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Projects Updates for key objective: No name

  1. SSC supported “Weatherization” project coming to conclusion

    Associated Project(s): 
    Weatherization of Small Campus Buildings [ARCHIVED]

    The SSC supported “Weatherization” project is coming to its conclusion.  The six RSO teams that participated in this program have submitted their reports to the Weatherization intern, and the F&S Maintenance Division has identified the costs of the recommended improvements.  These will be summarized and implemented after the Spring 2012 semester.

  2. Metering in Residence Halls

    Associated Project(s): 
    Energy Dashboard Project

    Bryan Johnson, from University Housing's Sustainability Council, has reported that residence halls PAR and FAR have individual metering setup, but Blaisdell Hall's metering is connected to the mechancial room and dining hall. LAR and Allen have individual metering, but the dining hall feeds into both dining halls. Information about metering in Busey-Evans is still needed.

  3. Ikenberry Commons Suggestion

    Associated Project(s): 
    Energy Dashboard Project

    The projects committee in the US Green Building Council student chapter is working on a "Green Your Dorm" project encouraging dorms to save energy and water. The SSC has approved funding to put individual metering in dorms. The USGBC chapter made the suggestion that Ikenberry Commons resdence halls be the first to receive meter upgrades.

  4. Undergrads and Graduates work on Sustainability Projects

    Associated Project(s): 
    Independent Student Projects

    Working with James Scholar in Barbara Minsker’s engineering class to make recommendations related to sustainability for the Grainger crosswalk on Springfield.

    Staff hosted interviews with about a dozen Rhet 105 students about various sustainability topics.

    Urban Planning masters student Marcus Ricci is doing a GIS project about bike parking capacity in relationship to the buildings they serve.

    The LINC U of I Bikes section sent out a bike sharing survey and had a great response rate, a summary will be available by the end of the spring semester.

  6. Monthly press on sustainability on campus

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability Engagement and Outreach

    Engineering News Record is doing a story on the University of Illinois about green buildings/LEED certification.

    Daily Illini article about campus sustainability progress.

    Staff created flowcharts for sustainability themes, as preliminary step to filling in the content on the Sustainability Portal website.  Staff provided field definitions and sample data for the database tables that will be available through the portal.  Also, we met with staff from MSTE and drafted the page layouts for the website, which will be shared at the iCAP Forum in April. 

  7. Engagement with other schools, information sharing

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability Engagement and Outreach

    We participated in meeting with representatives from Columbia, Missouri about their transit goals.  Articles were written about the visit: http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2012/mar/13/gold-standard/, http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2012/03/13/final-bus-trip/, and http://wjf.im/xkmY5f.

    We also provided information to Arizona State University about our bike registration system and intentions.

  10. Natural Resources Building

    Associated Project(s): 
    Lighting Retrofit #5 [ARCHIVED]

    As part of the Lighting Retrofit #5, 2,711 T-12 fixtures in the Natural Resources Building were replaced with more energy-efficient T-8 fixtures. This switch will incur an Annual kWh Savings of 424,466 hours. The simple payback for this project is 2.2 years.

  14. Bike to Work Day and Campus Bike Project Make Progress

    Associated Project(s): 
    Increase Bicycle Use

    Bike to Work Day (BTWD) planning is underway. Staff raised $1,250 in February from sponsors, which goes to Champaign County Bikes for the event.  Three on-campus Bike Station locations were organized, in addition to several off-campus Bike Stations.  University Housing graciously agreed to provide food and drinks for the on-campus Bike Stations, as they did last year.

    The Bike Sharing key staff members met with project champion, Mike Lyon from AITS, to provide a status update on the bike sharing feasibility study.  The bike sharing intern developed a presentation about departmental bike sharing, which will be taken to Legal Counsel and Purchasing contacts for final approval.  Then Colleges will be contacted before departments are approached to encourage departmental bike sharing implementation.  

    F&S Planning staff interviewed firms to engineer road improvements, including Fourth Street bike lanes from Armory Avenue to Kirby Avenue, and Sixth Street bike lanes from Armory Avenue to Gregory Drive.

    The bike parking intern completed and submitted a proposal to the SSC to replace existing “donut-hole” racks with campus standard racks.  He also met with staff at Christopher Hall and the Illini Union about upgrading their bike parking areas.  Additionally, staff worked with a representative from Champaign County Bikes to arrange a pilot test of an alternative bike parking rack, the Varsity Rack.

    The Campus Area Transportation Study (CATS) agencies met in February and agreed that the Campus Bike Plan document should be for University-owned pathways, and it should be in agreement with the City of Urbana Bike Plan, the Champaign Transportation Plan, and the County Greenways and Trails Plan.

    The Campus Bike Project submitted a proposal to the SSC for expanded open hours with student assistants.

    Plans are underway for a bike race on May 5 in the Research Park.  About 300-400 race participants are anticipated.  There will be a community ride that morning, as well as a race in the City of Urbana on May 6.

  15. EMC^2 Proposal, F&S Steam Reduction, Virtualization

    Associated Project(s): 
    Centralized Energy Efficiency Efforts

    Staff further developed the Energy Management and Control Center (EMC^2) proposal for Chancellor Wise to share with potential donors/partners.  This process included preliminary documentation of the existing energy distribution and tracking computer programs.

    F&S staff started discussions about a steam reduction project at the Main Library, which includes repairing steam traps, replacing Pressure Reducing Valves (PRV), and repairing or replacing other valves.

    F&S is moving towards virtualization for their IT servers.  That will let F&S move to a single server, which will reduce the cooling load and energy demand.  This project can be replicated in other departments for additional energy savings.

  16. Partnerships, Engagement in Local Efforts

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability Engagement and Outreach

    On February 16, CCNet hosted Angela Adams, the Recycling Coordinator at the City of Champaign, to explain the proposed bag ban in the city; Pattsi Petrie, a Champaign County Board Member, to discuss local foods; Mike Monson, the Urbana Chief of Staff, to explain the Electrical Aggregation proposal; and Marya Ryan, from the Urbana Sustainability Advisory Commission to review the City of Urbana’s Climate Action Plan.

    Staff facilitated meetings with students and staff about potential letters of support for the City of Champaign Single Use Disposable Paper and Plastic Bags study item.

    In an effort to standardize emissions calculations throughout the community and county, staff met with transportation planners from the Regional Planning Commission to share information about calculating transportation emissions.

  17. SSC Weatherization student leader met with the Building Maintenance team

    Associated Project(s): 
    Weatherization of Small Campus Buildings [ARCHIVED]

    The SSC Weatherization student leader met with the Building Maintenance team at F&S to review the student team reports for the small houses they assessed last fall.  Building Maintenance will develop cost estimates for the identified needs, so the students can prioritize the available funding ($50,000 from F&S).

  18. Press on U of I Sustainability Efforts

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability Engagement and Outreach

    Staff continued working with the Office for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education (MSTE) on the sustainability portal.  The portal will host a database of the iCAP/sustainability projects for campus, with searchable details about the projects, people, funding, and metrics.

    Staff met with Inside Illinois to develop an article about campus sustainability.  The article is online at http://news.illinois.edu/ii/12/0301/sustainability.html.

    The Alumni Magazine included a story about being a Bronze Level Bicycle Friendly University.

  19. Abbott Power granted permit

    Associated Project(s): 
    Biomass co-firing pilot at Abbott Power Plant [ARCHIVED]

    Abbott Power Plant was granted an IEPA permit to co-fire biomass with coal until June 30, 2013.  F&S intends to do some test burns this spring with wood chips.  Wood chips have a good track record in stoker boilers, and we are fairly confident we can demonstrate a successful trial.  In addition, wood chips appear to be one of the most cost effective sources of biomass available at this time.

  20. Energy Dashboard Presentation at Behavior Change/ Energy Efficiency Conference

    Associated Project(s): 
    Energy Dashboard Project

    The Energy Dashboard Project will be a highlighted project at the Behavior Change/ Energy Efficiency Conference.

    Illinois Energy Dashboard project, collaboration with the Environmental Change Institute (ECI), Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) and the Department of Facilities and Services (F & S).

    This project has been in the works for over a year, with a commitment to provide clearly visible, usable and understandable information to students and staff of chosen University buildings about energy consumption (electrical, chilled water and steam).  We are working with InStep Software, Inc., the University of Illinois vendor for the management and predictive analytics software for energy use on campus.   We are now in Phase One of implementation, the design of the look and content of our public Energy Dashboard site, testing and the public launching of the first version of the Ilini Energy dashboard (Phase two will support the installation of real time meters in about 10 – 12 builings).


    This is one in many of the continuing efforts across campus to pull together and unify the significant educational (and research) efforts of departments and Colleges in reducing negative human impact and enhancing sustainability locally, nationally and globally. 


    This project is intended to have a threefold effect:

    ·         Provide real time information to develop awareness and cultural/behavioral changes in how energy is used (not only in the buildings featured but in all aspects of life).

    ·         Provide information for faculty and students in research.

    ·         Provide details for building staff to better use resources and energy, and make plans for building adaption in ways that may decrease usage over time.

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