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- Associated Project(s):
18F Semesterly Report - Pumpkin Puree
Associated Project(s):The project has had many successful test trials using small amounts of product in our test kitchen, and we are anxiously awaiting the production equipment to arrive to start using more of the produce that is being grown.
18F Semesterly Report - Juice Processing
Associated Project(s):The project has had much opportunity to develop test recipes and trial the equipment that has arrived, but is waiting on some key pieces to arrive. The harvester being provided by funding from Dining has also arrived and been tested in the field with this year’s harvest.
18F Semesterly Report - Extrusion
Associated Project(s):The seasoning line has arrived and is installed. The extruder system modifications PO has been issued and is in design/build process currently. We have been having a series of meetings to complete this work.
Final Report submitted to SSC - Hand Sink
Associated Project(s):The sink has been fully installed and is meeting all goals of the project. Water usage from hand washing is down as a direct result of this installation, along with providing awareness of the use of water in a processing facility.
18F Semesterly Report - Red Oak Rain Garden 2.0
Associated Project(s):Spring 2017: Landscape Architecture student Cameron Letterly submitted proposal to SSC, along with Illinois Extension’s Eliana Brown. Cameron graduated.
Summer 2017: Cameron completed initial design work for garden
Fall 2017: Staff turnover; Cameron left to start MBA program and Katherine Gardiner was brought on as Communications Lead
Winter 2017-2018: Staff addition of Landscape Architect student Layne Knoche
Spring 2018: Layne designing Extension pamphlets to base future RORG communications products upon, with assistance from Eliana and Katherine
Summer 2018: Staff addition of Landscape Architect Master’s Candidate Kayla Myers; Layne and Kayla work to re-design garden.
Fall 2018: Grounds will remove rock and install erosion control fabric.
Winter 2018-2019: Kayla Myers and Layne Knoche to work with Architectural Review Committee for final design approval and plant suppliers to arrange spring planting.
Spring 2019: Cement finishers will install the sidewalk. Afterwards, Master Gardeners, Master Naturalists, and the Red Bison student group will install the plantings.
email from Champaign County Bikes
Associated Project(s):Hi Everyone,
Ben from VeoRide and I have started a discussion about how we can make sure the VeoRide Bike Share opportunity is known and available to everyone in our Champaign/Urbana community. We are not alone. Other communities are exploring this question too. There is even a Better Bike Share Association!
https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/bike-share-expansion-neighborhood-perception/545012/
https://ppms.trec.pdx.edu/media/project_files/TREC_BreakingBarriersSummaryReport_emQeiBA.pdf
Are any of you interested in joining this conversation? Do you know of others who would be interested? Let me know and I’ll create an email list and keep you in the loop of ideas and meetings.
Note: CU has a dockless bike share system and some of these studies looked at cities like Chicago and their large public docked bike share systems like Divvy. But I think we can learn a great deal from what these studies and authors have learned about the introduction of bike share to various populations of potential riders.
CHANGING MINORITY & LOW INCOME PERCEPTIONS OF BIKE SHARE
-> Smart Cities Dive reports when bike share was not understood or accepted when it expanded to the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY. A grant from the Better Bike Share Partnership provided resources for a community-led campaign. A historically rooted, minority-led organization lead the charge. Community groups and churches organized group rides, and schools offered bike education classes. Ads were rewritten to reflect the voice and priorities of the neighborhood. Discounted memberships were publicized and bulk memberships were offered to employers to get more people to sign up. From there, more listening sessions in the neighborhood helped Citi Bike explore new dock locations that would better serve the community. Just a year later, Bed-Stuy was an unexpected poster child for Citi Bike. Personal engagement has become a top priority for successful cities trying to expand mobility options. http://bit.ly/2CKogRj[See Research section for links to 2 studies of minority and low-income neighborhood bike share perceptions and concerns.]
MINORITY & LOW INCOME NEIGHBORHOOD PERCEPTIONS OF BIKE SHARE
-> Smart Cities Dive reports as bike share expands, neighborhood perception is key. (http://bit.ly/2CKogRj) A recent study published in Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice on bike share systems in Chicago reinforced a persistent problem for new mobility options: Minority and low-income neighborhoods aren't always on board. (Where Does Active Travel Fit within Local Community Narratives of Mobility Space and Place?: http://bit.ly/2Fe1jsg) Researchers used advanced machine learning to analyze focus groups of residents of 2 contrasting neighborhoods. Minority and low-income residents worry bike-sharing presence is yet another sign of a gentrifying neighborhood while more pressing needs, such as safety measures or expanded broadband are not addressed.A study from the Transportation Research and Education Center surveyed residents in Chicago, IL; Philadelphia, PA and Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY and found people of color, or those with lower incomes, had more concerns about bike sharing than white or high-income people. (Breaking Barriers to Bike Share: Insights on Equity: http://bit.ly/2FfqCdy) Among those concerns were uncertainty about how it worked, and the cost and the fear that bike share would make their neighborhoods too expensive.
[See The National & International Scene for an initiative that successfully changed a neighborhood vocally against bike share to on that embraces it.]
___________________
CCB has a growing concern about Cycling Equity, and making sure cycling events, education, infrastructure, and opportunity reach to all the neighborhoods and people in the greater Champaign/Urbana area. We will be giving this some thought as be plan for CU Bike Month 2019, and particularly, our Bike to Work Day - given that the data is showing that the majority of the people who bike to work in Champaign/Urbana are not pedaling towards the U of I, where we have traditionally put most of our efforts.
If you are interested in helping us explore something new and additional to our Bike to Work Day, let me know.
Thanks,
Jeff
From a Washington Post article looking a census data:
Of special interest, the demographics also reveal an important underlying dichotomy. The people most likely to bike or walk to work are either the least educated in society or the most educated. Slice the demographics by income, and the less money you have, the more likely you are to take either of these modes of transportation to work. Unless, that is, you're really wealthy. The graph below illustrates that biking and walking decline as income rises, until both start to tick back up again for the two highest income groups:
The pattern is even clearer when we look at educational attainment (this is my graph, using the Census data):
These two graphs illustrate a transportation paradox: Alternatives to driving in the United States are both a luxury for the well-off and a last resort for the poor.
* These charts taken from here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/05/09/the-demographic-paradox-of-who-bikes-and-walks-to-work/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.c8e6397e5c49
Jeff Yockey
Board Member
Champaign County Bikes
Final Report submitted to SSC - LED Upgrades 104 & 222
Associated Project(s):Rooms 104 and 222 of the Illini Union are both utilized extensively throughout the day. Each room maintains a high level of foot traffic and visibility within the building. An assessment team concluded that transitioning the old lighting fixtures to LED would have an overwhelmingly positive impact on energy consumption and unnecessary waste. The overarching goal of this project is to promote sustainability from within the Illini Union. The smaller scope of this project is to reduce carbon emissions and save energy by utilizing LED lighting fixtures within rooms 104 and 222 in the Illini Union. The lighting levels generated by the new LED fixtures are more than adequate for the usage, and end users and staff have been very satisfied.
December Buyer's Share
Associated Project(s):RailSplitter Wind Farm provided the December 2018 Buyer's Share amounts by hour, totaling 2415 Megawatt hours. See the attached file.
Attached Files:18F Semesterly Report - Student-led census of the Trelease Woods Forest Dynamics Plot
Associated Project(s):- Purchase of Census Materials (06/30/18): We have purchased all the equipment and materials needed for the census. Some additional small purchases may be needed near the completion of the census (nails, tags, replacement tape measurements and flagging tape) due to wear and tear.
- Recruitment of undergraduate student census workers (08/14/18). We recruited 34 undergraduate students from SIB, NRES, AHS and Animal Sciences to work on the census. Students spent 4-8 hours a week tagging, mapping and identifying trees. So far, we have recruited 33 students to work on the census during Spring semester 2019. About half will be returning students and will both work on the census and do independent research projects in Trelease related to the census.
- Student orientation and training (08/21/18): Training was completed as planned. In addition we gave students quizzes on the census methods and spent time in the field with the students throughout the semester.
- Development of project website (10/15/18): We have initiated the website. We will continue to build content for the website during the first part of the Spring semester whilst it is too cold to do the census.
- Completion of the first 12 ha of census (11/9/18): We started the census at the south side of Trelease woods, which has very high stem densities. This has slowed down progress through the plot. We have now completed around 4 ha. We will resume work when temperatures warm later in the Spring semester. We anticipate requesting additional funds this summer from LAS and ACES to allow students to work on the census over the summer break.
Attached Files:Weekly Updates for Zero Waste
Associated Project(s):Good Morning, Pete and Shawn,
There was no action on the zero-waste front this past week.
Best regards,
Marya Ryan
Weekly Updates for Zero Waste
Associated Project(s):[Updates sent Jan. 2, 2019]
Good Morning, Pete and Shawn,
I hope your new year is off to a good start. Here are zero waste activities from the past week:
- I drafted updates to the glove recycling page of the iCAP portal and flier and sent them to Morgan for review.
- I cleaned up my spreadsheet where I track glove recycling sites.
- I drafted an SSC report for fall 2018 and sent it to Morgan for review.
Best Regards,
Marya Ryan
Weekly Update
Associated Project(s):All, Abbreviated work week for me and zero open hours last week. It was a good time to do some deep winter/early spring cleaning. I pulled about half the bikes out of the back of the shop and cleaned up and threw junk away, reorganized and decluttered the 2x4 storage shelves. It’s looking a lot cleaner on the back end of the shop; the front side of the shop will be handled by the student workers this week.
Todd came and grabbed scrap over the weekend so that definitely helped beautify the shop.
This week I’ll hopefully be able to round out the student staff schedule and the student staff manual. Builds and safety checks will, of course, continue as well.
Thanks!
- Jake Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Manager
- Jake Benjamin
18F Semesterly Report - Bee Campus USA Signage
Associated Project(s):The Fall 2018 semester was used as a planning stage for the Bee Campus signage project. On November 15th, the Bee Campus USA committee met to discuss the content and design on each of the permanent signs. Additionally, we discussed locations to consider for placing the signage. During Spring 2019, I plan to have the locations of the signage approved by March. Purchasing and orders should be completed by April.
Attached Files:18F Semesterly Report - Hives for Beekeeping Club
Associated Project(s):We have bought the bees and hives, installed the bees, and built the fence around the hives. The bees were not established enough to take much honey from them so we stayed on the safe side and allowed the bees to keep all their honey for overwintering. Recently we bought two more hives and are hoping to split our current hives to have a total of 4 hives at the sustainable farm. As the bees now have foundation built up they should start producing more honey and brood than last year, and we are expecting to be able to harvest ample honey next Fall.
Attached Files:Weekly Update
Associated Project(s):All, Welcome back from break! Hope everyone had a good time with friends and family.
The last week before break was pretty slow, as to be expected. Kevin finally finished his B-a-B, which was great. He was jazzed about it, too.
The Bike Center doesn’t reopen until next Monday so this week I’ll be doing some deeper cleaning and reorganizing that isn’t feasible when I have to open the doors at 2pm. I’ll also be collating the student staff manual.
The numbers:
Visitors: 47
Sales: $171.50
Memberships: 2 for $60
Build-a-Bike: 1 for $47Thanks!
Jake Benjamin
Campus Bike Center ManagerRestrooms fixture Inventory Fall 2019
Associated Project(s):Attached Files:PWR013 Zero Waste Coordinator recommendation - Transmitted
Associated Project(s):Following the completion of iWG assessment for PWR013 Zero Waste Coordinator, the recommendation was transmitted to Dr. Mohamed Attalla, Director of Facilities & Services.
See iWG assessment of PWR013 Zero Waste Coordinator attached.
See SWATeam Recommendation PWR013 Zero Waste Coordinator here.
Attached Files:Weekly Updates for Zero Waste
Associated Project(s):Hi Pete and Shawn—
Last week was quiet with regard to zero waste activities.
Best regards,
Marya Ryan
Update on the Illini Gadget Garage
Associated Project(s):Members of the Purchasing, Waste and Recycling Sustainability Working Advisory Team (SWAT),
The main reason for my note though, is to provide an update on the Illini Gadget Garage (IGG) project. As you know, ISTC decided it would no longer be coordinating the project, and there was some uncertainty about its future. I’m pleased to say that for now the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning will be exploring “adoption” of the project on a trial basis, beginning next semester. I’ve copied Jamie Nelson and Jim Wentworth of CITL, who will be leading that effort, along with Amanda Elzbieciak, the IGG workshop manager, who has graciously agreed to work with CITL to host some pop-up repair workshops at the innovation spaces in the Armory, and to help with recruitment of volunteers and training. While the workshop space will still be at the IGG’s disposal for storing equipment, etc., next semester, CITL will focus project activities in its spaces at the Armory.
So the project will continue in some capacity next semester. Whether it continues beyond that point will depend on many factors related to how well it ends up fitting with CITL’s core mission. I’ve also copied my original collaborators in launching the project, William Bullock and Martin Wolske, just so you all are familiar with the names of key people associated with the project and its history. Jamie and Jim, the PWR SWATeam, along with Morgan White, have been very supportive of the IGG project, and they are charged with making recommendations to the iCAP Working Group related to the campus’ waste reduction and prevention goals. At some point next semester, you may wish to discuss any challenges the project might be facing with the SWATeam, for feedback and guidance, or at least to help spread the word about pop-ups and other activities.
There is nothing further to report for now, and CITL will want to work with Amanda to consider how best to announce their involvement next semester. I simply wanted to let this committee know the status of the situation, and say that I will work with Amanda after the winter break to ensure the transition is smooth. I look forward to seeing how this progresses and hope to see more efforts to foster reuse and repair on campus, in addition to recycling. Thanks to everyone who helped get the project to this point.
Happy holidays!
Joy
Joy Scrogum
Sustainability Specialist