neutral energy solutions that would provide benefit to the Universities energy portfolio, including additional solar array capacity.”
Rob Roman
Dear Carrie,
Yilan Xu and Madhu Khanna shared your name with me. I am the Associate Director of Campus Sustainability for the Institute for Sustainability, Energy and the Environment (iSEE), and I coordinate implementation of the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) with colleagues at iSEE and F&S. I am writing today to invite you to join the Resilience iCAP Team.
The Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) outlines a path for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to achieve carbon neutrality as soon as possible, and no later than 2050, and to work with our local communities to build resilience to climate change. There are 56 specific SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based) objectives crafted in pursuit of this goal, grouped into eight key themes: Energy, Transportation, Land & Water, Zero Waste, Education, Engagement, Resilience, and Implementation. You can find the list of objectives for all themes here.
The iCAP teams are organized around these seven themes and comprised of students, faculty, staff, and a paid student clerk who work together to advocate for the advancement of the iCAP objectives. The Resilience iCAP Team specifically works to bring campus and the surrounding communities (Champaign, Urbana, Savoy) together to address what must be done to prepare for vulnerabilities to extreme weather and other results of climate change. Given your experience in community-level disaster preparedness and mitigation planning, we think you would be an excellent resource for the Resilience Team.
Teams meet at least once per month during the academic year to develop recommendations aimed at advancing the iCAP objectives, which are then reviewed by the iCAP Working Group, co-chaired by Morgan White and myself. Recommendations that are positively reviewed by the iWG are either transmitted to units for implementation or brought to the Sustainability Council for further review. The role of staff members on teams is to share ideas and knowledge, and assist with information gathering in support of campus sustainability goals. Paid student clerks are responsible for logistics, including scheduling meetings, working with the team chair to set the agenda for meetings, note-taking, and reporting.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss this opportunity further, please let me know. I look forward to your response!
Best,
Jennifer
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Jennifer-
Are the meetings in person or virtual? I would love to participate, but not sure I can be on campus every month. I current serve on the ECOP(Extension Community of Practice) Program Area Team (PAT) for climate change. This national Extension initiative is looking at broader research and programming goals, but there seems to be a good synergy between the two. If you could give me a little more information on when and how the team meets, I would like to be involved.
Carrie
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Carrie,
The team meets virtually and the first meeting is this Friday, October 6, at 9 AM on Teams. Morgan White is serving as the chair, Mirim Keep (iSEE) is the vice-chair, and Claire Keating is the student clerk. I copied Claire so that she can share the details for the upcoming meeting in the event that you are able to attend.
It would be great to have you on-board!
Best wishes,
Jennifer
All, Big news of last week is the abandoned bikes. Bike Project folk and I were able to take an inventory of the bikes that are available and given the number of bikes—fewest in my tenure!—we are not partnering with Working Bikes this year. I communicated as much last week and no hard feelings. If anything, they’re happy to hear we have less bike waste—and they would know, they’ve got a 3 story building full of bikes.
This week we have a couple new staff members starting here. We’ll do some off-hours training with them.
The numbers:
Visitors: 40
Sales: $1,030.50
Memberships: 18 for $540
Tires/tubes: 27 for $212
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center
Following the deadline day to claim impounded bicycles, Sarthak Prasad reached out to Jake Benjamin, campus bike center coordinator, to inform that these bicycles are now considered donated to the Campus Bike Center and the Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign. See the email below:
Hi Jake,
The deadline to claim impounded bicycles have passed, so you can start checking the bicycles in the barn now. These bicycles are now considered donated to the Campus Bike Center and the Bike Project. I have the serial number information for almost all of those bicycles in the spreadsheet as well. We had about 240ish bicycles to start with and 24 bicycles were returned this year.
Thank you,
Sarthak
Please see attached.
All, Pretty standard week. Busy with some wait time on stands/repairs most days. Had a Build-a-Bike completed—always a good thing. My team and I did Light the Night on Tuesday at the Ikenberry Quad area. First time in a new location always gets us some looks and questions. Not as busy as we hoped but again, it’s not yet familiar to folks. No word yet on numbers.
We were dangerously overloaded on scrap by Friday, but Todd pick it up over the weekend—always appreciated.
This week I’ll do inventory of the abandoned bikes to see what’s worth keeping. Of note: Easily the fewest abandoned bikes in my tenure. I think my first year there were over 500 bikes left over. Maybe bike shares are really helping that issue (and maybe creating others)?
This week I’ll have two new staffers start. It’s apparently midterms, so reinforcements are paramount.
The numbers:
Visitors: 62
Sales: $1,122.50
Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $50
Memberships: 20 for $600
Tires/tubes: 26 for $192
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center
Hi Jen,
I was at the freezer challenge awards today and Julie Nguyen, a lab manager in vet med, asked about recycling plastic pipette tips. I wanted to put it on your radar for the Green Research discussions. She said that she had talked with Daphne about this also.
Fisher will accept them but for $70 a box. They are #5 plastic so can be recycled in C-U but not on campus. She said that she has been taking them to recycling herself. Her comments reinforce the lack of our ability to recycle lab waste on campus and also that there are motivated people taking the responsibility to do it themselves.
She could be a good candidate to bring into your Green Research discussion since Vet Med would deal with a lot of spooky stuff in their labs.
-Elizabeth
September 20, 2023 Green Research Committee Meeting 4
Present: Stephanie Hess, Tim Mies, Jennifer Fraterrigo, Paul Foote, Jeremy Neighbors, Shari Effert-Fanta, Lisa Moore, Morgan White, Chad Stevens, Sabrina Summers, Maisie Kingren, Daphne Hulse
Absent: Mitchell Bryant
High-level overview (Jeremy leads)
Hello my name is Saif Malik and I am a graduate student in the Energy Systems program. Some classmates and I are working with the Student Sustainability Committee on proposing 2 pairs of solar compactors to be set up by the main union.
I understand that in the past there was a compactor that broke down/ caused issues. I was hoping to get any information on this so we can look into if this is still viable or what improvements would be needed from what you encountered.
Thank you for your time!
Saif Malik
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Morgan, would you be able to assist with the below?
Jerry Dinnin
All, I was out sick all last week with some combination of flu/cold/sinus infection. My staff handled operations in my absence. However, there were some issues tracking visit numbers, unfortunately.
Last Thursday was Bike To Work Day. Some very awesome people stepped up and filled in for me. Sounds like it was a banner year! Congrats to all involved.
Tomorrow evening is Light The Night. We’ll be hosting at a different location this year. Should be a better spot for folks to get their lights.
We were inundated with donations last week. I’ll bring in staff off-hours to help scrap the junk bikes and reorganize this week. Hopefully we’ll have our space in better shape by our open hours on Wednesday.
The numbers:
Visitors: 8*
Sales: $1,242.50
Bikes (refurb): 2 for $215
Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $40
Memberships: 17 for $510
Tires/tubes: 9 for $55
*See above issue with visit numbers.
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator
Hi Jim & Kelly Jo,
My intentions were to send this out last Friday after seeing the DKC email, I just didn’t get back to it before the end of the day. I just wanted to share the latest version 4.1 of LEED which shows the new requirements for fundamental & Enhanced Cx.
Both have increased in documentation, material and tasks needed to achieve them. Above are just a few of the items that Brian and I track and report for Fundamental Cx.
Looks like they are going for Platinum, the highest level. I wonder if they have looked into green cleaning or alternative energy. We may want to verify this. Keep in mind, that all the actual commissioning is covered under the required fundamental portion. Enhanced includes extra tasks needed to be performed by the contractors and possibly a 3rd party entity. Something to think about as well is overall cost of the project, this could drive the cost of the project up. So, that’s another thing we need to bring to their attention is adding the appropriate language in the specifications. Enhanced does have a possibility of gaining 6 points but there are options.
I’ll be back in the office tomorrow; I have time tomorrow afternoon or Friday to discuss the options and path’s if we so choose to accept this route. We should also discuss UGL, they are also wanting to pursue enhanced, not sure which avenue yet, I believe they talked about option 1, path 1.
Thanks,
Jake
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Just an fyi with some information that Brian and I provide to USGBC for UIUC Cx activities. The material attached above is just some of what we provide for the fundamental side of commissioning. I would like to speak to you about the enhanced side when you have a few minutes.
Please let me know if you have a few minutes this afternoon or tomorrow.
Thank you,
Jake
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Hi Jake:
Rather than discussing this with me along with Morgan, I’m going to invite you to the 50% Design Review to discuss it with the PSC. Copying KJH so she sees the email string. I’m not sure where Bailey Edward is going with this other than trying to get a higher LEED score. I’m not passionate about pursuing enhanced CX but Bailey Edward wanted to discuss as a part of the rating process. Right now, I have the LEED/Enhanced CX scheduled for 11:50-12:30 on Tuesday, September 19. I know it’s part of a lunch, apologies for that. I’m attempting to get through all of the DR comments in less than 16 hours of time and this would be the last meeting of the day.
Sending the schedule out shortly.
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Just an fyi…I reached out to Todd with Baily Edwards the other day. I have attached the email regarding that conversation.
Basically, as long as they enter the appropriate language in the specifications, we could revisit this later in the project and see how the points are achievable and what’s actually needed to get them to the appropriate certification level.
Morgan,
I was looking at the green research committee stuff just now. It had me thinking about charge #3 and how difficult that is. Curious what your thoughts are about it. There are parts of it we can definitely offer recommendations for. We have buildings that aren’t too far out of code/compliance and could be upgraded slowly (as budget allows) to put them in a better and more green standing. My opinion is we push for that. We also have buildings that seem to be too far gone and are in the “must rebuild” category to even inch our way towards “green.”
Shutting sashes, recycling, researchers making better decisions is a small piece of the problem that we can solve with a green research coordinator. I think to some, that is the easy part to address (with proper funding for that person) but won’t really get us to where we need to be to call our campus #1 for green research.
In your position with a lot of experience in sustainability and F&S, I’m curious your thoughts on this one. How do we even talk about sustainability to the buildings that are just trying to stay functional each day, where they are on the edge of even being able to do research in their facilities?
Sorry for the random email. Just scratching my head on this one after really thinking about how different each research building is on this campus. Happy to chat briefly via phone before we meet next week if you want.
Stephanie Hess
These are the notes from our first SSLC meeting of the semester on 9/15/2023.
Dear Friend of the Reimagine our Future student sustainability competition,
We are writing to provide a brief update about Reimagine our Future.
As you know, the aim of this competition is to harness the creativity and intelligence of undergraduate students, challenging them to develop ideas and solutions that will contribute to the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and encouraging them to feel empowered as engaged problem-solvers.
Registration is now open for the 2023 competition, and we have some exciting developments to report.
Students from nine participating higher education institutions can enter the competition this year either as individuals or as members of teams. (Students from any higher education institution anywhere may be on a team that enters the competition provided that team is led by a student from a participating institution.) An up-to-date list of the participating institutions is here.
This year we added two special awards for the best submission dealing with some aspect of climate change and for the submission that went furthest in implementation.
Also, Mike Yao, a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign professor with appointments in the College of Media and the Gies College of Business, will serve as a mentor to the winning entrants, irrespective of their home institution, as they attempt to develop and implement their proposal.
The important dates for the 2023 competition are available here.
If you are an advisor on student projects, you may receive – any time between now and November 19th - a request for advice from one or more students who are planning a submission in your area of expertise or interest.
If you are a judge, we will ask for a few hours of your time during November 20-24 to help develop the list of finalists.
Special thanks to those who are playing both roles!
Our list of advisors and judges includes specialists from various universities, companies, and institutions and from many backgrounds, fields, and disciplines. This broad-ranging list encourages submissions from students in many areas. We expect to continue to add to this list.
Thank you again for your ongoing help with this sustainability competition and for bringing your unique background, skills, professional history and more to this project. If you have advice or suggestions about any aspect of the competition, please let us know.
Yours sincerely,
Leon Liebenberg (Teaching Professor, Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering, UIUC)
Warren Lavey (Adjunct Professor, College of Law, School of Earth, Society & Environment, and College of Medicine, UIUC)
Robert McKim (Emeritus Professor, Department of Religion, UIUC)
(Reimagine Our Future co-founders and coordinating committee)
Hi Tony,
We need to provide historical energy data to Professor Yi for his work with us this fall to create building energy models for selected buildings on campus, in his Architecture class.
Can you please have someone on your team provide monthly energy data for the following buildings for the last five years, FY20 to FY16? Also, if hourly data is available, please provide hourly data for these same buildings for the one year of FY19.
· Personnel Services Building
· Speech and Hearing Building
· Children’s Research Center
· Bruce Nesbitt African American Cultural Center.
I have created a folder for the related files in Box, which you can access at https://uofi.box.com/s/uc18bm30ysb6fxk7q0e0iwy3hnav99lq. We would appreciate receiving this information by the end of July, if possible.
Thank you,
Morgan
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Morgan,
End of July should not be a problem.
Regards,
Tony
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Could you handle this data request? Thanks
Regards,
Tony
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Hi Morgan –
Attached is the data you’ve requested.
Thanks,
Anthony
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Hi Yun,
Please see attached files.
Thanks!
Morgan
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Hi Marge
I am wondering if we can get these buildings' documents before the semester starts.
I can ask TA to go over the documents and select documents that need for the class.
So that we can reduce the number of documents to get approval.
Also, I send an email related to meter data.
The Excel file doesn’t have units, could you help me what units were used for the meters.
Many thanks
Yun
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Hi Yun,
I need to know what building documents you are seeking. What specifically do you want to see?
Thanks,
Morgan
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Hi Morgan,
It will be good to get basic drawings like floor plans, elevations, and more specific drawings like HVAC schedule, zoning, section detail, etc.
Many thanks
Yun
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Hi Morgan,
Thanks to your help, today my class was able to site visit the new Campus Instructional Facility building and new Mech. building.
Here is a photo of today's visit. Students learned a lot today and I got great feedback today.
Also, I like to discuss some findings from initial energy modeling.
The BNAACC building is one of the buildings that we are analyzing the energy consumption data. While we compare meter data to energy consumption from simulation results. We observed that the electricity meter is projecting energy consumption exponentially higher than what an average building of such size should be consuming.
I am not sure this building is still in calibration on meter data or something but I will advise having the meter checked. If you need I can send you some of our findings or talk further on this.
Best
Yun
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Hi All,
Hope you had a nice break. I like to update you on building modeling.
We have four Energyplus (DesignBuilder) models that I can share with you.
I had to review the model made by students to make sure they are close to the actual building.
Currently, I am adding detailed HVAC systems to the model that can be more realistic.
Would you like to get access to the file? I can share the folder with you all. Also, would you like to discuss the next step?
Here is one of a report done by a student.
Best
Yun
-----------------------
Hi Yun,
I would love to see the model(s) as soon s your review and detailed HVAC systems are modeled. I can also help assist with next steps.
Thanks,
Tom
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Hi Tom,
I will share the folder with you when I have them ready.
Do you have a designbuilder on your computer? Or do you prefer to get it as an energyplus file?
We have an annual license with DB and we can share it with you if you like.
best
Yun
----------------------
Yun,
Is it easy for you to give us both versions? Otherwise energy plus would be good.
Thanks,
Tom
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Hi Tom,
I thought I send files to you and realized I didn’t today.
Sorry for the late. Here is the files for the 4 buildings that we modeled.
Let me know if you have any questions.
best
Yun
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Hi All,
Hope everyone is relaxing little bit from busy semester. Finally, I am done with grading and other things for the semester.
Also, it is not official but I have a good news that I got tenure so I will stay longer here.
Anyway, I am trying to see if you are interested to continue the building energy modeling in the Fall.
If we like to continue, I like to prepare some more buildings for the class this summer.
Let me know your thoughts
best
Yun
----------------------
That’s great news, Yun!!! Congrats on your impending tenure!!!
I’m adding Kelly Jo Hoffmann the new Associate Director for Engineering Services, here. She’s been with F&S and was recently promoted into this roll.
I’m interested in continuing this, but I suggest we hold a meeting with a few more F&S folks to talk about what effort went into the modeling and how we are using them. I will look for an available time to do a zoom call.
Thanks,
Morgan
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Hi Morgan and Tom
Hope you are getting some good break during the summer.
I like to see if f&S is interest to continue the building energy modeling project.
If you are, I need to inform school that I will teach the same course next semester.
Many thanks,
Yun
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Hi Yun,
Nice to hear from you. I would support that. However, I am not in a decision-making role for such things. I believe that Morgan or one of the others can help answer that more succinctly.
Thank you,
Tom
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Hi All
Hope all is well. Just to check, can we get support from F&S to hire a TA for the fall semester?
It would be a great benefit to have a TA who can assist the class and ensure they build energy models properly.
I appreciate your support.
Many thanks
Yun
---------------------------------
Hi Tom and everyone.
Just to check on the building energy modeling.
Let me know if any of you have a list of buildings that we would like to model for this semester.
I would also love to get some help to hire TA for the class. Without TA, I will be difficult model several buildings like last year.
Many thanks
Yun
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Hi Yun Yi,
Have we modeled geothermal? I'm thinking Ripe Greenhouse (Gates Foundation), and Campus Instructional Facility.
I can assist in TA. I am copying Bruce K. as a possible TA too.
Thanks,
Tom
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Hi Tom,
Some update with the class. It had some issues with our school, but things are clear now.
I don't know why but our school canceled the class. So, I have to reopen the class registration.
Because of cancel and reopen for the registration, we have 6 students registered for this semester.
With the small number of students and no TA, I decided to build an energy model for one campus building for this semester.
I like your idea of Campus Instructional Facility to build and test, I am wondering if it has more than 1 year of meter data.
Also, do you have access to LEED certification on this building? I like to see if the building meet with LEED or not.
What do you think? Any suggestion will be a great help.
Also, like last time, it would be great to schedule a visit to the building and show students the new systems installed in the building.
Many thanks
Yun
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Hi Yun. I bekieve Morgan, Joe, and Kelly-Jo may be delinquent (as usual),
I acknowledge your plight. Yes, CIF has historical energy data (through our usual channels). Yes, the building is LeeD and I can assist. And yes to the walkthrough.
Mr. T
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Mike, Dave, or Kent,
Would any of you be capable of assisting YK with his class this year? I believe they build a model for a 1 campus building each year. You can read more below and discuss with Morgan. If any of you can help, it would be with collecting the information to share with the class (check with Beth), participating in a building tour, and potentially providing some technical assistance with the building modeling questions.
Thanks,
Kelly Jo
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Idea... Have him work directly with dbHMS. We have been getting to know Sachin (principal) and he has been eager to accommodate. They will have all the LEED design and energy calcs readily at hand. We can easily provide as much energy usage data as is available. It seems to me this would be an optimal solution if it is acceptable for the class instructor to work directly with the private sector.
David Green
All, Another doozy of a week. Long wait times for stands, cash offers to “hold” bikes, and my favorite: “When will you get a new shipment of bikes?”
This week promises to be a little better with more staff on board, and presumably fewer folks coming for their registration sticker. We’ll also have our first Friday Ride of the semester. Weather looks good for it!
Tonight is the Bike Project Members’ Meeting. I’ll mention it to all the new members we sign-up today.
The numbers:
Visitors: 142
Sales: $2,631.38
Bikes (refurb): 5 for $855
Bikes (B-a-B): 2 for $100
Memberships: 28 for $840
Tires/tubes: 37 for $263
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator
All, The semester has officially started! People are knocking on the doors at all hours, we’re almost out of sale bikes, the 529 registrations are a near constant, and there’s a wait for stand time by 3p every day. Demand is never higher than this time of year.
On Saturday, we had the Illini Frenzy, and our spin-a-prize bike wheel was a huge hit. Something Pavlovian about the act of spinning a wheel. Even when we were out of all our freebies, people spun it anyways, and a line formed almost immediately. I’ll need to work out a couple of things with it, but I think it’s a keeper for outreach events and the like.
On Friday, Daniel and Rick—two experienced volunteers—came by to lend a hand—and boy did we need it! Many thanks to them. Also, thanks to Todd for grabbing scrap over the weekend.
This week I’ll try to throw some bikes together during our off hours, send out some offer letters for new hires, and do some trainings for our new/returning staff.
The numbers:
Visitors: 156
Sales: $3,127.75
Bikes (refurb): 13 for $1,840
Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $50
Memberships: 21 for $630
Tires/tubes: 10 for $84
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator
On 08/16/2023, Morgan, Daphne, Sarthak, Quinn and Hrushikesh attended/ hosted Sustainability LLC iCAP presentation for the upcoming and aspiring undergraduate students to provide them information about all the aspects of iCAP and other entities. Additionally it was also a great mode of communication to connect with the young minds and get to know their vision regards the same cause.
Hi Paul,
Should we set up a calendar time to talk via Teams about the ECIP plans? I’d think it would include Jen Fraterrigo, and maybe Rob?
Thanks,
Morgan
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Hi Morgan,
During Monday’s meeting we chose to follow your advice and go with the fall schedule.
We are again having conference schedule during this week and wonder if the sustainability week can be chosen on a week other than the week of Oct 16th – the 20th?
Best
Paul
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Hi Paul,
I think the date of the Campus Sustainability Celebration can move, as long as it is within October. I'll touch base with Jen about it and confirm.
Thanks,
Morgan
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Hi Elizabeth,
I checked with Karl and the BTAF Mechanical conference for engineering is Oct 15-18th and the I2SL Sustainable Labs conference is Oct 22-25, if we can avoid these two weeks that would be terrific?
Thank you
Paul Foote
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Hello Elizabeth,
Any updates on the timing for this event?
I am looking to coordinate the ECIP awards for 2022 and 2023 during this event.
Best
Paul Foote
