F&S completed the renewal of our recognition as a Green Power Partner through the US Environmental Protection Agency. Green Power Partners of our scale now have to use renewable power for seven percent of their annual consumption. Fortunately, the FY21 green power supply for FY21 was 9%, which is a +1.72% increase from the FY19 supply of 7.28%. See attached file.

Overview submitted: 

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) is proud of its sustainability initiatives and success in achieving Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) goals (https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/). The iCAP is the university’s strategic plan to meet the Climate Leadership Commitments, including being carbon neutral as soon as possible and building resilience to climate change in the local community.

The Urbana campus on-site renewable energy portfolio meets more than 12 percent of annual electricity needs (https://fs.illinois.edu/services/utilities-energy/production/renewable-e...). UIUC’s Solar Farm 2.0 was energized in January 2021, producing 20,000 MWh/year. Combined with Solar Farm 1.0 and other rooftop and ground-mounted solar installations, the Urbana campus generates more than 27,000 MWh/year, ranking UIUC third amongst U.S. universities in on-site clean power production. Incorporating renewable energy continues to be a focus of new facility construction and major renovation projects. Most notably, the innovative Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Building features 970 rooftop panels. Since production started in April 2019, 11 percent of all power supplied to the ECE Building has been from the array, while additional output is reserved for research and educational activities. In September 2016, the university also signed a ten-year wind power purchase agreement for 25 million kWh/year and the rights to the environmental attributes.

Please register for the Water and the Environment: Fundamental Aspects of Water Quality, Quantity, and Contaminants Symposium on December 9, 2021 from 9am-11:30am. There will be speakers as well as breakout rooms to engage our discussion on water and the environment. We look forward to seeing you December 9th!

This opportunity is available online. Visit the event's Zoom website to register online.

The Campus Bike Center, in collaboration with the Urbana Bike Project, is hosting a free Kids’ and Teen Bike Giveaway this holiday season. Bikes are first come, first served; one bike per kid, and they must be present to pick out their bike. Be sure to get to the event early, as bikes will go quickly! Email contact@thebikeproject.org or call (217) 469-5126 to arrange a donation for the event.

The event will be held on December 11th, 2021 from 1:00-3:00 PM. In addition, the event will take place at Urbana Bike Project (202 S. Broadway Ave., Urbana.)

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

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.

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.