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Campus Sustainability Month Activities - Oct 2022
Associated Project(s):One of our favorite times of the year is almost here… Campus Sustainability Month! Below is a highlight of major events and programs happening this October, though check out the iSEE Sustainability Calendar for the full list. This is the perfect time to take action and show your support for environmental consciousness (and the Illinois Climate Action Plan!). I look forward to seeing you across campus!
- Plastic Reduction Challenge: Are you up to the challenge? From October 3–30, we provide the resources and point system to help you track your plastic use each week and find sustainable alternatives. The point system and fillable grid are attached, and additional information will be sent out prior to the start of the challenge. Take part with this fun and interactive community, and earn the chance to win a sustainability prize pack. It is easy to make a positive impact! Sign up here for the challenge.
- Clothing Swap: This is the perfect opportunity to donate your clothing items and update your wardrobe! Join iSEE, SECS, and SSLC for this reduce/reuse event at the Channing Murray Foundation on Tuesday, October 11. Drop off clothes at Channing Murray the day before, or during the event itself from 10AM – 3PM. All are welcome to drop off and/or participate (it’s free!).
- Green Quad Day: Come check out the variety of student, staff, faculty, and community-led environmental groups on Thursday, October 13 from 11AM – 3PM at the Anniversary Plaza (cement area between the Quad and Union). This is a great opportunity to talk with and learn about the many sustainability efforts on campus. The rain date is October 17. If you are interested in representing your organization at a table, sign up here.
- Water Taste Test: It’s 2022 – why are we still drinking from plastic bottles? Let’s put our tap water to the test and see, blindly, which water we prefer. Check out the iSEE table at Green Quad Day (above) and see if you can taste a difference between bottled water and tap! In the meantime, take our drinking water behavior survey (and win a chance for a $50 gift card).
- Illini Lights Out: Join us to shut off lights in buildings around campus to save energy and reduce the environmental impact of our massive university! Meet at 5:30PM in the lobby of the Foreign Language Building on Friday, October 14 to receive brief instructions before heading out to turn off lights in assigned buildings. Come back to FLB (roughly 6:30) when you are done to turn in your clipboard, get a snack, and pat yourself on the back for helping to save so much energy! Register here, and come by yourself or bring a friend!
- Campus Sustainability Celebration: All are welcome to attend this annual event on Monday, October 17 from 3-6PM at NCSA (auditorium and lobby), 1205 W. Clark St., Urbana. The first two hours will be spent in the Auditorium, where we will hear from campus sustainability leaders and from the iCAP Teams. Following the presentations (5-6 PM), each iCAP Team will have a table in the lobby/atrium area for roundtable discussion, suggestions, and a Q&A. Student environmental groups will have tables set up and together, we will enjoy conversation, light refreshments, and cake!
- Trash Cleanup: Help keep our campus beautiful! On Wednesday, October 19, meet at Alma Mater at 4PM and join us to collect trash and recycling around campus until 5:30PM.
- TED Talk: Eco-Edition Series: Tune in to this edition of iSEE’s ongoing Zoom series on Wednesday, October 26 from 7 – 8PM. Our host this month is Lucy Nifong, a senior in Agricultural and Consumer Economics, iSEE Communications Intern, and Vice Chair Internal of the Student Sustainability Committee. Participants will view a prerecorded TED Talk, followed by a guided discussion and roundtable on Campus Sustainability Month! Sign up here.
- Sustainability BINGO: Fill out the iSEE board (attached) for a chance to win prizes! The board (PDF) includes sustainability-related activities and initiatives you can do across campus during Sustainability Month (Oct. 1-31). Make sure you document and let us know which actions you completed using the Google Form to be eligible for the prize drawing.
- Have you gotten your office, event, or Greek chapter certified as Green yet? It’s easy to be sustainable! Get certified and be recognized!
- Plastic Reduction Challenge: Are you up to the challenge? From October 3–30, we provide the resources and point system to help you track your plastic use each week and find sustainable alternatives. The point system and fillable grid are attached, and additional information will be sent out prior to the start of the challenge. Take part with this fun and interactive community, and earn the chance to win a sustainability prize pack. It is easy to make a positive impact! Sign up here for the challenge.
F&S, North American, and Essity introduction
Associated Project(s):Hi Pete, Macie and Daphne!
We were excited last week for you to hear more about the Circularity and paper recycling program that Essity has been utilizing in other areas of the world. Bryan from Essity would like to get his colleague, Mike Kapalko, on a call together to discuss this opportunity further with University of Illinois! Daphne, if Pete and Macie haven’t filled you in, this is an opportunity to use current paper recycling on campus and have it be used to create paper product with Essity. We can inch closer to Zero Waste on campus!
Please let us know if there are dates and times the week of October 31st to set up a Zoom call. Perhaps an hour or so.
Thanks in advance and we are excited to discuss this in more detail and see what next steps would look like!
Regards,
Zach
Week 3 - Check in meeting
Associated Project(s):In this meeting, potential ideas for secured bicycle parking were discussed as ways to promote awareness among the campus community. A capstone proposal outlining the final objectives and deliverables was drafted and Sarthak helped support this discussion sharing an Excel sheet that has all of the goals, current status, and plans for the future of some mentioned ideas towards achieving the said objectives with challenges that are yet to be tackled.
This week, Aparna is going to try to get in touch with the transportation team from other universities that have achieved the Gold BFU status to gather some ideas specific to raising awareness about bike thefts. This would navigate the research better.
Aparna is also spending her initial time on the project learning about the Bike registration process and other initiatives that are already ongoing at UIUC to help understand the way forward. She also has access to the iCAP portal to update and document the weekly meetings to keep a track of the project progress.
March Monarch Meeting
Associated Project(s):Attached is the "Save the Date! March Monarch Meeting" invitation:
Attached Files:RECs & Carbon Offsets for Scope 1, 2, 3 Emissions
Associated Project(s):Below is an email from Serena Armendaris with Carbon Solutions Group:
Hey Morgan,
My name is Serena Armendaris and I work for a firm called Carbon Solutions Group (CSG). We specialize in environmental credits & projects for ESG claims and have been in the business since 2006. Our Sustainability offerings include:
- North American Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs)
- International Renewable Energy Certificates (I-RECs)
- North American Carbon Offsets (CO2)
- International Carbon Offsets (CO2)
- DirtRoad Electric Vehicle Charging - turnkey, revenue-positive electric vehicle infrastructure
- DirtRoad ESG - Carbon offsets from our DirtRoad platform - at a ten-year fixed price - an excellent alternative for the recently introduced SEC carbon disclosure rules
Currently, Reporting Year 2022 Wind RECs are offered @ $1.90/MWh and US Carbon Offsets are @$9.25.
Do you think anyone on your team might have time for a 15 minute introductory call to discuss further?
Thanks and regards,
Attached Files:Clinton, IL landfill (owned by Green For Life)
Associated Project(s):From: David Bryant <david.bryant@gflenv.com>
Sent: Friday, October 14, 2022 12:21 PM
To: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
Subject: Clinton Landfill MethaneDaphne,
Clinton Landfill currently has a 3rd party electrical generation plant at the facility that produces 3000 kw of power from landfill gas. It has been in operations for approximately 15 years. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thanks
David Bryant | Landfill General Manager IGFL Environmental
24501 McMullen Rd, Hopedale, IL 61747
| david.bryant@gflenv.com | www.gflenv.comConfidentiality Notice: This email message (including attachments, if any) is intended for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, proprietary, confidential and exempt from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender and erase this email message immediately.
Information on moving bees around for commercial agriculture
Associated Project(s):Information about how commercial bee keeping functions and its impact to overall bee populations was inquired about by Brent Lewis, Landscape Architect. Below is the response from Adam Donzel, an Assistant Professor in Entomology.
'Hi Brent,
Yeah, there is work on that. Here are links to couple studies about it:
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep32023
https://academic.oup.com/jinsectscience/article/22/1/17/6523145
Basically, yes, there are some stresses involved with migratory beekeeping but sedentary colonies can also have similar issues. In some scenarios, migratory colonies could be healthier as they are moved to areas with good nutritional resources all the time, while those left in place have to deal with times of low food availability. In reality, though, migratory colonies do undergo a lot of stress as they are used to pollinate crops and a lot goes into that - the stress of confinement, heat, exposure to agrochemicals, etc. From a beekeeping perspective, this is calculated into the fees charged for pollination (to some extent at least). Right now, beekeepers charge about $200/hive to pollinate almonds for example (the most lucrative pollination event). Big beekeepers manage 20,000-50,000 hives! "Small" commercial beekeepers usually have 2-5000.
Migratory beekeeping uses about 85% of the managed colonies in the USA (incredible!). One big issue with this is that, if a new pest or pathogen is introduced, it will be spread throughout the country very fast. And in big pollination events, like almonds, hives are concentrated at very high densities, which does present a lot of opportunities for spreading diseases. They do mitigate this to some extent, however, as there are health checks required to move bees across state lines, and almond growers usually require checks of colonies to make sure they are healthy.
Hope this helps - always happy to answer questions when I can!"
Interesting article on Vertical Solar Panel installation
Associated Project(s):Greg Landess shared an article on Vertical Solar PV's with members from F&S.
Week 2 update: Objectives for capstone
Associated Project(s):Questions and doubts regarding the literature review done in the past week were discussed including a capstone report outline highlighting the main topics of research. More research work to follow in the coming week to help familiarize with the project's background. Aparna got contact information from the transportation department of UCLA and Arizona State University to discuss the project with their transportation team as the 2 universities have achieved the Gold BFU status and hoping to get a sense of direction or any leads on this. She is also in touch with Prof. Lindsay Braun who is her capstone advisor, and Briana Barr, Thomas Valencia, and Lily Wilcock from the City of Urbana who are working on similar projects.
The idea was to bring more concepts and recommendations for a bike-friendly university to the table. We might also try to involve the Student Sustainability Committee, which uses a comprehensive evaluative process to fund a project that incorporates student involvement and an ability to spark change on campus. Aparna would help identify a cause as a part of the bike-friendly project which would also serve as a student-led project to apply for the SSC funding. An excel sheet that charts out the current status of the project were shared by Sarthak for better clarity, which also includes feedback from BFU to help plan for the future and achieve the desired goal.
Three main objectives of the proposal would be -
- To get the BFU application drafted and ready to submit by the month of May
- Ideas for SSC funding for the Bike Friendly University Project
- Educate students and create a plan for bike thefts so that incoming students are aware of how to protect their bikes and encourage them to use this mode of transportation.
An overall capstone proposal that outlines the said objectives and a work plan will be shared in the upcoming week. Access to the iCAP portal will be granted soon to chart out real-time updates and minutes of meetings.
Final Report and Key Findings from the Mode Choice Survey 2022
Associated Project(s):Mode Choice Survey was conducted by F&S TDM in spring 2022. Please read the attached report.
See the project update for Mode Choice Survey 2022: Analysis
Resilience iCAP Team October 2022 Meeting
Associated Project(s):The Resilience iCAP Team had its second monthly online meeting on Monday, October 10th from 11:00 - 12:00 PM. The team worked on the Campus Sustainability Celebration slides, got updates on Urban Biodiversity Master Plan, talked about sustainability and resilience challenges at Urbana and Savoy areas, and shared announcements on upcoming sustainability events! Meeting minutes are attached.
Attached Files:Agenda from 9/26/22
Associated Project(s):Attached is the meeting agenda from our general member meeting on 9/26/22. We discussed upcoming events for Campus Sustainability Month and had orgs give updates on what they're doing and their upcoming events.
Attached Files:Ted Talk: Eco Edition Series
Associated Project(s):On August 31, 2022, we hosted a Ted Talk in the Ted Talk: Eco Edition Series discussing a talk titled "Stop Thinking Recycling is Sustainable." Our presentation slides are attached.
Attached Files:Over 1000 Bicycle Registration Payments Received
Associated Project(s):Bicycle registration reached over 1000 fee payments, equating to $9,980 (not including the CFOPAL payments).
Attached Files:UIUC is Front and Center on Freezer Challenge Webpage
Associated Project(s):UIUC is the first image on the My Green Labs web page. The link of the webpage is https://www.freezerchallenge.org/
Attached Files:Transportation iCAP Meeting 10/10/2022
Associated Project(s):The Transportation iCAP team met on October 20th 2022 to discuss the team's presentation for the upcoming sustainability celebration, review the list of priorities assigned to the team for the year, and discuss progress on fleet replacement plans and the potential for university-wide clean vehicle purchasing policies.
Link to meeting recording: https://mediaspace.illinois.edu/media/t/1_ufyde47b
Attached Files:Energy iCAP Team Meeting 10/7/2022
Associated Project(s):The energy iCAP team met on Friday, October 7th 2022 to review the team's presentation for the campus sustainability celebration, review the team's priorities for the year, and discuss options for advancing the proposed clean energy plan and increasing procurement of renewable energy through power purchasing agreements.
Link to meeting recording: https://mediaspace.illinois.edu/media/t/1_5bh3gs4r
Weekly Update: Strong Towns, Bike Summit, Working Bikes
Associated Project(s):All, Big week of events! On Tuesday, Chuck Marohn of Strong Towns is speaking at the Illinois Terminal and I’ll attend to see how our work as bike advocates and a non-profit can help bolster a strong and vibrant community. And Wednesday is the Illinois Bike Summit at the I-hotel. I’ll be there all day and reducing hours at the Bike Center to account for that. Accordingly, we’ll be open 4 – 6p on that day. I never fail to learn something at this yearly event and am happy to see it back here on campus.
I’ll be counting/organizing bikes for donation as well this week. Hope to have the Donation Day set by end of the week and so we can begin rallying for some support/help. WB has already agreed to pay for Manolo’s!
The numbers:
Visitors: 51Sales: $1,214.50
Memberships: 17 for $510
Tire/tubes: 8 for $94Thanks!
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center CoordinatoriSEE Green Event Certifications
Associated Project(s):Happy campus sustainability month! We wanted to highlight some recent iSEE Green Event Certifications for the month of October.
iSEE TED Talk: Eco-Edition Series, Certified October 2022
iSEE Campus Sustainability Month Trash Clean Up, Certified October 2022
iSEE Water Taste Test, Certified October 2022
We are excited to see everyone at our sustainability events this month!