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- Associated Project(s):Attached Files:
CTAC fall 2021: Charge Letter, Presentation file, Meeting recording
Associated Project(s):Please see attached the presentation for the CTAC meeting in Fall 2021. This meeting was held on December 3, 2021. Here is the link to see the recording of this meeting: https://uofi.box.com/s/ezoxpyo8xp2bysocygvj4hnh7cnm9xi3
Attached Files:New iSEE Greener Campus Programs Certifications
Associated Project(s):Congratulations to the newest recipients of our Green Event and Green Office certifications!
Green Event Certifications:
Students for Environmental Concerns (SECS) Environmental Career Panel-Certified October 2021
University of Illinois Foundation Board of Directors Basketball Game Watch-Certified November 2021
Office of the Chancellor State of the University-Certified November 2021
Green Office Gold Certification:
Department of Communication-Recertified October 2021
Thank you to each of our participants, keep up the great work!
Sustainability and Green Job Certifications
Associated Project(s):Sustainability & Green Job Certification examples have now been included on the Institute for Energy, Sustainability, and the Environment (iSEE) Education Portal website. Scroll down on the page to find and review Professional Certification Programs. This list can be used to inspire and provide insight into green careers. Green Job Certification Topics include:
Buildings & Energy
Environmentalism & Advocacy
Climate Change and Sustainability Professionals, Business, Reporting
Water
Outdoors, Gardening, Wildlife, Natural Resources
A downloadable Excel file titled "Job Certifications" provides additional detail about these certifications and these careers.
R&D World Online Two-Part Green Labs Article
Associated Project(s):From: Becky Chambers Hennessy <hennessy.becky@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 1, 2021 5:07 PM
To: Foote, Gerard Paul <gfoote2@illinois.edu>; Breitwieser, Steven <sbreit@illinois.edu>
Subject: R&D World online two-part green labs articleHello, Paul and Stephen! I'd like to share with you and your peers the online version of R&D World's two-part feature story on sustainable labs.
For the online version, we spread the pieces across two days, with the second posted today. Here are the links:
Day 1:
—https://www.rdworldonline.com (landing page)
—https://www.rdworldonline.com/facing-sustainability-in-the-lab
Day 2:
—https://www.rdworldonline.com/a-look-at-the-2021-freezer-challenge-winners (U of I's profile)
I suggest that you share the article on U of I's social media channels. It's incredibly well-earned and effective publicity. :-)
The print edition comes out this month. If you'd like, I'll provide R&D World with your postal address and that of others if you send it to me.
However, the best way to receive the print copy might be to go to R&D World's website and subscribe. The December print edition will house both the edited main and sidebar portions.
I so enjoyed working with both of you, Paul and Stephen. Thank you for taking the time to share your world-class academic lab program!
Best,
--Becky
Becky Chambers Hennessy
219-689-8889
UIUC Freezer Challenge in R&D World Magazine
Associated Project(s):Becky Chambers Hennessy, writer of R&D World magazine, wrote a Q&A style piece on UIUC's "Winning Streak Award" for the International Freezer Challenge. The piece contains answers from Deborah S. Katz-Downie, Martin Gruebele, and Paul Foote. The piece can be found here.
Sustainability Council Meeting 11-29-21
Associated Project(s):The Sustainability Council met on 11-29-21. The presentation is attached and the agenda was as follows:
- Student group updates (SSC, SSLC, ISG)
- Clean Energy Plan
- Rainwater strategies
- Green Labs
- Strategic next steps (iCAP in campus strategic plan, AASHE STARS Platinum ranking)
Attached Files:15 permanent bicycle registration signs installed
Associated Project(s):15 metal signs to promote bicycle registration have been installed. These locations are:
- Snyder Hall
- Weston Hall
- Bike Shelter (new) by Flagg Hall
- Nugent Hall
- Hopkins Hall – covered bike parking
- Bousfield Hall – covered bike parking
- South of Wassaja Hall – covered bike parking
- Busey Evans
- Allen Hall
- LAR
- ISR (new bike racks on North side)
- ISR - North East location - 64 bike racks
- Illini Union South
- Illini Union North
- ARC
Career Services Meeting
Associated Project(s):Stacy Gloss and Meredith Moore met with Amanda Cox and Samantha Potempa from University Career Services to discuss how to connect students to Green Jobs and Green Job Certifications. Career Services staff described the services provided for students. Career Services across campus are distributed between the Colleges and students can meet with the central Career Services group or academic & career advisors in the College of their major. Career Services can provide presentations to both classrooms and RSO student groups. Trained peer career advisors can give presentations on interviewing, resume writing, Linked-in profiles and personal statements. A Career Services Council meets on a quarterly basis to discuss current issues and affairs. iSEE can have a representative join the Career Services Council.
Additional resources for students include:
- Illini Link: https://illinilink.illinois.edu/page/students
- What Can I Do With this Major? https://whatcanidowiththismajor.com/info.htm
Weekly Update: Kids' Bike Giveaway event; Happy Thanksgiving!
Associated Project(s):All, Things are definitely slowing down and our visitor numbers/sales reflect that. We’re closed this week for Thanksgiving Break but I’ll be working a couple days to catch up on the Kids Bike donations. Over the weekend, we got mention in one of the campus email newsletters, so that’s good. I’ve also arranged for the event to be mentioned in some other newsletters/email blasts going out in the interim between now and the day of the event. I’ll also be getting in touch with some local news stations, since I think that boosted last year’s donation/turn out.
The official details for the Kids Bike event are:
The Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign, in partnership with the U of I Campus Bike Center, is hosting a Kids’ Bike Giveaway this holiday season.
We are currently accepting donations of all kids’ and teen bikes, regardless of condition, and then refurbishing them to give back to young folks in the community!
Donations can be made at the Urbana Bike Project (202 S. Broadway Ave., Urbana) or at the Campus Bike Center (51 E. Gregory Dr., Champaign). Please call (217) 469-5126 or email contact@thebikeproject.org to arrange a donation.
*Giveaway Event*
Date: Saturday, December 11th, 2021
Time: 1 pm – 3pm or until we run out of bikes
Location: Urbana Bike Project (202 S. Broadway Ave., Urbana)
Details: first come, first served; one bike per kid, and they must be present to pick out their bike.This week I’m only here Mon/Tues but will wrench on the kids bikes we have—we got three more donated on Friday—then it’s off for the holiday.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
The numbers:
Visitors: 20
Sales: $179.50
Memberships: 4 for $120Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center CoordinatorResilience Work Meeting 11/18/21
Associated Project(s):Stacy Gloss, Meredith Moore, Morgan White, and Scott Tess met to discuss Resilience Team work.
We discussed:
- NGICP presentation scheduled for December 10 with presentations by Heidi Leuzler and Eliana Brown
- NGICP SSC Step II Application to be submitted 11/19/21
- Carbon Offset Program development. Discussed that "local" for this objective means within boundaries of Champaign County. Next questions to answer are: Why, What, How for developing a local carbon offset program.
Meeting to discuss Carbon Offsets
Associated Project(s):11/17/2021
Present: Morgan White, Meredith More, Eric Green, Tony Mancuso, Stacy Gloss
Gloss provided an overview of the local carbon offset objective as described in the iCAP. There was discussion that there are two sides to the issue. 1. The funding mechanism. 2. What projects are funded by off-setting faculty & staff travel impacts?
The team was asked to review the carbon offset programs by the University of California System and Duke University as two different models. The first is a campus-system internal model where funds are used to develop projects on campuses throughout the system. A university-system advisory board receives applications for projects and approves the projects that meet program requirements. The Duke carbon offset initiative involves a portfolio of offsets including a methane capture waste-to-energy at an industrial farm, urban tree planting program, avoided conversion, wetland restoration, and a pilot program for residential energy efficiency piloted in 2012 --- these programs happen off-campus.
We agreed that there is an economies-of-scale issue with local off-sets to overcome. For local-community-based projects, the cost per off-set is going to be higher than aggregating funds into one industrial scale project or program. An carbon-off-set company, for example, might contact a city and offer $1.00 per tree for off-sets, but it costs over $400 to install and maintain a tree. (A program like this appears to generate a very small added value to the paid organization.)
U of I campus renewable energy & energy efficiency projects can be tracked by the campus energy office. For community off-sets, an agency (university or otherwise) would need to set up a mechanism to collect and distribute funds for community-based projects, perhaps through a non-for-profit interface. Projects can include urban tree-planting, renewable energy, energy efficiency, prairie restoration etc. 3rd party verification is needed.
As a next step, this team and others must define "local" in "local offset program" in order to meet this objective in the iCAP. Is the program going to be internal to campus, or include the local community as recipients of funds community projects?
This team must also interpret what the iCAP is saying to off-set.
- Annual business air-travel by faculty & staff?
- Vehicle miles driven by faculty & staff on University business?
- All electricity & heat generated by carbon sources for the University of Illinois?
These questions are fundamental to designing and implementing a local-carbon-offset program.
Green Certifications Meeting
Associated Project(s):11/17/2021
Present: Tony Mancuso, Meredith Moore, Eric Green, & Stacy Gloss
A meeting was held to discuss student engagement, green jobs, and career planning.
Agenda items included:
1) Possible potential for interviewing iSEE Fellows Minor Grads about their current careers - involving the communications department.
2) Possible idea for introducing a mentoring program. The idea is to have iSEE fellows grads who are settled into careers serve as mentors for undergraduate fellows in the minor. A program like this would need to have more intentional development and administrative support.
3) Getting green jobs certifications information onto the iSEE website under the Education Portal https://sustainability.illinois.edu/education/student-resources/.
Stacy & Tony will work on this.
Schedule for the Atmospheric Sciences Building
Associated Project(s):"The current schedule at Astronomy is 6:00am – 11:59pm, 7 days a week, Sunday – Saturday, which is the COVID schedule that we are running on units across campus." -David Hardin (11-17-2021)
Attached Files:Information about the occupancy schedule and Air properties of the ATMS Building
Associated Project(s):According to F&S, Management Engineer, Mike Halm:
1. Currently, this unit is in occupied mode on weekdays, 6AM to midnight. Normally the occupancy schedule will more closely follow the hours the building is open, but runtimes were extended across campus as a precaution during the pandemic.
2. When the building was originally designed, there likely wasn’t a set amount of air changes per hour applied to every classroom. Typically for classrooms the heating and cooling airflows are determined based on the specific loads in each room, rather than applying a flat rate based on the volume of the room. If it would help, we could share the original ventilation drawings from 1989. Regarding the ASHRAE standards, any new construction or renovation work on campus should have mechanical ventilation provided in accordance with ASHRAE 62.1. However, there were different codes and standards in place when this building was constructed 30 years ago. The current version of ASHRAE 62.1 may have slightly different requirements than the codes in place when the building was built.
Key Steps Supporting Vision Zero in 2021-2022
Associated Project(s):During the falls semester Stacy Gloss met with campus and community stakeholders to discuss Vision Zero in our community. The attached report provides recommendations for campus to update and modify Transportation policies, support and advocate for community traffic safety efforts, provide leadership and support to local transportation departments, expand and create new student engagement and project opportunities, and develop a relationship with the Vision Zero network.
Attached Files:Weekly Update: Winter is coming; Kids' bikes donations
Associated Project(s):All, Slowing down a little now that it’s getting legit colder. Visitor numbers held a little longer than expected—maybe hinting at a tectonic shift in our community’s biking habits? I hope so!
Last week I got a count on all the Kids’ Bikes we have at both spaces and started my staff (and volunteers) in on rehabbing the ones we have here at CBC. Once we’re done with those, I’ll move what’s at Urbana over here. We already have around 40 bikes and we haven’t done an honest push for donations yet. I’ll meet with Campus Rec marketing this week to work up a plan for how best to publicize the event.
We’ve got a couple staffers moving on at the end of this week but have 3 new staffers in the hiring process. Coupled with less demand, we’ll be able to train up and onboard our new hires nicely. Winter is always my preferred season for onboarding.
The numbers:
Visitors: 31
Sales: $845.50
Bikes (refurb): 2 for $600
Memberships: 3 for $90
Tires/tubes: 4 for $22
Thanks!Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center CoordinatorBike at Illinois Video: 6 Basic Things to Know About Biking on Campus
Associated Project(s):Bike at Illinois has produced a video for 6 Basic Things to Know About Biking on Campus. Credit: Joanna Raimo (Campus Recreation)
Watch the video here: Bike at Illinois Video: 6 Basic Things to Know About Biking on Campus
New Green Events, Chapters, and Offices
Associated Project(s):Over the summer and fall, iSEE has certified...
- Two new green offices:
- The Oak Street Library Facility Conservation Unit
- iSEE
- One new green chapter:
- Zeta Psi
- 17 green events:
- Including Illini Lights Out.
See the attached file for the iQ Fall 2021 to read this article in its original form.
Attached Files:- Two new green offices:
Zero Waste iCAP Team Meeting
Associated Project(s):The Zero Waste iCAP Team met on Thursday, November 11 to review some data related to vending machine quantities and pouring operations, analyze the initiatives of some other universities, and begin discussing our campaign strategy. As some initial steps, the team devised some questions for a campuswide survey on drinking water behavior and discussed a recommendation to begin tracking drinking water filter stations on campus. Meeting minutes are attached.
Attached Files: