Dana Kirk, Associate Professor at Michigan State University, presented a webinar on May 31, 2022 titled "Universities go green! A case study from the Michigan State University South Campus Anaerobic Digester", which also featured Marcello Pibiri, Senior Research Engineer at Energy Resources Center UIC.

In case you missed the live webinar or if you would like to view the recorded session again, go to https://register.gotowebinar.com/recording/7048417514261610508. You can register with your name and email to watch the recording. Also attached is the presentation by Dana Kirk from this webinar.

Marcello and his team at ERC organize the New Technical Education & Analysis for Community Hauling and Anaerobic Digesters (TEACH AD) Program to educate people about Anaerobic Digesters.

On May 24, Sarthak Prasad met with Gabe Lewis to talk about EVs. Gabe is the Transportation Planner at the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission (CCRPC) and he currently leads the RPC Tech Committee which consists of 7 members – Champaign, Urbana, Savoy, Rantoul, St. Joseph, Mahomet, and Champaign County. Most recently, they had been talking about the feasibility of EVs in urban as well as the rural areas in the county.

We talked about the US DOT's Charging Forward, an EV toolkit, that is primarily focused on EV Charging in the rural areas: https://www.transportation.gov/rural/ev/toolkit

We also talked about Clean City Coalition. State of Illinois does not have a coalition, but Chicago has one and we could potentially reach out to them: https://cleancities.energy.gov/coalitions/

https://cleancities.energy.gov/coalitions/chicago

Also discussed the federal funding available through National EV Infrastructure (NEVI), Carbon Reduction Program (CRP), State and Local Planning for Energy (https://maps.nrel.gov/slope/), and EV Pro Lite (https://afdc.energy.gov/evi-pro-lite)

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.

Gabriel Kosmacher, Shallon Malfeo, Betsy Liggett, Morgan White, and Brent Lewis met this morning to discuss the plans for adding a green roof at the Nick Holonyak Jr. Micro-Nano Technology Center.

SECS is interested in developing the green roof on the closed patio for MNTL.  What structural load can the patio maintain?  Qu Kim had said the patio was closed off because they weren't comfortable with having people out there, and Brent thought it would be a really good idea to put a green roof there.

SECS requested the floor plans to identify the square footage of the patio, and apply for SSC funding. Brent will provide the floor plans. SECS will work through who will maintain the green roof.

Morgan asked if perhaps it could be a vegetable garden, which could provide food to users or donated to the Bucket Brigade. Shallon noted that the food could go to Solidarity Gardens. Morgan asked if Brent thinks vegetable gardening is even feasible in this location, and he explained that it would be way more maintenance. Betsy said it would need maintenance daily instead of monthly, if it were veggies. Additionally, the veggies would lead to more carrying green materials throughout the halls, which would not be well received by the users. This space should not include human food production.

Step 1 -- talk to Ryan Wild and Qu Kim about whether this space is feasible. Then work on design plans and SSC funding application. Consider contacting Fine and Applied Arts about a long-term partnership. There will also need to be a Memo of Understanding about the maintenance of the green roof.

The Zero Waste iCAP Team met on Thursday, March 31 to de-brief the Plastics Reduction Strategy discussion, review committee member research on the Adopt-a-Highway/Adopt-a-Drain and Composting Committee Recommendations, and begin discussion on amending the Campus Administrative Manual's Paper Policy. Meeting minutes are attached.

Terry Guen’s practice has brought ecology back to communities through high-profile technical projects in landscape and urban design. TGDA is a nationally recognized designer of urban public spaces and ecological landscapes. At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, TGDA designed landscapes for Ikenberry Commons and the recently completed Siebel Center for Design.

March 3, 5:30–6:45 pm • 134 Temple Buell Hall (Plym Auditorium), 611 E. Lorado Taft Drive, Champaign, IL.

Conor O'Shea • Department of Landscape Architecture

 This opportunity is available online.

Stanley H. White Lecture: Terry Guen, Principal and Founder, TGDA