You are here

Project Updates for collection: all

Search

Search tips:

  • This form will search for words in the title OR the description. If you would like to search for the same term(s) across both the title and description, enter the same search term(s) in both fields.
  • This form will search for any of the words you enter in a field, not the exact phrase you enter. If you would like to search for an exact phrase, put double quotes (") around the phrase. For example, if you search for Bike Path you will get results containing either the word Bike OR the word Path, but if you search for "Bike Path" you will get results containing the exact phrase Bike Path.

  4. Charging for e-bikes/scooters for students in Residence Halls

    Associated Project(s): 
    Enforcement for Safe Cycling
    Support Mobility Innovation (Fliss)

    In fall 2022, the university has seen a great increase in the number of e-scooters, skateboards, and e-bikes on campus. Sarthak Prasad reached out to University Housing in summer 2022 to discuss whether University Housing has any plans to install any infrastructure for students living in Residence Halls to charge their e-bikes or scooters or skateboards batteries in their dorm rooms.

    Other universities have also seen similar situation on their campuses, however, due to the fire safety risk involved, they also do not allow these in their dorm rooms.

    University Housing confirmed that at this time, they have not received any query from students regarding the charging of their e-bikes, scooters, or skateboards. They also emphasized that the University does not allow these vehicles inside university facilities, including dormitories, (see CAM FO-35: In-Line Skates, Roller Skates, Skateboards, e-Scooters, and Self-Balancing Personal Transportation Devices).

    They also shared the same concern regarding these batteries being fire hazards and referred to the Fire Safety policy (see attached) created in 2020 in collaboration with F&S Safety & Compliance.

    Attached Files: 

  5. Weekly Update: iSEE interview, Replenishing bike stock, Working Bikes

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

    All, With the onset of cooler weather, we have seen a decrease in visitor numbers. But that has also correlated with a decrease in available for sale bikes.

    Last week I had an iSEE student come by to interview me and talk all things bikes, so I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for that story. All publicity is good publicity!

    This week I’ll start counting/sorting bikes for the Working Bikes donation—actual date TBD—including moving some of the keeper bikes to the Bike Center to replenish our stock of B-a-Bs and For Sales.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 72
    Sales: $958.25

    Bikes (refurb): 1 for $135
    Memberships: 14 for $420
    Tires/tubes: 15 for $70

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  6. Update on the SafeTraces project: Astronomy Building

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

    Following email was sent by Sterling Laylock regarding the update:

    Hi Sarthak, Yes, we have completed the analysis and are prepared to present our findings for the Astronomy Building.

    We will also be sharing relevant data and insights from additional buildings across other regions of the state as well.

    Proposed Presentation Date

    Thursday, November 10th is our proposed date to present our findings as requested by Morgan White. 

    We also plan to conduct a Design Thinking Session that will include numerous stakeholders as requested by Senator Elgie Sims, Vice-Chair IL, Appropriations II. 

    He is seeking input regarding a strategic allocation of funding for clean indoor air assessments in K-12 and public buildings around the state in order to elevate public outreach and awareness regarding this critical issue.

    Design Thinking Stakeholder Attendees

    Primary stakeholders from outside UIUC-iCAP who have expressed a high level of interest in participating include but will not be limited to:

    • Cook County Facilities and Sustainability

    • Cook County Asset Management

    • Chicago Transit Authority

    • South Suburban Mayor and Managers

    • Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago Asset Management

    • The Obama Foundation Presidential Center

    • Sinai Chicago Health System

    • Indoor Climate Research and Training Center (ICRT)

    • Illinois Growth & Innovation Fund for Social Impact

    Why Are They Interested?

    As we all know, almost all buildings blindly struggle to have enough clean indoor air for us to breathe. 

    Stakeholders need help ending potentially harmful health and financial consequences, so people will feel safe using buildings again.

    In order to do this, we have proposed an Illinois version of the EPA Clean Air In Buildings Program using eligible American Rescue Plan (ARPA), Bipartisan Infrastructure and Inflation Reduction Act Funding. 

    Although ARPA dollars have already been allocated in IL, a significant level of funding is still scheduled to be allocated specifically for ventilation and filtration in the near term.

    sKm0HRDI9AINAKNQCPQCDQCjUAj0Ag0Ao1AI9AIrIlA319YE6hmawQagUagEWgEGoFGoBFoBBqBRqARaAQagU0R+L9h3d1F4i113QAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==

    We believe our Energy-Efficient HVAC Infection Control Project under iCAP can serve as an excellent hub for the many fragmented efforts being attempted across the state as we all seek to address this lingering pandemic and pre-pandemic issue. 

    Now that we're in the recovery period of our post-pandemic journey, it is imperative that we use this opportunity to address these issues. 

    Closing the gap between public health and building science is a key effort that will help us deliver on developing Applied Health Strategies for Climate Adaptation, which is why iCAP exists in the first place.

    Let's set a time this week to discuss our proposed date and time so we plan accordingly for a successful event.

    Thanks, Sterling

  7. Dominika Szal and Daphne Hulse continue the work on the waste survey

    Associated Project(s): 
    Big Ten & Friends Sustainability
    Achieve Zero Waste

    Hi!

     

    I know the information might've been a lot, so here's just a quick summary regarding what is left to do:

    • Reach out to the following universities to ask questions:
      • University of Wisconsin-Madison
      • University of Iowa
      •  University of Minnesota
      • Rutgers
      • University of Maryland
      • Illinois State University (ISU)
      • Southern Illinois University in Carbondale (SIUC)
      • Eastern Illinois University (EIU)
      • University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS)
      • Michigan State University
    • See if we can get the contacts for UIS, SIUC, and EIU. I found the contact person for ISU, but I will need to find her email. I'll try to update the file if I can find it.
    •  
    • Set up meetings with Ohio State University and University of Michigan. I've already contacted them before but haven't gotten back to them regarding Zoom scheduling.
    •  
    • Any responses that you get regarding the survey should be filled out in the Big 10 spreadsheet located in this filepath: G:\Recycling & Waste\Big 10 Recycling

    I bolded the main contact that you should email for each respective university. If someone else ends up answering, please make note of their contact info. You can use/adjust the introduction I already have typed up in the Box file labeled "Big 10 Survey" when contacting people. If you want me to do some of the contacting, just let me know.

     

    Don't hesitate to reach out if you have any further questions :)

     

    From: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
    Sent: Wednesday, September 7, 2022 15:44
    To: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
    Subject: Hi!

     

    This is my main email – feel free to send over anything about the Big 10 project here!

     

    Daphne

  9. New iSEE Green Event and Green Office Certification

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

    Congratulations to the newest recipients of the Green Office and Green Event Certification programs!

    Green Event:

    iSEE Illini Lights Out, Certified September 2022

    Illini Lights Out is a series of reoccurring events (Sept. 23, Oct. 14, Nov. 11, Dec. 2) where students volunteer to turn off lights in academic buildings around campus. They are saving energy and promoting sustainability in the progress!

    Green Office:

    University Library Conservation Lab, Gold Certified September 2022

    The University Library Conservation Lab is gold certified with 34 elective actions taken! They notably upgraded their photo documentation lights from incandescent bulbs to LED rated, and the LED lights came from another section of Preservation Services where they were no longer in use. 

    Keep up the great work!

  10. Bicycle Retrieval for abandoned bicycles: Completed

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

    The bicycle retrieval for abandoned bicycles that were impounded over the summer 2022 has completed, as of September 23, 2022. We had collected nearly 500 bicycles over the summer, and 24 bicycles were retrieved by the owners. The remaining bicycles will be donated to the Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign and Campus Bike Center for refurbishment, resale, and recycle. Nearly 60% of these unclaimed bicycle will be donated to Working Bikes, a not-for-profit bike shop which fixes up old cycles for sale or to be donated to global communities.

  11. Final numbers from Bike to Work Day and Light the Night

    Associated Project(s): 
    C-U Bike to Work Day
    Light the Night

    The Bike Month Planning team organized Bike to Work Day on September 14, 2022 from 7 - 10 am at 16 Champaign County locations, including eight on-campus. There were 893 registered to attend before the event this year and nearly 150 people registered on-site during the event! Champaign County Bikes were also present at Alma Mater and Hallene Gateway during Light the Night event as well as Bike to Market Day on September 17, 2022, to meet attendees who could not attend the Bike to Work Day event. The final number of pre-registered attendees (prior to Bike to Market) was 921, which is a new record for this event!

    Light the Night was organized on September 15, 2022, from 4 - 7 pm at three campus locations - Alma Mater, Hallene Gateway, and Campus Bike Center. This year, we used Planet Bike blinky lights with silicone straps. We distributed and installed nearly 800 bike light sets during this event! Alma Mater was, by far, the most popular location, where nearly 575 lights were distributed.

    Following the event, the Bike Month Plannign team discussed options for next year.

  13. Proposal for Creation of a Team

    Associated Project(s): 
    EPA RainWorks Challenge

    Art Schmidt from Civil and Environmental Engineering, reached out to faculty and students urging them to create a team made up of individuals from different disciplines/departments for the Rainworks Challenge. UIUC won this design competition in 2017 and Schmidt credits this success to the fact that the winning team was made up by many disciplines across campus. Schmidt explains that he is willing to serve as a faculty advisor for this challenge. 

    Brent Lewis, Brian Chaille, CEE students and other individuals expressed great interest in creating this team. Associate Professor in Landscape Architecture, Mary Pat McGuire asked the following questions:

    How can we use the competition to advance actual implementation of GSI here on campus? Do we need to identify funding to support implementation? Should we start a campaign for alum donations for implementation of projects? Can we revisit the 2015 2nd place winning master plan to explore the viability of that plan, and to add to it? Can we revisit the 2017 1st place winning design and explore the implementation of that proposal? What does a future 2022 winning proposal want to achieve for our campus that is new or different from those previous wins - and how can we get everyone on board with implementation?

  14. iWG Meeting 9-9-22

    Associated Project(s): 
    iCAP Working Group (iWG)
    Education iCAP Team
    Encourage Bicycle Use

    The iCAP Working Group met on 9-9-22 and discussed the following agenda. The meeting minutes are attached. 

    1. Introductions
    2. Reminder of our role on the iWG
    3. Edu006 Sustainability in Study Abroad: https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project-update/edu006-sustainability-study-abroad-submitted
    4. Edu007 Big10 Green Career Fair: https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project-update/edu007-big10-green-career-fair-submitted
    5. Bike program/bike registration free
    Attached Files: 

  15. Insider article on 9/21/22: Ahead of the Curve and All Electric

    Associated Project(s): 
    Use Electric Vehicles (EV)
    F&S Sustainable Fleet Plan
    Decrease Emissions from UI Fleet
    Increase use of EVs and other Alternative Service Vehicles

    F&S purchased two all electric Ford F-150 Lightning trucks in spring 2022. Read the Insider article about this here: https://fs.web.illinois.edu/Insider/2022/09/21/ahead-of-the-curve-and-al...

    Attached Files: 

  16. Scope Change and Extension request approved

    Associated Project(s): 
    Dump and Run
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)

    From: Student Sustainability Committee 
    Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2022 2:31 PM
    To: White, Morgan
    Cc: recycling@illinois.edu; Varney, Peter W 
    Subject: Re: Extension request for Dump and Run

     

    Hi All,

     

    This Scope Change was approved! Sorry for the late response!

     

    Please let us know if any additional information is needed on our end!

     

    Best,

     

    SSC

  20. Weekly Update: BTWD, LTN, Build-a-Bike, very busy this week

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center
    C-U Bike to Work Day
    Light the Night
    Collection and Donation of Abandoned Bicycles

    All, Real busy times last week. Shop was manageably busy, but we had BTWD and LTN on consecutive days. Both events went well. I spent more time at the DRES stop than the Bike Center station, which was a new experience. Lots of folks on that route, and I was able to talk route-planning and commuting strategy with some people new to commuting. Weather cooperated swimmingly.

    We had a deluge of completed B-a-Bs last week. Always good to see the smiling faces of rewarded effort. Marketing folks came by and updated some of our filing cabinets and bins with printed (legible) labels and photos of contents to better help people find and identify parts. We’re still slower on Tue/Thurs as we work to get the word out that we’re now open those days as well.

    We’ll work this week on a couple shop builds we’ve been too busy to finish, prep for the abandoned bike giveaway, and clean shop as we’ve been too busy to do much of any of that in the last two weeks.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 86
    Sales: $1,084.30
    Bikes (B-a-B): 3 for $150

    Memberships: 17 for $510
    Tires/tubes: 10 for $59

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

Pages