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Project Updates for collection: 2015 iCAP Objectives
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Draft Report - Local Carbon Offset Program
Associated Project(s):DRAFT White Paper: "Recommendations for Initiating a Local Carbon Offsets Pilot Program for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign"
Submitted by Stacy Gloss on May 9, 2022
Conclusions & Recommendations reported below:
The University of Illinois iCAP calls for reducing emissions from unavoidable travel by purchasing carbon offsets and creating a local carbon offset program. Program planning and oversight can be achieved with the formation of a committee on carbon offsets and local offsets. Concurrently, the chancellors office should delegate where a carbon-off-set account would be housed – the account needs to be set up to receive and administer funds for competitive projects.
The most that the iCAP Resilience Committee could do is submit a recommendation to the iWG to convene a campus working group for a local offset program directed by the Chancellor’s office and/or central Sustainability Council; and direct the set-up of an account to receive and administer funds. Sustainability professionals hired at the University of Illinois could administer the program with oversight from the carbon offsets working group/committee.
Edits or comments to this paper should be submitted to sgloss@illinois.edu for review by the iCAP Resilience committee.
The document can be viewed here: https://uofi.box.com/s/w007s43qyhtdcbjbmzb4asjt70weueyq
Carbon Offset Technology Review Project
Associated Project(s):iSEE Carbon Offset Program: Technology Research and Options
Authors: Jane Williams, Rachel Pu, Fina Healy, Natalia Ptaszek, and Angela AndradaStudents from the ABE469 Capstone Course taught by professor Ann Witmer met over the course of the Spring 2022 semester to research renewable energy technologies and carbon sink projects appropriate for campus and communtiy in our surrounding county-vicinity. The purpose is to provide technology options for the Local Carbon Offset Program described in the iCAP objectives. A local carbon offset program would be designed to offset staff & faculty travel, and the offset funds generated can be used in local projects that reduce or sequester carbon on campus and in the community. The technologies reviewed by the student engineering team include:
- solar photovoltaics
- biodigestor
- planting trees
- prairie restoration
- geothermal heating and cooling
The final deliverables report and presentation are attached.
This Week in Research
Associated Project(s):Ming Kuo recently contributed to an NPR piece that explored the benefits of spending time in nature, noting that getting your daily dose of nature is vital to your well-being.
Reminders sent out for Mode Choice Survey
Associated Project(s):F&S TDM sent out reminders in e-week, GradLinks, Email+ to UG students, and others in the last week of April.
Developing PCI Targets document and comments
Associated Project(s):Attached is an article that details the development of Performance Cost Index Targets.
Below are comments made by Tom Keller on the article:
Comments:
- Out of Date Reference - The referenced items are from early 2016 and reference ASHRAE-90.1-2013. These are not our current codes/standards and Appendix G has changed since 2013.
- UIUG Goals - 25% new construction and 20% major renovation (for UIUC Standard facilities) is indeed appropriate. It was developed in a collaborative effort with the UIUC stakeholders and analyzed by qualified professional to be reasonable and considerate of our goals. Is someone (possibly UES) suggesting that we should lower the efficiency goals?
- Standards – The standards were not developed completely by me. These standards were developed in a highly collaborative effort and analyzed by qualified professionals (including myself) to be appropriate and practical.
- They are for the most part currently assigned to Morgan and myself.
- Personal Agendas/due diligence – Please further clarify this. I have not found this to be true (quite the opposite in fact). Can you provide specific examples of this?
- TJK comment – A single consultant (IMEG) and a single non-standard project (Undergrad Library) have expressed/had difficulty with meeting the goal. On one occasion IMEG was indeed able to comply and be within the project established parameters (DIA – Ubben). For UL, a proper variance was approved for 17.4% in lieu of full 20% based mainly on the archival special processes.
- NOTE – Based on this, Jim S. and I collaborated on “scrubbing” the standards (assigned to me) this round. We did find some confusing wording that was clarified and may help the consultants (IMEG) in the future. This was also collaborated with Morgan W., Rob R., and Scott W. (as I recall).
Attached Files:useful links
iCAP update presented at Senate Committee on Campus Operations
Associated Project(s):These iSEE representatives presented an update of key efforts underway for the iCAP 2020: iSEE Associate Director for Campus Sustainability Dr. Jennifer Fraterrigo, iSEE Associate director for Education and outreach Dr. Luis Rodriguez, Sustainability Programs Manager Meredith Moore, F&S Associate Director for Sustainability Morgan White, and Sustainability Academic Advisor Eric Green. the key topics were:
- Earth Month
- Clean Power
- Plastic Waste Reduction
- Environmental Leadership Program
- Sustainability Gen Ed efforts
The following links were also sent to be shared with the committee:
- iCAP 2020 objectives dashboard (be patient while it loads form the database): https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/objectives
- Sustainability training Videos: go.illinois.edu/sust_training
- Food insecurity information: https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project-update/campus-food-options-address-food-insecurity-challenges
Also, if anyone is interested in participating in one of the Topical iCAP Teams, as a faculty member, please let us know. The topics are listed on the iCAP Portal at https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project/topical-icap-teams.
Residence Hall Research Site Email
Associated Project(s):Below is an email sent by Dr. Edwin Herricks to Morgan White regarding a research site to study stormwater mitigation designs.
Morgan,
You may not know, but some time ago I led a project to create a research site on the parking lot across from the residence halls to study parking lot stormwater mitigation designs. Of importance we installed a weir for a gauging capability for the lot discharge. Unfortunately, the U did not proceed with the lot improvements so the weir simply sits.
Art Schmidt is aware of this and over the years I have encouraged him to take advantage of the infrastructure.
Hopefully if you know about this capability you may find some use for it.
Ed
Campus Transportation Advisory Committee (CTAC) spring 2022
Associated Project(s):Please see attached the final presentation for the CTAC spring 2022. We also talked about abandoned bicycles and Campus Landscape Master Plan during this meeting. Also watch the meeting recording and read the chat from during the meeting: https://uofi.box.com/s/lv1xbqlcevdp6f2dfmiep2fpx3cq2zde
Illinois ECE Celebrates Earth Week
Associated Project(s):"Earth Week is a great opportunity for us to reflect on what the extended ECE family has done and can continue to do to make Earth a better place for all living beings." - Illinois ECE
Illinois ECE has gathered a sampling of the contributions their faculty, staff, and students have made to environmental sustainability.
The sampling can be seen here: https://ece.illinois.edu/newsroom/earth-week
Two 100% all electric 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning trucks purchased for F&S fleet
Associated Project(s):From: Varney, Peter W
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2022 12:38 PM
To: FandS Executive Management Team ; Gordon, Malikah Asrayyah ; Breitwieser, Steven
Cc: Patterson, Shawn L ; Franzen, Neil
Subject: Ford Lightnings for F&SAs mentioned this morning, I have been able to secure two of the brand new 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning for F&S. These are all-electric crew cab pickup trucks with a ~200 mile range. The vehicles are equipped with a 9.6kW power system including multiple 120V and a single 240V outlet. Cargo payload is only about 1,600# or 2/3 of a standard F-150.
These vehicles should allow for my team to gain familiarity with all-electric vehicles in our fleet as well as campus visibility regarding F&S’ commitment to sustainable fleet technology. I believe one of the vehicles would be a good fit in my Transportation Shop but I’m open to suggestions for the second truck. ETA will be in the June/July timeframe.
Malikah – I want your team to be aware for any story/messaging opportunities. I also think we can use some special signage or wrap on the vehicle exterior.
Pete W Varney
DIRECTOR
Transportation & Building Services
Facilities & Services
University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignAnnual Space Survey Letter includes iCAP 2020
Associated Project(s):A file containing information regarding the 2022 Campus Wide Space Survey is attached below.
Attached Files:e-week, GradLinks, Email+ to UG and other methods used for Mode Choice Survey
Associated Project(s):F&S TDM used several newsletters, departmental contacts, word of mouth, as well as digital signage to promote the Mode Choice Survey. Please see attached the Publicity methods used for this project.
Attached Files:Mode Choice Survey 2022 started
Associated Project(s):The Mode Choice Survey was published and began collecting data on March 26, 2022. It was edited to rectify a glitch in the survey on March 27.
See attached the final draft of the mode choice survey.
Attached Files:Video Case Studies of Sustainable UIUC Campus Buildings
Associated Project(s):From: Shanmugam Narayan, Vinothni
To: White, Morgan
Recipients: mbwhite at illinois.edu
Hello Morgan,
I have shared the NCEL & HSL plans, newsletter, and Earth month schedule with my team. Thank you so much for sharing those.
I have also attached a link for case study videos that my concept team students created for one of the activities I planned last semester.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KRaWCbD2WYsWEA9bR0JUx9a_ELMov0v9?usp=sharing
Thanks for initiating to include their work on the website. Have a nice day!
Sincerely,
Graduate – Masters | Class of Dec 2022
Civil and Environmental Engineering | Construction Engineering and Management
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
vs37@illinois.edu | +1 (217)-200-2817
iSEE Newsletter 03/23/2022
Associated Project(s):Attached is the 03/23/2022 iSEE newsletter.
Attached Files:SEDAC March Newsletter
Associated Project(s):Attached is the SEDAC newsletter for March.
Attached Files:Student Affairs Research Approval (SARA) process for the sample of students for Mode Choice Survey
Associated Project(s):Since iNews Newsletter does not allow surveys, F&S TDM had to get permission from DMI and Student Affairs to reach out to a large populations of Undergraduate students.
Sarthak Prasad requested Division of Management Information (DMI) a sample of randomly selected Undergraduate students for the Mode Choice Survey in last week of February. DMI asked to complete the Student Affairs Research Approval (SARA) application to sample 5,000 UG students. Sarthak Prasad filled out the SARA request on March 1, 2022. Dr. Beth Hoag approved the SARA request to sample 5,000 UG students and forwarded it to the DMI contacts.
Ting Lu from DMI created 2 identical groups of randomly selected 5,000 UG student emails and shared them with Sarthak Prasad on 3/18/22 via Webtools. Each group could only be used once.
There was a $16/hour cost to create a sample - overall cost was $64.
SSC Semester Report: South Farm Nitrate Monitoring Station
Associated Project(s):SSC received semesterly report for Fall 2022 for South Farm Nitrate Monitoring Station project on 03/02/2022.