Hello ALUFS SWATeam members,

Thank you again for your willingness to help our campus achieve the Climate Leadership Commitments.  There is great value provided by the bi-weekly meetings of student, faculty, and staff representatives evaluating our progress and recommending additional actions campus units could take.

The following is a list of current activities I am aware of, and suggestions I have about useful next steps.  I am happy to follow up with you on any of these, as needed.

Thank you very much,

~Morgan

ALUFS

1.      Ag Emissions – During the 2015 iCAP process, we included the goal to reevaluate the emissions from ACES and create a new emissions baseline for south farms.  This effort was not started, but there is still an opportunity to do such an evaluation.  I believe Madhu Khanna and Evan DeLucia would be good resources for this evaluation, and perhaps Ximing could help facilitate it.

2.      Best Management Practices (BMPs) - The previous SWATeam considered dropping the Ag Emissions evaluation objective and adding one to encourage use of Best Management Practices for south farms.  The BMPs are an important aspect for increasing campus sustainability, and the concept should be extended to include land that is leased out to other farmers within the campus boundaries (if any). 

3.      Sustainable Plantings – Brent has made progress on the campus plant lists.  It would be helpful to have a map of existing native planting areas on campus, in GIS format.  We can provide the map of low mow zones as a starting point.

4.      Once there is a map, additional locations can be suggested for pollinator pockets, to support monarch butterflies and other pollinators.  Such locations can also include spaces that would reduce difficulty for the Grounds crew in riding mowers, such as nooks and crannies on campus, as well as steep slope areas.

5.      I suggest you invite Eliana Brown to give an overview of the efforts underway for the Red Oak Rain Garden.

6.      The Campus Master Plan is in final review and will be moving toward Board of Trustee approval.  The website is at https://masterplan-illinois.com/, but I’m not sure if they will have another review draft for the public.

7.      Local Food – great work in Dining!  I’m curious what the current percentage is from FY17.

8.      We need to look at what we are doing for other campus food areas, such as coffee shops and small cafes.  Your team could submit a recommendation about local food for dining in one or more of the non-housing areas.

9.      Soil sequestration – Other than prairies and trees, are there sequestration efforts campus should consider? 

10.  To reduce nitrate in Ag. Runoff, I suggest your team look at applicable recommendations in Nitrate Reduction Plan, and suggest the most promising ones for campus to implement. 

11.  At one point, we considered woody bioreactors in South Farms – see https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project-update/potential-bioreactor-project.  These are still an option, I just didn’t have time to move it forward in 2014.

12.  The Now Mow Zones were renamed Low Mow Zones, and there will be a press release and F&S website update to reflect the locations and benefits.

13.  Brent Lewis can share an update about the use of more electric equipment for Grounds operations.

14.  An updated Tree Inventory has been funded.  Brent is working on getting two quotes, so that the purchase order can proceed and the efforts can be started.

We are currently looking for more members for the EPA's Campus RainWorks Challenge. We will be looking into green infrastructure projects that could be implemented on campus.

"The Campus RainWorks Challenge seeks to engage with undergraduate and graduate students to foster a dialogue about responsible stormwater management and showcase the environmental, economic, and social benefits of green infrastructure practices."

We have a interdisciplinary team of faculty advisers. Our primary faculty adviser will be  Professor Arthur Schmidt from Environmental Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering.

We are also hoping to have an interdisciplinary team, so all majors are welcome, as long as you have a passion for the project. 

Teams will be finalized on September 30th. If you're interested in joining or have any questions, please contact Jessica Wiegand at jmwiega2@illinois.edu or Cindy Chen at cchen161@illinois.edu.

As collegians head back to campus this fall it means campus water use will spike, so ISTC has released a video on a model program which dramatically cut water waste with a student-directed behavior change campaign. Loyola University Chicago implemented its “Gallons Saved and Shared” project with the help of a grant from ISTC’s Billion Gallon Challenge. Student interns and volunteers planned and executed fixture upgrades across much of the campus and designed a awareness/behavioral campaign with the expertise of psychology majors. In addition, Robyn Mallett, associate professor of psychology and her colleagues, were able to study the responses to produce scientific insights. A college campus is an ideal setting to build a culture of sustainability that can follow graduates throughout their lives. The experience of “Gallons Saved and Shared” is a model that can be considered to produce conservation results on other campuses, said Aaron N. Durnbaugh, Loyola’s director of sustainability.

Hello all,

This past week, I

• Attended a CURC webinar on how to engage more participation in campus recycling programs.
• Drafted material to promote the glove recycling program, which is with Morgan and Anna. There is a lot of missing information, so this coming week, I will contact Kimberly-Clark and Fisher representatives to start filling it in.

Sincerely,

Marya Ryan
Zero Waste Coordinator