Hi Rob,

 

We have about $1.4M in Carbon Credit Sales Funds, and (as just one of the potential uses) we would like to know the most impactful energy project this could support in terms of maximum emission reductions.  Could I talk with Sylvia about that, or do you have someone else I should contact?

 

Thanks,

Morgan

----------------------------

Morgan,

 

We have a stack of project requests that we can look at to see where the best use of the funds could be. Please let me discuss with Tony, and we will reply with our recommendations.

 

Thanks,
Rob

---------------------------

Hello Morgan,

 

Thanks for your patience. I have worked with the others in UES to develop the attached list of recommended projects. The file is sorted by the mtCO2/$ to show the projects with the most carbon emissions reduction for the money.  We recommend to use the $1.4M to fund the first three projects and partially funding the fourth or the fifth project (the fifth project has higher energy savings and is slightly less on the mtCO2/$). 

 

Thanks for reaching out to us with your inquiry. I hope that you find these projects acceptable. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

 

Best Regards,
Rob

------------------------

Hi Rob,

 

Thank you for this list.  Could your team please provide an estimated life in years for these projects?  If we say the Controls Upgrade at the Conference Center will last 30 years, then the footprint reduction cost is $32.44/mtCO2e.  We can assume 30 years for all the projects, but that is just a WAG from my perspective.

 

Thanks,

Morgan

------------------------

 

Morgan,

 

I have attached an amended table to this email with a new column for life expectancy as defined by ASHRAE. Generally, ASHRAE indicates 15-20 years for each of the projects.

 

Thanks,
Rob

Hello,

 

iSEE has been notified by Second Nature that there is an incoming payment for recent carbon credit sales, totaling $15,625. I have attached the sales confirmation. The wire will be sent today or tomorrow to the account previously used for these payments.

 

Please let me know if you need any other information.

 

Best,

Miriam

-------------------

Miriam-

 

Thank you for the email and the sales confirmation attached. I will prepare the ACH form for this so University Accounting is aware the ACH will be coming in and where to deposit it.

 

Thanks!

-----------------

Hi everyone,

 

Did we receive this payment, as expected? I’d like to update the attached excel file, when the funds are received.

 

Thanks,

Morgan

------------------

 

Hi Morgan,

 

Yes we did, please see my updated version attached. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Thanks so much,

Courtney

Hi Jen and Morgan

 

Susan has asked me to give a short (less than 10 min) presentation at the next CRAWG/RIN meeting on Oct 6 on carbon credits.

Can you please send me the documentation you have recently created on the carbon credit history etc. I will start to put a few slides together and be in touch to discuss them with you.

 

Thanks

Madhu

-------------------



Hi Madhu,

 

I asked Miriam to start putting this information into a single document. It is not something we have created yet, but we will work on it this week.

 

Thanks,

Jen

____________

That is great. The key things I would like

The spreadsheet showing the timeline of the amount of carbon credits sold and value

A bit of history with second nature and ICAP to put on one slide 

A graph with the data on carbon reductions achieved on campus through ICAP 

A slide with key mechanisms through which we have achieved these reductions 

I am thinking  to put max 8 to 10 sides together  with a couple of slides on the 101 of why markets for carbon credits are appealing  and the role for credits and offsets for as opportunities for campus 

 I will start a slide deck with this and share this week. In the meantime if Miriam could put this info together that would be really helpful.  

Can we plan to meet next Monday for half hour to discuss the slides

Thanks

Madhu 

-------------------

Some specifics from Madhu (trailing email), and files I think will be helpful. Please focus on the following. Morgan, please weigh in on highlighted items and let me know if I missed anything.  - Jen

 

The spreadsheet showing the timeline of the amount of carbon credits sold and value – see attached.

A bit of history with second nature and ICAP to put on one slide – see attached

A graph with the data on carbon reductions achieved on campus through ICAP – portal has this, but we haven’t reported GHGs for past two years, so it is incomplete. Morgan – is there a better place to find these data?

A slide with key mechanisms through which we have achieved these reductions  - I think these are solar farms, geothermal projects, retrofitting, and other energy-related; Morgan please weigh in. Also, where can we find these data? 

----------------------

Hi Jen, Miriam, and Elizabeth,

 

I’m reviewing Jen’s email below.  Here are my comments.

 

1. The latest spreadsheet I have is attached.
   
   1. I updated it to reflect the receipt of the sales from the 1,000 sold in June. 
   2. I also updated the total for the end of FY23 in the portal at https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project/carbon-credit-purchasing-program-c2p2-second-nature.

 

1. I agree the history in the campus MOU is the best resource for this.  There is more to the story, but it is kinda a convoluted mess that is probably not worth revisiting. (For example, there was an initial second nature MOU, then a revised version, then a new MOU with Second Nature…)

 

1. If there is time, I suggest Miriam contact Second Nature to confirm the official GHG report options to use in SIMAP. Then she can run the SIMAP reports for the past years and confirm what we have officially submitted per their perspective. 
   
   1. This is NOT in the C2P2 perspective, but in the Carbon Commitment perspective. 
   2. The baseline year is 2008, so we should verify our reporting for FY08 through present.
   3. We collected the previously submitted GHG reports that were done with the excel file “campus carbon calculator”. They are here: https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project/greenhouse-gas-ghg-emission-reports.
   4. SIMAPs info is here: https://unhsimap.org/public/institution/193?show_years=goals_end&op=Change&graph_type=bar.

 

1. With the Solar Farm 3.0 discussions in 2021, F&S put together the attached summary of emission reduction efforts.  I’ve been meaning to update it, but haven’t had a chance yet.  I think it has enough for the slides Madhu is requesting.  Don’t use the results from this word doc, as they are outdated.  Also, we lost some of the advantages when the pandemic pricing, clean energy jobs act, and war in the Ukraine impacted energy costs.

 

Let me know if you have other questions.

 

Thanks,

Morgan

----------------------

 

Hi Morgan,

 

I hope you had some time to rest today and are feeling better!

 

Once you are back online, I wanted to follow up with a question on some figures from the Carbon Credits Funding spreadsheet you shared. Madhu would like to include the total revenue from carbon credit sales in her slides. She noted it looks like there may be discrepancies between different tabs in the spreadsheet. Looking at the latest spreadsheet you shared, “Carbon Credits Funding 20230927”, Jen and I noted there is one sale figure that seems to be inconsistent across tabs: the sale of 45,450 CCs to Bluesource @ $4.00/CC. In the attached spreadsheet, I’ve highlighted the relevant numbers in yellow. The first two tabs list the revenue for this sale as $183,981.60, but the third tab lists it as $181,800. I see that $181,800 is a direct calculation is 45,450*$4. I’m not sure where the slightly larger number came from. Do you have any idea, and do you know which figure we should use to calculate total revenue from CC sales?

 

Thanks,

Miriam
 

 

Since we were talking about RECs last week, I came across this presentation that was made at ETH Chicago last week.

Regenerative Finance, Leveraging Blockchain to Digitize the Renewable Energy Marketplace

https://pretalx.com/ethchi-2023/talk/XSHZBM/

 

Also, in regard to energy conservation, Maryland provides RECs for installing geothermal systems. Could we have the Illinois Portfolio Standard do the same?

https://www.psc.state.md.us/electricity/description-documents-maryland-renewable-energy-portfolio-standard-program/geothermal-rec-frequently-asked-questions/. This would be very helpful for institutions wanting to become carbon neutral.

 

Best,

Andy

Dear Jennifer,

 

My name is Sara Berthier and I am the new events planner for the Main Library at UIUC.

I’m currently assisting interim Dean Chris Prom and associate Brent West ccd here for the organization and logistics for the next iPRES conference that will take place at the iHotel, September 19th-22nd, 2023.

 

A few of our sponsors have enquired about green sponsorships (see our sponsorship pamphlet attached, see green sponsors page 15) and were curious about any existing programs around sustainability at UIUC.

Is there a University program with carbon offsets we could buy into or an equivalent?

 

Let me know if you have any insight on this or if you have done this in the past.

 

Looking forward to hearing from you, thank you for your help!

 

Best regards,

 

SARA BERTHIER

--------------------

Thanks for forwarding, Eric.

 

Hi Sara,

 

Thank you for reaching out about buying carbon offsets. There is no existing UI program for purchasing carbon offsets. The best I can offer is a carbon offsets purchasing guide that my colleague in F&S put together: https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/files/projectupdate/5747/Carbon-offsets-guide.pdf   It includes links to two websites where you can search for certified carbon offsets.

 

In the past, the University sold carbon credits and reinvested the proceeds in sustainability initiatives, but we are currently reviewing this policy and no carbon credits are being sold at this time.

 

I hope this helps. Feel free to reach out directly to me if you have any additional questions.

 

Best wishes,

 

Jennifer Fraterrigo

--------------------

Hi Jennifer,

 

Thanks for sharing this pdf, it’s super helpful.

I look into the two websites provided, we’ve also found Cool Effect to buy carbon offsets, have you heard of it?

The process seems pretty easy and other Higher Ed institutions have used it in the past.

 

Thanks for your insight,

 

Best,

 

SARA BERTHIER

--------------------

Looks like a good website! We are exploring creating a system for purchasing local offsets. Feel free to check back with me in the future if the need arises again.

 

Thanks,

Jennifer 

Attachment from Warren Lavey.

Below is an email exchange between Meredtih Moore of iSEE and Steve Muzzy of Second Nature:

Hi Steve,

 

Hope you are doing well! I am touching base again to see if there is an update about the status of our carbon credit sales. We look forward to hearing from you. Thanks!

Meredith

---------------------------

Hello Meredith,

 

Thanks for checking in. I've been meaning to follow up with the great news that UIUC credits have been issued and sold. However the reason I have waited is because the broker sold the credits in five batches and they are still waiting on final payment for one batch. Once they have all payments in hand, Second Nature can invoice them for your portion of the revenue. As with the entire process for this round of verification, the sale of credits has for some reason taken longer than expected. We are wanting to issue one invoice for all the batches rather than do multiple invoices - this will allow us to pay UIUC in one lump sum. 

 

I can tell you the total number of credits sold was 115,836. And pending the final batch sales per/ton you should clear a per ton amount between $6.00-$6.50.

 

I would expect issuance of UIUCs credit sale revenue check next month.

 

Best,

 

----------------------------

Thank you so much for the update, Steve!!