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Projects Updates for key objective: No name

  2. F&S and ECI Responsibilities

    Associated Project(s): 
    Energy Dashboard Project

    The Environmental Change Institute (ECI) and Facilities and Services (F&S) are working in conjunction on the Energy Dashboard with funding from the Student Sustainability Committee. The SSC has set for responsibilities for each group to complete the project.

     

    The Environmental Change Institute is to coordinate meetings with representatives of major stakeholder groups (ECI, SSC, F&S, etc.) for the purpose of development, communication and clarity concerning the scope of the project, funding expenditures, review of phases, and deliverables; coordinate selection of appropriate building for building metering system upgrades that will be providing real-time data to the dashboard display system, assuming that the connections are technically or technologically feasible; develop content for website, including incorporation of new buildings, with input from stakeholders; coordinate marketing, communications with stakeholders, and progress reports; and compose and develop a final project report with input from F&S and other stakeholders as required.

     

    Facilities and Services responsibilities are implementing and launching the Energy Dashboard module; providing technical support for metering, direct digital connections and dashboard website; purchasing software and installing that software with funds designated in the SSC award letter; determining data connections, server needs, IITAA compliance issues for website; communicating regularly with ECI concerning implementation issues and progress updates; installing and connecting upgraded building metering systems; and determining technical feasibility of connecting building metering systems to Dashboard and supporting systems.

     

    The SSC report also included a schedule extension.       

    Attached Files: 

  4. Mark Barcus will be F&S point of contact

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

    Thomas,

    My name is Mark Barcus and I am Dean Henson’s new assistant and he has asked me to work on the SSC weatherization project. I would like to set up a meeting with you and Morgan Johnston and myself to see where we are at. When would be a good time to meet?

    Thanks

    Mark

    Mark A. Barcus

    Assistant Superintendent

    Building Maintenance

    University of Illinois

    Facilities & Services

    barcus@illinois.edu

    (217)-265-6566

     

  5. Continuing Partnerships and Engagement

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability Engagement and Outreach

    The Office of Sustainability hosted the first monthly CCNet Sustainability meeting of 2012 on January 19. The meeting had 39 attendees, including faculty, staff, students, local government employees, and members of the community. There was a presentation and discussion led by SEDAC about the organization’s work and national energy trends.  CCNet Meetings will continue throughout 2012, taking place at noon on the third Thursday of each month, at the Natural Resources Building, room 101.

    Sustainability employees from campus, Urbana, Champaign and the Regional Planning Commission (RPC) continue to collaborate. In January, we discussed each agency’s respective greenhouse gas inventories. It was decided that Champaign and Urbana will include any University emissions which fall within their respective jurisdictional boundaries in their city-wide reports. For the purposes of local reporting, the University will be considered a separate entity that overlays both cities, similar to any other business entity, rather than a distinct jurisdiction. It was also decided that a separate meeting will be necessary to specifically address transportation-related emissions and how each entity is tracking and reporting on these.

    The YMCA/YWCA on Wright Street requested a meeting to discuss their sustainability efforts and how the University may be able to assist. They are working on building improvements and changes to their parking and outdoor space. We gave them suggestions of people they may want to contact for input and advice.

    Sustainability staff attended an Illinois Green Business Association (IGBA) networking event and talked with IGBA board members about potential future collaborations.

    The City of Champaign Recycling Coordinator requested information about the impacts of plastic and paper bags on campus facilities and the campus waste stream. She also requested letters of support for a bag ban from student environmental groups.

    Sustainability staff attend monthly conference calls/webinars of the Governor’s Green Universities and Colleges subcommittee.  In January, there was a presentation at ISTC about weatherization of campus buildings, and the disconnect between LEED certification and weatherization practices.

  6. Sustainability Portal

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability Engagement and Outreach
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    The Office of Sustainability is working with MSTE to develop the Illinois Sustainability Portal, an online hub for sustainability-related information on the Urbana-Champaign campus.  We met with MSTE several times in January to develop the site architecture and database structure for the site. A preview of the site will be shared during Earth Week (April 16-20). When complete, the portal will be the go-to place for people to learn about all iCAP projects and goals, to submit ideas for consideration, and to research historical data about emissions and other sustainability metrics.  Additionally, project leaders will be able to report to the OS on their progress and plans. We envision this to be an incredibly useful tool going forward.

  7. F&S Makes Progress on Bicycle Projects

    Associated Project(s): 
    Increase Bicycle Use

    F&S continues to work with a number of student groups and individuals on bicycle-related projects:

    • Bicycle Intern and Urban Planning student Grace Kenney has returned from a semester abroad and is now completing the Bike Sharing Feasibility Study this spring, as well as implementing departmental bike sharing with interested departments, using the Departmental Bike Sharing Manual produced by the Fall 2011 LINC class. Grace also helped with the master bike plan in January, and will be working closely with the Bike Sharing Steering Committee in the coming weeks and months.
    • Bicycle Intern and Urban Planning student Holly Nelson is continuing to work on bike lane design recommendations.
    • Bicycle Intern and Urban Planning student Patrick Clark is working on bike parking upgrade designs and recommendations, including SSC-funded improvements at the Illini Union, as well as developing the formal grant proposal for bike parking upgrade funding for SSC.
    • GIS student Marcus Ricci proposed a GIS class project to analyze the location and quantity of bike parking in relationship to building doors and bike pathways.
    • The UI Bikes LINC course, as mentioned above, is working with F&S on several projects related to both bike sharing and bike parking.
    • An MBA class is studying the Campus Bike Project, among other bicycle-related topics, and will make a recommendation to the CBP for developing a self-sustaining funding model.
    • Student Senator David Huang has drafted and will introduce a formal resolution to the Illinois Student Senate proposing the implementation of online bicycle registration through Ride Campus. (http://www.ridecampus.com/)

    Members of The Bike Project steering committee met with representatives of F&S and SSC to brainstorm opportunities to help make the Campus Bike Project a financially self-supporting operation.  This is in parallel to the efforts of the MBA class looking into this issue.  The Bike Project will be submitting a Letter of Inquiry to the SSC before their current funding expires in May.

    F&S staff attended the monthly Champaign County Bikes meeting in January, to discuss a potential use of Ride Campus and Varsity Rack in Champaign-Urbana. F&S is also working with CCB member Jeff Yockey to develop a steering committee to explore the possibility of implementing Ride Campus at the University of Illinois.

    F&S staff and Patrick Clark met with the Illini Union to discuss improving bike parking facilities around the Union, and potentially having the Union be a pilot test location for the Varsity Rack. 

     

  8. Campus Composting Progress

    Associated Project(s): 
    Large-Scale Food Waste Composting

    The firm that was hired last fall to complete the Compost Feasibility Study, Foth, submitted a draft of their study to the University in early January for comments.  Immediately following, F&S applied for $250,000 from the F-SCRAP Grant from DCEO, for equipment and site improvements for the Large-Scale Food Waste Composting Facility.  In order to apply for the grant, the University was required to commit to funding the remaining portion of the facility’s proposed budget, and an emergency phone meeting was called by the Student Sustainability Committee to assign funding toward this. The committee voted in favor and granted $250,000 toward the project.  A draft plan for the compost facility was also developed and distributed to key stakeholders in mid-January for feedback. 

  10. Sustainability Curriculum and Workshop Progress

    Associated Project(s): 
    Encourage Course Development or Modification

    Engineering 315, Learning in the Community (LINC), has a number of course sections dedicated to sustainability this semester, including UI Bikes (UIB), for which Facilities & Services is serving as the Project Partner. The UIB section has two student project managers and 13 undergraduate students, who will be focusing on three bicycle-related projects this semester: A. the continuation of the bike sharing market analysis started last semester, including a campus-wide survey and targeted focus groups; B. the development of a campus bicycle parking map; and C. testing various marketing tactics to try to encourage students to park their bikes legally at designated bike parking, rather than on trees, signs, ramps, or fences.

    F&S and the Campus Bike Project (CBP) met with an MBA class who agreed to help the CBP become fiscally self-supporting through improved marketing. There are two student teams who will review this topic in the context of all bicycle-related topics for campus.

    Logistics are underway for the Spring, 2012 offering of the Teaching Sustainability Workshop (previously the Prairie Project).  There will be an opening reception and keynote speaker on Friday, April 13 at Levis Center and the workshop will be held on April 14, 2012 at the Japan House.  The call for applications went out on January 25 with applications due by March 9.  In two days, we had already received 11 applications and are now up to 15.  This is the quickest response we have had to date.

    The Scholarship of Sustainability Series is currently being offered for the third year.  The series is connected with 4 courses from 3 different colleges in addition to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.  Attendance each Thursday is expected to be around 100 people as the enrollment in the 4 courses are full (and the series will not be videotaped.)

    Last fall, the SSC suggested an MOU with the Office of Sustainability regarding the hiring of a curriculum specialist to work one-on-one with faculty to integrate sustainability into the curriculum.  The OS submitted a letter of inquiry for committee response on January 27, 2012.

  11. The F&S Energy and Production Distribution Master Plan Kicked Off

    Associated Project(s): 
    Stop Burning Coal at Abbott Power Plant

    The F&S Energy and Production Distribution Master Plan was kicked off in January.  This plan is the first step to achieving the goal of not burning coal at Abbott Power Plant by 2017. The plan will be developed over the course of calendar year 2012 and will include specific projects and cost estimates for implementing the plan in five-year increments. 

  18. update from Tom

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

    From: Thomas Ferrarell [mailto:tjferrarell@gmail.com]
    Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2012 10:27 PM
    To: Allen, Amy E; Beverage, McKenzie; Johnston, Morgan B
    Subject: Re: Weatherization

    I met with Dean, and I e-mailed all the groups, I'll send Julie a copy. I'll need to stop by McKenzie's office early this week to get their documents back so they can begin working on their lists. I'll also touch base with the additional buildings tomorrow morning before giving the teams their next assignments.

    Dean gave me a new timeline. He would like the recommendation lists by February 1st. He'll give the lists to people that will find the money values for the line items. He estimates that will take roughly 2 weeks. Once that is done, we will meet with all the team leaders and have a conversation about how to best use the $50,000. We were going to set that meeting somewhere in the ball park of February 20th. So right around then is when we'll be done.

    -Thomas Ferrarell

    On Sun, Jan 22, 2012 at 9:15 PM, Amy Allen <allen16@illinois.edu> wrote:

    Hey Tom,
           Were you able to get in touch w the teams about doing more buildings & presentations to Dean? Just an FYI, SECS' temporary weatherization group leader is Julie Fry(<fry6@illinois.edu>).
    Best,
    Amy

  19. Composting Program- Grant Application

    Associated Project(s): 
    Reduce Foodwaste

     A food-waste audit was done at University Housing facilities, which involved collecting and weighing waste from student’s plates that was put into the trash, as opposed to the disposal. Once the bag reached a full level, it was weighted and recorded. The weights measured food scraps and napkins, but not liquids. The average waste was about 4.6 ounces per person.

    Attached Files: 

  20. Go-Live Project Date

    Associated Project(s): 
    Energy Dashboard Project

    The energy dashboard for UIUC was launched Monday, December 5, 2011. The site provides data and information to students and staff about selected University building's energy consumption rate.  Real-time energy use for electricity, heating (steam), and cooling (chilled water) are displayed.

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