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Revolving Loan Fund: Special Project Vote for State Farm Center
Associated Project(s):The following email was sent on November 16, 2020 to the RLF Selection Committee:
Revolving Loan Fund Selection Committee,
I want to thank everybody again for your participation in the previous selection process. With the completion of that vote, the RLF fund source still has approximately $300,000+ available and a time sensitive submission from DIA has been received recently. The project being submitted is for a Retro-Commissioning (RCx) effort at the State Farm Center. RCx efforts see great results under normal operating conditions, but with the pandemic, significant savings could be realized now that many events are being cancelled and the facility is not being utilized at its full capacity. The request is for $250K and could see a payback of less than 2 years. Please see the attached document for more information.
We don’t necessarily need to score this project, all we need is a majority decision (yes or no) to approve.
I ask that you please reply with your individual yes (in support of funding) or no (decline funding approval) votes before November 26, 2020 (10 days away).
... Thank you again for your continued support of the RLF program.
See the attached file to read details about the Retro-Commissioning (RCx) for the State Farm Center.
Attached Files:eweek announcement
Associated Project(s):Map the System 2021 Social Innovation Challenge
Call for individuals and teams to participate in Map the System 2021, a competition that challenges students to explore a social or environmental issue using systems thinking and to identify new levers for change. Gain insight for social ventures and pitch ideas for cash prizes and a chance to compete in Global Final. Sign up to receive updates about info sessions, workshops, and key deadlines.
Valeri Werpetinski • Origin Ventures Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership, Gies Business
This opportunity is available online.
Congratulations to two gold certified offices!
Associated Project(s):Congratulations to the Department of Chemistry Administrative Office (September) and Department of Communications (October) for recently acheiving gold certification! These two offices were featured in the iSEE newsletter and at the October 2020 Campus Sustainability Celebration!
CTAC Fall 2020 presentation
Associated Project(s):Please see attached the final presentation used for the CTAC fall 2020 meeting as well as the preliminary results from the Vision Zero study by Dr. Rahim Benekohal's group.
Attached Files:11/13 Zero Waste SWATeam Meeting
Associated Project(s):Attached are the meeting minutes and chat from the Zero Waste SWATeam meeting on 11/13.
Discussed were the following topics:
- Update: Adopt-a-highway/Clean-up Program
- Composting Partnership: Alex Poltorak of Urban Canopy
- Student Project: Vermiculture Composting
- Grind2Energy Additional Scope
- Food Literacy Project
- Update: Clean Plate Program
- Purchasing Sustainability Update
11/13 Zero Waste SWATeam Meeting
Associated Project(s):Attached are the meeting minutes and chat from the Zero Waste SWATeam meeting on 11/13.
Discussed were the following topics:
- Update: Adopt-a-highway/Clean-up Program
- Composting Partnership
- Student Project: Vermicompost
- Novel Scope Addition: Grind2Energy
- Update: Food Literacy Project
- Update: Clean Plate Program
- Update: Sustainability within Purchasing (Website & Protocols)
Attached Files:Weekly Update: Promote the Bike Center, bike pick up
Associated Project(s):All, Lovely summery weather last week!
Main event for the week was a marketing meeting to discuss new and innovative ways to promote the Bike Center, which was fruitful and really put into perspective how much stuff we do here at CBC when explaining it, even in general terms. And things like build-a-bikes vs. refurbished vs. DIY repairs will always confuse the uninitiated.
This week is business as usual. Bikes to be picked up from Parking, an Active Transportation Advisory Committee meeting, staff meetings to be scheduled, and so forth. Some suppliers seem to be restocked a bit on some much-needed bike parts but as we inch ever-closer to fall/winter, immediate demand for those parts will wane. But we’ll still stock up a bit.
The numbers:
Visitors: 12
Sales: $226.50
Bikes (refurb): 1 for $200
Misc: $26.50Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center ManagerRevolving Loan Fund to do RCx at the State Farm Center
Associated Project(s):The attached proposal is for funding from the Revolving Loan Fund to do RCx at the State Farm Center. This project is expected to cost $250,000 and pay for itself in energy savings within two years of completion.
Attached Files:Fall 2020: iSEE Quarterly Update (iQ)
Associated Project(s):The Fall 2020 iSEE Quarterly Update (iQ) was released with the following message from Madhu Khanna, the Interim Director of iSEE:
Dear Colleagues,
Attached, please find attached the Fall 2020 “iQ” – the quarterly update from the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE).
It has been two months since I became interim director of ISEE. It has been exciting to see ISEE bring in multimillion-dollar research grants, launch a new research initiative in regenerative agriculture, and help coalesce sustainable agriculture research on our campus during this period.
Our Certificate in Environmental Writing has engaged students in making insightful contributions to a new issue of Q Magazine. We have also expanded our opportunities for education and scholarly discourse with several online events, including those on nuclear energy and geothermal energy research.
We formally launched the new Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP 2020) on Oct 20, 2020. This ambitious plan is the result of the hard work of campus sustainability folks who worked hand-in-hand with Facilities & Services and incorporated the vision of hundreds of students, faculty, staff, administrators, and community members into a plan for the next five years and beyond — all the way to carbon neutrality no later than 2050!
I am so grateful to Evan Delucia for his efforts over the first seven years as the first director of our Institute. He has left iSEE as a vibrant part of the Illinois community, and I am working with our outstanding ISEE staff to expand upon the work already begun — as evidenced in this six-page update.
Please take a quick look at those updates and more in “iQ.” For more regular news, please sign up for our E-newsletter at https://illinois.edu/fb/sec/5031776.
Wishing you a successful end to the fall semester,
Madhu
Attached Files:Weekly Update: Moving bikes from warehouse; Traffic safety
Associated Project(s):All, Slow week again. Grabbed a few more bikes from the warehouse. I’ve been given clearance to remove all the remaining bikes, so I’ll be doing that in small doses for the rest of the semester. I’ll bring some of my staff along to help. Moving bikes around is a lot easier for college-aged kids anyway.
I spoke with a UIPD officer last week about traffic safety after I had some close encounters with vehicles on campus. We’ve tentatively planned to do a meet and greet/talk next semester with my staff and UIPD to cover road safety on campus. It’ll be great to have the ear of enforcement on cycling issues and in the end, be better cycling advocates to the community.
Numbers:
Visitors: 6
Sales: $228.00
Memberships: 1 for $60
Bike Sales (refurb): 1 for $160
Misc parts: 2 for $8Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center ManagerF&S Executive Director Dr. Mohamed Attalla talks Solar Farm 2.0 on The Solar Podcast
Associated Project(s):Dr. Mohamed Attalla, the Executive Director of Facilities and Services, recently spoke on the Solar Podcast about the progress made at the University of Illinois in regards to green energy with the addition of Solar Farm 2.0. Dr. Mohamed Attalla was alongside Pedro De La Barra, the Project Manager for Sol Systems, as they discussed the working relationship between the University and those at Sol Systems. Solar Farm 2.0 is expected to be producing solar energy in early 2021.
Please see the link below to listen to this podcast!
https://fs.illinois.edu/resources/newsroom/2020/10/28/podcast-dr.-attalla-joins-the-solar-podcast
FY20 Green Power Partnership renewed
Associated Project(s):F&S has renewed our campus' recognition as a Green Power Partner for FY20 through the Environmental Protection Agency. This voluntary program promotes the use of green power, and the combined supply for the Champaign-Urbana campus during FY20 was 7.2% of the total electricity usage.
Please see the attached file to see a more in-depth look at the green power supplied and generated on campus
Attached Files:Weekly Update: Abandoned bicycles, Working bikes
Associated Project(s):All,
Pretty slow week. Had the iCAP sustainability celebration on Tuesday, which was great. Always fun to see/hear from other parts of campus that are working towards a better future for our campus. On the flipside, I had the displeasure of reporting a dangerous F&S driver that same day and then a dangerous MTD driver on Thursday.
Todd came by and cleared out scrap on Friday which was welcomed.
As of this morning, I communicated with Working Bikes that we will not be doing our annual abandoned bike donation as Parking did not collect bikes last spring, due to COVID, and thus we have no bikes to donate to them. It hasn’t been decided/communicated whether Parking will collect later in the fall/winter or wait until spring. This will also negatively affect how many bikes we’ll have for sale next spring, as the pool of available bikes is lower. But of course, most of the abandoned bikes were being donated and for sale numbers were always more dependent on our ability/time to build more than a dearth of bikes.The numbers:
Visitors: 11 (7 UIUC-affiliated)
Sales: $225
Memberships: 4 for $120
Misc parts: 8 for $55Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center ManagerLink to planting brochures
TRT User Manual available now
Associated Project(s):The TRT User Manual based on Energy Farm is now available via two campus links:
Attached Files:October 2020 construction progress
Associated Project(s):For this month's progress, the fence has been installed and the statistics are as follows:
191 rows with motors and partial torque tubes.
103 with all torque tubes and ready for panels.
79 rows of panels.
These numbers are included in each other, i.e., the 103 is included in the 191 and the 79 is included in the 103.
Thank you,
Sushanth Girini
Management Engineer,
Facilities & Services,
UES-Utility Distribution, UIUCStudent collaboration: Promotion of bicycle registration system
Associated Project(s):Sarthak Prasad met with Shayna Talpallikar to discuss her proposal to promote bicycle registration on campus. Bicycle Registraiton has been mandatory for years, as explained in the University Bicycle Ordinance, and the university should promote it more like that. There is a new national registration system, with a one-time $10 registration fee, and it is available to all - students, faculty, staff, alumni (in C-U area), departmental bicycles, as well as the residents of Urbana, Champaign, Savoy, or any other Champaign County residents.
Shayna expressed interest in helping us out with this project and how we can achieve it. We discussed two main ideas, and thought adding signage to major bicycle parking areas to be the best option right now. Another option was to have Bicycle Registration days or events across campus where we give out free donuts and raffle option to those who register. However, this idea was discouraged due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Please see attached some notes from the meeting. A recording of the meeting is also available.
Attached Files:Weekly Update: Abandoned bicycles, Sustainability Celebration
Associated Project(s):All,
Mike, a semi-regular at the old shop, walked in on Friday for his appointment, looked around and said, “What’d you have to do to get upgraded to such a nice spot?”
Just another positive review of our new space.
I coordinated with Parking to do more frequent pick ups—but smaller loads—of abandoned bikes, which should allow for a better flow of bikes in and out of the bike center. This should be more manageable for myself and my staff going forward, as well.This week is a Campus Sustainability Celebration on Tuesday, a CBC staff meeting Wednesday evening, and warm weather to close out the week, which usually equals some more traffic, but we’ll see if that holds during a pandemic.
The numbers:
Visitors: 14
Sales: $178.20
Memberships: 4 for $120
Misc parts: 4 for $40Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center ManagerIllinois Monarch Project- SIGN THE PLEDGE!
Associated Project(s):The Illinois Monarch project is an organization that collaborates with both public and private partners, interacting on all levels for the protection and the enhancement of habitats that support monarch butterflies and other pollinators. This project calls for the involvement from individuals to whole cities, with the goal of adding 150 million new milkweed stems to Illinois’ landscape by 2038!
As an individual, I call onto you to also sign this pledge and get involved to support our state’s insect!
See here for a link to the pledge:
http://illinoismonarchproject.org/pledge/
In addition to signing the pledge, I encourage you to also take the time to look deeper into all the great work this organization has done and plans to do: http://illinoismonarchproject.org/