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Project Updates for collection: 2015 iCAP Objectives

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  1. Campus Bicycle Coordinator Position Formalized

    Associated Project(s): 
    Increase Bicycle Use

    A new Academic Hourly Position, Campus Bicycle Coordinator, has been created within the Facilities & Services division. Amelia Neptune, formerly a Sustainability Specialist in F&S was appointed to the position for the 2014 Fiscal Year (July 1, 2013-June 30, 2014). The Campus Bicycle Coordinator will report to the Sustainability Coordinator within F&S, under the Engineering & Transportation Services department. The Campus Bicycle Coordinator will be responsible for promoting bicycles and bicycle education, enforcement, encouragement, engineering, and evaluation and planning. 

    Attached Files: 

  3. No-Mow Signage

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainable Landscapes Plan

    The University campus has designated several different areas as No-Mow Zones. There is signage at these locations that explains that the area is a no-mow zone and the benefits of no-mow zones.

  5. Solar Installations - preliminary list

    Associated Project(s): 
    Solar Power on Campus

    Facilities & Services created a list of existing and planned Solar installations on campus:

    a.       Installed:

    i.         #1206 BIF – Approx. 3,700-4,000 s.f. on a building roof.

    b.      Active:

    i.        Approx. 20”x20” panel for a fixed speed radar detector near lot E-15.

    ii.       Approx. 20”x20” panel to power lights for pedestrian crossing on Springfield Avenue.  Lights have been removed due to maintenance issues.  Panel remains.

    iii.      Approx. 20”x20” panel for a mobile speed radar detector on Lincoln Avenue.

    iv.      Approx. 20”x20” panel for an electric tractor/mower charger.  Item is off the grid.  Location?

    c.       In Planning:

    i.         #0052 KCPA

    ii.       #0409 Electrical and Computer Engineering along with #1094 NCPD

    iii.       South solar farm

    iv.       Housing

    v.        #0118 ARC - Solar Thermal

                    vi.       Residence Hall #3

                   vii.       College of Engineering discussing something at MNTL with grant funds. 

     

  8. Bicycle Project Updates: bike racks, bike parking, bike sharing, bike to work day, campus bike project

    Associated Project(s): 
    Increase Bicycle Use

    The SSC bike parking award is for $225,000 to install approximately 1,000 new bike parking spaces on existing concrete throughout campus. 

    The SSC and the Illini Union agreed to support improvements at the southwest corner of the Illini Union, where there are existing “donut-hole” bike racks.  These will be removed over the summer and replaced with stainless steel U-loops.  Additionally, the F&S Grounds division has agreed to plant an additional tree in that area, which will increase shading for the bike parking.

    Through Champaign County Bikes, the University has acquired 22 Varsity Bicycle Racks (which will hold a total of 44 bicycles) from Park-a-Bike in order to run a year-long pilot test of the racks. 10 of these racks will be installed for the year near the Union and the remaining 12 will be distributed in various high-visibility locations on and near campus, to be determined.

    The graduate student working on sketches for the Campus Bicycle Network improvements has completed a majority of the campus owned pathways.  In some cases, this has included site visits to specific areas, with the Transportation Coordinator and the Landscape Architect for campus.

    The SSC-supported Bike Sharing Feasibility Study student intern held a review meeting with the Bike Sharing Steering Committee.  The report is substantially complete and will be available this summer.  As part of the Feasibility Study, F&S released a bike sharing survey to the campus and surrounding community in late March, and accepted responses throughout April. The Survey received 1,168 responses from students, staff, faculty, retirees, visitors and members of the community. F&S is working with the UI Bikes section of Engineering 315, Learning in the Community (LINC) course, to analyze the data from the survey responses. Students from the LINC course also conducted a focus group with undergraduate students in conjunction with the survey in order to dive deeper into the topic of bike sharing with focus group participants.

    In preparation for the third annual C-U Bike to Work Day (BTWD), staff organized fundraising, publicity, volunteers, bike stations’ supplies, registration, and riders’ incentives. The University led the efforts to organize BTWD this year, in partnership with local governments and other agencies. BTWD is an opportunity to encourage and support new bicycle commuters across C-U, including students, staff and faculty of the University, in an effort to create a mode shift toward more bike commuting and less automobile commuting.

    SSC granted a funding request from the Campus Bike Project (CBP) which will allow the current part-time hours of the CBP shop manager, a University employee reporting directly to F&S, to be expanded to full-time. The grant also includes a small stipend for part-time student employees to help staff the CBP.  Sustainability Staff have been working with CBP representatives to develop the position description and conduct a job search, which attracted over 30 applications. The search committee, which included sustainability staff from F&S, as well as Bike Project volunteers and members, is currently in the process of narrowing the pool down to select a qualified candidate.

     

  9. Undergrads and Graduates work on Sustainability Projects

    Associated Project(s): 
    Independent Student Projects

    Working with James Scholar in Barbara Minsker’s engineering class to make recommendations related to sustainability for the Grainger crosswalk on Springfield.

    Staff hosted interviews with about a dozen Rhet 105 students about various sustainability topics.

    Urban Planning masters student Marcus Ricci is doing a GIS project about bike parking capacity in relationship to the buildings they serve.

    The LINC U of I Bikes section sent out a bike sharing survey and had a great response rate, a summary will be available by the end of the spring semester.

  11. Bike to Work Day and Campus Bike Project Make Progress

    Associated Project(s): 
    Increase Bicycle Use

    Bike to Work Day (BTWD) planning is underway. Staff raised $1,250 in February from sponsors, which goes to Champaign County Bikes for the event.  Three on-campus Bike Station locations were organized, in addition to several off-campus Bike Stations.  University Housing graciously agreed to provide food and drinks for the on-campus Bike Stations, as they did last year.

    The Bike Sharing key staff members met with project champion, Mike Lyon from AITS, to provide a status update on the bike sharing feasibility study.  The bike sharing intern developed a presentation about departmental bike sharing, which will be taken to Legal Counsel and Purchasing contacts for final approval.  Then Colleges will be contacted before departments are approached to encourage departmental bike sharing implementation.  

    F&S Planning staff interviewed firms to engineer road improvements, including Fourth Street bike lanes from Armory Avenue to Kirby Avenue, and Sixth Street bike lanes from Armory Avenue to Gregory Drive.

    The bike parking intern completed and submitted a proposal to the SSC to replace existing “donut-hole” racks with campus standard racks.  He also met with staff at Christopher Hall and the Illini Union about upgrading their bike parking areas.  Additionally, staff worked with a representative from Champaign County Bikes to arrange a pilot test of an alternative bike parking rack, the Varsity Rack.

    The Campus Area Transportation Study (CATS) agencies met in February and agreed that the Campus Bike Plan document should be for University-owned pathways, and it should be in agreement with the City of Urbana Bike Plan, the Champaign Transportation Plan, and the County Greenways and Trails Plan.

    The Campus Bike Project submitted a proposal to the SSC for expanded open hours with student assistants.

    Plans are underway for a bike race on May 5 in the Research Park.  About 300-400 race participants are anticipated.  There will be a community ride that morning, as well as a race in the City of Urbana on May 6.

  12. EMC^2 Proposal, F&S Steam Reduction, Virtualization

    Associated Project(s): 
    Centralized Energy Efficiency Efforts

    Staff further developed the Energy Management and Control Center (EMC^2) proposal for Chancellor Wise to share with potential donors/partners.  This process included preliminary documentation of the existing energy distribution and tracking computer programs.

    F&S staff started discussions about a steam reduction project at the Main Library, which includes repairing steam traps, replacing Pressure Reducing Valves (PRV), and repairing or replacing other valves.

    F&S is moving towards virtualization for their IT servers.  That will let F&S move to a single server, which will reduce the cooling load and energy demand.  This project can be replicated in other departments for additional energy savings.

  13. F&S Makes Progress on Bicycle Projects

    Associated Project(s): 
    Increase Bicycle Use

    F&S continues to work with a number of student groups and individuals on bicycle-related projects:

    • Bicycle Intern and Urban Planning student Grace Kenney has returned from a semester abroad and is now completing the Bike Sharing Feasibility Study this spring, as well as implementing departmental bike sharing with interested departments, using the Departmental Bike Sharing Manual produced by the Fall 2011 LINC class. Grace also helped with the master bike plan in January, and will be working closely with the Bike Sharing Steering Committee in the coming weeks and months.
    • Bicycle Intern and Urban Planning student Holly Nelson is continuing to work on bike lane design recommendations.
    • Bicycle Intern and Urban Planning student Patrick Clark is working on bike parking upgrade designs and recommendations, including SSC-funded improvements at the Illini Union, as well as developing the formal grant proposal for bike parking upgrade funding for SSC.
    • GIS student Marcus Ricci proposed a GIS class project to analyze the location and quantity of bike parking in relationship to building doors and bike pathways.
    • The UI Bikes LINC course, as mentioned above, is working with F&S on several projects related to both bike sharing and bike parking.
    • An MBA class is studying the Campus Bike Project, among other bicycle-related topics, and will make a recommendation to the CBP for developing a self-sustaining funding model.
    • Student Senator David Huang has drafted and will introduce a formal resolution to the Illinois Student Senate proposing the implementation of online bicycle registration through Ride Campus. (http://www.ridecampus.com/)

    Members of The Bike Project steering committee met with representatives of F&S and SSC to brainstorm opportunities to help make the Campus Bike Project a financially self-supporting operation.  This is in parallel to the efforts of the MBA class looking into this issue.  The Bike Project will be submitting a Letter of Inquiry to the SSC before their current funding expires in May.

    F&S staff attended the monthly Champaign County Bikes meeting in January, to discuss a potential use of Ride Campus and Varsity Rack in Champaign-Urbana. F&S is also working with CCB member Jeff Yockey to develop a steering committee to explore the possibility of implementing Ride Campus at the University of Illinois.

    F&S staff and Patrick Clark met with the Illini Union to discuss improving bike parking facilities around the Union, and potentially having the Union be a pilot test location for the Varsity Rack. 

     

  15. Sustainability Curriculum and Workshop Progress

    Associated Project(s): 
    Encourage Course Development or Modification

    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.

  16. Quick payback projects

    Associated Project(s): 
    Allocate Savings

    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. 

  17. 2010 iCAP Solar goals

    Associated Project(s): 
    Solar Power on Campus

    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."

  18. MechSE Sustainability Senior Design Funding Agreement

    Associated Project(s): 
    Independent Student Projects
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)

    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).

    Attached Files: 

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