Search tips:
ISTC reviewed the final draft of their True Cost of Water Study with F&S leadership for comments before submittal to SSC. F&S will use the study to select water conservation projects related to chiller plants and cooling towers.
Engineering 315, Learning in the Community (LINC), has a number of course sections dedicated to sustainability this semester, including UI Bikes (UIB), for which Facilities & Services is serving as the Project Partner. The UIB section has two student project managers and 13 undergraduate students, who will be focusing on three bicycle-related projects this semester: A. the continuation of the bike sharing market analysis started last semester, including a campus-wide survey and targeted focus groups; B. the development of a campus bicycle parking map; and C. testing various marketing tactics to try to encourage students to park their bikes legally at designated bike parking, rather than on trees, signs, ramps, or fences.
F&S and the Campus Bike Project (CBP) met with an MBA class who agreed to help the CBP become fiscally self-supporting through improved marketing. There are two student teams who will review this topic in the context of all bicycle-related topics for campus.
Logistics are underway for the Spring, 2012 offering of the Teaching Sustainability Workshop (previously the Prairie Project). There will be an opening reception and keynote speaker on Friday, April 13 at Levis Center and the workshop will be held on April 14, 2012 at the Japan House. The call for applications went out on January 25 with applications due by March 9. In two days, we had already received 11 applications and are now up to 15. This is the quickest response we have had to date.
The Scholarship of Sustainability Series is currently being offered for the third year. The series is connected with 4 courses from 3 different colleges in addition to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Attendance each Thursday is expected to be around 100 people as the enrollment in the 4 courses are full (and the series will not be videotaped.)
Last fall, the SSC suggested an MOU with the Office of Sustainability regarding the hiring of a curriculum specialist to work one-on-one with faculty to integrate sustainability into the curriculum. The OS submitted a letter of inquiry for committee response on January 27, 2012.
At some point in the past, perhaps FY 09, Terry Ruprecht and the Provost’s office worked out an agreement to provide a funding source for “quick payback projects.” This meant that the payback was expected to be quick, typically in the 1-3 year range. This was a onetime funding source. A variety of projects (10-15) have been brought forward and funded at a value of approximately 1 million dollars. These projects have included lighting retrofits, fume hood removals, chiller control upgrades, adding variable frequency drives (VFDs) to HVAC equipment, temperature control upgrades, and hot water control valve replacements.
The 2010 iCAP included goals to increase renewable energy on campus. Regarding solar energy, the 2010 iCAP said, "A full study for solar electric or thermal energies has not yet been conducted. Estimates of the built campus area of ~5 square kilometers can likely accommodate 5 percent solar photovoltaic (PV) array coverage as rooftop solar—or about 250,000 square meters, with peak generation capacity of 25 MW, and generating 45 million kWh of electricity. This has the potential to displace 10 percent of current campus electricity usage. Potential for larger tracking arrays on the South Farms also exists." It also included the strategy, "Increase the amount of solar photovoltaic and thermal projects."
Students in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering have been working on projects to improve the sustainability of our campus. The Department has requested support to carry out to projects (designing a sump pump water collection and use system, and assisting with the retro-commissioning of Siebel Center), which will are high-impact projects and will involve students. Thus, the Student Sustainability Committee is in favor of funding them to the amount of $6,000 ($4,000 for the water project, and $2,000 for the retro-commissioning project – with the expectation that Computer Science will underwrite the remainder).
Cardboard recycling appears to have started in July 1988
