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Project Updates for collection: Student Sustainability Committee Funded Projects

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  3. EV Procurement Law in Illinois

    Associated Project(s): 
    Electric Vehicle (EV) Task Force
    Use Electric Vehicles (EV)
    Fleet Replacement Plans

    EO 2108, ELECTRIC VEHICLE PROCUREMENT. The executive order provides that the state shall: (1) develop and implement a program for procurement of electric and other low emission or zero emission vehicles for state purposes; (2) establish a State Fleet Working Group convened by the Department of Central Management Services and composed of representatives from the Department of Transportation, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, and the Illinois Commerce Commission; (3) set forth the responsibilities of the working group; (4) direct the Department of Central Management Services, in conjunction with other state agencies, to develop a plan to install electric vehicle chargers on state property; and (5) direct the Illinois State Board of Education to collaborate with the Department of Transportation and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to develop tools and provide information to assist school districts in assessing the benefits and costs of zero emission bus options when replacing school buses. The executive order became effective 22 APR 21.

    https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocNum=2108&GAID=16&DocTypeID=EO&SessionID=110&GA=102

    https://www2.illinois.gov/Pages/Executive-Orders/ExecutiveOrder2021-08.a...

  4. Vision Zero - Final report presentation by Ray and Jacob + meeting recording

    Associated Project(s): 
    Vision Zero
    Campus Transportation Advisory Committee (CTAC)

    Dr. Ray Benekohal and Jacob Mathew met with Stacey DeLorenzo, Sarthak Prasad, and Stacy Gloss, and they presented the findings from their Vision Zero project in 2020-21. They collected information on campus locations with

    1. Potential problems
    2. Near misses
    3. Collisions

    They received more than 500 responses, of which nearly 475 were on campus. They analyzed the crash report data from IDOT from 2014-18, and they also organized two focus group studies.

    Please see attached the final presentation and the full report. See the full report from this study online at: https://uofi.box.com/s/zyuqv8p11tleiuqzsvwge3utsuuutipp

    See the meeting recording (45 minute presentation) here: https://uofi.box.com/s/wjybgfpjdz1nyl6hahw09utub8162ynd

    See the preliminary report shared during CTAC Fall 2020 presentation

    Attached Files: 

  5. Zero Waste iCAP Team Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Zero Waste iCAP Team
    Achieve Zero Waste

    On Friday, October 22, the Zero Waste iCAP Team met to touch base on the status of last semester's submitted recommendations and potential recommendations that were proposed last semester. The team also held an ideation session to generate new recommendation ideas. Members will be filling out a form to identify their primary initiative interests before next meeting to serve as a starting point for the team's work. Meeting minutes attached.

    Attached Files: 

  6. Natural Water Balance

    Associated Project(s): 
    Water Conservation [ARCHIVED]

    Meredith Moore, Sustainability Programs Manager, reached out to Associate Professor Ashlynn Stillwell to ask a question from the AASHE STARS sustainability report (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, Sustainability Tracking and Reporting System). The question is: "Has the institution calculated a natural water balance for the campus to assess the sustainability of its water withdrawal?". Professor Stillwell replied explaining that UIUC has not calculated its natural water balance, and proposed ideas on how to it can start doing so. Specifically she said, 

    "First, it seems like a question that is motivated by water scarcity, given the phrasing "sustainability of its water withdrawal". Extraction (withdrawal) of water is not the only way I personally would calculate water sustainability. In our part of the world, runoff volume and the contaminants contained in that runoff are important aspects of sustainability too. 

    Next, to actually calculate the natural water balance, I would think one would write a high-level mass balance around the campus. 'Natural' to me implies 'non-engineered', so at first pass, I would only include natural water flows. However, the question then mentions waer withdrawal, which is a non-natural human interaction with water, which makes me think the engineered water system should be included also. 

    For a high-level water mass balance around campus, it would be similar to any mass balance: IN - OUT = CHANGE IN STORAGE 

    What goes IN? potable water, raw water (?), makeup to chilled water loop, makeup to steam loop, rainfall, runoff from upstream areas, inflowing streams, inflowing groundwater. 

    What goes OUT? waste water, evaporation (from steam and chilled water loops), evapotranspiration, runoff (from rainfall and from overwatering from sprinklers), runoff to downstream areas, surface stream discharge, outflowing groundwater.

    How much is CHANGE IN STORAGE? probably zero at steady state on a sufficiently large timescale."

  7. Resilience Work Meeting

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

    Resilience Work Group Meeting 10/21/2021

    Present: Morgan White, Meredith Moore, Stacy Gloss

    Project Management:

    Stacy will start keeping track of resilience projects in an excel Gantt chart to be able to show high-level progress. Project progress will be tracked as “not begun, just starting, in progress, finishing up, done”

    Stacy showed changes she made to the Resilience box.com folder by adding Objective folders.

    Project Updates: 

    We discussed Vision Zero. Morgan asked Stacy to contact CCRPC, Champaign and Savoy planners for their perspectives on Vision Zero. Stacy presented draft recommendations for the next steps Vision Zero white paper. We discussed these early recommendations and path for sharing the white paper with the iCAP team and with Gina for editing.

    Stacy briefly shared progress on getting an understanding of how the 2010 and 2015 iCAPs intended to create a local offsets program.  

    We discussed an update to the DFA student project.  

     

  12. Weekly Update: Fixing bike pump; fixing bicycles; student employment

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Last Tuesday we had our Green Quad Day event. We had a few people stop by later in the week after talking with them and one potential student application for employment. We were also generously resupplied with clothes for making into rags. (Thanks, Morgan!) The beautiful weather was certainly an added perk.

    On Thursday I picked up the remaining bikes from the warehouse that are worth our time. We’ll get to rehabbing those bikes this week. There are a good 20 – 30 bikes left there that are destined for the scrap heap. Unfortunately, 3 of the 10 bikes didn’t pass even a basic inspection so they’ll be fodder for parts.

    We’re currently very low on used 26” tires. There’s a sentence I never thought I’d write.

    This week I’ll also get the ball moving on fixing the outdoor pump, which is broken again.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 40
    Sales: $586.50
    Bike (refurb): 1 for $190
    Memberships: 7 for $210
    Tires/tubes: 8 for $32

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  13. Update: Green Cleaning Engagement on Campus

    Associated Project(s): 
    Green Cleaning Products and Practices

    As of October 16, 2021, F&S Building Services does not have a Green Cleaning Certificate. However, this is not preventing F&S from trying to implement sustainable practices. 

    Right now, F&S Building Services is performing green cleaning practices in the Campus Instructional Facility (CIF) and the new addition to the iHotel Conference Center. This is being done by aligning practices with green cleaning standards to the best ability possible.

    Moving forward, the university is transitioning towards having Housing implement its own green cleaning process. However, efforts are currently delayed due to COVID-19 and ongoing staffing concerns.

  14. Weekly Resilience Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Build Resilience with Our Local Community
    Vision Zero
    Green Jobs
    Rainwater Management

    Resilience Meeting Notes 10/15/2021 for meeting between Stacy Gloss, Meredith Moore, and Morgan White

    1. We discussed ideas for the Design for America RSO project on Environmental Justice.  Stacy will set up a meeting with D for A RSO students to discuss potential project topics and request a 1/2 page - 1 page project idea back to us for approval/revisions. The project might cover an environmental justice topic and be worked on from now through May. We will request that the complete project be designed to be presented in the late Spring, and the results go beyond educational/informational and lead to an initiative of some kind.
    2. Stacy provided a progress update on Resilience iCAP objectives.
      1. Green Certifications Inventory. Stacy will present this for comment at the next resilience ICAP meeting
      2. NGICP exploration
        1. Stacy will submit SSC proposal to support a pilot program for F&S staff to receive NGICP training at Parkland. The project will evaluate the benefits and decide whether to adopt having more or all campus grounds workers take the training later.
        2. Stacy will request Heidi and Eliana present at a (future proposed) joint meeting of the land/water use and resilience committee about the NGICP program and benefits
      3. Coordinated rainwater planning
        1. Morgan said that she recently had a conversation with a director at Sanitary District who asked for campus to become more involved with watershed management through a watershed working group, which is different than MS4 compliance.  
        2. Morgan also requested that Stacy involve Eliana Brown more in coordinated rainwater planning for future meetings
        3. Stacy will attend the stormwater management organization’s conference on Oct. 20.
      4. Sustainability leadership topics – plan for Stacy to present these at next resilience ICAP meeting
      5. Vision Zero Discussion
        1. Stacy will submit a white paper on next steps for Vision Zero on Campus late next week.
        2. Stacy and Sarthak will meet with a professor who supports / advocates for Vision Zero next week. 
        3. We discussed who would need to be involved for approval and planning of a Traffic Garden, Stacy will report back to Sarthak on this subject.

  15. vision zero check-in meeting

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

    iCAP 8.6 Vision Zero Meeting

    10/13/2021

    Stacy Gloss and Sarthak Prasad met to discuss the Vision Zero objective. Sarthak will email Vision Zero for a meeting to ask questions about a campus designation. Sarthak will also follow up with the Housing Director about a request to develop a Safety Village / Traffic Garden project in partnership with Cynthia Hoyle at MTD for children to learn about bike and pedestrian safety.  The project site is proposed for the abandoned streets on the corner of Florida and Race, adjacent to Orchard Downs campus property.

     

  16. Weekly Update: Green Quad Day; Abandoned bicycles

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)

    All, Slower week, which was welcome. Sold a couple bikes and were able to get a handle on the influx of drop off repairs. The Green Quad Day event that was supposed to happen on Thursday was rescheduled to Tuesday, so we’ll staff for that event and hobnob with the larger sustainability community.

    I’ll make a run out to the abandoned bike emporium this week, too, and see if there’s anything worth our time. Was planning that for last week but it didn’t happen.

    We’ve got a couple bikes in the shop build queue, but I’ll grab a few from Urbana unless we get more donations this week.

    The numbers:


    Visitors: 35
    Sales: $850.50
    Bike (refurb): 3 for $490
    Memberships: 5 for $150
    Tires/tubes: 5 for $20

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  17. New iSEE Greener Campus Certifications

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

    Congratulations to the newest recipients of our Green Office, Event and Chapter certifications! 

    Green Chapter Gold Certification:

    Zeta Psi-October 2021

     

    Green Office Gold Certification:

    iSEE (Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment)-October 2021

     

    Event Certifications:

    American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers General Meetings-Certified September 2021

    iSEE Campus Sustainability Trash Cleanup-Certified September 2021

    iSEE Campus Sustainability Celebration-Certified September 2021

    SECS (Students for Environmental Concerns) Divestment Teach-In-Certified September 2021

    iSEE Illini Lights Out-Certified October 2021

     

    Keep up the great work!

     

  18. America Walks webinar: Walking and Walking Campaigns

    Associated Project(s): 
    Encourage Walking
    Vision Zero

    America Walks sponsored a webinar in 2016 about Walking and Walking Campaigns. Here is the link to this webinar: https://vimeo.com/180652941

    The 1st discussion was about a Walking Campaign from Seattle. Basically, they started a campaign called “Walktober”, which had a goal of recording 25,000 miles on foot during the month of October. That is nearly equivalent to cover the world, hence their slogan “Walk the World.”

    The 2nd discussion was about Vision Zero from San Diego. What to look for when creating a VZ campaign, how to formulate it, and ideas for how to implement it.

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