On June 26, 2023 Amy Fruehling, Jen Fraterrigo, and Daphne Hulse meet to follow up after initial contact with Redwood Materials

• Amy is the connector so she can stay involved if need be, but batteries are not her expertise

• Ask Stephanie Hess about DRS about battery disposal on campus is how much is recycled. See if departments have a need for this

• Collection drives would be for students, primarily, for their personal items

  • Ask Goodwill about technology collected from Dump and Run - was it a good outlet for students?

• IT would be more surplus-oriented

• Could payment be associated with batteries collected?

• Would just have to try it out and see if it’s worth it - we won't entirely know what the demand will be for the service

• ARC does battery recycling

  • Reach out about that

• Collection sites must be supervised so nothing is mixed in

• Housing or libraries as a place of disposal would be most ideal. Having it available rather than waiting on a collection drive once or twice a year, is Amy's thought

• Seema will be sending over material about how they have done collection drives in other places, so we know how it might run

• Electrical and computer engineering department

  • Specialization in batteries

  • Looking at how to create batteries with a longer life span

  • Do they have a program? Sell to students?

  • A way for iSEE to integrate campus sustainability and research, so Jen will take the first step here

• Redwood contact is an alum, co-founder is tied to Tesla - Amy notes the significance of this

  • Feels like there could be even more than just collecting batteries

• Opening up redwood materials collection to the community - because the spring electronics event is once a year in the spring, so sparse opportunity for the community/county

On June 21, 2023 Daphne Hulse and Shreya Mahajan met with Seema Nilakhe to discuss Redwood Materials and opportunity for collaboration.

• Introductions

  • Seema Nilakhe, originally from Chicago suburbs, attended U of I

  • Amy Fruehling was career counselor for Seema during her undergraduate years

  • Dabbling in environmental initiatives

  • Worked at Amazon for supply chain

  • Worked at Tesla

    • Infrastructure projects in North America

  • Wanted to work at start up so went to Redwood Materials

    • Lithium ion batteries

    • Based out of Reno, Nevada

    • Consumer partnerships is Seema’s role

  • Don’t take

    • Lead acid

    • Cadmium

    • Car batteries

• Daphne notes that the batteries Redwood would be interested in would likely come from university property, which is handled by CMS/Surplus/OBFS

  • Seema can assist with looking into this process

• Redwood process:

  • Pickup batteries with large OEMs (large car companies that make EVs)

  • Redwood picks up scrap

  • Redwood partners with Call2Recycle

  • Typically you have to pay a fee for Call2Recycle for their services (U of I may have had the service for free?)

  • Collections would be the biggest benefit for us:

    • Cell phones, laptops, smaller devices are high in cobalt and nickel and critical elements that are part of the battery

    • Larger devices would need to be checked for logistics and chemistry

    • Pricing is based on gross weight

    • Collections - don’t provide packaging but suppliers have the drums, crates, or collection mechanism to do that

    • DOT shipping guidelines (Redwood has that and can give us a sample) we have to be in compliance

    • Under 60 watt hours

    • Engineering may have drums that we could use to ship the batteries

    • Gaylords work too

  • Differences between primary and secondary batteries

    • Primaries - non-rechargables

      • Watch batteries

      • Typically lithium ion

  • Have partners which take all of the excess materials that aren’t batteries

    • Secondary - rechargeable

Next steps:

• CMS/Surplus - ask if they already recycle batteries, or need an outlet for it

• Check inventory on drums and gaylords/shipping materials - Seema will send DOT guidelines

• Event with marketing/public relations

• Bin in the Union - how do you keep people from randomly throw items in there that are not batteries? Must be supervised

• Stick to call2recycle for AA AAA alkaline

Drive link to resources used to reduce plastic contamination at University of Arizona

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qas20_ApDqs2YQvXiH3P4YMoKfAm7gQF

Valparasio university full audit report link

Audit Data - Facilities Management (valpo.edu)

Any questions feel free to contatct  tyler.kuss@valpo.edu

June 6, 2023 Green Research Committee Meeting 3

Present: Shari Effert-Fanta, Paul Foote, Jennifer Fraterrigo, Stephanie Hess, Daphne Hulse, Tim Mies, Lisa Moore, Jeremy Neighbors, Chad Stevens, Sabrina Summers

Absent: Mitchell Bryant, Maisie Kingren, Morgan White

Charge 1

• Consolidated information document, provided by Jeremy
  
  • Walkthrough the document
  • We should be aiming to staff a Green Research Director
    
    • And then staff underneath the director
      
      • Could be student workers or full-time employees
  • Short term goals
  • Long term goals
• Chemical inventory - Stephanie
  
  • Central inventory funded by campus
  • Stuck out to Susan Martinis as an opportunity worth exploring
• Engagement role out - Jen
  
  • Integrate it with the annual lab meetings with DRS staff to ensure safety compliance
    
    • A great point in time to evaluate opportunities with sustainability each year
    • Allows opportunity for face time with green research. Especially considering how busy PIs are
  • Lab audits - Stephanie
    
    • Are already quite long - DRS has a year-long timeline to get these done
    • Can sprinkle in sustainability opportunities here and can combine safety and sustainability (shut the sash)
  • Lunch & Learns are great in theory but maybe are not going to show strong attendance in practice
• Where does this green research live? What does it tie into? - Jeremy
  
  • OVCRI, iSEE?
  • October timeline is best according to Susan, Madhu, and Ehab because spring is when budgeting takes place. Allows them to go and ask for funding
  • Extension is possible but the timeline for budgeting is improved if we can get it in by October
  • Chem inventory is digestible as we can save a lot of money if chemicals are better managed
    
    • Burden would be on the researchers to manage what comes in and out
    • Could argue for a person to do this, but Stephanie thinks it is more wise to ask campus to pursue purchasing a software and then researchers input the information
    • DRS does not have staffing or funds currently to do such a program
• Funding Inventory software - Stephanie shared document

Charge 2

• Comprehensive certification program - Paul
  
  • My Green Lab already has an existing certification program
    
    • Flat rate for certifying a bulk number of labs (at Vancouver University, 50 labs certified for $10,000).
    • 160-170 topics that are over viewed
    • On a sliding scale (3 tiers)
    • Do a first round assessment and then come back in 6-12 months to reassess
    • Right now it does not extend beyond labs - not fieldwork or farms
      
      • Could still apply a lot of the stuff but we may need to do our own version of it for our labs
    • Need to be careful of the line between green labs and green research
      
      • Some labs are disadvantaged by the building itself
      • Want to be careful of not handcuffing researchers to achieve sustainability; they are doing important work
      • Think about behavior-based (recycling) rather than mechanical-based opportunities
    • Rewarding labs based on safety, too
      
      • Some only work with ethanol
      • Some work with 8,000 chemicals
      • May not be able to be audit-based for this reason
  • Could create our own that is more robust and custom to what we do at the university
  • Chad thinks the chemical inventory could tie into this portion well. Forcing the labs to take a look at what chemicals they have before purchasing more (if they are above the fire safety limit)
  • In Paul’s observations, PIs that are not included in the creation/design process mean very few labs will actually sign up
  • Opportunities to reward many:
    
    • Most occupant engaged building
    • Most improved building
    • Most energy saved building

Charge 3

• Really a facilities question, Tim is thinking.
• Not on the researcher to be responsible for that
• Funds are already strapped
• Charge 3 is about how we prioritize funding for these.
• Where do transportation costs fall?
  
  • Behavior-based changes like with carpooling
  • Cutting down airfare (zoom meetings)
  • Transportation of presenting research
    
    • Incentivize behaviors)
  • Electric vehicles
    
    • F&S sustainable transportation is tackling this topic currently - electric vehicles within the university fleet
    • Increasing charging infrastructure on campus
    • Figuring out how labs fit into this

Homework

• Leave comments and suggestions on the two documents presented today