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Projects Updates for collection: Student Sustainability Committee Funded Projects

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  2. 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: 

  3. 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

  6. 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.  

  7. 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: 

  13. 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.

  14. 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. 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

  17. 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!

  18. First Weekly Check-In for Resilience Work

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

    9/17/2021, 2:15 PM

    Attendees: Morgan White, Meredith Moore, Stacy Gloss

    Summary:

    Stacy, Meredith and Morgan met for the first time together since Stacy was appointed and started work on 9/16/2021. The purpose of the meeting is to provide the information and resources needed for Stacy to start working on resilience activities in the scope work. We reviewed Stacy’s job description regarding activities for the next 6 months and related deliverables. See attached job description.

    Agreements:  

    • Stacy will take the meeting notes from each of these Resilience Work Check-In meetings and put them on the portal for project tracking.
    • Stacy will provide updates at the Resilience iCAP team meetings.
    • We set up a recurring meeting time for Thursdays from  2 pm – 3 pm.

    To-Do’s:

    Stacy will re-read the objective in iCAP 2020 PDF about all resilience objectives. Review the resilience theme, scan the project list, and look at project history for specific objectives.

    8.1 Check in when needed w/ Lisa Merrifield

    8.2 Start with campus contacts. Email Betsy Liggett,  Brent Lewis, & Morgan White and set up a call with Betsy. Betsy is liaison to community green infrastructure.  The objectives are to find out who it is to talk to in Champaign-Urbana-Savoy for off-campus infrastructure locations. Eventually, ask resilience team what information should be included on the iCAP portal map. Note: There’s an Oct 20 conference about the Champaign County storm water partnership.  With this objective, we will ultimately work towards planning a coordinated rainwater mgmt. plan, and what it might look like.

    8.3. Review documentation that Kimmy provided as a report on the portal. 

    8.4.  Request a call with Ximing to explain the concept behind 8.4 and report back. Further steps may be taken to include whole iSEE management team in a conversation.

    8.5.  Review 8.5 Discuss at meeting 2 weeks from now.

    8.6.  Morgan will connect Stacy with Sarthak Prasad. Review Vision zero website soon and request a meeting with Sarthak.

    8.7.  Review 8.7 Discuss at meeting 2 weeks from now.  Review Current State of the Market, and review files in the box folder that students created about local off sets.

    Attached Files: 

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