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  1. Award Ceremony Invitation

    Associated Project(s): 
    ReImagine Our Future

    Below is an email invitation to award ceremony for the Reimagine our Future student sustainability competition.

     

    Dear Initial Judges and Specialist Advisors,

     

    Thank you so much for your work making this competition possible. I have received submissions on the questionnaire from many of you judges, and clearly, you spent time assessing these students' work and it is much appreciated. Many of you also sat down with students and aided them on their projects. In whatever capacity you were able to help, my advisory committee and colleagues are so appreciative.

    This year the competition was managed by the Student Sustainability Committee and supported by many units across campus. Over 70 UIUC faculty volunteered their services as specialist advisors and judges. Almost 200 students took part including student teams from universities in China and South Africa. Winners will be announced after Saturday’s presentations and the prize money totals $5000. 

    You are welcome to attend the face-to-face award ceremony at the Siebel Center for Design, in which case you should contact my email (aecruz2@illinois.edu) before Wednesday 30 Nov. at 2 p.m. If you cannot attend the physical event, you are welcome to join via Zoom, with details given below. 

    I am also attaching extracts of the top-three winners' entries from last year's competition for your viewing. 

    Thank you again, 

    Allie Cruz 

    Award Ceremony for the 2022 Reimagine our Future student sustainability competition 

    9 a.m. (Central Time) | Saturday, Dec. 3 | Siebel Center for Design, and Zoom 

    Join via Zoom: https://illinois.zoom.us/j/85346452110?pwd=TzhWSHdMZXJpVmNobGtncUYzd0t0dz09 

    Meeting ID: 853 4645 2110 

    Password: 186469 


     

     

  2. ENG 177 Spring '23 Course

    Associated Project(s): 
    ENG 177 GFX Global Sustainability Scholars

    Below is an answer to an inquiry regarding ENG 177 course availability for the spring 2023 semester. 

     

     

    From: Forman, Gretchen M <gforman at illinois.edu> 
    Sent: Monday, November 21, 2022 10:12 AM
    To: Moore, Meredith Kaye <mkm0078 at illinois.edu>
    Subject: RE: ENG100 First Year Experience spring course

     

    Hi Meredith,

     

    I too hope you are doing well!  I miss seeing you!

     

    We will have an ENG 177 Global Sustainability Scholars class in the spring that I will be teaching and I’m hoping we can still partner with you on projects for the students.  This is the class that Angie and I previously taught.  We are partnering with sustainable organizations in Trinidad and Tobago this fall and travelling there in January.  

     

    We then will focus on local sustainability work in the spring and would love to connect the students with you all and the campus projects as we have in the past.  I’d love to find a time after Thanksgiving to chat with you about the details and to catch up.  I’ll be out of the office on Monday the 28th but have availability the rest of that week or the week after.  Let me know what might work for you.

     

    Looking forward to connecting with you soon!

     

    Gretchen

     

  4. Week 6 - Next steps

    Associated Project(s): 
    Bicycle Friendly University Status
    Reduce Bicycle Theft on Campus
    Independent Student Projects

    The next steps for the project progress would be to review the past BFU applications from 2011 - 2019 to understand the stage we as a university are at currently and would help to identify, compare and contrast the work across these timelines to improve the status and make recommendations after reviewing the feedback. 


     

  5. Week 5 - Check in meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Bicycle Friendly University Status
    Reduce Bicycle Theft on Campus
    Independent Student Projects

    In the past weeks,  Aparna reviewed the  BFU Application to understand the scope of work, did research/literature review work, and familiarized herself with the current initiatives taken by the university at present to combat bike thefts. Moreover, she also had a conversation with a transportation staff from UCLA and ASU who had recently reached out to me on their ideas/approach on this topic for a qualitative aspect of this project. The same was also discussed with her capstone advisor, Prof. Lindsay Braun to go over the progress and find better clarity. 

  6. RLF Projects and Dollars

    Associated Project(s): 
    Revolving Loan Fund (RLF)

    The following is an email conversation between Morgan White and Anthony Spurlock.

    Anthony sent the following on Nov 17, 2022:

    Morgan,

    Per your request, 27 RLF projects have been completed totaling $6 million.  41 total projects have been approved totaling $8.6 million.

    Regards,

    Tony

    ----------------

    Morgan sent the following response:

     

    Thanks!  Is the 27 included as part of the 41 approved project, or were there 68 total projects approved? ~Morgan

    ---------

    Anthony clarified:

    27 is part of the 41.

    Regards,

    Tony

     

  7. Weekly Updates for the week of 11/7 and 11/14

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center
    Collection and Donation of Abandoned Bicycles

    [11.7.22] All, Last week we completed the bike donation event with Working Bikes. Thanks to some Bike Project volunteers we were able to pack their truck full of bikes in about an hour and a half. Unfortunately, they were unable to take all of the abandoned bikes as there are about 50 left. I’ll work with TBP to deal with the remaining junk bikes as well as the ~200 we’ll keep for refurbishment.

    Last Thursday we were donated another pull-behind trailer, upping our count to 3 of them now. I will discuss with TBP ideas to make better use of these, as they take up a lot of space and we have zero demand for them.

    This week we will reinstate the First Visit Free policy as the cooler weather sets in.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 47

    Sales: $508
    Bike (refurbished): 1 for $225
    Memberships: 1 for $30
    Tires/tubes: 12 for $61

    [11.14.22]

    All, I was out sick for a portion of the non-open hours, but we were still able to get a few bikes on the sales floor and strip some bikes. This week I’ll grab some more of the good bikes from the barn and we’ll get to fixing those. We reinstated First Visit Free and were able to help folks get rolling.

    I had an interview last Friday with a potential new hire and we’ll be having a staff meeting this week to get some of our new staff up to speed as well as provide a refresher for the returning staffers.

    Next week we will be closed for Thanksgiving break. We’ll reopen Monday, 11/28/22.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 45
    Sales: $434
    Bikes (refurb): 1 for $100
    Memberships: 4 for $120
    Tires/tubes: 8 for $103

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  9. New iSEE Greener Campus Programs Certifications

    Associated Project(s): 
    Certified Greener Campus Programs
    Certified Green Event Program
    Certified Green Office Program (CGOP)
    Certified Green Chapter Program

    Congratulations to the newest recipients of our Greener Campus Programs!

    Green Chapter: 

    Phi Delta Theta, Silver, Certified November 2022

     

    Green Office: 

    iSEE, Gold, Recertified October 2022

    F&S Capital Programs, Gold, Recertified November 2022

    International Student & Scholar Services, Gold, Recertified November 2022

     

    Green Event:

    Chancellor's Office for Special Events and Commencement Illinois v. Eastern Illinois Men's Basketball, Certified November 2022

    Office of the Chancellor for Special Events and Commencement Illinois vs. Kansas City Men's Basketball, Certified November 2022

    Chancellor's Office for Special Events Il. v. Purdue Men's Football, Certified November 2022

    Keep up the great work!

  10. Feasibility study for an anerobic digester on campus with Marcello Pbiri - Meeting 1

    Associated Project(s): 
    Plan for Organic Waste
    Reduce Foodwaste
    Achieve Zero Waste
    University of Illinois at Chicago

    Attendance: Tyler Swanson, Daphne Hulse, Meredith Moore, Sarthak Prasad, Shawn Maurer, Joy Scrogum, Justin Holding, Paul Foote, Shreya Mahajan, Brent Lewis, Jason Ensign, Tim Mies, Colleen Ruhter, Jonathon Mosley, Marcello, Thurman Etchison, Morgan White, Damon McFall, Robert Roman

    • UIC would like to do a screening analysis scenario for a small or micro-scale digester on campus
    • UIUC farms investigated this in the past with ACES
    • Marcello’s introduction: 200lbs of waste per day in a small-scale digester (in the shape of the container), frequent bottom-line thinking, it’s more about sustainability and the creation of green jobs, involving students, because the economics may be tight for money savings. But there are a few companies that are manufacturing small scale digesters. UIC had a speaker during their TEACH AD webinar who was a student from San Diego California. Installed one of these on their campus, student was the operator of the digester. Interested to see if this is something to be replicated at UIUC?
    • Morgan’s introduction: high-level feasibility analysis (not the most robust because of funding limitations). Hear from the college of ACES about a study of 10 years ago.
    • Marcello thinks the outcomes weren’t very favorable for this time? This is another possible scenario too. University of Wisconsin Oshkosh is doing something similar. They are partnering with a farm which installed a small-scale digester in the farm for food waste and manure. The university owns the digester and the farmer owns the farmer, so it is a partnership. Maybe we could replicate this. These projects seem to become more and more feasible.
    • Marcello’s question for the group: what are the main motivations for UIUC to look into anaerobic digesters?
    • Reducing waste, looking at clean energy, protecting the planet
    • Do not have an environmentally beneficial or neutral solution for organic waste at the large scale for our campus. Dining is able to do the digester at the sanitary district, but we have animal waste and food waste at more than just the dining halls
    • Looking at how to get to carbon neutral energy. Anaerobic digestion was identified in 2010. Dean of Animal Science was ready to push for it, but then he was promoted and then retired
    • ACES has agreed with current dean to include the analysis of a large scale digester when they build a new dairy facility, but this is very far down the road
    • Swine modernization facility; needs to deal with waste that is there. animals will be added to this space in the future. looking into options for that particular facility.
    • Operational + research perspective, a micro-digester looks nice. Oshkosh does tours, internships, etc so it is like a pilot project to demonstrate the feasibility of the technology
    • Sanitary district is paid to receive the waste, and they get the benefit of seeing the methane capture
      • It would be good to see the benefits stay in house
    • Hypothetically you could create a new position for this, or you could do it through student intern. What happens to the residual material from the digester? can be used as fertilizer, grow food, use the food and food waste goes back to the digester “circular economy”

    Marcello’s second question: Takeaway for the old feasibility study?

    • It should be at the future dairy facility (conversations were had, maybe not in the study)
    • $10M capital cost, so it probably costs more now
    • Shared the energy output we would expect if we took all food waste from dining
    • Could use as compressed natural gas (CNG) for fleet vehicles
    • Combined heat and power (Abbott) which primarily uses natural gas, but could use biogas from an anaerobic digester, there is an opportunity here

    CHP, CNG or renewable natural gas are what Marcello is familiar with

    Next steps: Marcello will work on an updated feasibility study.

     

    Link to the recording

  13. Resilience Team November Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Resilience iCAP Team

    The Resilience iCAP Team had its November meeting on Wednesday, November 9th, from 11 - 12 PM. The team had presentations from three community representatives about the resilience issues at their cities (Savoy, Champaign, and Urbana). After the brief presentations, the team discussed possible solutions and how the university can help to solve the resilience issues presented. Meeting minutes and presentation slides are attached.  

    Attached Files: 

  14. Zero Waste iCAP Meeting 11/7/2022

    Associated Project(s): 
    Division of Intercollegiate Athletics (DIA) Climate Action Plan
    Green Sports Alliance (GSA)
    Food Waste Reduction
    Increase Recycling Rates
    Project4less
    Zero Waste iCAP Team

    On November 7th, the Zero Waste iCAP team met to discuss DIA sustainability initiatives with Tim Knox and made edits on the Project 4 Less expansion recommendation to be submitted in the coming month(s). 

    Meeting minutes are attached.

    Attached Files: 

  16. Land & Water iCAP Meeting 11/7/2022

    Associated Project(s): 
    Land and Water iCAP Team
    Campus Landscape Master Plan (CLMP)
    Vet Med Parking Lot Re-Design
    Rainwater Management
    Increase Pollinator-Friendly Areas

    On November 7th, the Land and Water iCAP team met to review the results of the Milkweed survey, make final edits to the Monarch Butterfly recommendation, and discuss new recommendations inspired by the Campus Landscape Master Plan.

    Meeting minutes are attached.

    Attached Files: 

  20. Nov 10th Meeting Space + Logistics

    Associated Project(s): 
    Energy-Efficient HVAC Infection Control

    Below is an email between Sarthak Prasad, Sterling Laylock, Morgan White, and Carl Tutt:

    Hi Sterling,

     

    Do you know where (which hotel) your guests would be staying for the November 10 all-day workshop? Also, how many people would you expect to attend and how many would require/like the shuttle option? Please let me know as soon as you can. Thank you,
    Sarthak

     

    Sarthak Prasad

    ------------------------

    Hi Sarthak,

     

    We are confirming the list of attendees and expect to have a count for you by mid-week. During that process we will verify if any attendees plan on arriving/departing by Amtrak.

     

    I'll be sure to update you asap!

     

    Thanks, Sterling

    -------------------------

    Hi Sarthak + Morgan

     

    As it turns out, there aren't any attendees opting in to arrive by Amtrak. So there does not appear to be a need for the shuttle. Unfortunate but true.

     

    So far, there is a very high-level of interest in this event among attendees. This recent segment that appeared earlier this week on NBC4 Los Angeles made a significant positive impact on everyone.

     

    How IGT2030 Creates Positive Impacts:

    Latest List of Attendees

    To date, we have 35+ confirmed attendees. There is a mix of subject matter experts and non-subject matter experts. They consist of HVAC professionals, engineers, architects, teachers, public officials (elected and non-elected), corporate energy-efficiency executives, industrial hygienists, state and county staff (IL EPA, Dept of Treasury, Cook County), climate investors, K-12 school officials, etc.

     

    Of course, Erik Malmstrom, CEO of SafeTraces will be attending and William P. Bahnfleth, Chair of ASHRAE Covid Epidemic Task Force will stream in via ZOOM to kickoff our Design-Thinking Session after lunch.

     

    On Campus Attendees

    Members for Paul Francisco's team at ICRT will be attending and sharing impactful human-centered health data. When you get an opportunity, please let me know who the potential on-campus attendees may be?

     

    It would be great if we could set up a call for this coming Monday as we continue to tie down any loose ends.

     

    I'd like to send the official invite on Tuesday, Nov 1st at the latest.

     

    Thanks, Sterling

    -------------------------------------

    Hi Morgan,

     

    I chatted with Sarthak now that he's gotten back home to India.

     

    We're hoping to get the exact location and address of our meeting space for next Thursday November 10th so we can send out the formal invitation.

     

    We have 35 plus attendees confirmed and need to get them proper logistics instructions.

     

    Please let us know as soon as you can. We look forward to seeing you on Tues/Wed Nov 8th/9th to see the space.

     

    If there's an actual floor plan we can see beforehand it would be greatly appreciated.

     

    Thank you, Sterling 

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