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- Associated Project(s):Attached Files:
Coordination meeting to discuss fume hoods and green labs
Associated Project(s):Representatives from iSEE, the ECBS SWATeam, F&S, and student interns met to discuss coordination of energy conservation efforts regarding the fume hoods on campus. iSEE and the student interns is investigating the development of a Certified Green Lab Program, like the Certified Green Office Program. F&S is actively reducing fume hoods, through consolidation and moth-balling. The ECBS SWATeam is advocating for more Shut the Sash communication efforts. These groups will continue to move forward, and coordinate their efforts.
The Cáceres Lab to talk with ALUFS SWATeam
Associated Project(s):The Cáceres Lab is going to talk with the ALUFS SWATeam about water quality research around campus.
EGEN SWATeam Meeting Notes (9.28.16)
Associated Project(s):The EGEN SWATeam held their second meeting for the Fall 2016 semester. Topics covered include:
- Review progress toward 2015 iCAP objectives
- Review/Finalize poster for Campus Sustainability Celebration.
- Identify 2nd faculty member for EGEN SWATeam
- Exploring ideas for clean energy on campus.
Attached Files:Weekly Update
Associated Project(s):All, we had 88 visitors last week—and that includes being closed on Monday and Thursday! We grossed $1,145.30; sold 19 memberships for $570; one bike for $120; and one build-a-bike for $40.
Last week was eventful. We had The Illinois Bike Summit, Light The Night, and on Friday I counted all the bikes in the warehouse: 517! Light the Night was very successful, installing 1188 lights (or 594 sets) at Alma Mater; numbers on the Illinois/Lincoln location are to-be-determined.
In tandem with Working Bikes, we’ve set the date for the Bike Warehouse to be emptied: October 7th. I will coordinate with Parking to insure we have access on that date.
I also set up a Facebook account to promote events and better connect with the cycling community.
This...Expand »All, we had 88 visitors last week—and that includes being closed on Monday and Thursday! We grossed $1,145.30; sold 19 memberships for $570; one bike for $120; and one build-a-bike for $40.
Last week was eventful. We had The Illinois Bike Summit, Light The Night, and on Friday I counted all the bikes in the warehouse: 517! Light the Night was very successful, installing 1188 lights (or 594 sets) at Alma Mater; numbers on the Illinois/Lincoln location are to-be-determined.
In tandem with Working Bikes, we’ve set the date for the Bike Warehouse to be emptied: October 7th. I will coordinate with Parking to insure we have access on that date.
I also set up a Facebook account to promote events and better connect with the cycling community.
This week I will work on building new bikes that I acquired from the warehouse, continue to organize for the Bike Warehouse event, and persist on the Sisyphean task of organizing inventory and streamlining volunteer tasks to make better use of everyone’s time.Sincerely,
- Jake Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Manager
- Jake Benjamin
Jill Maxey meets with energy contacts regarding space policy
Associated Project(s):In September, Associate Director for Space Utilization Jill Maxey met with faculty and staff interested in the status of the Net Zero Growth Space Policy. She explained the calculations involved in setting up the Space Bank, and the anticipated usage going forward in future years.
Weekly Update
Associated Project(s):Hello all, last week we had a gross sales total of 2,049.50. We sold 31 memberships for a total of $930. We sold 3 refurbished bikes for $360 and one build-a-bike for $80.
We’ve had a decent stream of volunteers at the campus bike center this past week, which has been welcome. Lily and I also attended the Illinois Bike Summit on Monday. It was an informative and empowering event to see so many like-minded people working for better biking in Illinois. We are continuing to prep and promote for Light The Night on Thursday.
This coming week we will host LTN, Lily is hosting Bicycling 101 and attending Urbana BPAC, which was eventful. I will continue inventory and the building of bikes as well continue to work on arranging for the bike warehouse...Expand »Hello all, last week we had a gross sales total of 2,049.50. We sold 31 memberships for a total of $930. We sold 3 refurbished bikes for $360 and one build-a-bike for $80.
We’ve had a decent stream of volunteers at the campus bike center this past week, which has been welcome. Lily and I also attended the Illinois Bike Summit on Monday. It was an informative and empowering event to see so many like-minded people working for better biking in Illinois. We are continuing to prep and promote for Light The Night on Thursday.
This coming week we will host LTN, Lily is hosting Bicycling 101 and attending Urbana BPAC, which was eventful. I will continue inventory and the building of bikes as well continue to work on arranging for the bike warehouse exodus.
Sincerely,
- Jake Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Manager
- Jake Benjamin
Report of iSEE Communication Performance (January - June 2016)
Associated Project(s):A general assessment was conducted from the period of January 2016 to January 2016, identifying the state of sustainability communication channels. During this time, statistics, major developments, and observations were recorded to understand the performance of communication to the general public.
See the attached file for collected data.
Attached Files:ECBS SWATeam meeting minutes
Associated Project(s):At the ECBS SWATeam initial meeting Marian Huhman was elected as a new chair. Recruting more proposals for education of other students about energy conservation was discussed. The "Illini Lights Out" Program pilot last semester was very successful and should be a year-long program. Engaging the whole campus for the "Green Labs" Program is needed. More funding for energy conservation was discussed. The completion of 2015 iCAP tasks poster templete is expected by September 23.
Attached Files:9/16/2016 Meeting Minutes
Associated Project(s):This was the first meeting of the Fall 2016 semester. Discussion was focused on non-potable water and meeting schedule for the rest of the semester.
Attached Files:iSEE update on PPA objective
Associated Project(s):iSEE reported to the SWATeam that they have reached out to NCSA to discuss incorporating a clean energy Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) in the next supercomputing grant application and agreement.
EGEN SWATeam Meeting Notes (9.14.16)
Associated Project(s):The EGEN SWATeam held their first meeting fo the Fall 2016 semester. Topics covered include:
- Selecting a team chair
- Deciding a regular meeting time, frequency, and location
- Preparing an evaluation of the campus's progress toward meeting the objectives of the 2015 iCAP
- Writing a descriptive paragraph about the EGEN team's focus for the year to be posted on the iCAP portal.
- Identifying a potential faculty member to fill the 2nd faculty spot on the EGEN SWATeam
Attached Files:ZAP! Program in Minnesota
Associated Project(s):Minnesota has been tracking bicycle commutes for the past few years using Radio-Frequency Identification tags (RFID tags). The progam has been successful at making it quick and easy for bicycle commuters to log their trips on to campus and enter them in to raffles or gain wellness points.
More information here:
http://www.derozap.com/gopherzap/
and,
https://www.derozap.com/zaptwincities/
Interesting program to watch as it has a positive impact on the Minneapolis/St. Paul mode-share.
September 9th, 2016 Meeting
Associated Project(s):9/09/16
Summary: This meeting was our inaugural meeting for the year. On the agenda today was the creation of a team description, a review of ongoing projects, and planning for future meetings.
In attendance:
Josh Feldman
Claire Dondival
Ankit Singhai
Yangfeng Ouyang
Pete Varney
Lily Wilcox - Active Transportation Coordinator
Olivia Webb - Sustainability Programs Coordinator
Topics Covered:
Team Description
We collectively crafted our team description for the iCAP portal, which can be found at: https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project/transportation-swateam.
Project Slides
Renewable Fleet Study:
Claire and Petehelped foster a discussion about the...Expand »
9/09/16
Summary: This meeting was our inaugural meeting for the year. On the agenda today was the creation of a team description, a review of ongoing projects, and planning for future meetings.
In attendance:
Josh Feldman
Claire Dondival
Ankit Singhai
Yangfeng Ouyang
Pete Varney
Lily Wilcox - Active Transportation Coordinator
Olivia Webb - Sustainability Programs Coordinator
Topics Covered:
Team Description
We collectively crafted our team description for the iCAP portal, which can be found at: https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project/transportation-swateam.
Project Slides
Renewable Fleet Study:
Claire and Petehelped foster a discussion about the current types of alternative fuels for campus fleet vehicles. Currently, natural gas is the only type of fuel seriously looked at. One concern was that the gas CNG, while possible to implement, would be somewhat costly and have little payback unless driven many miles. Electric vehicles were brought up, but are currently not part of the market. Biodiesel was also mentioned, but its performance in cold weather is a concern.
Staff Mode Shift:
Lily discussed the ways that this project will reduce single occupancy vehicles. One idea looked at was bike sharing, which has been tried by Purdue but does not have much payback economically. Lily also discussed “It’s your MTD too”, which features social bus-riding trips which introduce MTD to campus employees.
Bike Plan:
This was a summary of effort to make campus more bike-friendly. This would include having more, and better, bike parking. UIUC was recently recognized as a bronze-level Bike Friendly University by the League of American Bicyclists.
Future Meetings
We decided that every other Friday at 1pm is a good time to hold meetings. We will be holding meetings in the National Soybean Research Laboratory. Our clerk Josh will send out reminders.
CollapseAttached Files:Weekly Update
Associated Project(s):Hello all, first, the numbers: We had 78 visitors last week that signed our digital guestbook. We had $1,062.83 in gross sales; 15 memberships totaling $450; and a single build-a-bike for $120.
Things of note: The Bike Project voted at the last meeting to implement a two week trial policy of no-free-visits for the Campus Bike Center, which netted us a lot more memberships than we otherwise would’ve had. But it also served to quickly inform people that the CBC is a cooperative, investable space not a free university-provided service.
This past week I began reorganizing the shop, built up for-sale bikes, and organized a staff orientation meeting set for this evening.
This week I will build more bikes, continue to arrange and organize the space,...Expand »Hello all, first, the numbers: We had 78 visitors last week that signed our digital guestbook. We had $1,062.83 in gross sales; 15 memberships totaling $450; and a single build-a-bike for $120.
Things of note: The Bike Project voted at the last meeting to implement a two week trial policy of no-free-visits for the Campus Bike Center, which netted us a lot more memberships than we otherwise would’ve had. But it also served to quickly inform people that the CBC is a cooperative, investable space not a free university-provided service.
This past week I began reorganizing the shop, built up for-sale bikes, and organized a staff orientation meeting set for this evening.
This week I will build more bikes, continue to arrange and organize the space, finalize a student workers’ schedule for this semester, and begin to coordinate with Parking and Working Bikes on a shipment of bikes bound for Lesotho and Botswana.Jake Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Manager
CollapseNational Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) tools for solar
Associated Project(s):In support of the U.S. Department of Energy's SunShot initiative, NREL is offering no-cost technical assistance to universities seeking to go solar.
Minutes of the Champaign County Pollinator Coalition Meeting
Associated Project(s):The Champaign County Pollinator Coalition group had their first meeting on September 7, 2016, from 1:30 - 3 pm. The main topics of discussion included the needs, concerns, and decisions.
Attached Files:Article about Billion Dollar Green Challenge
Associated Project(s):The Chicago Tribune included a mention of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as one of two schools in Illinois that have joined the Billion Dollar Green Challenge. http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/naperville-sun/ct-nvs-north-centra...
Student solar efforts renewing for fall 2016
Associated Project(s):Niharika Kishore, masters in Urban Planning (MUP) student, and Corey Weil, sophomore in Electrical and Computer Engineering, are working with Morgan Johnston on the iSEE objective for on-campus solar. Niharika will continue her efforts for promoting rooftop solar to meet the iCAP objective for 12,500 MWh/year of on-campus solar energy generation as part of a MUP capstone project this year. Corey will volunteer in various efforts to support the development of solar solutions for campus, from the Net Zero Energy ECE efforts to advocating for solar energy funding.
News Gazette Mailbag question about Solar Farm
Associated Project(s):http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2016-08-26/toms-mailbag-aug-26-20...
UI solar farm
“The solar panel field located near the corner of Windsor Road and First Street has become overgrown with tall weeds. Do the panels still work with that much foliage under and above them? Also, would hiring sheep or goats to ‘mow’ the weeds be harmful to the sheep or goat (heat from the panels)?”
The Solar Farm on the University of Illinois campus was implemented as a power purchase and land lease agreement with Phoenix Solar South Farms, LLC, said Steve Breitwieser of the UI’s Facilities & Services Department.
“The agreements designate Phoenix as responsible for all maintenance of the Solar Farm during the 10-year contract, and this...Expand »
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2016-08-26/toms-mailbag-aug-26-20...
UI solar farm
“The solar panel field located near the corner of Windsor Road and First Street has become overgrown with tall weeds. Do the panels still work with that much foliage under and above them? Also, would hiring sheep or goats to ‘mow’ the weeds be harmful to the sheep or goat (heat from the panels)?”
The Solar Farm on the University of Illinois campus was implemented as a power purchase and land lease agreement with Phoenix Solar South Farms, LLC, said Steve Breitwieser of the UI’s Facilities & Services Department.
“The agreements designate Phoenix as responsible for all maintenance of the Solar Farm during the 10-year contract, and this includes vegetation control.
“A contractor hired by Phoenix was on site in mid-June, and they are performing additional weed control activities this week.”
When the agreement with Phoenix ends, Breitwieser said, the UI will assume Solar Farm maintenance responsibilities.
And — how about this? — preliminary discussions have begun with research faculty regarding the use of sheep or low-height food crops in the future, he said.
Meanwhile, neighboring plant growth has not impacted solar production, said Breitwieser.
Solar array data can be viewedat: http://go.illinois.edu/solar.
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