The 2023-24 charge letter identified the Commuter Program as a priority area for the Transportation iCAP team.

The pilot commuter program ran in Spring 2023 and celebrated those already choosing active modes of transportation but struggled to incentivize people to relinquish their parking passes. The Transportation Team will begin to brainstorm ways to incentivize and encourage people to relinquish their parking passes. The team also wants to establish an emergency ride-home program. This program would be made available to those who do not have a parking pass and need to return home in case of an emergency. 

Hello Morgan & Jennifer.

Matt Rundquist (CCed) and I are looking at developing real-time energy dashboards for campus transparency at the request of the VCAS.

Can you share if/how that project is going at UIUC?  I googled around a bit but most of the content seems a bit outdated…

Energy Dashboard Project (Ongoing) | iCAP Portal | University of Illinois

Any thing you can share is helpful and happy to jump on a call if that’s faster.

Thanks for your help.

Andy Mitchell

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Rob,

Colleagues at UIC are interested in UIUC’s Energy Dashboard Project. However, the information on the dashboard stops at FY14 and the links to the building-level information are broken. I see a lot of value in this project for campus. Is there any way to reinvigorate the project and update the content?

Let me know if there is something iSEE can do to help.

Thank you,

Jennifer

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

Hello Jennifer,

Thanks for reaching out to UES on this topic. I am glad to hear that people have an interest in the UIUC energy dashboards. Our team has done a great job on this initiative, and we are leading the efforts amongst our peers. In fact, UIUC and vendor staff  will be presenting this topic at the International District Energy Association Campus Energy Conference this February. We am quite proud of the success we have achieved in this area.

In reference to the UIC system, I actually had worked on developing energy dashboards at UIC when I was the Director of UES there. We had some success, but the product was a bit difficult to maintain. I believe that support for those UIC dashboards has ended.

After receiving your email, I reached out to the Engineering/Consultant firm that I worked with to develop dashboards for both UIC and UIUC. Aaron Mason from Hawkeye Energy Solutions (Shorewood, IL) informed me that the platform that they are using at UIUC is a “much better, lightweight, and responsive” then the solution that was originally used at UIC. The underlying data streams at both campuses are similar, so the development of dashboards for UIC should be relatively easy.

Regarding the link that was provided for the UIUC dashboards; that link is actually an old link that is no longer supported. Please use this link to view the new dashboards at UIUC: http://uesdash.fs.illinois.edu/ . This system does not require a login, and is easy to navigate. We currently have 70 of the first 80 building dashboards completed, which represents 92% of the University energy consumption. Many of the dashboards are visible at building video displays for all building occupants to view. We continue to vet the data streams and will add more dashboards as we continue our efforts into the future.

To help you and Andy resolve any questions, I am including the following people on the cc so that you can reach out to them directly if it helps you in your efforts.

• Cedric Everett – Assistant Director of Utilities and Energy Services at UIC (Can help you navigate the energy data at UIC, as well as contracting with Hawkeye Energy Solutions).
• Aaron Mason – Director of Operations, Hawkeye Energy Solutions (Can assist with the technical background of a dashboard solution).
• Robbie Bauer – Management Engineer Utilities Distribution UIUC (Is the lead engineer at UIUC for development and implementation of energy dashboards).

Hopefully this answers your questions. If not, please don’t hesitate to contact me for more information. We welcome the opportunity to work together.

Thanks,
Rob

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

Hi Rob,

Thanks so much for this information and for reaching out to your colleague at Hawkeye Energy Solutions. I’m pleased to see that this project is going strong!

If it’s ok with you, I would like to update the iCAP portal with this information, especially the URL for the new dashboards.

Andy, if there is anything else we can help with, please let use know.

Jennifer

Hi Morgan and Lisa,

This fall I have submitted two SSC step-1 applications:

1. Shipping containers for bicycle storage - $85,000
2. Purchase and Installation of bike shelter - $250,000

See attached the application. Thank you,
Sarthak

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
 

For those interested - 4pm climate lecture by Naomi Oreskes at Spurlock Museum this coming Monday.

(I’m starstruck, I read her journal articles during undergrad!)

Thank you,

Daphne

Hello,

My name is Claire Sullivan, and I am reaching out as a representative from the Student Sustainability Leadership Council (SSLC). If you aren’t already familiar, the SSLC is a student-led body facilitating communications between campus sustainability and the student body, as well as relationships among environmentalist student groups on campus. One of our most famous events for engaging environmental entities on campus with one another is Green Quad Day.

Green Quad Day is scheduled for Wednesday, October 11th from 11 am - 3 pm on Anniversary Plaza. This is a great place to table for your organization, mingle with green RSOs, recruit prospective students, and learn about sustainability initiatives on campus. We invite each of you to fill out the form below to RSVP for a table at Green Quad Day. One RSVP per RSO, please! We encourage each RSO that RSVPs to include an interactive element at their table. Be creative!

Green Quad Day RSVP Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScRu6fPOGQQ3p-5Vg8rNL-a8VJEyNKq_jWZ4WlUeb4lM5jh2A/viewform?usp=sf_link 

Let us know if you have any questions or concerns about the event. We hope to see you at there!

Best,

The Student Sustainability Leadership Council

As was mentioned in the TAC Forum Meeting, we are today releasing a data request call for lab building embodied carbon LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) information. This information will be used to collect embodied carbon benchmarking data like the Carbon Leadership Forum’s V2 call for embodied carbon data but with some more specific lab related data fields. This data will be used to start the creation of a lab building embodied carbon benchmarking database within the Lab Benchmarking tool. Even more significantly, this data will drive the development of a first ever score for lab building embodied carbon.

I have attached a spreadsheet template for entering the LCA data and a letter giving more information about the data request. The letter also indicates the benefits provided to those organizations that participate in the data call. Lastly, I have attached a data use agreement defining how we will use the data and ensure its confidentiality.

Please send any completed data request spreadsheets to Nathan Jeffay at Nathan.Jeffay@erg.com. It would be helpful if you have data that you submit at least some of your data by October 15th so we can report some initial results at our annual conference. However, if that date is not practical, then October 27th is also good. If you have any questions, comments or feedback about the data call please contact Dirk Von Below (Chair of the Embodied Carbon Scoring TAC) at dvonbelow@flad.com , Alison Farmer at Secretary@I2SL.org, or myself.

Finally, we understand that many of you will not have lab embodied carbon LCA data. However, as this is an open data call, if you know of someone else or another organization that has done  lab building embodied carbon analysis work, please forward this data call to them.

Thanks!

Regards,

Gordon

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

Dear Green Labs Champions,

              Please see the attached request for pilot data to assess embodied carbon in new construction of laboratories.  I2SL would love to have a few examples in time for the annual conference next month.  Please forward to staff or academics who pursue Life Cycle Assessments or GHG accounting. 

              For the sky,

Allen Doyle

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

Hi Morgan,

Does this come up in your area for new projects?

Best

Paul

Hi Jonathan,

We will be doing our annual reporting of GHG emissions for campus and need to report numbers of animals on the last days of FY22 and FY 23. Please let me know if you have any questions and thank you.

Best,

Jen

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

Jennifer,

I recall doing this in the past but cannot seem to find the spreadsheet that I have submitted.  Do you happen to have a past copy?  Do you want this reported in official animal-unit-equivalent or the actual number of heads counted?

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

Hi Jonathan,

From what I can find in the SIMAP documentation, we need heads counted. If you know the conversion factors for animal-unit-equivalent, please send those too.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a copy of the spreadsheet from the past. Meredith Moore previously did the GHG reporting and I don’t have access to her files.

Jen