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Projects Updates for key objective: No name

  1. ECBS SWATeam meeting minutes

    On the agenda at the ECBS SWATeam meeting:

    1) Follow up from April 14 Illini Lights Out;

    2) Reports from success of Eco-Olympics;

    3) Continued discussions on Karl’s work with ACES and other buildings;

    4) Energy efficiency standard for UIUC;

    5) Dr. Ximing Cai, new Associate Director for Campus Sustainability came to meet the team;

    6) SWATeam next meeting time and date:  May 11th, from 3:30 to 5 pm. 

     

  2. Water & ALUFS Joint Meeting Minutes 4/27/17

    Water & Stormwater SWATeam and the Agriculture, Land Use, Food & Sequestration (ALUFS) SWATeam had a joint meeting to discuss shared objectives and project ideas. 

  3. Weekly update for Zero Waste

    Associated Project(s): 

    Hello all,

    Here are my updates from last week:

    • I attended the PWR SWATeam meeting, during which the team decided to finalize and forward its recommendations for a CAM paper policy. I need to obtain a document showing the recommendations, as I did not see a final version of it. They also discussed comments they had provided for the Ethics Office video supporting recycling compliance. They will cc Morgan and Micah on the message containing the recommendations. The group discussed avenues to promote sustainability and the behaviors that support it at the marathon, at Quad Day, and during EOH.
    • I communicated with Jessica Tran to set up a meeting regarding recycling options for Family and Graduate Housing.

    Sincerely,


    Marya Ryan
    Zero Waste Coordinator

     

  4. April 21st, 2017 Meeting

    Meeting Minutes 4/21/17

    In attendance:

    Ximing Cai

    Pete Varney

    Brian Farber

    Yanfeng Ouyang

     

    Summary:

    This meeting serve to continue discussion on campus fleet, bike parking, and campus parking. Also, Ximing Cai was introduced to the team.

     

    Topics:

    Discussion on Campus Fleet

    Pete led a discussion on campus fleet efforts. He stated that converting campus fleet to EVs and CNG vehicles would have a large effect on campus emissions, and that campus utility is interested in learning about electric vehicles, but there are certain obstacles to converting campus fleet. First it would cost about half a million dollars or more. These costs are largely attribute to building infrastructure for CNG refueling systems. In addition, campus fleet vehicles for Facilities and Services as well as housing do not drive very far, so the fuel savings would be small. However, converting campus fleet would be practical as the vehicles do not travel off campus, meaning there will be no inconvenience in refueling the vehicles.

    Bike Parking

    We continued our discussion on bike parking from the last meeting. One of our concerns, given the cost of the permits, is security. Anyone who is paying for a permit must be certain that there bike is secure. We might want to have security cameras.

    Parking

    We discussed efforts to encourage less driving through parking incentives. Pete suggested having a passenger-car-free campus zone by placing parking outside of certain zones of campus. This idea was well received by the group and generally liked. However, we discussed challenges to any parking changes. We discussed specific proposals to adjust parking prices, shown here:

    -          Try to price people out of parking and mitigate this by reducing the price at other locations

    -          Allow flexible payment in percentage of salary

    -          Have and “auction” in which whoever pays the largest percent of their salary gets the closest location.

    -          Remove or lift parking cap so that wealthier parkers pay more and thus provide more revenue

    -          Have a private company raise rates on parking

     

    Then, we discussed challenges to these proposals:

    -          Parking is important to unions – any changes may result in strikes or political conflict

    -          The sentiment of Parking and Campus master plan does not necessarily agree with people parking farther away – an objective that would be achieved through a passenger-car-free zone

    -          Hiring private company likely not a good idea – their primary motivation is profit

    -          City of Champaign changed parking ordinances so that spaces at churches, fraternities, etc, decrease

     

    Our next meeting is TBD.

     

  5. Water & Stormwater Meeting Minutes 4/13/2017

    Discussion of upcoming joint meeting with Agriculture, Land Use, Food and Sequestration (ALUF) SWAT. Development of ideas for student projects, including georeferenced inventory for F&S, analysis of green roofs and solar panels, and phoshorus monitoring of stormwater. 

  6. Weekly update for Zero Waste

    Associated Project(s): 

    Hello all,

    Here is a summary of my activity last week:

    • I spoke with Joy Scrogum about the state of battery recycling on campus and thoughts for its future. Then Morgan, Micah Kenfield, and I met with Robert McKim and Clara Bosak-Schroeder, two faculty members who want to help with promoting battery recycling on campus. I provided them with a link to the Call2Recycle website, where they can purchase battery recycling boxes.
    • I met with Jonathan McClintock from Kimberly Clark to learn more about the RightCycle program under which we are recycling gloves. I also stopped by an event at Krannert, where companies affiliated with Fisher Scientific were showcasing their products.
    • Morgan and I spent time on Friday catching up on various recycling efforts and defining the next steps, with particular attention to communications about source separation and my assignment to map where the outdoor bins are around campus.

     

    Sincerely,

    Marya Ryan
    Zero Waste Coordinator

     

  7. EGEN SWATeam Meeting (4.13.17)

    The EGEN SWATeam held another bi-weekly meeting. Topics covered include:

    • Ximing Cai's [in attendance] vision for iSEE and SWATeams
    • Developing a recommendation to expand UIUC solar farm.
    • Developing a recommendation for another clean energy PPA
    • Cost savings for geothermal systems and opportunities for implementation at solar farm and new building sites
  8. ECBS SWATeam meeting minutes

    On the agenda at the ECBS SWATeam meeting:

    1) Report from Karl on projects he has been working on:

       a) Enterprise Works - proposed revolving loan project.  Awaiting departmental funding of $350K to complete project. 

       b) Memorial Stadium RCx work - This appears to be getting $500K in funding.

       c) National Soybean Research space walk preview.  

    2)  Discussion on LEED requirements as iCAP goal

    3)   BIF lighting follow up

    4)  Final planning for ILO on Friday, April 14

    5)   Updates:

       a) Eco-Olympics

       b) Recommendation for ILO continuation submitted by Marian

       c) Green Labs Coordinator position

    6) SWATeam next meeting time and date:  April 27th, from 3:30 to 5 pm. 

  9. Weekly Update for Zero Waste

    Associated Project(s): 

    Hi Tracy—

    Last week, my main activities were

    • Meeting with you to learn the online time reporting system and to discuss limitations at WTS related to locating additional recycling drop-off bins there; relaying information back to Morgan
    • Organizing meetings related to glove and battery recycling
    • Meeting with Jordan Powers and Tanya Lisowsky of Fisher Scientific about glove recycling

    I can provide more detail on any of these items if it’s helpful/useful to do so.


    Best regards,
    Marya Ryan
    Zero Waste Coordinator

  10. Parking Lot F-4 potential site

    Parking Department facility manager, Mike Wise, shared the following information.  "I will be submitting the resurfacing project for lot F4 as a FY19 Project in June/July of 2018. Then an Architect will be selected and design begins. Bidding and Construction will follow. Ideas can start now though so that we can vet them and include a finalized Program with the project request."

  11. PWR SWATeam Minutes 3/29

    Meeting Minutes 3/29

    During this meeting, the PWR SWAT Team coordinated with Marya Ryan, the new Zero Waste Coordinator. We discussed previous campus efforts for multiple different projects like composting and recycling as well as introduced ourselves to one another. 

    The SWAT Team also was updated on progress with reviewing the Paper Policy Draft comments and will finish this review by next meeting. 

    Furthermore, a discussion of composting efforts on campus was discussed and an effort to create a comprehensive map of waste pickup routes will be created. 

    Next meeting is TBD.

    Attached Files: 
  12. Weekly Update for Zero Waste

    Associated Project(s): 

    Good morning, Tracy—

    Here is what I’ve been up to this past week:

    • Morgan and I met with Nick Osborne at the Wounded Vets’ Center last Tuesday to discuss glass recycling. I have a call in to Matt Snyder at CRI and will call him again to get costs, pickup schedules and other information we’ll need to get glass recycling set up at Wounded Vets and about a dozen other locations where it is needed to meet our LEED certification requirements.
    • I attended the PWR SWATeam meeting last Wednesday and followed up by putting Meghan Killinger in touch with Ryan Welch and Brent Lewis on an effort to learn the waste pick-up routes on campus. They have also requested information on the status of composting, which I will provide in the coming few days.
    • I have email in to Ryan and Brent to clarify what is needed by way of mapping waste bins around campus for the Dual Bin project.
    • Jordan Powers from Fisher Scientific has been in touch with me. We are arranging a meeting to include Tanya Lisowski in the coming week or two.
    • Morgan and I met for a couple of hours so that she could give me the history of waste reduction and diversion efforts related to glass, styrofoam, compostables and the anaerobic digester, gloves, and batteries.
    • I signed up to get information from CURC. I got my F&S badge from Traice Quinn.

    Best regards,

    Marya Ryan

    Zero Waste Coordinator

  13. EGEN SWATeam Meeting (3.30.17)

    The EGEN SWATeam held another bi-weekly meeting. Topics covered include:

    • Performing preliminary assessment for clean energy PPA
    • Fact sheet using solar farm as basis to estimate land needs and costs of additional solar farm to meet iCAP goal
    • Update on biomass boiler at energy farm
    • Identifying opportunities to purseu implementation of ground source heat pump (GSHP) technology on campus.
  14. Water & Stormwater SWAT Meeting Minutes 3/30/2017

    Updates and discussion of greywater meter, greywater design standards, cooling tower cycles of concentration, water use dashboard, and student outreach. 

  15. iWG meeting agenda March 28, 2017

  16. iWG meeting minutes March 28, 2017

  17. Water Use and Cycles of Concentration (COC) in a cooling tower

    Below is information provided by Jeremy Overmann, B.S. Ch. E., Water Treatment Specialist, on the water use and cycles of concentration (COC) in a cooling tower, as requested after a Land and Water SWAT meeting. 

    "

    Water SWAT members,

     

    Here is some more information regarding the cooling tower discussion at today’s meeting.

     

    This first graph shows how much water a typical 100 ton Cooling Tower uses per hour, and how this changes when the tower is operated at various Cycles of Concentration (COC)

    NOTE:  a 1 ton cooling tower can remove 15,000 BTU/hr of heat.

     

    2Q==

     

    Most standard chemically treated Cooling Towers use unsoftened water and operate between 4 – 6 COC, depending on the source water quality (also called Make-Up water) and the efficacy of the chemical treatment program.

    As COC increases, the potential for formation of calcium scale (and possibly other types of scale) increases.  Scale deposits reduce the energy efficiency of the chiller and the cooling tower, and result in the need for labor intensive cleaning to remove the scale.

     

     

    The following table shows the relationship between volume of Cooling Tower blowdown (bleed), blowdown rate (% bleed), COC, and total water usage.

    Cycles of Concentration is controlled by choosing the rate of blowdown.  This is done by controlling the blowdown (bleed) valve at the bottom of the tower.

     

    COC

    BLOWDOWN

    TOTAL USAGE (Makeup)

     

    Gallons

    Percent

    Gallons

    Percent

    1.5

    10,000

    100%

    15,000

    100%

    2

    5000

    50%

    10,000

    66%

    3

    2500

    25%

    7500

    50%

    4

    1667

    17%

    6667

    44%

    5

    1250

    13%

    6250

    42%

    6

    1000

    10%

    6000

    40%

    7

    833

    8%

    5833

    39%

    8

    714

    7%

    5714

    38%

    Note: Evaporation = 5000 Gallons

     

     

     

    In a “Zero” blowdown cooling tower, softened water is used, and cycles of concentration ranges from 20 – 100 or higher.  To achieve proper water chemistry to provide corrosion protection, usually need to operate at > 20 COC. 

    During the Champaign Regional Office Building study, the highest COC achieved was 51.  The blowdown valve is turned off, however some water is lost from leaks in the tower, and from droplets of water that escape with the air that is drawn through the tower.

     

    COC

    BLOWDOWN

    TOTAL USAGE (Makeup)

     

    Gallons

    Percent

    Gallons

    Percent

    1.5

    10,000

    100%

    15,000

    100%

    5

    1250

    13%

    6250

    42%

    10

    555

    6%

    5550

    37%

    25

    208

    2%

    5208

    35%

    50

    102

    1%

    5102

    34%

    75

    66

    0.7%

    5066

    34%

    100

    51

    0.5%

    5051

    34%

    200

    25

    0.3%

    5025

    34%

    Note: Evaporation = 5000 Gallons

     

    "

     

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