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Sarthak & I met on 5/1/2023 and 5/15/2023 to work on the BFU application.
The current version of the log we are using is attached below.
Posted: May 6, 2023 / 02:00 PM CDT
Updated: May 10, 2023 / 06:13 PM CDT
CHAMPAIGN-URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) — U of I Facilities and Services (F&S) announced that the 21st annual Dump and Run event is expanding to multiple campus locations this year beginning Monday, May 8.
The U of I said the Dump and Run event, a collaboration between University Housing and U of I F&S, is designed to achieve campus sustainability goals, including reaching zero waste targets and preventing trash from reaching waterways and landscapes.
Officials said in past years when the event was hosted at the University YMCA, more than 30 tons of material was recycled and kept from reaching the landfill because of these efforts.
U of I officials said expanding the Dump and Run event this year makes it easier for students and others to donate unwanted items at the end of the semester. They said eight 20’ x 8’ mobile storage units will be placed near campus residence halls for the event, including:
University volunteers will be available at the sites to help prevent overflow and ensure additional pickups as necessary.
“We’re excited to bring the Dump and Run event right to where the students live and closer to the majority of faculty and staff,” said Daphne Hulse, F&S zero waste coordinator. “This setup offers everyone a simple way to give back to local nonprofits while preventing littering and keeping items that can be reclaimed from reaching the landfill unnecessarily.
Each day, the containers will be opened at specific times to accept donations. Officials said individuals can donate surplus or gently used items by putting them into bulk boxes inside the containers. Accepted items include:
Throughout the week, officials said the donations will be collected by local participating charities Salt & Light and Goodwill.
“We are pleased to continue to support the Dump and Run initiative, which is a benefit to our residents, the campus, and the local community,” said Alma R. Sealine, executive director of University Housing.
The donation schedule includes:
U of I students and staff can donate accepted items in one of the available mobile storage units during open hours until Saturday, May 13.
Please see attached the final presentation for the CTAC spring 2023. Watch the meeting recording here: https://uofi.box.com/s/mid9gjqnhyziake9txcdf9jee08rgx6h
On April 25th, the Zero Waste iCAP team met to discuss the State Farm Center Recycling (ZW011) recommendation and brainstorm on the Zero Waste iCAP summary report for the 22-23 FY.
Meeting minutes are attached.
Greetings Carbon Offsets Workshop Attendees, and those looking to stay engaged with us!,
Thank you so much for your participation at our workshop on Tuesday April 18th 3-4pm EST, and thank you as well to those who couldn’t attend but are looking to follow-up on the information we shared. We are grateful for the variety of perspectives represented in the meeting space, and the questions and comments we were able to address in the time we had. Moving forward, we’re looking to get your feedback on if there is a collective appetite for diving further into this topic, and what resources are still needed.
Please feel free again to email Meredith directly with your questions and to get involved directly with our Carbon Offsets Network, C2P2 Initiative, and advisory council....
For those of you looking to gain support with your climate action and resilience work in the southeast...
Please visit this link to share your thoughts and feedback on this workshop by Friday April 28th. Please see links to resources included in the survey.
View Meredith Leigh’s presentation linked here.
View our recorded zoom meeting video here.
See below our Q&A of questions and comments institutions and attendees had:
Q&A with Meredith Leigh:
Sandra Van Travis, Morehouse College’s Environmental Health and Safety Officer asks:
Please send information on how to calculate offsets using trees.
Campuses have hired arborists to determine sample areas and measure trees. These measurements require tree height, diameter at breast height, and species identification. Arborists are positioned to do this work.
If hiring an arborist is not possible, new remote sensing technology providers offer phone apps that can be used by students or faculty to calculate tree data and categorize by species. One company in particular is interested in partnering with HEIs. If you are interested in connecting with this company, email Meredith.
Christina Kwauk Asks:
I am curious if any of the members of the working group are familiar with carbon offsets that go toward non-mitigation activities but rather to climate adaptation activities that may benefit climate resilience outcomes of environmental justice communities (i.e. instead of carbon removed, what about respiratory illnesses averted/reduced?). This may be totally out of scope for carbon offsets and this workshop, but I wanted to join to listen for these connections today.
This is a great question and a badly needed type of offset! Right now these kinds of values are considered “co-benefits” of carbon offsets, and people don’t put a dollar value on them like they do on MTCDE reductions, but offset projects are more attractive to buyers when they list these kinds of co-benefits. Campus participation in the Offset Network is a great way to develop projects uniquely suited to your campus, especially when your goals are to serve co-benefits and you have less pressure to just produce quantifiable offsets. An example of this is Clarkson ISE’s recently avoided forest conversion project through the Offset Network. Their main goals were to create student involvement in forest inventory and carbon project development, and to protect a piece of land and the endangered species of turtle that lives on it. The offsets generated from the project are small, and will count toward Clarkson’s Scope 3 emissions, but the co-benefits were what really made the project worthwhile for them.
Dr. Maria Boccalandro asks:
If you are in a community college setting where you work with tax payer’s money how do you justify buying these credits? I think narrative matters... are there any best practices for community colleges you can share?
A great question, and one that Second Nature is still working on as we diversify the institutions we support. I think the key to this is transparency- communicating to stakeholders both the intentions of the offset purchase and its impact. To this end, it would be advisable to make space for community input when the school develops its offsets strategy. This way taxpayers can provide feedback on whether they see value in the college purchasing offsets as a way of becoming climate neutral, and if so, what types of projects would feel valuable to them. Furthermore I think engagement in the Offset Network, where faculty and students can create local projects with high co-benefits would be a good fit for community colleges. The projects can be designed for community involvement and high community co-benefits so that the expense of engaging is co-owned and the positive impacts are felt beyond campus.
Thank you all again, and we look forward to reviewing your feedback!,
Blythe Coleman-Mumford (she/her/hers)
-----------------------------------
Hi Morgan, Madhu, and Elizabeth –
Given that we have been discussing offsets and Second Nature’s role, I thought you might find the slides linked below (Meredith Leigh’s presentation, highlighted) of interest. They provide an overview of the topic of offsets and several examples of what various HEIs are doing in this space.
Notably, slides 10-11 indicate that C sequestered in trees can be removed from total campus emissions as a “sink” in SIMAP. As you know, sinks are not the same as offsets because they do not require additionality. We know C sequestration for Trelease Woods and have the data to determine C sequestered by campus trees. So I think we should consider listing them as sinks. We could also consider other campus lands where land use/land cover might support C sequestration (cover cropping?).
Based on the public SIMAP report (here), we have reported 0 sinks/non-additional sequestration in the past. When will we complete the next SIMAP report?
Thanks,
Jen
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Thanks for sharing this Jen. This is helpful to have. I will look over the slides. Can you also send me the write up by Warren Lavey.
We should plan on discussing this at our next CS team meeting unless there is urgency to discuss it sooner
Best
Madhu
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Hi Madhu,
It is not urgent; we can discuss at the next CS team meeting.
The Resilience Team will be discussing the offset policy letter at today’s meeting. I will share once it is finalized. The law student working with Warren presented her findings about the MOU and paths forward at the April meeting. Notes can be found here:
https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project-update/resilience-icap-team-april-meeting
Jen
Sarthak & I met on 4/24/2023 to work on the BFU application.
The current version of the log we are using is attached below.
Presentations given during the lunch sessions for each grade in the library. Franklin STEAM hosts sustainability speakers each April in honor of Earth Month.
Thanks so much for coming!!!
We really appreciate your time and energy today speaking to Franklin's future "world rescuers."
I know you cannot attend our Open House this May 11th but do consider if you would like to table at our fall Open House on September 14th.
We really appreciated your clear and important messages.
Zanne Newman
Magnet Site Coordinator
Franklin STEAM Academy
Resilience iCAP Team had its online April meeting on Friday, April 14th, at 1 PM. The team had two guests: Annie Cebulski and Kejsi Ago. Annie presented the carbon offsets that the university has to purchase and gave some recommendations on how to complete these purchases. Afterward, the team discussed next steps for a potential statement and/or recommendation on this carbon offset purchasing. Meeting minutes are attached.
Hi Morgan,
Last week you mentioned that a document outlining a process for what to do with unused items would be helpful for folks across campus. I’ve put together a draft of what this could look like. Is this along the lines of what you were thinking?
Thank you,
Daphne
Hi Tony,
I met with folks from Housing yesterday about incorporating sustainability into RA training. Eric and Daphne were also on the call. We identified a few approaches for sharing content. I now need your help developing the materials.
One approach is to provide a short (3 min max) video for RAs to view, followed by questions to assess learning. As a framework, I suggest we use the sustainability guide that the interns developed with Meredith (attached). Do you have any video content that would be appropriate? The student training video is too long, but hits all the highlights. Is this something you could shorten? We need to send the video by mid/late June.
A second approach is to provide content for a microlearning session that would pair with the facilities session. They prefer a mixed mode approach, i.e., not just lecture/slides. We need to provide the content within the next two weeks. Is this doable? I shared the sustainability guide with them and am awaiting feedback.
A third approach is to distribute materials during the RA resource fair, which is held August 10th.
Finally, Housing is open to sharing information via their “Housing Insider” newsletter and digital platforms. It would be great to have your help developing content for those.
Let me know what you think and we can also touch base at the management meeting today.
Thanks,
Jen
Morgan White, the Associate Director of F&S of Sustainability and Interim Director of Capital Programs at UIUC, responded to the LW004 Monarchs Need Milkweed with the following message:
Dear Land and Water iCAP Team and iWG,
Thank you for your continued support and advocacy for the Illinois Climate Action Plan. Last semester, we received the recommendation below for adding more milkweed around campus to support the monarch butterfly population, and we are happy to take action.
F&S has the personnel and expertise to coordinate this effort successfully. The Grounds team will plant milkweed at the low mow zone and prairie areas, prioritizing the locations shown on your map. Additionally, once our Grounds Workers do the seeding, they will be more likely to know where it is growing in the future and be able to avoid accidental mowings.
To assist campus sustainability, F&S is amenable to doing the work without additional compensation. We will also request $2,500 from the Illinois Green Fund for the purchase of enough seeds for roughly 64,000 SF of space, which can then be divided up into the multiple locations. Some of the smaller locations suggested may not be planted, depending on future campus building plans. For the low mow zones, plantings will be prioritized along road corridors where passers-by will be able to see the plants growing and ascertain the success rate.
Please let Brent Lewis (copied) know if you have any questions. We look forward to assisting our pollinator population with this project.
Thanks,
Morgan
For future updates related to the Monarchs Need Milkweed, see the Increase Pollinator-Friendly Areas project here.
See the iWG assessment LW004 Monarchs Need Milkweed and transmittal update here.
See the original LW004 Monarchs Need Milkweed recommendation here.
Hi all,
This is a friendly reminder that we are scheduled to meet to discuss EPP tomorrow (Thursday) from 2 – 3 PM via Zoom (link below). Looking forward to speaking with you all then!
Thanks,
Meredith
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Good morning,
Here is the current draft I’ve put together for the EPP Guide. I’ll be ready to discuss at our meeting this afternoon.
Thanks,
Aaron M Finder
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Good morning,
I wanted to follow up to make sure this stays on everyone radar. Does anyone have anything to add to the attachment?
Thank you,
Aaron M Finder
---------------------------
Hi Aaron,
Thank you for following up on the EPP Guide last month. I am wondering what the current status is - are you still looking for feedback from us?
Thanks,
Meredith
-------------------
Hi Meredith,
Syd was able to send over some comments but I am awaiting a responses from the others on this thread. If anyone has any recommendation for improvements or wants to forward this document to other UIUC stakeholders for their input, that would be appreciated. To ensure we maintain progress, could everyone have their comments in by 6/30/2022?
Thanks,
Aaron M Finder
-------------------------
Hi all,
Thanks for including me. I attached my comments. As I am joining this conversation late, you may have already discussed some of the issues that I raise. Generally, I think we could provide more specific criteria in some places. The UC System has a very detailed document that we could consult for guidance. I am not advocating for the stringent guidelines they use, but putting this out there as a nice resource:
Happy to chat about this if desired.
Thanks,
Jen
---------------------------
Hi Aaron,
Can you provide a status update on the procurement document please?
Thanks,
Jen
-------------------------
Hi Jennifer,
To date, I have only received comments from you and Pete’s former intern. I was hoping to receive more input from F&S as they will be the department most impacted. If F&S does not have further comment, we can work towards finalizing the document.
Thanks,
Aaron M Finder
----------------------------
Hi Aaron and Jen,
Please see the attached EPP document with additional comments from F&S.
Thank you,
Daphne
--------------------------
Hi Morgan,
Putting this back on the radar! This was the most recent document we have with our EPP guidelines, sent to Aaron Finder. Where should we go from here?
Thank you,
Daphne
Please see the attached newsletter from Facilities & Services
Brent, Morgan,
I am working with CSL on a small project for some solar panels near their satellite office in the North Campus Parking Garage. CSL mentioned that Canadian Solar is one of the approved suppliers to the campus.
You probably know that Canadian Solar, in spite of its name, is mostly a Chinese supplier, although they have a more modest plant in Canada. The largest Chinese supplier is Jinko Solar, which in my experience is a bit better in quality.
I am hoping we can spin up a higher-quality U.S. supplier, such as Sunpower, as an alternative to the various foreign providers.
Philip T. Krein, Ph.D., P.E.
----------------------------------
Hi Sush and Brian,
I am working on this research project at the North Campus Parking Deck to put solar panels on the canopy on the outside of the south side of the building. They will be feeding them into a research space to power servers. They actually want to have the panels directly power a battery and then power the servers from the battery. I provided the cutsheets of the panels we used at the President’s Shed. These fit the weight and size dimension requirements. As we have used them before, they are therefore “pre-approved.” One of the researchers, Philip, is asking about using something different in the email below. Can you please assist in a response?
Also, as far as I knew, we hadn’t done any large battery systems on campus. Possibly that is incorrect, but in asking recently I came up with nothing. Please take a look at the cutsheet for the enphase and see if we would be ok with this one. If not, please provide some additional direction.
Thanks!
Brent.
----------------------------
Brent,
I’m not aware that we have approved “vendors” for solar panels nor for inverters and such equipment. Also, I not aware of where we would have a PV system using storage, the few I’m familiar with are grid tie systems.
How big of a system are they looking at?
Brian Curtis Finet, PE
---------------------------
Brian,
We will still tie this to the grid as a back up, back up power supply. They would have 18 panels total along that canopy. I know we don’t have any officially “approved” vendors, but since we used the ones at the President’s House, we had approved them through construction. Originally the researchers picked out what they wanted, but the manufacturer didn’t want to deal with us, so I threw out using the ones we’ve already installed here at least once.
I am not 100% certain if this is to power 3 new servers with 3 new batteries, or 3 new servers, with only one battery. Based on the last email, it appeared we would only be looking at one battery for the backup. I can put you in touch with the MEP if you would rather talk directly.
Thanks,
Brent.
---------------------
Brent,
Apart from Brian’s comments, here some things I would consider if the owner has concerns and this is how I would plan on choosing a panel vendor.
My final thoughts - Sunpower has a better rating, reliability and warranty compared to Canadian solar (last I checked its been a year or so) but it also comes at higher $$.
Thanks,
Sushanth Girini
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
----------------------
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
--------------------
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
-------------------
Good morning,
I am fine with moving the Campus Sustainability Celebration to another week in October.
Thanks,
Jen
Jen and Morgan asked Brent Lewis about the use of plugs instead of seeds. They also want to explore partnering with schools and community groups to collect seed from local sources and that The Urbana Free Library has a seed library, in which we could help encourage participation. Also, Jen would like to engage University Primary School, which is adjacent to the prairie where students found a lot of milkweed. One of their lessons is about monarchs. Milkweed pods are easy to harvest in the fall.
Brent responded with the following message:
Hi Jennifer,
If we are doing butterfly weed on the main part of campus, then I want to use plugs. For this recommendation, we’ve shifted to enhancing the low mow areas. In that case, we are talking about a huge amount of space. Due to the easy nature of growing these from seed and the large impact we are looking for, having them broadcast seed through these zones is the most effective way of accomplishing this.
We will make sure to get some out at the school there too. That’s a great suggestion.
Thanks,
Brent.
The Energy iCAP team met on Monday 3/27/23 to discuss recommendations on energy standards for newly constructed buildings and improving communication of energy research on campus between labs and the broader campus community.
View the recording: https://mediaspace.illinois.edu/media/t/1_9vmyh6sl
Please see attached the FY23 progress report for the 2014 Campus Bicycle Master Plan.
Below is an email exchange regarding University Housing recycling:
It was great talking with all of you about sustainability in University Housing. I hope my input didn’t scare you too much. Given our size, and the number off residents we house, we have to maintain some discipline in how we communicate to and interact with our residents. I’m sure we can find a viable method for reaching our residents to inform them of sustainability issues and event across campus. Below are a few talking points I jotted down during out meeting.
I ended up closing the meeting invite without saving, which I was using to keep notes during the meeting. So please let me know if I missed any key takeaways.
BRYAN JOHNSON
------------------------------
Hi Bryan,
Daphne Hulse and I have been developing plans for a campus-wide plastic waste reduction campaign. I think the communication methods you mention below could be valuable for messaging. If you agree, Daphne can incorporate these into the strategy.
We remain interested in adding a sticker with a QR code to the residence hall room recycling containers to direct students to a website with more information about recycling and waste management. Can you provide an estimate of how many stickers we would need?
I also want to follow up on your last two points about incorporating sustainability into RA training and programming to Housing residents. Our survey data indicate that first year students are more likely to purchase single-use plastic bottles, so we think targeting this group is important. Has Residential Life leadership and or Nathan Sanden responded to your inquiries concerning this issue?
If you would like to discuss any of these items further, Daphne and I would be happy to join you on a call.
Thank you,
Jen
------------------------------
Okay, I have some answers for you. Attached is our proposal to the SSC to fund the recycling containers. The original purchase was for 6,511 containers, but I would guess a few have disappeared by now. I was not able to find anyone within our Sustainability LLC to help mange this project or take on submitting another request to SSC to fund the stickers. If we move forward with this project, we will need to meet with Housing Facilities staff to iron out the logistical details. Our facilities staff will not be able to assist with placement of the stickers, so we will need to find a different avenue for getting them placed. I copied Matt Brown and Mark Kuehl from Housing Facilities on the email to keep them in the loop.
Herb Jones, Director of Residential Life, said he is open to a conversation to talk through your thoughts on incorporating a sustainability component into our RA training. Jenny Bates, copied here, manages his calendar, if you would like to reach out to her and schedule a time to meet.
Also, here is an updated link to Housing’s website for digital sign requests. We redesigned our webpage a couple months ago and the old link was inactive. https://www.housing.illinois.edu/digital-signage
Also, also, I am still trying to confirm if we rent out the space on the napkin holders in the dining halls. We have not done this in the past, but we have a new Director of Dining who might have a different direction for these.
Thanks,
BRYAN JOHNSON
------------------------------
Bryan,
Thank you for sharing this information. It is all very helpful!
Daphne and I can look into developing an SSC proposal, perhaps with the assistance of our iCAP Engagement team. I think we can also find people to help with sticker placement if the project is funded.
We are looking forward to discussing incorporating a sustainability component into RA training with you on April 7 at 3:00 pm.
Best,
Jen
