Building Services Specialist Cleaning Program Launched This Semester
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From Kathy's Mailbag in today's News-Gazette:
“I'm wondering if Styrofoam recycling will stop when the Dart Container plant closes at the end of the year. Our community Styrofoam recycling program is one of just six in the state, with the other 5 located in the Chicago area. Will this program be saved for our community?”
Michael Westerfield, Dart Container Corporation’s vice president for sustainability, notified the City of Champaign that the community Styrofoam recycling program hosted by Dart will remain in operation until Sept. 29.
Nichole Millage, the City of Champaign’s environmental sustainability specialist, said at this time she is not aware of any other companies or recycling processors in the area that have the equipment (densifier) to recycle Styrofoam. “If new options become available, I will make sure folks are aware.”
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Hi Morgan and Scott,
Could the city of Urbana or the UIUC buy Dart’s densifier and operate it for the community?
Jeff
Learn How to Ride class was rescheduled for October 7th from 10 am - 12:30 pm at the basketball courts by Campus Bike Center
Dear Friend of the Reimagine our Future student sustainability competition,
We are writing to provide a brief update about Reimagine our Future.
As you know, the aim of this competition is to harness the creativity and intelligence of undergraduate students, challenging them to develop ideas and solutions that will contribute to the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and encouraging them to feel empowered as engaged problem-solvers.
Registration is now open for the 2023 competition, and we have some exciting developments to report.
Students from nine participating higher education institutions can enter the competition this year either as individuals or as members of teams. (Students from any higher education institution anywhere may be on a team that enters the competition provided that team is led by a student from a participating institution.) An up-to-date list of the participating institutions is here.
This year we added two special awards for the best submission dealing with some aspect of climate change and for the submission that went furthest in implementation.
Also, Mike Yao, a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign professor with appointments in the College of Media and the Gies College of Business, will serve as a mentor to the winning entrants, irrespective of their home institution, as they attempt to develop and implement their proposal.
The important dates for the 2023 competition are available here.
If you are an advisor on student projects, you may receive – any time between now and November 19th - a request for advice from one or more students who are planning a submission in your area of expertise or interest.
If you are a judge, we will ask for a few hours of your time during November 20-24 to help develop the list of finalists.
Special thanks to those who are playing both roles!
Our list of advisors and judges includes specialists from various universities, companies, and institutions and from many backgrounds, fields, and disciplines. This broad-ranging list encourages submissions from students in many areas. We expect to continue to add to this list.
Thank you again for your ongoing help with this sustainability competition and for bringing your unique background, skills, professional history and more to this project. If you have advice or suggestions about any aspect of the competition, please let us know.
Yours sincerely,
Leon Liebenberg (Teaching Professor, Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering, UIUC)
Warren Lavey (Adjunct Professor, College of Law, School of Earth, Society & Environment, and College of Medicine, UIUC)
Robert McKim (Emeritus Professor, Department of Religion, UIUC)
(Reimagine Our Future co-founders and coordinating committee)
I met with Morgan and Stacey on 8/30/2023 to discuss the progress of the 2024 Campus Bike Master Plan. The major discussion was about Chapter 3: Goals and Objectives, and I will be re-organizing the goals and objectives under three key goals:
We also discussed the soft publish date to be 5/1/2024 and a hard deadline of 6/30/2024.
Prepare outline for bike audit
Re-familiarize self with stuff
Black racks are ground mounted, we want bike racks on rails (gray ones)
Only university owned bike racks and paths
Hi Daphne,
Just to confirm, this is toner and not an ink cartridge for printer. We don’t have many inkjet printers, but I don’t want to assume which one you have.
Thanks,
Brad
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Hi Brad,
That’s correct – toner is what we are referring to! Apologies for the confusion.
Thank you,
Daphne
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HI Daphne,
The vendors we work with for recycling toner quit accepting them. Unfortunately, they have to be thrown away.
Thanks,
Brad
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Hi Morgan & Stephanie,
Below is the response I received from Brad re: toner recycling. Sarthak was over at IT recently and noted that there was a box of toner cartridges that the IT team has been collecting for many, many years since the vendor stopped accepting them for recycling. I’ll do some research to see if there’s a solution in this region.
Thank you,
Daphne
On 08/29/2023, Stacey, Sarthak and Hrushikesh along with city planners of Urbana and Champaign had an introductory in-person meeting with BirdBike. The agenda of this meeting was to get a demo of the BirdBike bicycles and have discussion on potentially introducing these bikes on-campus and the in both cities.
Meeting Notes:
1) Membership opportunity
2) BirdBike facilitating no bike zone in certain areas of campus .
3) Demo of the Bikes and its parking system.
4) Safety features and precautions.
5) Using GPS and VPS system for tracking and parking.
6) Helmet Safety feature.
7) Rider Quiz before every ride.
8) Wayfinding for campus bike rack parking locations
Hi Tony,
We need to provide historical energy data to Professor Yi for his work with us this fall to create building energy models for selected buildings on campus, in his Architecture class.
Can you please have someone on your team provide monthly energy data for the following buildings for the last five years, FY20 to FY16? Also, if hourly data is available, please provide hourly data for these same buildings for the one year of FY19.
· Personnel Services Building
· Speech and Hearing Building
· Children’s Research Center
· Bruce Nesbitt African American Cultural Center.
I have created a folder for the related files in Box, which you can access at https://uofi.box.com/s/uc18bm30ysb6fxk7q0e0iwy3hnav99lq. We would appreciate receiving this information by the end of July, if possible.
Thank you,
Morgan
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Morgan,
End of July should not be a problem.
Regards,
Tony
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Could you handle this data request? Thanks
Regards,
Tony
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Hi Morgan –
Attached is the data you’ve requested.
Thanks,
Anthony
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Hi Yun,
Please see attached files.
Thanks!
Morgan
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Hi Marge
I am wondering if we can get these buildings' documents before the semester starts.
I can ask TA to go over the documents and select documents that need for the class.
So that we can reduce the number of documents to get approval.
Also, I send an email related to meter data.
The Excel file doesn’t have units, could you help me what units were used for the meters.
Many thanks
Yun
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Hi Yun,
I need to know what building documents you are seeking. What specifically do you want to see?
Thanks,
Morgan
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Hi Morgan,
It will be good to get basic drawings like floor plans, elevations, and more specific drawings like HVAC schedule, zoning, section detail, etc.
Many thanks
Yun
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Hi Morgan,
Thanks to your help, today my class was able to site visit the new Campus Instructional Facility building and new Mech. building.
Here is a photo of today's visit. Students learned a lot today and I got great feedback today.
Also, I like to discuss some findings from initial energy modeling.
The BNAACC building is one of the buildings that we are analyzing the energy consumption data. While we compare meter data to energy consumption from simulation results. We observed that the electricity meter is projecting energy consumption exponentially higher than what an average building of such size should be consuming.
I am not sure this building is still in calibration on meter data or something but I will advise having the meter checked. If you need I can send you some of our findings or talk further on this.
Best
Yun
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Hi All,
Hope you had a nice break. I like to update you on building modeling.
We have four Energyplus (DesignBuilder) models that I can share with you.
I had to review the model made by students to make sure they are close to the actual building.
Currently, I am adding detailed HVAC systems to the model that can be more realistic.
Would you like to get access to the file? I can share the folder with you all. Also, would you like to discuss the next step?
Here is one of a report done by a student.
Best
Yun
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Hi Yun,
I would love to see the model(s) as soon s your review and detailed HVAC systems are modeled. I can also help assist with next steps.
Thanks,
Tom
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Hi Tom,
I will share the folder with you when I have them ready.
Do you have a designbuilder on your computer? Or do you prefer to get it as an energyplus file?
We have an annual license with DB and we can share it with you if you like.
best
Yun
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Yun,
Is it easy for you to give us both versions? Otherwise energy plus would be good.
Thanks,
Tom
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Hi Tom,
I thought I send files to you and realized I didn’t today.
Sorry for the late. Here is the files for the 4 buildings that we modeled.
Let me know if you have any questions.
best
Yun
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Hi All,
Hope everyone is relaxing little bit from busy semester. Finally, I am done with grading and other things for the semester.
Also, it is not official but I have a good news that I got tenure so I will stay longer here.
Anyway, I am trying to see if you are interested to continue the building energy modeling in the Fall.
If we like to continue, I like to prepare some more buildings for the class this summer.
Let me know your thoughts
best
Yun
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That’s great news, Yun!!! Congrats on your impending tenure!!!
I’m adding Kelly Jo Hoffmann the new Associate Director for Engineering Services, here. She’s been with F&S and was recently promoted into this roll.
I’m interested in continuing this, but I suggest we hold a meeting with a few more F&S folks to talk about what effort went into the modeling and how we are using them. I will look for an available time to do a zoom call.
Thanks,
Morgan
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Hi Morgan and Tom
Hope you are getting some good break during the summer.
I like to see if f&S is interest to continue the building energy modeling project.
If you are, I need to inform school that I will teach the same course next semester.
Many thanks,
Yun
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Hi Yun,
Nice to hear from you. I would support that. However, I am not in a decision-making role for such things. I believe that Morgan or one of the others can help answer that more succinctly.
Thank you,
Tom
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Hi All
Hope all is well. Just to check, can we get support from F&S to hire a TA for the fall semester?
It would be a great benefit to have a TA who can assist the class and ensure they build energy models properly.
I appreciate your support.
Many thanks
Yun
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Hi Tom and everyone.
Just to check on the building energy modeling.
Let me know if any of you have a list of buildings that we would like to model for this semester.
I would also love to get some help to hire TA for the class. Without TA, I will be difficult model several buildings like last year.
Many thanks
Yun
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Hi Yun Yi,
Have we modeled geothermal? I'm thinking Ripe Greenhouse (Gates Foundation), and Campus Instructional Facility.
I can assist in TA. I am copying Bruce K. as a possible TA too.
Thanks,
Tom
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Hi Tom,
Some update with the class. It had some issues with our school, but things are clear now.
I don't know why but our school canceled the class. So, I have to reopen the class registration.
Because of cancel and reopen for the registration, we have 6 students registered for this semester.
With the small number of students and no TA, I decided to build an energy model for one campus building for this semester.
I like your idea of Campus Instructional Facility to build and test, I am wondering if it has more than 1 year of meter data.
Also, do you have access to LEED certification on this building? I like to see if the building meet with LEED or not.
What do you think? Any suggestion will be a great help.
Also, like last time, it would be great to schedule a visit to the building and show students the new systems installed in the building.
Many thanks
Yun
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Hi Yun. I bekieve Morgan, Joe, and Kelly-Jo may be delinquent (as usual),
I acknowledge your plight. Yes, CIF has historical energy data (through our usual channels). Yes, the building is LeeD and I can assist. And yes to the walkthrough.
Mr. T
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Mike, Dave, or Kent,
Would any of you be capable of assisting YK with his class this year? I believe they build a model for a 1 campus building each year. You can read more below and discuss with Morgan. If any of you can help, it would be with collecting the information to share with the class (check with Beth), participating in a building tour, and potentially providing some technical assistance with the building modeling questions.
Thanks,
Kelly Jo
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Idea... Have him work directly with dbHMS. We have been getting to know Sachin (principal) and he has been eager to accommodate. They will have all the LEED design and energy calcs readily at hand. We can easily provide as much energy usage data as is available. It seems to me this would be an optimal solution if it is acceptable for the class instructor to work directly with the private sector.
David Green
All, Another doozy of a week. Long wait times for stands, cash offers to “hold” bikes, and my favorite: “When will you get a new shipment of bikes?”
This week promises to be a little better with more staff on board, and presumably fewer folks coming for their registration sticker. We’ll also have our first Friday Ride of the semester. Weather looks good for it!
Tonight is the Bike Project Members’ Meeting. I’ll mention it to all the new members we sign-up today.
The numbers:
Visitors: 142
Sales: $2,631.38
Bikes (refurb): 5 for $855
Bikes (B-a-B): 2 for $100
Memberships: 28 for $840
Tires/tubes: 37 for $263
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator
Hi Dan,
I hope you are doing well these days. I am writing to request you assistance with a Zero Waste effort for the system and universities. We have previously received paper purchase data from someone at OBFS (see https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project-update/fy08-17-uiuc-copy-paper-office-depot-only), and we would like an updated report.
Jennifer Fraterrigo, the iSEE associate director for campus sustainability, and Daphne Hulse, the F&S Zero Waste Coordinator, are copied here as well.
Thank you for your help!
~Morgan
(PS. the last time we communicated, I was Morgan Johnston.)
---------------------------------
Morgan,
We haven’t forgotten about your request! Unfortunately, with the decentralized management of the ODP agreement, we had to do some additional work to identify the appropriate SKUs to include in this year’s report. Happy to report that Jeremiah and Alex in our office were able to pull the attached two documents together which we feel addresses your questions. If you need additional information on the documents, please feel free to reach out directly to Jeremiah (copied on this e-mail).
Jeremiah/Alex, thank you both for your work on this one!
Thanks,
--Dan
On 08/26/2023, Sarthak and Hrushikesh were part of a tabling event held in the community center of Family and Graduate Housing at Orchard Downs. Our goal in the event was to spread awareness about the use of bicycles and to give out all the information about bicycles along with free goodies like wrist bands, Keychain, Bike route maps, Bicycle safety rules, and Bike Registration procedure.
texted my plumbing friend – he thought we should talk to Brian Cox with IDPH (he thought his email was brian.cox@illinois.gov). He thought that even if the variance does not get approved, that having the university put in such a request might bring it closer to reality in future editions of the Illinois Plumbing Code.
Chapter 13, “Non Potable Water Systems” is in the International Plumbing Code.
I do think if a variance is requested, the variance should make note that ICC does acknowledge these types of systems and provides a framework for life safety, and that on an environmental level, these systems are a method of saving water and reducing total sewage volumes in a climate that is changing rapidly.
I think the question at this point is – who is the correct person to put time into this? It would benefit the university, however, I don’t think we could ask for a ‘blanket university variance’, it would have to be a project specific variance. With this in mind, it is a specific group that is wanting it for their building – so does this group apply? Or, would direction be given to F&S to apply? This is a strange one as we are code enforcement, but also representing the owner.
KATIE sPERL
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Katie & Lisa,
Is it possible to discuss this with Brian Cox at 217-524-0791? It may be beneficial to seek a blanket variance, but only under certain circumstances. I’ve also cc’d Colleen, Frank, and Jeremy in the case they had a say on your question of who would apply for a variance to IDPH.
Thanks,
Kelly Jo
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FYI, Attached is the submittal package that Cannon sent to Brian Cox at IDPH in May 2021.
Lisa
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Please see the attached and provide me with your initial thoughts. If everyone thinks this might be a good idea, I will ask Jim Sims if he would be okay letting us send to IDPH under the University of Illinois letterhead. I feel like if we took this letter, all put our names to it – and then sent to other organizations such as AIA, they might all send a similar letter.
I was at a plumbing lunch-and-learn today, and I just feel this is something that should be considered. If toilets went from being 5 gallons a flush to 1.25 gallons – we could potentially get this down to zero in some situations…isn’t that a win?
KATIE sPERL
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All,
Do other State Plumbing codes allow use of Grey Water Recycling? If yes, can we reference those states and language used in those State Plumbing codes?
Thanks,
Jim
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Most states don’t have a state plumbing code – I believe that only California, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota and Oregon do. Most states use International Plumbing Code or Uniform Plumbing Code. IPC allows rainwater/graywater harvesting. I’m not sure about UPC but I can look into it.
Lisa
--------------------------
UPC also allows rainwater/graywater harvesting.
Lisa
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Thanks Lisa.
Seems like we would want to include alignment with International Plumbing Code and UPC in a letter that we send regarding Illinois Plumbing code?
Thanks,
Jim
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All,
As I thought about this more, I was thinking that UIC might have submitted and received approval to IDPH for a grey water system on one of their recent projects (a couple years ago now). It might be worthwhile checking in with UIC to see if this was the case and learn from their experience, including the process and justification they utilized to gain approval for a project.
Thanks,
Jim
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UIUC submitted one on Illini Hall via Cannon Design (attached) and have not received approval. I can email up to UIC to see if they have had any luck.
KATIE sPERL
Attendance: Jen Fraterrigo, Sophie Boel, Daphne Hulse, Amy Fruehling
Sophie Boel introduction: been with Redwood 2+ years, managing construction and engineering team, moved to external affairs (consumer recycling, outreach and education programs). Taking over the university partnerships piece from Seema. Two pieces to look at together:
Recalling our first conversation with Redwood Materials:
What is redwood looking for?
How can the university offer collaborative experiences with Redwood? Research, battery collection drives.
Redwood's experience with collection:
Daphne's research on where batteries are sourced from and where they end up across campus. Daphne could only speak to batteries that are procured with university money. There is not a gauge on what the community does with batteries and what their needs are.
What could Redwood provide support on if the university would undertake something with them?
Bring Seema back into the conversation side (she is involved with business development support).
Has Redwood done many events with universities? No, they haven’t done many events with universities:
Have done events in collaboration with International Rotary Clubs:
Environmental & Sustainability Action Group (ES-RAG) - made collection events a part of their piece on sustainability
50-100 collection events - active consumer engagement pieces
Earth Day events
For events, Redwood can send a Redwood employee - if there is a lot overlapping in terms of time of year (especially Earth Day or Month), some of the rotary district governors act on behalf of Redwood go to an event to staff and educate.
Reach out to Urbana and Champaign counterparts - they hold an annual event for Illinois residents for electronics recycling. Maybe there is a need for more than just once a year? And if they combine forces with the university and Redwood, we would have more resources and support to go around.
It will be good to hear what the cities think, as their population will likely be the main source for the waste. Students don't often have these kinds of devices and batteries laying around.
Any money that can be reinvested to the program? The university tries to find ways to reinvest when possible.
Sophie to talk to Seema about this
Please see attached the agenda and documents shared during this meeting. Watch the meeting recording here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gJBM9J-Tc1nGEg5lCEa4uxfQ8NgzOUea/view?u...
All, The semester has officially started! People are knocking on the doors at all hours, we’re almost out of sale bikes, the 529 registrations are a near constant, and there’s a wait for stand time by 3p every day. Demand is never higher than this time of year.
On Saturday, we had the Illini Frenzy, and our spin-a-prize bike wheel was a huge hit. Something Pavlovian about the act of spinning a wheel. Even when we were out of all our freebies, people spun it anyways, and a line formed almost immediately. I’ll need to work out a couple of things with it, but I think it’s a keeper for outreach events and the like.
On Friday, Daniel and Rick—two experienced volunteers—came by to lend a hand—and boy did we need it! Many thanks to them. Also, thanks to Todd for grabbing scrap over the weekend.
This week I’ll try to throw some bikes together during our off hours, send out some offer letters for new hires, and do some trainings for our new/returning staff.
The numbers:
Visitors: 156
Sales: $3,127.75
Bikes (refurb): 13 for $1,840
Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $50
Memberships: 21 for $630
Tires/tubes: 10 for $84
Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator
On 08/18/2023, Stacey, Sarthak and Hrushikesh had a meeting to discuss the Project Scope for ADA Accessibility Survey of the Campus.
Discussed the budget required for this project along with the parameters and boundaries of selection criteria for the Sidewalks and Crosswalks survey.
Hi sustainability friends,
I have funding for a grad student to assist our stormwater efforts for the Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy. Specifically, I’m looking for someone to find and curate stormwater outreach products and identify gaps. No tuition waiver but pay is $25/hr.
Do you know of anyone that you’d recommend?
Thanks,
Eliana
On 08/18/2023, Sarthak and Hrushikesh visited the Round Barns to give out two abandoned bicycles to their respective owners who had registered their bicycles.
From: Lee, Morris <morrisl@illinois.edu>
Sent: Friday, August 18, 2023 11:00 AM
To: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
Cc: Hill, Landon E <landon@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: DRS battery disposal
Good Morning Daphne,
Attached is a report for the batteries handled by the DRS Waste Group.
If you have any data related questions, please let me know (I will be on vacation next week). Landon would be able to answer the operational questions.
Thanks, Morris
MORRIS LEE
RESEARCH SAFETY PROFESSIONAL
Division of Research Safety
Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
102 Environmental Health and Safety Building
101 S. Gregory St. | M/C 225
Urbana, Illinois 61801
217.300.4563 | morrisl@illinois.edu
www.drs.illinois.edu
Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act any written communication to or from university employees regarding university business is a public record and may be subject to public disclosure.