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Projects Updates for key objective: No name

  3. iCAP Engagement Team November Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability Engagement and Outreach
    Engagement iCAP Team
    Certified Greener Campus Programs
    Certified Green Office Program (CGOP)

    On Friday, November 22nd, the iCAP Engagement Team held its monthly meeting. The team discussed ways to engage the campus community more, specifically students, and shared updates on OneIllinois, Greener Campus, and Earth Month. We discussed the possibility of using social media to increase engagement or physical fliers and posters. We also welcomed a guest speaker from the Zero Waste Team who discussed Sustain Illinois, a magazine that outlines what is currently happening around campus as well as how the average person can become involved in sustainability in the community. We also discussed having in-person meetings and events next semester for the team and small ways we can all be more sustainable. One call to action was for staff and faculty to consider making their office spaces green-certified and brainstorming ways to reach the Greek life population. Our next meeting will be December 20th. 

  6. Transportation Team Student Research

    Associated Project(s): 
    Student Mobility on and around the Illinois campus
    Transportation iCAP Team
    Install Public Use Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Stations
    Commuter Program: Bus, Bike, and Hike

    This past week, Sarthak and I met with the students on the Transportation Team to discuss their various research projects for the rest of this semester and the upcoming semester. We met with Pun Siripun on Nov. 11th, at 12pm; Charles Okoli on Nov. 14th, 12pn; Sebastian Vega on Nov. 15th, at 11am; and Mitchell Bryant on Nov. 15th at 1pm.

    The goal is to have each student conduct research on 30 or so universities in regards to various elements of transportation infrastructure, then present a final report on findings and recommendations for Illinois. The hope is that the schools are widespread, spanning from similar Midwest contexts as us to east and west coast.

    Pun will be examining EV Charging available at other schools and whether extending that in Urbana Champaign would be economically feasible and environmentally beneficial.

    Charles is reviewing Micro mobility. The goal is to promote micro mobility as alternative modes of transit, but to avoid enforcement costs and the safety of all (pedestrians and users). How have other schools done that well?

    Sebastian is studying the commuter program at Illinois and how other universities have implemented it successfully. How did they incentivize it? How did they fund it?

    Mitchell is researching the storage of micro mobility devices and how they can be expanded on campus. 

    Looking forward to hearing about their research and their suggestions for Illinois!

  8. Education iCAP Team November 2024 Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Education iCAP Team
    Sustainability Gen-Ed Requirement
    Sustainability in Study Abroad
    Sustainability at Career Fairs

    The iCAP Education team met on Teams from 4-5 PM on Monday November 18th. First we discussed steps on moving forward with the sustainbility Gen-Ed requirement, then we discussed the integration of sustainability in study abroad programs and lastly how to get further student input on the Green Career Forum. The meeting minutes are attached. 

  9. November iCAP Transportation Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Transportation iCAP Team
    Electric Vehicle (EV) Task Force
    2024 Campus Bike Plan
    Facilitate campus-wide sustainability events

    The Transportation Team had their November meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 12th, from 1:00 - 2:00pm. We discussed the student research projects and heard an update on the EV Charging survey from Denissa Darmawi. We ended by discussing the problem of motorized transit on the quads and what might be helpful to discourage it. The meeting minutes are attached!

    Our next meeting is December 10th, 1:00 - 2:00PM.

  10. iCAP Energy Meeting November 2024

    Associated Project(s): 
    Energy iCAP Team
    Building-Level Energy Efficiency
    Rooftop Solar Potential
    Solar Power on Campus

    The Energy Team met on Tuesday, Nov. 12th, from 3:30 - 4:30 PM. We provided updates on building energy efficiency efforts, explored occupant engagement strategies, and continued progress on solar rooftop initiatives. A draft recommendation for campus-wide energy upgrades was reviewed, and we discussed the upcoming agrivoltaic solar project. The meeting minutes are attached!

    Our next meeting is December 10th, 3:30 - 4:30 PM.

  11. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - December 6, 2024

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Agenda

    • [Michael] Updates:
      • Recommendations: added iWG Team
      • Project page: showing list of associated iCAP Teams only to logged in users
      • Recommendations search page:
        • Only showing links for Recommendations; made the rest plain text
        • Added column for latest Recommendation Update status
      • Trimmed down content in Project Updates listings so they're easier to scan:
        • Before: associated projects, full description, public & private files, notes, visibility
        • Now: associated projects, summary description, notes, visibility
        • Open to feedback!
      • Project page: "Add Project Update" and "Add new Metric" links on Project page now auto-fill the current Project!
      • Recommendation page: "Add Recommendation Update" on Recommendation page now auto-fills the current Recommendation!
    • Continue discussion of new Recommendations process
    • (Time permitting) Discussion of how to handle projects with large numbers of metrics (see notes from Sarthak & Michael's discussion)

    Discussion

    • Project Updates listings: can descriptions expand/collapse instead of just truncating?
    • New Recommendations process
      • Recommendations:
        • For description, enter summary of recommendation rather than iWG assessment
        • Add files column to Recommendation Updates table
        • Michael will investigate ways to show more of the story for each recommendation (incl. teasers w/expandable descriptions?)
        • Description field: "Original Recommendation" heading
        • Keep Recommendation Updates listing reverse chronological
        • Move Supplanted By box up to second position, right after iCAP Team
      • Recommendation Updates:
        • Use status at the time of the update rather than current status
        • For titles, use descriptive sentence rather than single word status
    • Sheri: duplicate locations in iCAP Portal
      • Send list to Michael; he'll merge them
    • SSC embed on ECE kiosks - will that become out of date with new SSC Projects approach?
      • We could potentially use the SSC embed, or a variation on it
      • Joyce Mast has retired; Catherine Somers is the current contact
    • May want to add SSC and possibly Public Affairs recognition to footer
    • Embeds: add card option for listings
    • Discussion of how to handle projects with large numbers of metrics

    TODOs

    • ✅ Update Add Project Update links on Project Header Layout projects
    • ✅ Project Updates listings: can descriptions expand/collapse instead of just truncating?
    • ✅ Recommendation pages:
      • ✅ Show most recent status prominently
      • ✅ Description field: "Original Recommendation" heading
      • ✅ Move Supplanted By box up to second position, right after iCAP Team
    • ✅ Merge duplication locations
    • ✅ Sort Recommendation Updates listing alphabetically (also look into adding sort options)
    • Investigate ways to show more of the story for each recommendation (incl. teasers w/expandable descriptions?)
    • Michael will reach out to Sheri to get SSC Projects embed working on SSC website
    • ✅ Update SSC link on iCAP Portal homepage to go to SSC Projects page
    • May want to add SSC and possibly Public Affairs recognition to footer
    • Embeds: add card option for listings

  12. Monarchs Need Milkweed Oct Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Increase Pollinator-Friendly Areas

    Below is an update from Brent Lewis on Oct 17th about the Monarchs need Milkweed recommendation:

     

    FYI, I’m close to getting a $2.5k bag of milkweed seeds delivered to me.  😊  We are getting this in the portal and ordered so Grounds can get this spread out this fall. 

     

    I’m hoping we can still get pots in the ground this fall too.  I see plenty of plants available at Midwest Groundcovers nursery in St. Charles, IL.  Deb is working on that.

     

    Additionally updates from the Land & Water Clerk which were provided at the Campus Sustainability Celebration:

     

    Milkweed Seeds for Monarch Butterflies

    •Received a grant for planting milkweed across campus to support monarch butterfly populations which are important pollinators

    •Seeds and plants will be planted around campus in late fall in low and no mow areas

    •Working to clarify no mow and low mow  zones on campus to support the growth of native plants, also making it easier for the planting of milkweed

     

     

     

  13. Google Analytics changes impact the user counts for the Portal

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    This is likely due to the change in Google Analytics’ reporting system. They moved from “Universal Analytics” (UA) to “Google Analytics 4” (GA4) which included a significant change in the way they count things like pageviews. It’s not exactly that the numbers we had before were inaccurate, nor that the new numbers are inaccurate, it’s that they’re being counted in a different way. Here are 2 major differences:

    1. UA tracked each device as a user; GA4 tries to track the same person across multiple devices (e.g. phone, tablet, laptop, desktop computer)
    2. UA would count the same person visiting on different days as different users; GA4 will track the same person visiting multiple times as a single user in a given report. So if you ran a report for 2 days, the same person visiting twice would count as 2 users in UA, but only 1 user in GA4. Now expand this out to an annual report, and you can imagine how the numbers can become much lower if you have a fair number of repeat visitors.
    3. GA4 may be doing a better job of honoring browsers’ Do Not Track requests, plus over time more people may be using extensions that block 3rd-party cookies and traffic, like Google Analytics.

     

    To demonstrate how point #2 above can lower our numbers, here are some tables comparing longer-term reporting periods with sums of shorter-term reporting periods:

     

    Monthly vs. Annual

    Month

    Users

    Jul-23

    1532

    Aug-23

    2765

    Sep-23

    2711

    Oct-23

    2579

    Nov-23

    2099

    Dec-23

    1702

    Jan-24

    1902

    Feb-24

    2180

    Mar-24

    1974

    Apr-24

    2565

    May-24

    2001

    Jun-24

    1728

    TOTAL

    25,738

     

    Comparison:

    • Total users in single report from Jul 1, 2023 to Jun 30, 2024: 24,548
    • Difference between reporting methods: 1,190
    • % more users when broken down by month: 5%

     

    Daily vs. Monthly

    Day

    Users

    1-Oct-23

    87

    2-Oct-23

    115

    3-Oct-23

    116

    4-Oct-23

    156

    5-Oct-23

    125

    6-Oct-23

    86

    7-Oct-23

    68

    8-Oct-23

    63

    9-Oct-23

    129

    10-Oct-23

    125

    11-Oct-23

    109

    12-Oct-23

    113

    13-Oct-23

    80

    14-Oct-23

    49

    15-Oct-23

    54

    16-Oct-23

    141

    17-Oct-23

    122

    18-Oct-23

    116

    19-Oct-23

    90

    20-Oct-23

    70

    21-Oct-23

    42

    22-Oct-23

    69

    23-Oct-23

    109

    24-Oct-23

    108

    25-Oct-23

    132

    26-Oct-23

    186

    27-Oct-23

    124

    28-Oct-23

    60

    29-Oct-23

    80

    30-Oct-23

    126

    31-Oct-23

    109

    TOTAL

    3159

     

    Comparison:

    • Total users in single report from Oct 1, 2023 to Oct 31, 2023: 2,579
    • Difference between reporting methods: 580
    • % more users in October 2023 when broken down by day: 22.5%

     

     

    For anyone who’s interested, here’s a bit more information about the differences between UA and GA4:

     

    I hope that helps explain some of the difference. I am surprised the number dropped in half – that is a pretty substantial change. If you’d like, I can spend some time delving into that in more detail to see if there’s something going on, but my hunch is that it’s mostly attributable to the change in the way Google Analytics records and reports its data. I’m not an expert at Google Analytics; if you know anyone who’s good at analyzing Google Analytics reports, we could invite them to take a look and see what they notice.

     

    </Michael>

     

    Michael McKelvey

    Office for Mathematics, Science, & Technology Education

  15. Education iCAP Team October 2024 Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Education iCAP Team
    Sustainability Gen-Ed Requirement
    Sustainability in Study Abroad
    Sustainability at Career Fairs

    The iCAP Education team met on Teams from 4-5 PM on Monday October 21st. First we identified the next 5 steps to take towards implementing a sustainability Gen Ed requirement. Then we discussed the integration of sustainability in study abroad programs through different colleges and how to get further student input on the Green Career Forum. The meeting minutes are attached. 

  16. Discussion about Metrics - October 16, 2024

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Michael McKelvey and Sarthak Prasad met to continue discussing how to handle projects with large numbers of metrics in the iCAP Portal.

    Discussion/Decisions

    • Option #1: continue showing metrics in accordion on project page
      • Pros:
        • No new effort needed
      • Cons:
        • Lots of metrics on a single page - kind of overwhelming
        • Page load could get slow
    • Option #2: parent project for all pedestrian & bicycle counts with a sub-project for each counter, similar to how Solar Power on Campus is set up
      • Pros:
        • Only 1 metric per page
        • Simple solution
        • Easy to find each counter in hierarchy
      • Cons:
        • 30+ new projects - hierarchy bloat?
        • Don't see all the metrics together; have to visit each project to see its metric
    • Option #3: show all metrics on a single graph
      • Pros:
        • See everything in one place
        • No new projects needed
      • Cons:
        • New feature requires additional work to implement
        • Graphing dozens of items makes it hard to differentiate them - too much data
    • Things to consider:
      • What information do we want people to get from the data? Comparison of pedestrian vs bicycle? Comparison of various locations?
      • Discuss graphing long-term metrics

    TODOs:

    • Bring options to larger group
    • Sarthak will investigate whether Eco Counters website could allow embedding of their visualizations

  17. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - November 1, 2024

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Agenda

    • [Michael] Quick updates:
      • Project Updates now default to being promoted to front page
      • Metrics link on homepage links to Metrics w/Details listing
      • Homepage video updated to iCAP 2025 Kickoff video
      • Featured Projects on Projects page: now showing last 2 updated/edited Featured Projects (previously we showed the latest 2 by creation date, so editing a Featured Project didn't bump it back to the top). This will match the sorting on the Featured Projects listing page.
      • Bugfix: Metric annotations now allow line breaks (previously line breaks in metrics would stop all graphs on the page from loading)
      • Bugfix: Project descriptions - big images were causing "View Full Description" to look weird. Sarthak, you'd reported this bug - could you test this out and see if you can still break it?
      • Started showing all images on SSC Projects and moved the images below the map. Most projects seem to have only 1-3 images anyway. If this becomes an issue for projects with lots of images, I can look into other options.
    • [Michael, Miriam] Intro to new Recommendations process
    • [Sarthak, Michael] Discussion of how to handle projects with large numbers of metrics (see notes from Sarthak & Michael's discussion)

    Discussion

    • New Google Analytics user numbers dropped in half last year, largely due to changes in the way Google Analytics tracks users (see Google Analytics changes impact the user counts for the Portal project update)
      • Start a new metric?
      • Continue using current metric with an Annotation?
        • This was the preferred approach.
    • Homepage video: the explanatory text about climate change is in the way - can we remove it?
    • Intro to new Recommendations process
      • Recommendations will start being added next week
      • Do we have the process for adding Recommendations documented?
        • No documentation yet, just verbally described
        • Old Recommendations process is detailed in 2 private Word documents on the Sustainability iCAP Portal project page.
      • Decided to continue discussion at next meeting
    • Discussion of how to handle projects with large numbers of metrics [DEFERRED TO FUTURE MEETING]

    TODOs

    • ✅ Featured Projects:
      • ✅ Stop wrapping text below image
      • ✅ Strip formatting from text
    • ✅ Recommendations
      • ✅ Add iWG Team
    • ✅ Project page
      • ✅ Show list of associated iCAP Teams only to logged in users
    • ✅ Recommendations search page
      • ✅ Only show links for Recommendations; make the rest plain text
      • ✅ Add column for latest Recommendation Update status

  20. iCAP Energy Meeting October 2024

    Associated Project(s): 
    Energy iCAP Team
    LED Campus
    Energy Dashboard Project
    Rooftop Solar Potential
    Solar Power on Campus

    The Energy Team had their meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 8th, from 3:30 - 4:30 PM. We discussed solar rooftop project progress, reviewed funding opportunities for sustainability projects, and explored improvements to campus energy dashboards. Other topics included state-mandated LED transitions and occupant comfort strategies in campus buildings. The meeting minutes are attached!

    Our next meeting is November 12th, 3:30 - 4:30 PM.

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