Meeting Minutes 4/21/17

In attendance:

Ximing Cai

Pete Varney

Brian Farber

Yanfeng Ouyang

Summary:

This meeting serve to continue discussion on campus fleet, bike parking, and campus parking. Also, Ximing Cai was introduced to the team.

Topics:

Discussion on Campus Fleet

Pete led a discussion on campus fleet efforts. He stated that converting campus fleet to EVs and CNG vehicles would have a large effect on campus emissions, and that campus utility is interested in learning about electric vehicles, but there are certain obstacles to converting campus fleet. First it would cost about half a million dollars or more. These costs are largely attribute to building infrastructure for CNG refueling systems. In addition, campus fleet vehicles for Facilities and Services as well as housing do not drive very far, so the fuel savings would be small. However, converting campus fleet would be practical as the vehicles do not travel off campus, meaning there will be no inconvenience in refueling the vehicles.

Bike Parking

We continued our discussion on bike parking from the last meeting. One of our concerns, given the cost of the permits, is security. Anyone who is paying for a permit must be certain that there bike is secure. We might want to have security cameras.

Parking

We discussed efforts to encourage less driving through parking incentives. Pete suggested having a passenger-car-free campus zone by placing parking outside of certain zones of campus. This idea was well received by the group and generally liked. However, we discussed challenges to any parking changes. We discussed specific proposals to adjust parking prices, shown here:

-          Try to price people out of parking and mitigate this by reducing the price at other locations

-          Allow flexible payment in percentage of salary

-          Have and “auction” in which whoever pays the largest percent of their salary gets the closest location.

-          Remove or lift parking cap so that wealthier parkers pay more and thus provide more revenue

-          Have a private company raise rates on parking

Then, we discussed challenges to these proposals:

-          Parking is important to unions – any changes may result in strikes or political conflict

-          The sentiment of Parking and Campus master plan does not necessarily agree with people parking farther away – an objective that would be achieved through a passenger-car-free zone

-          Hiring private company likely not a good idea – their primary motivation is profit

-          City of Champaign changed parking ordinances so that spaces at churches, fraternities, etc, decrease

Our next meeting is TBD.

The iCAP Working Group (iWG) met on February 16, 2016, to discuss the SWATeam recommendation, Trans007 Campus Fleet Analysis and Planning. The iWG's final comment was:

"They have suggested that this analysis is ideally completed by an industry professional. The iWG recommends that this study can be broken down into phases where phase 1 could be done by students, and phase 2 then could be done by an outside consultant (industry expert). Ben will suggest this to the SWATeam."

Following the iWG meeting, this recommendation was returned to the Transportation SWATeam for further discussion and modification to the recommendation within the SWATeam.

See SWATeam recommendation Trans007 Campus Fleet Analysis and Planning here.

see file

Several SWATeam recommendations were discussed.  Also, an update from the Sustainability Council was provided:

"Review of Council Meeting/Status of iCAP Approval - The Sustainability Council meeting went very well with lots of good discussion. There were not too many serious objections to the iCAP. They would like to see financial information, such as cost-benefit analysis on projects. This information will be included in the study for accelerating our carbon neutrality date. The cover letter from the Chancellor affirming our commitment will include language about the current fiscal climate in Illinois. The Chancellor was keen to be able to reach carbon neutrality by 2035. Other concerns were in regard to the net zero space item and they suggested a space audit be included in the iCAP."

The iCAP Working Group (iWG) met on April 2, 2015, to discuss and start the assessment of SWATeam recommendation, Trans004 Fleet Study. Their official comment on the recommendation was:

"The iWG recommends that F&S undertake this study. We suggest that F&S work with the Transportation SWATeam to attempt to identify interested faculty who could lead the study. We suggest that the study also consider a 10-year horizon for campus efforts, examining what immediate actions can be taken and what actions could be undertaken in the coming years to account for expectations for future vehicle availability."

See attached the iWG assessment of Trans004 Fleet Study recommendation complete with official comments from all the iWG members.

See SWATeam recommendation Trans004 Fleet Study here.

Dear iCAP Working Group Members,

As a reminder, we will be meeting this Thursday at 1:30 (and also next Thursday, 4/9, at 1:30).

This week we will discuss the timeline for completing our work on the iCAP, and then turn our attention to the 7 attached formal recommendations we've received from the Transportation and Purchasing, Waste, and Recycling SWATeams.  Please review these in advance of the meeting, so that we can discuss them most efficiently.  If you will not be able to join us due to a schedule conflict, please email me in advance if you have any particular concerns.

Next week (4/9), we'll be joined by Kent Reifsteck and Mike Larson from F&S, and also Scott Willenbrock from the Energy Generation SWATeam, so that we can discuss what the iCAP should say about charting a pathway for clean energy for our campus.

Thanks,

Ben

Professor Benjamin J. McCall

Associate Director for Campus Sustainability Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus-sustainability@illinois.edu