The 2022 Campus Sustainability Celebration was a huge success! Thank you to all who participated! The PowerPoint presentation is attached, and the agenda for the event was as follows:

• 3-3:15 PM – Welcome
  • Jennifer Fraterrigo, on behalf of Director Madhu Khanna (iSEE)
  • Chancellor Jones
  • Vice Chancellor Susan Martinis (OVCRI)
• 3:15 – 3:30 PM – Holistic initiatives
  • Plastic reduction (Jen)
  • Clean energy/Solar Farm 3 (Morgan)
  • Greener Campus Program (Meredith)
• 3:30 – 4:40 PM – iCAP Team presentations
  • Energy
  • Transportation
  • Land and Water
  • Zero Waste
  • Education
  • Engagement
  • Resilience
• 4:40 – 5 PM – Student groups (SSLC, SSC) – Jack Reicherts and Maiah Caise
  • Closing remarks by Jennifer Fraterrigo (on behalf of Madhu Khanna)
• 5 – 6 PM – Celebration - refreshments, roundtable forum with each iCAP Team, student tabling session  

In this meeting,  potential ideas for secured bicycle parking were discussed as ways to promote awareness among the campus community. A capstone proposal outlining the final objectives and deliverables was drafted and Sarthak helped support this discussion sharing an Excel sheet that has all of the goals, current status, and plans for the future of some mentioned ideas towards achieving the said objectives with challenges that are yet to be tackled. 

This week, Aparna is going to try to get in touch with the transportation team from other universities that have achieved the Gold BFU status to gather some ideas specific to raising awareness about bike thefts. This would navigate the research better. 

Aparna is also spending her initial time on the project learning about the Bike registration process and other initiatives that are already ongoing at UIUC to help understand the way forward. She also has access to the iCAP portal to update and document the weekly meetings to keep a track of the project progress.

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.

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. 

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

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