The Red Oak Rain Garden is a public rain garden that soaks up rainwater, enhances the campus and community aesthetic and educational experience, and promotes well-being for everyone who visits.

As the first rain garden on campus, this garden is beautiful and smart. It addresses flooding in an innovative way – by planting an attractive landscape feature that captures and filters stormwater.

Located between Allen Hall and McKinley Health Center, RORG provides flood protection, improves water quality, and serves as a model for ecologically healthy landscapes. Prior to the garden, rainstorms limited sidewalk use and impaired the red oak. The updated design enhances the garden’s ability to absorb rainwater in a beautiful, educational way. The garden plants, which are native to Illinois, have extensive root systems that are excellent at soaking up water and improving its quality. 

From: McKelvey, Michael L
Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2021 10:10 AM
To: White, Morgan
Subject: ECE building energy dashboards

Hi Morgan,

You may already be aware of this, but I wanted to let you know that, after corresponding with Aaron Mason and Ian Bonadeo at Hawkeye Energy Solutions since you put us in contact back in April, the ECE building’s energy dashboards are now available without requiring a login and via domain name rather than IP address! Here are the dashboards:

ECE Building – Energy Dashboard

ECE Building – Net Zero Energy Dashboard

You can view the listing of dashboards currently available at the U of I Building Energy Dashboard Home Page.

They’re now ready to be linked from the appropriate iCAP Portal entries!

     --Michael--

============== Michael McKelvey ===============

Office for Mathematics, Science, & Technology Education

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

https://mste.illinois.edu

(217) 244-7148

============ mmckelve at illinois.edu ============

The goal of the Sustainable Agricultural Food System is to further collaboration between the production activities of the Sustainable Student Farm; the teaching, research, and outreach activities at the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition (FSHN); and Dining Services' goal of increasing procurement of locally grown foods. The specific action the project would take in order to support this goal would be purchasing tomato processing equipment.

By weight, tomatoes are the farm's main crop. The Student Sustainable Farm sells most of its tomatoes to Dining Services raw, where they are either used fresh or processed and made into sauce. There are several issues with this system, however. Firstly, the Dining Services prefers to buy ready-to-eat sauces, as opposed to having to make the sauces in-house. Furthermore, only 60 to 70 percent of the possible tomato crop is harvested due to the seasonality of locally grown tomatoes not coinciding with the needs of Dining Services.

Tomato processing could allow FSHN students to process tomatoes from the Student Sustainable Farm and produce shelf-stable products to be used by Dining Services. This would alleviate both of the current issues with the process, along with incorporating FSHN students into the sustainable agricultural efforts of the University. FSHN students and faculty would be able to use the equipment to research sustainable processing practices and establish processing protocols for small-scale production lines that could support local farmers.

Student involvement would be a significant part of this project. The Student Sustainable Farm already introduces 200-300 student volunteers to sustainable agriculture each year. The project would add to this number by incorporating FSHN students, who would be involved as part of their coursework at the University.

To combat the issue of food waste, U of I Housing collaborated with F&S Utilities & Energy Services, Operations, Maintenance & Alterations, and environmental compliance. The committee researched various food waste options, including composting, pulpers, and grinder systems used for anaerobic digestion -- including Grind2Energy systems.

These operate similarly to an industrial garbage disposal. However, it uses significantly less water than the digester system, up to 90-95 percent less. Additionally, it does not send the waste directly to the sanitary sewer. The food waste is pumped into a 5000-6000 gallon tank located on the outside of the building it serves. A tanker truck empties the waste and takes it to the local sanitary district. The industrial-strength waste is processed in an anaerobic digester, where it undergoes treatment without oxygen. The methane produced is collected and used to generate electricity at the treatment plant.

Read more about Grind2Energy use on campus through the F&S Website or the PDF in the attached files!

The F&S Space Management Plan 2021 – 2030 documents how space is used on campus. F&S works with the Office of the Provost and other campus units and committees to manage and improve the use of space on campus, which occupies over 23 million gross square feet of facilities in more than 750 owned and leased buildings.

Properly managing the space is essential, as more than 57,000 people enrolled or employed by the university live and learn on campus. Additionally, the plan notes that “people enrolled or employed on campus has been steadily increasing since 2000, growing by over 4% from 2017 to 2018 alone.”

Over the past decade, balancing campus growth and sustainability goals of the Net Zero Space Growth policy, part of the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP), has required an innovative approach to analyzing campus density and opportunities for greater square footage efficiency. In-depth planning and procedures have included renovating existing space, improving utilization of existing space, and increasing the ability to share space and resources between units and across campus. The modest change to the campus footprint in recent years, despite additional enrollment, demonstrates the value of these actions.

“With enormous capital investments required to build, operate, and maintain our campus infrastructure, space is a critical asset that must be managed effectively to ensure the continued success of our university,” the plan reads. Net Zero Space Growth is essential to the university achieving strategic goals and is a crucial challenge of the ongoing project planning efforts in F&S Capital Programs.

From: Lewis, Brent C

To Trimble, Sydney M; White, Morgan

Recipients: sydneyt2 at illinois.edu; mbwhite at illinois.edu

Hi Sydney and Morgan,

Last Friday I said I would send you some info on Altgeld.  Here is a good one on the stained glass dome:

Piecing together a colorful mystery | College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Illinois

Trust-Respect-Accountability-Integrity-Teamwork-Safety-Perseverance

BRENT C. LEWIS, PLA, CA

Capital Programs, University Landscape Architect

1501 South Oak Street

Champaign, IL 61820

Phone: 217.300.3164

Email: bcl at illinois.edu

http://www.fs.illinois.edu/

"Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), any written communication to or from University

employees regarding University business is a public record and may be subject to public disclosure."