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  1. Video Case Studies of Sustainable UIUC Campus Buildings

    Associated Project(s): 
    Advance Student Sustainability Outreach Efforts
    Independent Student Projects

    From: Shanmugam Narayan, Vinothni

    To: White, Morgan

    Recipients: mbwhite at illinois.edu

     

    Hello Morgan,

     

    I have shared the NCEL & HSL plans, newsletter, and Earth month schedule with my team. Thank you so much for sharing those.

     

    I have also attached a link for case study videos that my concept team students created for one of the activities I planned last semester.

    https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KRaWCbD2WYsWEA9bR0JUx9a_ELMov0v9?usp=sharing

     

    Thanks for initiating to include their work on the website.  Have a nice day!

     

    Sincerely,

    Vinothni Narayan Icon</p> <p>Description automatically generated

    Graduate – Masters | Class of Dec 2022

    Civil and Environmental Engineering | Construction Engineering and Management

    The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 

    vs37@illinois.edu  | +1 (217)-200-2817

     

  5. Weekly Update: Updated work hour M-F from next week; Extra-Curricular events; National Bike Summit

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, We were closed last week for Spring Break. This week will be our last M/W/F of the semester as we’re reopening to 5 days a week. Today will be busy if the weather is any indication. Extra-curricular events for the week are our Gender Aware Shop Hours and our Urbana Parks District event on Saturday. Next week I’ll be virtually attending the National Bike Summit.

    The numbers:
    Visitors: 24

    Sales: $358.55
    Bikes (refurb): 3 for $530
    Tire/tubes: 6 for $36

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  6. Student Affairs Research Approval (SARA) process for the sample of students for Mode Choice Survey

    Associated Project(s): 
    Reduce Driving on Campus

    Since iNews Newsletter does not allow surveys, F&S TDM had to get permission from DMI and Student Affairs to reach out to a large populations of Undergraduate students.

    Sarthak Prasad requested Division of Management Information (DMI) a sample of randomly selected Undergraduate students for the Mode Choice Survey in last week of February. DMI asked to complete the Student Affairs Research Approval (SARA) application to sample 5,000 UG students. Sarthak Prasad filled out the SARA request on March 1, 2022. Dr. Beth Hoag approved the SARA request to sample 5,000 UG students and forwarded it to the DMI contacts. 

    Ting Lu from DMI created 2 identical groups of randomly selected 5,000 UG student emails and shared them with Sarthak Prasad on 3/18/22 via Webtools. Each group could only be used once.

    There was a $16/hour cost to create a sample - overall cost was $64.

  7. The Current Status and Pillars of Direct Air Capture Technologies

    Associated Project(s): 
    Carbon Capture

    The Current Status and Pillars of Direct Air Capture Technologies

    Industry decarbonization & carbon capture were identified as high priority efforts to reduce climate change at the 2021 UN COP26. Renewable energy may help, but there are still sectors that remain hard to decarbonize such as distributed emissions from travel & flu gas emissions from steel and cement, & more. This talk will discuss direct air capture of CO2 from the atmosphere to curb emissions.

    March 24, 12–1 pm

    Elizabeth Meschewski • Illinois Sustainable Technology Center

  8. Weekly Update: Spring Break; M-F from 3/28

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Visitor numbers ticking upward in line with the thermometer—Friday’s snowfall notwithstanding.  

    We’re closed this week for Spring Break and hitting the ground running when we return. We’ve got Gender Aware Shop Hours on Thursday and our Urbana Parks District event on Saturday. From there it’s back open M-F. 

    I’ll only be working today and tomorrow before taking a few days for myself. I’ll finish up a few more shop builds during my abbreviated week in advance of warmer weather post-spring break.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 23
    Sales: $358.55

    Bike (refurb): 2 for $280
    Tire/tubes: 5 for $16

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  9. Mowing Florida and Orchard Prairie

    Associated Project(s): 
    Prairie Restoration at Florida & Orchard

    On Mar 9, 2022, at 5:35 PM, Ellis, James Lee <jellis at illinois.edu> wrote:

    

    Kevin,

     

    Is the Florida and Orchard prairie planting now under your purview at the arboretum?

     

    No, however we help out as needed - brush pick up, shrub cutting. John Marlin is the best source for info about management etc….

    Nathan Hudson and I have mowed the prairie in early spring the past few years. I’m willing to do that again in lieu of prescribed fire if desired.

     

    Great, probably due for a prescribed fire. 

    Let us know if we can assist?

     

    Best,

    Jamie

     

    JAMES L. ELLIS
    Natural Areas Coordinator
     
    Illinois Natural History Survey
    Prairie Research Institute | University of Illinois
    1816 S. Oak St. | M/C 652
    Champaign, IL 61820
    217.244.5695 | 217.649.7230 | jellis at illinois.edu
    research.illinois.edu/cna

    inhs.illinois.edu/research/natural-areas-uiuc/
     
    8H1XpNpEaYgroAAAAASUVORK5CYII=

  18. Weekly Update: Retraining Staff; Spring is coming!

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Warm weather last week brought in a good number of folks. On Friday we even had a wait for repair stands.

    Of the seven shop build bikes I safety checked last week zero passed inspection. This’ll be a good opportunity to retrain staff up on what constitutes a safely functional bike.

    Elsewhere, it was our first week being mask-optional but elective compliance was near 100% and we had zero conflicts with folks about the change in policy.

    This week I’ll finish up the aforementioned seven bikes, interview some prospective employees, and game plan for post-spring break when things are really picking up. Spring is coming!

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 24
    Sales: $567.50
    Bikes (refurb): 1 for $170
    Memberships: 7 for $210

    Tire/tubes: 7 for $26

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  19. Dominika Szal carries on the waste survey work that Syd Trimble began

    Associated Project(s): 
    Big Ten & Friends Sustainability
    Achieve Zero Waste
    1.  

     

    1. Syd Trimble and Dominika Szal began efforts to create a comprehensive waste management survey to dissmeninate to all Big Ten and Friends affiliated insitutitons. With the results in hand, they would collate and summarize the data, and give back the analysis to each of the schools for their benefit. The purpose was to benchmark schools against one another and determine the highlights and opportunities for improvement at each school.
    2. Draft of the initial survey:
      1. I saw that your school has a goal of achieving a [insert % waste diversion by whatever year]. Why did your school decide to work on reducing your waste production in the first place?
        1. What year was the goal initially decided? (what is your benchmark year?)
        2. What was the waste diversion rate of your benchmark year?
        3. Why did you decide on this rate as a goal?
        4. If you accomplish your goal by [desired year], would you then work on maintaining that waste diversion rate or would you work on diverting even more waste?
        5. What waste goal metrics do you track?
        6. What do you include in your waste diversion rate?
      2. What are the most common challenges you face when attempting to reach waste reduction goals?
        1. How did you identify your next course of action to deal with these challenges?
      3. Which initiatives would you say were the most effective in reaching your goals for waste reduction?
      4. Do you provide your own recycling or waste collection services or is it outsourced?
      5. How is recycling funded?
        1. Do you sell your collected recyclables?
          1. How is that revenue used?
      6. How is waste disposal funded?
      7. How important is investing in public education about recycling/waste reduction?
        1. How do you get the word out about recycling or any initiatives you have going on
        2. Have you noticed which types of marketing tend to be more receptive by certain demographics (such as students or faculty?)
        3. Does your institution have any training for students and/or faculty for them to be more aware of recycling?
        4. What are ongoing initiatives that your institution is developing? (ex. recycling app, recyclopedia)
      8. With football games, we typically see a lot of waste, whether it’s from tailgating or the game itself. What has your institution done to effectively increase recycling/reduce waste at these events? If you haven’t done so yet, are there any plans in the works?
        1. Do you work directly with the concessionaire?
        2. Who works as the liaison with Athletics? Do you have a sustainability specialist working within Athletics?
        3. How do you get enough volunteers to help with achieving your waste reduction goals at the games?
        4. What would you say helped the most with increasing recycling rates during football games?
      9. Do you have any specialty recycling initiatives? Some examples of specialty recycling include batteries, PPE, glasses recycling, or phone recycling.
      10. Question related to procurement goals (look up “sustainable leadership purchasing council”)
        1. Do you currently have a sustainable procurement policy in place?
          1. If no, is your institution pursuing a sustainable procurement policy?
        2. Were there any challenges that arose while developing this policy?
      11. Does your institution address e-waste, whether through re-use (ex. a surplus store) or donation?

  20. Biodiversity Inquiry

    Associated Project(s): 
    Resilience iCAP Team

    Stacey Gloss reached out to the iCAP resilience team to ask if Illinois is at lower risk for biodiversity risk due to the fact that "most prairie was wiped out for corn and soy a long time ago". 

    Jennifer Fraterrigo replied with the following:

    Hi all,

     

    This topic falls within my area of interest, so I skimmed the peer-reviewed scientific article that was published in Ecological Applications upon which the NYT article is based. The authors of the paper model and map protection-weighted range-size rarity (PWRSR), a metric that partly reflects the range size of a species. More weight is given to species with smaller ranges, as these species are expected to be more imperiled. In Illinois, we have relatively few endemic species with small ranges; most species found here have relatively large ranges. Consequently, Illinois scores low on the PWRSR metric and does not appear to be a place where biodiversity is threatened.

     

    That is not to say biodiversity is not at risk here. Rather, the approach used in the study puts less weight on the types of species that tend to inhabit (or could inhabit) the region.

     

    If not already on your radar, an excellent resource for understanding biodiversity patterns and biodiversity threats in Illinois is the Critical Trends Assessment, a program supported by the IDNR and managed by the IL Natural History Survey (https://publish.illinois.edu/ctap-inhs/). The Urban Biotic Assessment Program may also be of interest (https://uofi.app.box.com/s/j1826i8uip6farrlxpckqzpa18b6d97e).

     

    Thanks,

    Jennifer

     

    NYT Article: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/03/03/climate/biodiversity-map.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuomT1JKd6J17Vw1cRCfTTMQmqxCdw_PIxfs9gGPzNiGeVTdcwqNPW9LavB-WIvI4INA33jGSWNIGOr4oSP1sw_VEPlB8Dgyhut2EhJEBaW0TmL6EY1kXjdjLTKxqtnjraHW0Mu502LyhslXYbTLsCK3bhWknIQxjvZdmc1-10HZZxrPBQbQijdkq2qx2A5tqVHxXMnnxyvrtChh0MNmCbgiNqVVlHrEEBkyA2IKU-LkCcw5NCFjZTXkZ4Ws06N9UPdN_L7-oZ ld7O5K42eNNfzQueIS5BJQxRJzWkqFostPOrB-PzMmwz5YmBU_3EHhoSfk4zLjbPk6CjH0&smid=url-share

     

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