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Project Updates for collection: Student Sustainability Committee Funded Projects

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  1. SSC Semesterly Report: Preventing Window Strike Bird Fatalities with Energy Efficient Window Decals

    Associated Project(s): 
    Preventing window-strike bird fatalities with energy efficient window decals
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)

    SSC received semester report for Spring 2021 for Preventing Window Strike Bird Fatalities with Energy Efficient Window Decals on 9/9/2021. Please see attached. 

    Attached Files: 

  2. SSC Semesterly: Diversion of Non-Recyclable Plastic using Pyrolysis Process to Produce Fuels for Camps

    Associated Project(s): 
    Diversion of Non-Recyclable Plastic using Pyrolysis Process to Produce Fuels for Campus
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)

    SSC received semester report for Spring 2021 for Diversion of Non-Recyclable Plastic using Pyrolysis Process to Produce Fuels for Camps project on 9/3/2021. Please see attached. 

    Attached Files: 

  4. Weekly check-in resilience work

    Associated Project(s): 
    Build Resilience with Our Local Community

    Meredith Moore, Morgan White and Stacy Gloss met for the weekly check-in on resilience work.

    Agenda:

    • Review iCAP goals 8.5 & 8.7
    • Discuss iCAP objective assessment powerpoints
    • Schedule October meetings 

    Notes:

    • iCAP goal 8.5 – Stacy should reach out to Eric Green and Lana Holden about how students find out about green jobs; what green certifications are known.
    • iCAP goal 8.7 –Stacy should reach out to Eric Green to find out about student work on carbon off-sets. Ideas: Consider a white paper/literature review on “local” carbon offsets , or host round table/presentation / symposium with “experts” on local offsets
      • Stacy will read more on Second Nature off-sets / campus carbon calculations
      • 1 MW = 1 REC,  1 off set = 1 ton of CO2e reduced or kept out of atmosphere
      • Read status of the voluntary carbon markets 2021 pdf doc shared from Morgan
    • Stacy will post previous meeting notes from Resilience Objective meetings on Sustainability, Vision Zero, and Green Infrastructure
    • Cancel the 10/7/2021 meeting due to Green Quad Day, next weekly check-in on 10/14

  5. Native Shrub Planting in the Southern Arboretum Woodlands

    Associated Project(s): 
    Native Plants at Arboretum

    From: McSweeney, Kevin

    To: Reicherts, Jack; Marsaglia, Julia Raine

    Cc: Lee, Iris; Lynch, Lauren Rae; White, Morgan

    Recipients: ientsjackhr2 at illinois.edu; juliarm2 at illinois.edu; irislee3 at illinois.edu; lrlynch2 at illinois.edu; mbwhite at illinois.edu

     

    Hi Jack & Julia,

     

    Thank you for agreeing to follow up on the student-led planting of native shrubs in the Southern Arboretum Woodlands. This will be a valuable addition to the Campus Tree Committees report that will used in support of our application for renewal of our Tree Campus USA designation.

     

    I suggest you contact:

     

    1. Lauren Lynch (copied above) to get info about Prof. Jim Miller’s Restoration Ecology class that assisted with the shrub planting as part of the field component of the class. Lauren served as TA for the class.

     

    2. Iris Lee (Arboretum Staff) who compiled the list of native shrubs and supervised the operation and subsequently supervised Arboretum interns who watered and weeded around the plantings during the summer months.

     

    Funding from SSC helped support these project activities.

     

    Let me know if I can provide additional information.

     

    Best wishes,

     

    Kevin


    Kevin McSweeney
    Director, University of Illinois Arboretum
    ++608 712 4101 (‘phone, messages, WhatsApp)

  7. Weekly check-in resilience work

    Associated Project(s): 
    Build Resilience with Our Local Community
    Resilience iCAP Team

    Resilience Work Weekly Check-In

    09/23/2021, 2:00 PM

    Attendees: Morgan White, Meredith Moore, Stacy Gloss

    Updates

    Stacy provided an overview of her activities for the previous week including

    • reviewing the Resilience page and project histories
    • beginning work (by contacting key stakeholders and setting up meetings) on Vision Zero, Green Infrastructure, and Taking Leadership on Sustainability objectives.

    iCAP Portal

    In this meeting we discussed additional functionality, the strategy and rationale on Resilience web page organization. Morgan provided insights on using the iCAP portal such as accessing projects through a table by using the Project Page and searching Projects by Status.  Projects can be added to the iCAP portal by sending a proposal to add a project to Morgan and Meredith.  There is an iCAP Portal Content template that should be used.

    Community resilience and sustainability projects

    We reflected that there are many community projects and programs related to sustainability and resilience that do not appear anywhere in the iCAP such as MTD projects, Sanitary District work, Stormwater partnerships, Recycling projects and programs, certain solar projects.  We discussed that having a website or webpage dedicated to community partnerships, programs, and outreach about sustainability, environment, resilience, water, energy, land-use etc could be an excellent community resource. The idea bubbled to have a Community Supported Resilience Portal in parallel to the iCAP portal for tracking programs, resources, and projects. This could be a recommendation for meeting one or more of the iCAP objectives.  

  8. iCAP Energy Team September Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Clean Energy Plan
    Building Envelope Pilot Project
    Energy Conservation Efforts
    Energy iCAP Team

    The iCAP Energy team had its first meeting of the 2021-22 Academic Year at 9:00 A.M. on September 24th. This meeting was used to evaluate where our team stands in achieving its goals and to determine a path forward for the year. The agenda, presentation, and minutes from the meeting are attached for a better understanding of the meeting.

    Attached Files: 

  14. Sustainable Design Opportunity: Upcycling Clothing with Project Phoenix!

    Associated Project(s): 
    Support Youth Sustainability
    Independent Student Projects

    Project Phoenix is an Illinois student initiative to give high school students a platform to highlight their fashion design interests and create their own upcycled clothing brands! The group offers one- to two-hour weekend workshops to teach Champaign-Urbana high school students applicable fashion and graphic design skills and provide opportunities in business and enterpreneurship. U of I students can sign up now to be a Project Fellow! The deadline for applications is Oct. 1.

     

    For more details about the Project Fellow position, read Phoenix's Fall 2021 project description document.

  15. Community Solar Status Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Build Resilience with Our Local Community

    Community Solar

    "What is the status of the city of Urbana’s community solar array at the old city landfill known as Solar Star Urbana Landfill LLC affiliated with Nexamp? Will the subscription to the community solar project begin this year?"

    The project, which will generate approximately 5.2 MW of clean energy for the Ameren grid, is scheduled to be completed around the middle of next month, said Keith Hevenor, communications manager for Nexamp, a firm that has developed community solar energy projects in Illinois, Maine, New York, Maryland, Georgia and Massachusetts.

    "At that point, the final landscaping, which includes a native pollinator seed mix for vegetation, will be applied," said Hevenor. "As soon as final testing and utility interconnection are completed, subscribers will begin seeing the credits on their Ameren bills, likely before the end of the year.

    "The Solar Star Urbana Landfill project is part of the Illinois Solar for All program, so participation in the program is reserved for qualified low and moderate income (LMI) residents. In the program, there are no enrollment fees, no credit checks and no cancellation fees. We still have space available for the project and individuals can visit https://ilsfa.nexamp.com/ameren to learn more and see if they qualify."

  16. Digital Sign for Recognition of SSC $375k Contribution

    Associated Project(s): 
    Geothermal at the Campus Instructional Facility (CIF)
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)

    Part of the $25K fund 1‐304398, “602 SSC‐CIF Geothermal” for the CIF account is recognizing SSC’s $375K contribution to Geothermal in digital signage for a year at CIF.

     

    The final draft of the digital signage is attached below.

     

    Attached Files: 

  18. Weekly Update: Bike to Work Day; Light the Night; Grand Re-opening

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center
    Light the Night
    C-U Bike to Work Day

    All, Heck of a week we just had. Tuesday was Bike To Work Day and Light The Night; both events went well. CBC as a LTN location was not as popular as the other two spots but we are still only in our second year of offering this location; the other two spots have been there for over 10 years and have a lot more passers-by. I do appreciate the convenience of not having to go anywhere for the event, though!

    BTWD was a decent turn out. We had around 30 people stop by to pick up their shirts. iSEE shot some footage for a promo video. I also talked with a few profs/pro staff folks who said this was their first bike commute, which was great. Hopefully they’ll stick with it! It also reminded me I need to brush up on my beginning commuter tips…

    Our Grand Opening event was a success. We got to show off our space to quite a few people who’d never been by before and a handful of regulars that were duly impressed with the upgrade from our old space.

    This week I’ve got a new student worker starting, so that will be a welcomed addition to the team. I’ll also pick up some bikes from TBP for rebuild as we’re flush out of decent Shop Builds. Demand has waned a bit or word is spreading that we’re out of bikes so fewer folks are coming by—either way, we’ll get a few more fixed up this week.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: TBD
    Sales: $513.50
    Bikes (refurb): 1 for $180
    Memberships: 5 for $150
    Tire/tubes: 6 for $19.50

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  19. Request for New Project Tabs

    Associated Project(s): 
    Diversion of Non-Recyclable Plastic using Pyrolysis Process to Produce Fuels for Campus
    Preventing window-strike bird fatalities with energy efficient window decals
    Monitor Soil Health

    Assistant Director of Student Sustainability, Samuel Yoo reached out to Sarthak Prasad for guidance with iCAP Portal projects. Specifically, Yoo was unable to find existing projects for the following:

    - Diversion of Non-Recyclable Plastic using Pyrolysis Process to Produce Fuels for Campus

    - Preventing Window-strike Bird Fatalities with Energy Efficient Window Decals 

    - Valorized Archived Soils and Long-Term Carbon Budgets

    Sarthak replied explaining that new project tabs will be created for the first two projects and the last project fits under the "Monitor Soil Health" project.

     

  20. Green Office Gold Certification

    Associated Project(s): 
    Certified Green Office Program (CGOP)
    Certified Greener Campus Programs

    Congratulations to Kara Hagen and the rest of the Conservation Unit at the Preservation Services Department of Oak Street Library Facility for becoming a Green Office! They are gold certified as of September 4, 2021. They used a watt meter to monitor energy use of their devices and appliances and eliminated use of disposable cups. They notably created a new waste reduction strategy by saving the scraps from their long-fibered papers and bringing those to Fresh Press on campus, where they are used to create hand-made paper. Keep up the great work!

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