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  1. Update from James Hoffer

    ---------- Forwarded message ----------
    From: James Hoffer <jhoffer2@illinois.edu>
    Date: Tue, May 17, 2011 at 11:04 AM
    Subject: Project Completion Tasks
    To: Suhail Barot <sbarot@illinois.edu>
    Cc: Jennifer Koys <jennifer.koys@gmail.com>


    Hi Suhail,

    There are a couple of things that I wanted to ask you about regarding the completion of this portion of the project.

    I have completed looking over the assessments I received.  Only 5 of the houses were completed.  The majority of the things found wrong with the houses were cleanliness/obstruction issues with vents and baseboards and window problems.  I have left the lists of things that could be fixed on the F&S computer that I worked on and I will email it to Dean.  I am not sure exactly what he will want to fix or leave alone, I still have to discuss with him. 

    This is not nearly as many houses as I wanted to get done, and I think this is simply because they ran out of time.  I do not think this part was a failure though, as it will provide good insight to changes that need to be made in the future.  One of the most important things will be to have hard deadlines for the teams to have completed their assessments by. 

    I have not received any more emails regarding my position next year.  I do not know if you have talked with Hannah yet or decided what will happen.  Next year there is a good chance that I will be at U of I and working for F&S on a different project.  I believe it will be very easy for me to pass on the work to whoever you choose and help them get the feel for it.  Please let me know when you have selected a person or if you would like me to select one.  I will need to talk with them before the start of next semester.

    I left the supply box on the table of the room in the YMCA.

    Please inform as to what you would like me to do at this point.

    Thanks,
    James
     

  2. Feasibility Study approved by SSC and CCRC

    Associated Project(s): 

    SSC confirmed funding of $15,000 for composting feasibility study 5/9/11.  Study approved 5/12/11 by Chancellor’s Capital Review Committee (CCRC) with Fall 2011 completion target.  Proposal requested from Retainer A/E Foth Engineering, which was also the A/E on the previous composting project before it was cancelled.

  3. Composting project discussions continue

    Associated Project(s): 

    Meeting with SSC and F&S to confirm details of composting feasibility study scope.  Kevin, Matt, and Morgan worked on completing the project request form.  Kevin, Carl, and Tracy worked on detailing the transportation charges budget.  Kevin also met with Dawn Aubrey about the food waste supply.

  4. James Hoffer, student intern, created building list file

    James provided the attached list of buildings audited by student teams in FY11.  Unfortunately, these audits were rushed and incomplete.  There were many follow up discussions about paying the student teams as originally intended, and in the end the teams were not paid.  This decision was coordinated by Mckenzie Beverage, the SSC Program Advisor, during FY12 and FY13.

    Attached Files: 
  5. BLUE Sustainable planting info

    Sustainable plants are native species that are resilient to insects and disease.  Once established, they require minimal fertilizer, watering, and upkeep.  The F&S Grounds Department planted 80 native trees last year and more than 2,300 native grasses in the last three years.  Campus locations with native grasses include: Roger Adams Laboratory, the Institute for Genomic Biology, the Agricultural Engineering Building, and the Veterinary Medicine Basic Sciences Building. 

  6. draft MOU from Jennifer Koys

    Rather than requiring Facilities & Services to submit a proposal for the program, we have created a Memorandum of Understanding, based on our conversations. Please review the attached memorandum and let me know if you have any comments or concerns.

    We are looking to present this memorandum to the SSC for vote on Friday, November 12th in order to move forward quickly enough to start the program in the Spring semester. 

    The remaining piece needed is a formal letter of support for the program from Facilities & Services, indicating a commitment to implement cost effective recommendations and identifying who would supervise the student intern.  To complete the memorandum, we will also need the names, emails, and phone numbers of the primary, secondary, and financial officer contacts.
     

  7. suggestion from Carl Wegel

    As I have thought about this effort, I concluded that weatherization inspections would be most productive in our converted residential units on campus - frame structures and 1-3 story masonry buildings which were originally constructed primarily as residential units.  While I don't have a ready inventory of those structures, following is an extremely incomplete list meant to typify the kinds of buildings I am thinking about:

    • The two converted houses east of Uni High on Springfield, used by Uni High.
    • The converted house on the northwest corner of Green and Goodwin.
    • The converted house southeast of ISR on the north side of Illinois.
    • 608 S. Matthews, 708 S. Matthews, converted houses along Nevada between Matthews and Goodwin.
    • Converted units along Oregon between Matthews and Goodwin.
    • Converted units on the south side of Nevada west of Lincoln Avenue, etc

    These buildings fly far below the radar of our formal retro-commissioning efforts, since we have so many improvement opportunities in much larger buildings that consume significantly more resources.

    For the Student Sustainability Committee to provide funding for a students who would spearhead and manage the program, in addition to financial incentives to the surveyors, is a brilliant idea that makes this effort that much more workable during a very busy time at Facilities & Services.  That approach will also provide real world, resume quality experience for the people who step up to the challenge.

    A part of program development that such student employees should undertake would be to identify the kinds of information that would be applicable toward weatherization of the types of structures identified above.  F&S staff would discuss with the students their conclusions and would provide grounding in what weatherization remediation activities we could/would actually pursue.  That approach is preferable to F&S telling you what information we want you to gather.

    I just grabbed off the web the single quick reference below as one example of what resources are readily available to the student program managers as they work to identify what information the surveyors would be asked to gather.

    Does this give you what you need to flesh out your idea?

    Carl Wegel

    Director of Maintenance, and all-around nice guy

    Weatherization Tips For Your Home.
    ...Recommended by US DOE (1)

    -- Test your home for air tightness. A professional blower door test is the best option, however you can find major leaks yourself. On a windy day, hold a lit incense stick next to your windows, doors, electrical boxes, plumbing fixtures, electrical outlets, ceiling fixtures, attic hatches, and other locations where there is a possible air path to the outside. If the smoke stream travels horizontally, you have located an air leak that may need caulking, sealing, or weather-stripping.

    -- Caulk and weather-strip doors and windows that leak air.

    -- Caulk and seal air leaks where plumbing, ducts, or electrical wiring penetrates through exterior walls, floors, ceilings, and over cabinets.

    -- Install rubber gaskets behind outlet and switch plates on exterior walls.

    -- Look for dirty spots in your attic insulation, which often indicate holes where air leaks into and out of your house. You can seal the holes by foaming the gap, or by stapling sheets of plastic over the holes and caulking the edges of the plastic.

    -- Install storm windows over single-pane windows or replace them with double-pane windows. Storm windows may as much as double the R-value of single-pane windows and they can help reduce drafts, water condensation, and frost formation. As a less costly and less permanent alternative, you can use a heavy-duty, clear plastic sheet on a frame or tape clear plastic film to the inside of your window frames during the cold winter months. Remember that the plastic must be sealed tightly to the frame to help reduce infiltration.

    -- When the fireplace is not in use, keep the flue damper tightly closed. A chimney is designed specifically for smoke to escape, so until you close it, warm air escapes 24 hours a day!

    From: Jennifer Koys [mailto:jennifer.koys@gmail.com]
    Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 10:14 PM
    To: Wegel, Carl V (Facilities & Services); Henson, K Dean (Facilities & Services); Johnston, Morgan (Facilities & Services)
    Cc: Anna Franco
    Subject: Campus Weatherization Project

    Hello,

    Hope you're all having a good week! I was wondering if you would be able to provide a "wish list" of the data that would potentially be useful to obtain from student assessments, how you would like it organized, and what you would want to do with the data obtained? This would be very helpful to have as I move forward.

    You mentioned at the meeting having students help run the program. Thinking about this, one possibility I came up with was hiring a student worker to work under someone at F&S to run the program. In the years after the initial start-up, this student could be chosen from the students involved in the assessments during the previous year, as they would possess background knowledge and experience necessary to effectively coordinate the program. Do you have any thoughts on this idea?

    Thanks!

    Jenny
     

  8. Update from Jennifer Koys

    I'm meeting with Brian Deal tomorrow to hopefully get a better idea of how we could get students trained and what kind of information we could get from the audit. I've also reached out to Tim Lindsey to see about possible ISTC invovlement but haven't heard back yet. If came up with any other ideas for departments that might be willing to house the program and put a staff member on it (there would be SSC compensation involved for the staff person), that could be helpful.
     

  9. SSC student meeting with F&S Building Maintenance staff

    I'm from the Student Sustainability Committee. This year, we are interested in funding a project that will utilize students to help to achieve the University goal of weatherizing campus buildings.  Suhail Barot pointed me to you as good people to talk with to start a conversation about what F & S would be looking for in regards to such a program and getting ideas going to submit in response to the Committee's RFP.I'm from the Student Sustainability Committee. This year, we are interested in funding a project that will utilize students to help to achieve the University goal of weatherizing campus buildings.  Suhail Barot pointed me to you as good people to talk with to start a conversation about what F & S would be looking for in regards to such a program and getting ideas going to submit in response to the Committee's RFP.

    Jennifer Koys
    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    Business Process Management, 2011
    Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), Director
    Student Sustainability Committee, Treasurer
     

  10. SSC progress on composting project

    Associated Project(s): 

    SSC minutes from 10/8/10 include this update:

    1. Compost-Kevin
      1. Met with Ryan Welch
      2. Completely on board
      3. Right now all they have is woodchips and leaves
        1. Used for mulch, and tons of excess
      4. Met with Joe Kunkel from vet med
        1. Director of facilities
        2. On board with anything
        3. Animal science is the hold up, but right now it is composting

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