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Project Updates for collection: Student Sustainability Committee Funded Projects

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  2. suggestion for community gardens

    Associated Project(s): 
    Orchard Downs Community Gardens

    In 2013, the Student Sustainability Committee received this project suggestion: "Community gardens built on the farmlands at Orchard Downs would benefit direct participants, households, and the community. Main participants in the project would be university students, local residents, and children from an after-school program nearby. The participants would not only benefit from the food produced, but the agricultural knowledge, environmental consciousness, and community interaction associate with working on a community farm.

    The gardens will be designed in a biointensive way, meaning they will be organic agricultural plots that focus on yielding maximal produce on a small plot and maintaining the quality of the soil. The gardens may be implemented in greenhouses, hoop houses, or outdoors depending on the seasonal limitations decided upon in the final designs of the garden.

    Students can register to do volunteer work at the community garden that would be counted toward course credit. Students and their relatives can also request plot to farm on, from which they can use  the produce themselves or sell it to school organizer of the program."

    Housing Services has already established community gardens, which have been in effect since at least the 1990s.

  5. IBI team considering trailer for equipment location

    Associated Project(s): 
    Illinois Biodiesel Initiative (IBI)

    Amanda Lietz met with Stephanie Lage and Morgan Johnston to discuss the next steps for the Illinois Biodiesel Initiative (IBI).  They are looking into the possibility of purchasing an all-inclusive bioreactor trailer which would handle the entire reaction needed to change the waste vegetable oil into biodiesel and soap.  The IBI students are going to identify the exact trailer specifications they are looking for and work with F&S to identify an appropriate location for the trailer.

  6. Building Priorities

    Associated Project(s): 
    Energy Dashboard Project

    The ECI and SSC identified the following list as the building priorities for the metter upgrades.

    1)      Residence Halls: Allen/LAR, FAR/PAR, ISR, SDRP

    2)      Illini Union

    3)      ARC

    4)      CRCE

    5)      Siebel Center

    6)      BIF

    7)      Loomis Lab

    8)      English

    9)      Psychology

  7. InStep Licensing

    Associated Project(s): 
    Energy Dashboard Project

    We received the invoice for the software and license for the Energy Dashboard project through August 31. The next licensing period will be from September 1 through December 31. Beginning January 1, 2013 licensing will be on an annual track. The software for the Energy Dashboard from Instep will cost $40,000, with the discount given to the University. The annual support for the Dashboard will be $6,750.

  10. Racquetball Court Energy Reduction Project

    Associated Project(s): 
    Occupancy and Daylight Sensors

    Twelve racquetball and three squash courts at the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC) were retrofit with 193 fluorescent and 96 mercury vapor light fixtures. The project was funded by the Student Sustainability Committee through an interest-free loan of $75,000.

    Once the lighting retrofits were completed, occupancy sensors were installed in all 15 courts.

    The overall cost of the project ended up at $61,203.69 -- $13,796.31 less than the original quote. Campus Recreation requested that the remaining balance stay with the division and be used to further fund energy reduction projects within their facilities.

    The total average reduction in power consumption is 129,226 kWh. This is a 75.7 percent decrease in consumption, which translates to an annual savings of $9,020. The simple payback for this project is 6.78 years.

  11. RLF Occupancy Sensors FY12

    Associated Project(s): 
    Occupancy and Daylight Sensors

    Ten buildings on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus were selected to receive RLF funding for occupancy sensors in FY12. In order from top priority to lowest priority, the buildings that received funding are Gregory Hall, the Foreign Languages Building, the Agriculture Engineering Sciences Building, Newmark Laboratory, the Rehabilitation Education Center, the Education Building, the Law Building, the Water Survey Buildings, Noyes Laboratory, and Freer Hall. The University will now proceed to implementation of occupancy sensors in all of the above buildings.

    Gregory Hall, the Foreign Languages Building, Newmark Laboratory, the Rehabilitation Education Center, Noyes Laboratory, and Freer Hall have also been selected to receive HVAC occupancy sensors.

  13. Final Bike Sharing Feasibility Study Submitted to SSC

    Associated Project(s): 
    Bike Sharing Feasibility Study
    Bike Sharing

    The final report for the Bike Sharing Feasibility Study was submitted to SSC. The study recommends the following three tiered approach to bicycle sharing on the Urbana-Champaign campus: 

    1. Bikes available for employees – The small existing program at Kinesiology and Community Health should be replicated at departments throughout campus. The program needs to be approved by Legal Counsel, Risk Management, Purchasing, and interested Colleges.  Then it should be promoted to departments, to encourage them to invest in bicycles for their employees and provide them with a simple support system for maintenance and tracking.
       
    2. Bikes available for short-term rentals – As an interim solution until the campus can handle a large-scale bike sharing program, the small existing program at Campus Recreation should be expanded with support from the Student Sustainability Committee.  They should increase the number of bicycles available, make the program self-sufficient financially, and market the program to visitors, conference attendees, faculty, staff, and students. A similar program could be investigated for the Illini Union. 
       
    3. Bike solutions for students and the public – Before this campus is ready to pursue a public bike sharing system, we must first address the issues regarding degraded infrastructure and the need for more bike safety education. Once these issues have been resolved, the campus should renew consideration of several options for bike sharing, such as bicycle libraries, kiosk systems, and GPS-enabled community bikes.  

     

    Attached Files: 

  19. Board of Trustees approves Solar Farm

    Associated Project(s): 
    Solar Farm 1.0

    The Board of Trustees for the University of Illinois approved the purchase plans for the Solar Farm on Thursday.  The next steps are to complete the Development Agreement, Land-Lease Agreement, and Power Purchase Agreement.  Once these are completed, the Solar Farm vendor will begin the design and implementation of the Solar Farm at the southwest corner of Windsor Road and First Street.  The entire site should be completed and operational by the end of 2013.

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