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Tim Hoss was approved as a Recycling Assistant academic hourly position to oversee the implementation of the Food Waste Composting Facility and assist with other iCAP waste management projects.
Spoke with Jeff Weaver at Property Accounting about developing an online system where departments can post furniture and equipment they intend to relinquish, and other departments can choose to get that item directly from the current location, rather than send the item to Surplus and get it picked up from Surplus.
Staff answered questions from DCEO about the FSCRAP grant, in cooperation with University Grants and Contracts. Additionally, staff provided detailed responses to inquiries from students about the status of the project.
F&S Planning is working on formalization of the “no-new space” policy as recommended in the iCAP.
Continued contract renewal work for the University and MTD three-year contract form FY13-FY15. The students approved recommended transportation fees which will be forwarded to the Board of Trustees this spring.
Staff held weekly conference calls with Zipcar about promoting car-sharing on campus, and provided input to the University of Iowa and Eastern Illinois University regarding their car sharing plans.
Staff worked with CATS agencies about the MTD Very Small Starts project which could potentially lead to funding for complete streets in the University District on White Street, Wright Street, Green Street, and Armory Avenue.
On February 16, CCNet hosted Angela Adams, the Recycling Coordinator at the City of Champaign, to explain the proposed bag ban in the city; Pattsi Petrie, a Champaign County Board Member, to discuss local foods; Mike Monson, the Urbana Chief of Staff, to explain the Electrical Aggregation proposal; and Marya Ryan, from the Urbana Sustainability Advisory Commission to review the City of Urbana’s Climate Action Plan.
Staff facilitated meetings with students and staff about potential letters of support for the City of Champaign Single Use Disposable Paper and Plastic Bags study item.
In an effort to standardize emissions calculations throughout the community and county, staff met with transportation planners from the Regional Planning Commission to share information about calculating transportation emissions.
The SSC Weatherization student leader met with the Building Maintenance team at F&S to review the student team reports for the small houses they assessed last fall. Building Maintenance will develop cost estimates for the identified needs, so the students can prioritize the available funding ($50,000 from F&S).
F&S worked with the College of Business’ Director of Information Management to provide detailed solar data from the Business Instructional Facility to a graduate student in ECE.
A team of MBA students in Madhu Viswanathan’s course worked with the Campus Bike Project to make recommendations about how the Campus Bike Project could become financially self-supporting.
Scholarship of Sustainability 10-part series began.
The Engineering 315, Learning in the Community UI Bikes (UIB) section submitted their project proposal for what the class will be working on this semester. The UIB class has divided into three groups which will tackle three different bicycle-related projects this semester: 1.) the continuation of the bike sharing market analysis started last semester, including a campus-wide survey and several targeted focus groups; 2) the development of an online, interactive campus bicycle parking map using Google Maps; and 3) testing out various marketing tactics to encourage bike riders to park their bikes legally at designated bike parking, rather than on trees, signs, ramps, or fences.
Staff continued working with the Office for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education (MSTE) on the sustainability portal. The portal will host a database of the iCAP/sustainability projects for campus, with searchable details about the projects, people, funding, and metrics.
Staff met with Inside Illinois to develop an article about campus sustainability. The article is online at http://news.illinois.edu/ii/12/0301/sustainability.html.
The Alumni Magazine included a story about being a Bronze Level Bicycle Friendly University.
Abbott Power Plant was granted an IEPA permit to co-fire biomass with coal until June 30, 2013. F&S intends to do some test burns this spring with wood chips. Wood chips have a good track record in stoker boilers, and we are fairly confident we can demonstrate a successful trial. In addition, wood chips appear to be one of the most cost effective sources of biomass available at this time.
Here are the recommended fix lists from each of the groups.
Thomas,
My name is Mark Barcus and I am Dean Henson’s new assistant and he has asked me to work on the SSC weatherization project. I would like to set up a meeting with you and Morgan Johnston and myself to see where we are at. When would be a good time to meet?
Thanks
Mark
Mark A. Barcus
Assistant Superintendent
Building Maintenance
University of Illinois
Facilities & Services
(217)-265-6566
The Office of Sustainability hosted the first monthly CCNet Sustainability meeting of 2012 on January 19. The meeting had 39 attendees, including faculty, staff, students, local government employees, and members of the community. There was a presentation and discussion led by SEDAC about the organization’s work and national energy trends. CCNet Meetings will continue throughout 2012, taking place at noon on the third Thursday of each month, at the Natural Resources Building, room 101.
Sustainability employees from campus, Urbana, Champaign and the Regional Planning Commission (RPC) continue to collaborate. In January, we discussed each agency’s respective greenhouse gas inventories. It was decided that Champaign and Urbana will include any University emissions which fall within their respective jurisdictional boundaries in their city-wide reports. For the purposes of local reporting, the University will be considered a separate entity that overlays both cities, similar to any other business entity, rather than a distinct jurisdiction. It was also decided that a separate meeting will be necessary to specifically address transportation-related emissions and how each entity is tracking and reporting on these.
The YMCA/YWCA on Wright Street requested a meeting to discuss their sustainability efforts and how the University may be able to assist. They are working on building improvements and changes to their parking and outdoor space. We gave them suggestions of people they may want to contact for input and advice.
Sustainability staff attended an Illinois Green Business Association (IGBA) networking event and talked with IGBA board members about potential future collaborations.
The City of Champaign Recycling Coordinator requested information about the impacts of plastic and paper bags on campus facilities and the campus waste stream. She also requested letters of support for a bag ban from student environmental groups.
Sustainability staff attend monthly conference calls/webinars of the Governor’s Green Universities and Colleges subcommittee. In January, there was a presentation at ISTC about weatherization of campus buildings, and the disconnect between LEED certification and weatherization practices.
The OS is working with MSTE to develop the Illinois Sustainability Portal, an online hub for sustainability-related information on the Urbana-Champaign campus. We met with MSTE several times in January to develop the site architecture and database structure for the site. A preview of the site will be shared during Earth Week (April 16-20). When complete, the portal will be the go-to place for people to learn about all iCAP projects and goals, to submit ideas for consideration, and to research historical data about emissions and other sustainability metrics. Additionally, project leaders will be able to report to the OS on their progress and plans. We envision this to be an incredibly useful tool going forward.
Funding was approved for several pavement improvements on campus streets. These improvements will reduce gas consumption and corresponding emissions for vehicle traffic; restripe the bike lanes on a portion of Gregory Drive; extend the bike lanes on Fourth Street south to Kirby Avenue; add pedestrian countdown traffic signals at two signalized intersections; implement traffic calming measures, such as curb bump outs for increased pedestrian safety in key locations; and improve one block of the Illinois Marathon route on First Street, between Peabody Drive and Kirby Avenue.
Staff are participating in weekly conference calls with Zipcar to encourage the use of car sharing and active transportation on campus. A Zipcar winter welcome special offer was shared in the OS newsletter and through the OS twitter account.
Several grants are in progress to meet iCAP goals. Staff submitted the quarterly reports for DCEO ARRA Large Customer Thermal Grant on January 5. We also requested a funding increase for this grant from DCEO and are currently waiting for their decision. F&S applied for the F-SCRAP Grant from DCEO, for $250,000 for the Large-Scale Food Waste Composting Facility, submitted January 13. Energy Services continued discussions with DCEO about FY12 Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standards (EEPS) Grant Applications. Energy Services also met for the first time with a DCEO contact about a new grant program for steam traps. We will develop a proposal to pursue the grant.
The firm that was hired last fall to complete the Compost Feasibility Study, Foth, submitted a draft of their study to the University in early January for comments. Immediately following, F&S applied for $250,000 from the F-SCRAP Grant from DCEO, for equipment and site improvements for the Large-Scale Food Waste Composting Facility. In order to apply for the grant, the University was required to commit to funding the remaining portion of the facility’s proposed budget, and an emergency phone meeting was called by the Student Sustainability Committee to assign funding toward this. The committee voted in favor and granted $250,000 toward the project. A draft plan for the compost facility was also developed and distributed to key stakeholders in mid-January for feedback.
ISTC reviewed the final draft of their True Cost of Water Study with F&S leadership for comments before submittal to SSC. F&S will use the study to select water conservation projects related to chiller plants and cooling towers.
Sustainability staff met with Corporate Relations to discuss the potential for developing a database of sustainability research at Illinois. Corporate Relations already has a database for water related research that is very detailed. Future meetings are planned to move forward with this project.
