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Projects Updates for key objective: No name

  1. Week 2 update: Objectives for capstone

    Associated Project(s): 
    Bicycle Friendly University Status
    Reduce Bicycle Theft on Campus
    Independent Student Projects

    Questions and doubts regarding the literature review done in the past week were discussed including a capstone report outline highlighting the main topics of research. More research work to follow in the coming week to help familiarize with the project's background. Aparna got contact information from the transportation department of UCLA and Arizona State University to discuss the project with their transportation team as the 2 universities have achieved the Gold BFU status and hoping to get a sense of direction or any leads on this. She is also in touch with Prof. Lindsay Braun who is her capstone advisor, and Briana Barr, Thomas Valencia, and Lily Wilcock from the City of Urbana who are working on similar projects.

    The idea was to bring more concepts and recommendations for a bike-friendly university to the table. We might also try to involve the Student Sustainability Committee, which uses a comprehensive evaluative process to fund a project that incorporates student involvement and an ability to spark change on campus. Aparna would help identify a cause as a part of the bike-friendly project which would also serve as a student-led project to apply for the SSC funding. An excel sheet that charts out the current status of the project were shared by Sarthak for better clarity, which also includes feedback from BFU to help plan for the future and achieve the desired goal.

    Three main objectives of the proposal would be -

    1. To get the BFU application drafted and ready to submit by the month of May
    2. Ideas for SSC funding for the Bike Friendly University Project
    3. Educate students and create a plan for bike thefts so that incoming students are aware of how to protect their bikes and encourage them to use this mode of transportation.

    An overall capstone proposal that outlines the said objectives and a work plan will be shared in the upcoming week. Access to the iCAP portal will be granted soon to chart out real-time updates and minutes of meetings.

  3. Resilience iCAP Team October 2022 Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Resilience iCAP Team
    Urban Biodiversity Master Plan

    The Resilience iCAP Team had its second monthly online meeting on Monday, October 10th from 11:00 - 12:00 PM. The team worked on the Campus Sustainability Celebration slides, got updates on Urban Biodiversity Master Plan, talked about sustainability and resilience challenges at Urbana and Savoy areas, and shared announcements on upcoming sustainability events! Meeting minutes are attached. 

     

     

    Attached Files: 

  4. Transportation iCAP Meeting 10/10/2022

    Associated Project(s): 
    Transportation iCAP Team
    Fleet Replacement Plans
    Reduce Emissions from Transportation

    The Transportation iCAP team met on October 20th 2022 to discuss the team's presentation for the upcoming sustainability celebration, review the list of priorities assigned to the team for the year, and discuss progress on fleet replacement plans and the potential for university-wide clean vehicle purchasing policies.

    Link to meeting recording: https://mediaspace.illinois.edu/media/t/1_ufyde47b

    Attached Files: 

  5. Energy iCAP Team Meeting 10/7/2022

    Associated Project(s): 
    Energy iCAP Team
    Clean Energy Plan
    Use Clean Power
    Explore Options for 100 Percent Clean Campus Energy

    The energy iCAP team met on Friday, October 7th 2022 to review the team's presentation for the campus sustainability celebration, review the team's priorities for the year, and discuss options for advancing the proposed clean energy plan and increasing procurement of renewable energy through power purchasing agreements.

    Link to meeting recording: https://mediaspace.illinois.edu/media/t/1_5bh3gs4r

    Attached Files: 

  6. iSEE Green Event Certifications

    Associated Project(s): 
    Certified Green Event Program
    Certified Greener Campus Programs

    Happy campus sustainability month! We wanted to highlight some recent iSEE Green Event Certifications for the month of October.

     

    iSEE TED Talk: Eco-Edition Series, Certified October 2022

    iSEE Campus Sustainability Month Trash Clean Up, Certified October 2022

    iSEE Water Taste Test, Certified October 2022

     

    We are excited to see everyone at our sustainability events this month!

  7. Electric Vehicle (EV) steering committee

    Associated Project(s): 
    Electric Vehicle (EV) Task Force

    Dear Colleagues,

    Parking is in the process of forming a steering committee to develop university standards and policies regarding electric vehicle charging stations on the UIUC campus.  We will be partnering with Desman Consulting to develop the document and recommendations.  You are receiving this email because we would like you to serve on the steering committee.  We have worked with various divisions within F&S to identify individuals who have expressed interest, and who have in-depth knowledge of university infrastructure and systems.  Please let us know if you want to serve on this committee by next Friday, October 14, and we will set-up a time to meet in the next couple of weeks.

    Thank you,

    Marty

  8. Zero Waste iCAP Meeting 10/5/2022

    Associated Project(s): 
    Zero Waste iCAP Team
    Green Sports Alliance (GSA)
    Dining Services Reusable Containers

    On October 5th, the Zero Waste iCAP team met to make final edits on Campus Sustainability Celebration slides, foster a conversation on Zero Waste initiatives with the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics (DIA), and discuss potential recommendations relating to food waste at dining halls.

    Meeting Minutes are attached.

    Attached Files: 

  9. Varsity Room Sustainability Initiatives

    Associated Project(s): 
    Green Sports Alliance (GSA)
    Zero Waste iCAP Team
    Engagement iCAP Team
    Division of Intercollegiate Athletics (DIA) Climate Action Plan

    Team Clerk Claire Keating met with Zero Waste Team Clerk Nikki Palella and Justin Holding, a member of the engagement team.

    The meeting content included brainstorming zero-waste food containers for athletes who participate in meals provided by DIA and Hendrick House.

    Meeting also covered updates on Green Sports Alliance recommendation and future contacts.

     

  10. Green Cleaning Program Update 10-2022

    Associated Project(s): 
    Green Cleaning Products and Practices

    According to Dominika Szal, F&S Waste Management Intern, "We have found green alternatives for most of the floor cleaning products as well as some multi-surface/glass cleaning products. We are continuing our search for green alternatives for other types of products such as carpet cleaners, bleach, etc.."

    Here is a link to the WELL Building Standard. 

     

     

     

  11. Land and Water iCAP Meeting 10/4/2022

    Associated Project(s): 
    Land and Water iCAP Team
    Campus Landscape Master Plan (CLMP)
    Cover Crops on South Farms
    Let It Flow
    Benefits of a Large-Scale Prairie Experiment

    On October 4th, the Land and Water iCAP team met to make final edits on the Campus Sustainability Celebration slides, review the Campus Landscape Master Plan, and discuss regenerative agriculture research on the South Farms.

    Meeting minutes are attached.

    Attached Files: 

  12. Ohio State University includes the waste survey as part of the agenda for the upcoming BTAF meeting, to solicit a better survey response rate

    Associated Project(s): 
    Big Ten & Friends Sustainability
    Achieve Zero Waste

    From: Leciejewski, Mary leciejewski.8@osu.edu
    Sent: Tuesday, October 4, 2022 12:19 PM
    To: Hulse, Daphne Lauren dlhulse2@illinois.edu
    Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja dszal2@illinois.edu
    Subject: RE: Scheduling a Waste Management Survey

     

    Hi Daphne,

     

    Pleasure speaking with you last week. I was going to send out an agenda for the Big 10 and Friends meeting on Thursday. Are you still interested in introducing yourself and your project to try to solicit a better response rate? If so, I can put you on the agenda.

     

    Thanks! Mary

  13. Urban Biodiversity Master Plan Student Support

    Associated Project(s): 
    Urban Biodiversity Master Plan
    Resilience iCAP Team
    Education iCAP Team
    Land and Water iCAP Team
    Zero Waste iCAP Team
    Transportation iCAP Team
    Energy iCAP Team

    Biodiversity Plan intern Gabriel Harper-Hagen is looking for students and student groups to help him develop two iNaturalist surveys for the project. Here is the detailed explanation from Gabe:

    The survey will act as a pilot for future surveying around campus and the broader community. We will have two surveys: one focused on animals and one focused on plants. This is because of the different methods of surveying each. The surveys will benefit from as many students that would be interested in this for either one (Or both). The survey will attempt to efficiently gather data about the diversity of plant and animal species found on campus to create a baseline for what is present and to help identify gaps on the campus where diversity may be lacking. If successful, I hope to expand the model to other parts of the community including the park districts to have larger community based BioBlitz seasonally to keep track of the diversity in the area and measure success of the biodiversity plan. 

     

    As far as students can help, we need enough people to survey the area efficiently in a reasonable amount of time. The student groups and individual students would be helping in an initial survey that focuses only on the campus. My thought is that a date will be set for each of the two surveys where the participants can join to go over brief instructions on identifying plants with iNaturalist, adding them to the project, and explaining the purpose of surveying. iNaturalist allows for specific project data to be collected within a region which is then peer reviewed. Ideally, there will be some experts (students or professors if appropriate) that join for each survey to help with logistics and identification. I hope this will not only be a useful database for our campus to utilize, but also a fun learning experience. 

     

    All iCAP students and environmental student groups are encouraged to participate. If interested, please email Gabe (harperh2@illinois.edu) and Resilience iCAP Team clerk Asli Topuzlu (aslit2@illinois.edu). 

  14. Captstone meeting Week 1: Introduction to the topics

    Associated Project(s): 
    Bicycle Friendly University Status
    Reduce Bicycle Theft on Campus
    Independent Student Projects

    I, Aparna Padmakumar from the Department of Urban and Regional Planning am pursuing a master’s degree with a concentration focus in the field of transportation and currently is looking to take up a potential capstone project with the transportation iCAP team hoping to contribute to better bicycle safety/access on the UIUC campus. After multiple discussions and meetings with Sarthak Prasad,  the projects that I will be helping out with would be the ‘Bicycle Friendly University Status’ and ‘Reducing Bicycle Theft on Campus’ through the months of October until May. In today’s kick-off meeting (10/3/2022) previous data, studies, and information were shared with me for better clarity and expected to go through all the previously collected information on the iCap portal. Sarthak guided me through the 2022 Bicycle Friendly University (BFU) application to achieve Gold-level BFU certification and also the Bike at Illinois website as a source of information for the second ongoing project. I am also in constant touch with the other concerned team members to note down important background information on these 2 projects for a better sense of direction before our next weekly Monday meeting’

  16. F&S, ISTC, iSEE, and Illini Union meet to discuss the first steps of the waste characterization study

    Associated Project(s): 
    Waste Stream Characterization Study Phase 3

    From: Scrogum, Joy Joann <jscrogum@illinois.edu>
    Sent: Friday, September 30, 2022 4:18 PM
    To: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
    Cc: Samaras, Zach <zsamaras@illinois.edu>; Feher, Savannah <sfeher@illinois.edu>; Vogel, Kealie Diann <kdvogel2@illinois.edu>; Varney, Peter W <pvarney@illinois.edu>
    Subject: Information available in the "UC Campus Waste Audit" group on Teams

     

    Daphne, thanks for taking the time to speak with our ISTC team this afternoon.

     

    As noted, the previous two UIUC building waste characterization reports (file names "Baseline_Waste_Stream_Characterization_Study_Final_Report" and "Waste characterization phase 2") are in the “Files” section of the “UC Campus Waste Audit” group on teams, so you can see the buildings previously audited and consider whether to include those in the new study for some temporal comparison.

     

    The document “Waste Audit Activity Zone Summary” provides links to our recent work with Northwestern University, the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and Missouri State University (MSU). When this document was originally added to Teams, the MSU plan had not yet been published, but it was released this month, so I’ve updated the file with a link to that plan. This summary document shows the activity zones defined at each university, the number of representative buildings analyzed within each zone, and refers to the specific pages within each respective plan in which activity zones are discussed. For all three of these campuses, ISTC conducted waste characterizations using the activity zone approach, summarized current waste management practices, and collected feedback from focus groups (we conducted the focus group sessions for Northwestern an UIC, but MSU conducted their own sessions virtually during the pandemic). We then worked with campus personnel to consider the data collected, along with their waste reduction and diversion goals, and formulated recommended strategies to reach those goals as part of waste management plans.

     

    Beyond focus group sessions, in past studies we’ve also collected feedback from conversations during building walkthroughs, as part of more informal conversations, and from surveys like the UIUC building occupant survey (also on Teams). We’re happy to work with you to find the right balance of approaches for your purposes. The questions from the previous building occupant survey, for example, need not be presented as part of a survey this time around. Perhaps those could be among the questions for discussion within in-person focus groups.

     

    Also within the files on Teams is a copy of an email in which I described the activity zone approach and put forth some possible zones for the UIUC campus, along with some campus buildings that might fall within them (including buildings that were part of previous waste characterizations).

     

    So, take some time to consider all of this material, and let me know some days/times that would work for your schedule later in October or early November to work with ISTC on the definition of activity zones, specific buildings to include, and whether/how to incorporate stakeholder engagement in ISTC’s proposal. We look forward to working with you!

     

    Best wishes,

    Joy

     

    Joy Scrogum
    Assistant Scientist, Sustainability
    LEED Green Associate | Sustainability Excellence Professional (SEP)
    University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
    Prairie Research Institute
    Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC)
    Champaign, IL 61820
     

    Attached Files: 

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