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We recently started testing (about mid-April) in our PAR (Pennsylvania Residence Halls). Joe Glass, our Superintendent of Building Services will follow up with you. I am interested in the independent testing. - John Humlicek
Professor Scott Willenbrock shared this link with photos from the installation of solar on his home. http://www.newprairieconstruction.com/solar-panel-installation.
A group of faculty, students, and staff are looking into the options for an Electrification Study for campus. This would be a study that goes through the formal "Feasibility Study" process at F&S, starting with a "Qualifications Based Selection" or QBS.
Hello all, this past week was very busy. We had a good number come in, but events were the big thing. We sold 2 bikes for $280, 1 build-a-bike for $50, 11 student memberships for $275, 2 community membership for $80, and grossed $978. I participated in the Bike Census. It was very well organized by Lily, and went well. The BikeFace organized Ride with the Chancellor was a success. I hosted an open house at the center before the ride. The Chancellor seemed to enjoy the ride. She mentioned not knowing the Bike Center existed until I explained what this strange garage filled with bicycles was. I'm thinking about sending her a post card inviting her back. I did a deep clean of the shop in anticipation of the visit and it keeps getting cleaner and better. I made a informational document about cargo bikes for FAA. Lily helped with some great improvements to the document that made it more friendly to non-cycling readers.
This week I am going to work on classes, building bikes, and find out our commitment to Bike To Work Day. It's been hard getting everything out of the warehouse, but I'm hoping to get this done this week.
From the Campus Bike Center,
James Roedl
Hello all, This past week was good. We saw better weather and as a result a huge bump in attendance. The newly reorganized space has gotten lots of compliments. We'll see if it works in the long run. We sold 6 bikes for $740, 1 build-a-bike for $30, 5 memberships for $140, and grossed $1490.80. Lots of cool things going on. I took a bunch more bikes out of the warehouse, and am building them to sell/make space. I setup the wheel building class for May. Lily and I presented the cargo bike to FAA, and agreed to work on sustainable transportation solutions with them. I got a lot of work done on the annual reports in anticipation of the end of the fiscal year.
This week I will be making a short report of sustainable transportation options for FAA, cleaning up the shop, helping with the Bike Census, participating in Ride with the Chancellor, and continuing to work on the annual reports.
From the Campus Outpost,
James Roedl
Good morning, team!
The Sonified Sustainability Festival was this weekend, and had a pretty solid turnout (between 400-500 by my informal running headcount throughout the afternoon). If you couple that with the turnout for the Gallery opening (~100) and the previous two concerts (a little over a 100 each time) you’re looking at around 750 for the project as a whole, without even counting all the other folks who pass through the gallery show before May 2nd.
On top of that, we got some solid coverage for SSC. We were included in the programs and all the advertisements, and also got decent recognition in the local media. Here’s the news roundup:
Not bad considering we were up against Ebertfest and the spring football game.
All My Best,
Micah Kenfield
Student Sustainability Committee Coordinator
Here are some useful references on Native Plants, Pollinators, and related topics.
F&S requested a scope change for this project to allow for additional energy savings. SSC approved the request.
Hello all, this past week we ramped up visitors slightly. The weather really hurt attendance, which would have been much higher. We still had people coming in and good attitudes abounded. We sold 2 bikes for $300, 1 build-a-bike for $30, 2 memberships for $50, and grossed $1353.50. We have been storing a lot of things we dont' need, and have lost a lot of space to idle items. This week I realized how limiting this has been and how we need to change our work flow. Also at the member meeting we discussed a front desk area with a host and how many workspaces benefit from this. Since we have a membership database promised to be coming soon I built a front desk area to capitalize on this. I reorganized the back and threw out a lot of useless junk. The space is much more open now and we have more room to work and store useful items like tools and bikes. We held a 3 speed hub class which was requested by at least 10 separate individuals, but no one attended. I will be looking into a remedy. I was able to update a good portion of the shops reports thanks to all the time freed up by Lily's hard work. Lily and I continued our work on getting a sponsored donation site for the residents halls so normally abandoned bikes can be directly donated saving us all a lot of work and headaches. We got a few bikes built, but were slow because of large donations and other projects.
This week I plan on continuing to update the shop's reports. I will be working with Lily on presenting the cargo bike to FAA. They had a change in leadership and some other set backs so we are restarting the relationship with a cool bike demo and presentation. Lily's heading this up so I will be supporting her. I will be trying to get some more bikes out of the warehouse and processed in anticipation of the spring cutting. Lily is working with the residence halls on the donation event, and doing most of the planning work, but I may go to some of the meetings since I will be in charge of the implementation of the event. I'm going to seek the assistance of Lily in ways to promote the Thursday afternoon classes. I will also be sending out information on the wheel building class this week.
From the Campus Bike Center,
James Roedl
Hello all, This past week was busy. We lots of folks coming in to fix their bikes, but the weather made it weird some days we were empty others we had a 15 minute wait for repair stands. We saw a lot of new faces, and made some new friends. The shop sold 4 bikes for $630, 1 build-a-bike for $35, 5 student memberships for $125, 1 community membership for $40, and grossed $1517. I talked to some of the people involved in the cargo bike loans, but was unable to get any progress yet. I was unable to build a new desk welcome area, but did acquire a commercial hook wall for free!
This week I will be working on meeting with people for the cargo bike program, and getting things ready for the residents hall donation program. I will also build more bikes to sell.
From the Campus Bike Center,
James Roedl
We are going to place a temporary strap on meter and keep it in place until after 5-15-16.
Hello all, This past week was super chill. We had a steady trickle of people come in and it was a good mood. I was able to build some bikes and the stable is bust'n with rad steeds. I was able to clean and organize the shop to an even greater level. I am trying to make it more accessible to new comers. I was able to catch up on some work which was nice.
This week I plan on setting up some new fixtures in the shop and maybe building a sign in/register desk area so we can have a host greet people, sign them in, check them out, and register their bikes.
From the Campus Outpost,
James Roedl
The SWATeam continued the discussion about its Big Picture Recommendation for energy conservation regarding the Campus Master Plan. Students reported their findings on what undergraduates want to see on energy displays in campus buildings. Smaller updates on fume hood efficiency efforts and Illini Lights Out followed. Green Labs Initiative intern Natalie Pelekh attended this meeting to present her research on Green Labs programs at other schools and to discuss factors that need consideration before launching our own Green Labs program.
Dr. Emily Heaton from Iowa State will be talking about the biomass project at Univ. of Iowa.
Time : April 1st, 12-1pm.
Location : iSEE conference room 358. National Soybean Research Laboratory 1101 W Peabody Dr, Urbana, IL
Attached and embedded below is a request to utilize the remaining funds in the Paxton grant for campus sustainable landscapes which is now under the purview of ISEE. The persons on the CC are all familiar with some of the work in this area done over the past few years and can likely speak to the wisdom of using the funds to supplement the ongoing efforts.
TO: Dr. Evan DeLucia and Dr. Ben McCall
From: John C. Marlin
RE: Use of “Support for Sustainable Landscapes” funds
Date: March 21, 2016
Several efforts are underway on the University of Illinois campus to promote the use and reestablishment of native plant species. The intent is to integrate native plants into the main campus landscaping and establish larger more diverse plantings in areas farther from the main campus in conjunction with the removal of invasive plants such as bush honeysuckle. The plantings will be especially valuable to insect pollinators and birds and will provide significant educational opportunities. To date much of the funding has come from the Student Sustainability Committee.
Work at the moment is concentrated on the 2.3 acre prairie at Florida and Orchard in Urbana, the wooded area at the southern end of the Arboretum known as SAW (South Arboretum Woods) including the Pollinatarium, and the Forestry Plantation along Race Street. Other active sites include Burrill Hall, the Natural Resources Building, and the Florida Orchard Prairie. Another small project is about to begin at Lincoln Avenue Residence Hall, which will be largely supported by LAR funds and student volunteers.
In addition to the SSC, several campus and community groups have made substantial contributions to the effort primarily through volunteer labor. The Master Naturalists and Grand Prairie Friends have provided hundreds of volunteer hours as have local citizens who attend work days. Individual students, faculty, and staff as well as Red Bison, Students for Environmental Concerns, and other student service organizations put in additional hours.
NRES purchased a $30,000 chipper and hired a contractor to remove honeysuckle with a forestry mower at the forestry plantation. The machine was also used on a limited basis at the Arboretum. Additional staff and in kind support was provided by the Arboretum, Pollinatarium, Prairie Research Institute, and Illinois Natural History Survey.
Recent SSC funding received by the Arboretum makes it possible for the forestry mower to return and remove large stands of honeysuckle. Workers will then remove by hand the honeysuckle too close to trees for the machine to cut. The area will then be replanted with native understory species as the invasive plants are brought under control. This will take several years. Various research projects focused on native plantings and their usefulness to other species are also envisioned.
Considerable additional funding beyond that provided by SSC is required to complete this effort. It is anticipated that the Arboretum and others will seek grants for future work and research. It is, therefore, requested that the remaining funds in the $10,000 donation “Support for Sustainable Landscapes” Dr. Jack Paxton made several years ago be made available to further this work. The funds would be used to supplement and match SSC and other funding. Specifically the funds would be available for the following purposes as needed: supplies and equipment, removal of invasive plants by contractors or hourly workers in campus areas, and purchase and planting of native plant material at appropriate campus locations.
Dr. John C. Marlin, a research affiliate at ISTC and INHS and Adjunct Professor in NRES, has lead much of this effort since 2011 as a volunteer. He continues to coordinate considerable activity by students, staff and community volunteers on these projects. He is also available to coordinate the proposed project.
Primary collaborators include Dr. Marlin; Arboretum Director, Dr. Kevin McSweeney; and Jay Hayek the Extension Forester within NRES.
This use of the Paxton grant is supported by Dr. Paxton (who has contributed numerous volunteer hours) and campus Facilities and Services. If a committee is needed to consider this matter, the SWAT team that deals with land and agriculture could probably be involved.
If there are any questions or a need for discussion, please contact Dr. Marlin at marlin@illinois.edu 217-649-4591
CC:
Dr. Jack Paxton
Brent Lewis
Morgan Johnston
Jay Hayek
Dr. Kevin McSweeney
Micah Kenfield
John C. Marlin PhD.
Research Affiliate
Illinois Sustainable Technology Center and
Adjunct Professor
Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences
University of Illinois
One Hazelwood Dr.
Champaign, IL 61820
217-333-8956
Ben McCall, Morgan Johnston, Scott Willenbrock, and Mike Larson met with Ted Christy and Jim Sims to discuss the process for an Electrification Study. Ted provided the attached document that needs to be completed in order to move forward. Additionally, Ted indicated that attachment a is the most pertinent. He said, "This statement would tell us what, from your perspective you hope to receive at the end of this study for it to be considered successful. It doesn’t need to get into detail. A paragraph or two in your own words to provide general description is very helpful. On the other hand, don’t feel like you need to limit this item, many departments submit a several page document. This information is used by the Planner to develop a scope statement that you will need to sign off on before we seek project approval."
Over the weekend student and community members put up 3 deer excluders at the South Arboretum Woods.
WE will be continuing with honeysuckle removal and general cleanup.
We also now have a decent shed with a lock on site thanks to the Natural History Survey. We can store items in it including red bison things.
John C. Marlin PhD.
Research Affiliate
Illinois Sustainable Technology Center
Propane is 2.4 times more expensive to burn to achieve the same amount of thermal energy.
~Mike Marquissee, F&S Utilites and Energy Services
