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Projects Updates for key objective: No name

  1. Follow up questions for the UIUC waste audit report

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

    Hi Daphne! Thanks again to you and Pete for taking time to review the preliminary audit data with us yesterday. As you have time to digest all of that, please let us know if you have any questions. We look forward to the FY 2023 tonnage stats for landfilled waste, commodities recycled, and the updated effective diversion rate calculations to include in the report. As promised, I wanted to follow up with some questions our team has as we work on the report:

     

    • How many campus buildings have at least one MaxR bin? https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/metric/buildings-new-waste-bins says 63, but https://sustainability.illinois.edu/icap-update-toward-a-zero-waste-campus/ indicates number is 64. 64 is correct; I had yet to update the number on the iCAP portal by 1!
    • Does campus still send waste to Brickyard Disposal and Recycling, Inc., and is methane capture still happening at that landfill? We plan to note this in our report, as well as the life expectancy of that landfill (18 yrs.), based on IEPA info. No, our current contract with Green For Life (GFL) is with the Clinton, IL landfill which does not have methane capture.
    • Regarding destinations for recyclables (previously shared by F&S):
      • Does F&S take scrap metal to Mack’s Twin City Recycling in Urbana, or Mervis? I know I’ve heard this before but both company names begin with “M” and they’re both in Urbana, so I want to make sure I’m not mixing them up. Mervis is who we use for our scrap metal.
      • Graphic Packaging in Battle Creek, MI was on the list of destinations for cardboard collected on campus. However, that location seems to have been closed (see https://wwmt.com/news/local/battle-creek-graphic-packaging-mill-closes-friday-employees-plant-expansion). Is cardboard still sent to Graphic Packaging, and if so, which location? Good question. I sent an inquiry to our GFL rep who directly works with the mill buyers/brokers who take our recyclables. I will follow up with his response.
      • Novelis in Atlanta, GA was listed as a destination for aluminum, but looking at their website, that seems to be their corporate HQ. Can we confirm the destination location for Novelis? Working on receiving confirmation!
    • Clarifying current practices
      • All auxiliary units coordinate their own BSWs, correct? I know Housing, the Union, and Campus Rec do, but wanted to confirm this is true for other auxiliaries not included in the study. This is correct. Every auxiliary on campus has their own BSWs.
      • Are there any buildings on campus where cardboard is still being placed in the landfill dumpster as standard procedure, to be picked out later at the WTS, or is it the case that all buildings either have a cardboard dumpster or toters for cardboard collection? Yes, this is correct. If the carboard is grouped together and visible in the landfill dumpster, it can pretty easily be grabbed out when it is dumped at WTS. Similarly, are there any buildings on campus with such limited dock space that blue bags of recyclables are being put into the landfill dumpster for later recovery at the WTS? Yes, this does occur because of the limited dock space. In other words, are there buildings without adequate dock space even for toters for recyclables? I believe that was true in the past but want to confirm whether that is happening at all on campus as we work on process flow diagrams. Improvements are being made during new capital builds to include the perspective of waste management (BSWs, truck drivers) in the design process for buildings. We continually face the challenge that there is inadequate space outside of buildings to place more than 1 dumpster. This situation further emphasizes the need for correct color-coding of the bags.
      • When considering the “acceptable” materials list for paper bins, does “Office Paper: All Types” include shredded paper? I assume so but wanted to confirm. Yes, it includes shredded paper.
    • We currently have the following items highlighted under “Current Campus Waste Reduction & Diversion Initiatives” in the draft report:

    Please confirm that we should also add:

    • Recyclopedia Confirmed, let’s add!
    • Pilot transition to new paper towel dispensers (which will help reduce paper towel waste) Confirmed, let’s add!
      • 17 buildings transitioned to the new paper towel dispensers over the holiday break (December 2023 – January 2024). The Building Services team is slated to transition another clockstation or two during the summer break (June 2024 – July 2024), transitioning an additional 40-60 buildings to the new dispensers.
    • Anything else? Should we highlight LeanPath or other efforts related to organics (e.g. exploration of anaerobic digestion) given the amount of food scraps being sent to landfill?
    • If you could point us to relevant iCAP or other online information on additional programs to highlight, and/or provide suggested blurbs, we’d appreciate it!

     

    Thanks in advance!

    Joy

     

    Hi Joy,

     

    Please see in red the responses to your questions in your previous email. Let me know if anything needs more clarification. I will follow up on the questions I didn’t immediately have an answer for. Recyclopedia will eventually be a webpage on the F&S website but for now I have the drafted word doc form to share.

     

    Question for you all – we have started up conversations with Tork/Essity for paper towel recycling in light of the preliminary results you shared with us last week. It’s a very telling story that paper towel recycling would be hugely beneficial for a campus that so heavily relies on the material. Would it be okay with you all for us to share the data with them/the drafted report you walked Pete and me through?

     

    Thank you,


    Daphne

     

  2. ISTC-UIUC Waste Characterization Study: Draft Document Discussion

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

    Hey, all!!

    Thanks for the great meeting.

    We were glad to hear that Daphne liked the dining glass recycling numbers (130,955lb!), the process flow charts, and the BSW-related engagement section. We're moving ahead with the plan to publish the entire report, and we'll also work on making a clear and concise (1-3 page??) executive summary too. Here's what I got for notes:

     

    Daphne's to-dos:

    • P14. Send GFL Battle Creek info
    • P14. Hear back from GFL on Novelis info
    • P26. Investigate dining's Tin Can recycling??
    • P14. Keep working on Effective Diversion Rate calculation w interns
    • P17. Send public box file on (ordering MaxR??)
    • P43. Send Green basketball rates for March 3+5
    • Recommendation Table:
      • What other ideas do you have?
      • Any existing recs need higher priority/more detail?
      • Provide draft "responsible party" for each
    • Poke Dr. Garg for project updates?

     

    ISTC's to-dos:

    • P6 and P16. Include specific numbers of 245 MaxR bins, mostly 3-bin stations, across 70 buildings
      • Union has 9 with, 7 w/o shadowboxes
    • P14. Add a little more explanation of "auxiliary" -- means it has to "pay for itself," basically
      • But F&S still services external dumpsters
    • P14. Transition to F&S servicing/replacing outdoor bins happened at end of calendar 2023
      • Replacing bins -- currently ~50, but 125 dual bins by Fall 2024.
    • Make executive summary
      • Determine what's important to include
      • Determine how to present it / where to put that information (iCAP portal? ISTC website? Box?)

     

    Have a great Wednesday! We'll plan to meet again soon to discuss these items.

    Betsy

     

    Betsy Ruckman
    Sustainability Technician

  4. Engagement iCAP Team Meeting Minutes 3/22/2024

    Associated Project(s): 
    Engagement iCAP Team
    Sustainable Events Program

    The Engagement iCAP team met on 3/22/2024 to go over 2020 iCAP objectives and discuss plans for the 2025 iCAP. The director of the Office of Civic Life, Gina Lee-Olykoya, joined as a guest speaker to discuss her work with engaging volunteerism on campus and in the C-U community. The group also briefly discussed updated on our Comparative Analysis for Residence Halls.

    Attached Files: 

  5. iSEE New Green Event Certifications - February 2024

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

    The Greener Campus Program would like to recognize the most recent events certified under the Green Event Certification Program.

     

    These events include:

    - Office of the Provost's Student Success Symposium; hosted February 8th, 2024 

    - Office of the Provost's Celebration of Academic Excellence; hosted February 20th, 2024 

    - Sustainable Aviation Fuel Workshop; hosted February 23rd, 2024

     

    Congratulations and keep up the great work! 

  6. Discussion about SSC projects in iCAP Portal - March 13, 2024

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Miriam Keep, Codie Sterner, and Michael McKelvey met to discuss the status of embedding projects from the iCAP Portal on the SSC website.

    Discussion items:

    • Michael shared a demo of SSC project embedding (TEST site) which includes a map which responds to filters.
    • Codie suggested adding the following SSC-specific fields to projects:
      • (SSC) Project Lead
      • (SSC) Project Lead Email
      • (SSC) Financial Advisor (all)
      • (SSC) Financial Advisor Email
      • (SSC) Project Advisor (only applicable to student-led projects)
      • (SSC) Project Advisor Email
      • (SSC) Team Members (unlimited plain text fields, just like in Contacts tab)
    • Change SSC tab title to: SSC Specifics
    • Project Funding discussion:
      • Prefer to separate out the 2 funding sources (SCEF, CETF) - perhaps instead of one "Funding Source" in iCAP Portal for SSC, could have 2 - one for each fund. Funding Type in the Funding Details could be a way to group together all SSC funding regardless of source (?)
      • When SSC funds a project, each semester needs to be reported separately, which is a different structure from how "projects" are represented in the iCAP Portal. For one-off funding, this isn't a problem, but sometimes (~5%?) SSC funds projects multiple times, which would require creating multiple Projects in the iCAP Portal to record SSC info about what the iCAP Portal would consider a single "project." How do we handle this? Some potential options include:
        • Always create a sub-project for each semester of SSC funding related to a project (lots of "extra" projects in the iCAP Portal created only to record SSC funding info). Projects created explicitly for SSC which don't have a more logical parent could go potentially go under the SSC project.
        • Use the Project Funding system in the iCAP Portal to record information by semester. The "Project Funding" content type is meant to act as a bridge between Funding Sources and Funding Details, so it might be the right place to store this information.
        • Create a new content type specifically for SSC projects. Perhaps use Metrics as a template? Not sure if there's an advantage to this over repurposing the Project Funding system, except this would be a single-purpose system built specifically for SSC, so it might be more streamlined.
      • Michael and Codie plan to meet March 22 to continue the discussion.

  7. Discussion about iCAP recommendations - March 13, 2024

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Michael McKelvey, Miriam Keep, and Morgan White have a meeting scheduled on Friday, March 22 to discuss how to structure Recommendations, probably by diagramming on a whiteboard. In the meantime, Michael and Miriam met briefly to discuss iCAP Recommendations while the discussion at last Friday's meeting is still somewhat fresh. Our takeaways:

    • Perhaps we shouldn't use Project Updates after all, but should pattern the new Recommendations feature after Metrics:
      • A Recommendation is associated with a project and contains some additional general information
      • A Recommendation can have many "tracking" updates including at least a status and some notes
      • This would mean that each tracking record for a Recommendation wouldn't automatically generate a Project Update. Is that ok?
    • We also discussed using the iCAP Portal for the Recommendation workflow. We're not sure whether that would reduce complexity or increase it. Further discussion is warranted. Sample project updates with initial recommendation form attached:

    We look forward to diagramming this out on a whiteboard in Morgan's office!

  8. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - March 8, 2024

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Agenda

    • Homemade caramels!
    • Update: Miriam Keep, Sarthak Prasad, Christina Tran, and Michael McKelvey met to discuss a proposed structure for updating iCAP recommendations: Discussion about updating iCAP recommendations - February 21, 2024
    • Lots of back-end updates/upgrades over the past couple weeks - Michael's been testing and retesting to try to catch any incompatibilities with the new updates, and so far things are looking good. Let him know if you encounter any issues!
      • One update of note: the module that creates automatic redirects when titles change has gotten smarter, so those infinite loops should be a thing of the past!
    • Google Analytics reporting

    Discussion/Decisions:

    • Project Updates:
      • Add field "To Do Item(s)" at top of Tasks section
        • Show field in Pending Tasks listing?
        • Q: who should be able to view the content of this field? Other task-related fields are restricted to iCAP Admins & iCAP Moderators, but if you want to assign a task to a non-admin or non-moderator, they'll need to be able to view this task field (and the other fields) in order to view the task. Should we expand the scope of who can view task-related fields? At least add iCAP Clerks, or perhaps even all logged in users?
      • Q: Also add field for tagging iCAP Portal user(s) as responsible party for tracking tasks and updating when they're completed? (note: separate from "Assigned To" field which allows free editing and doesn't associate with user accounts
        • What should this field be called?
        • Should it allow multiple people to be entered?
        • Add a My Tasks page where logged in users can view all tasks assigned to them. Also show tasks they've assigned?
        • Started work on this on test site: Michael's test task
    • Pending Tasks list:
      • ✔️Change Title column to "Project Update"
    • Recommendations:
      • May not need to allow a Project to "subscribe" to Recommendations:
        • Recommendation has associated Project (allow multiple, but typically only enter one)
        • Project page shows all Recommendations pointing to this project (possibly instead of a project being able to "subscribe" to recommendations)
        • iWG project: instead of showing all the recommendations, provide a link to the page showing the recommendations
      • Recommendation add/edit form could be used to receive suggestions for new recommendations
      • Need to discuss further - Morgan, Miriam, and Michael will meet next week to discuss & diagram out on a whiteboard

  10. Google Analytics changes to user counts on portal

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Ok, I added last year’s user stats, which looks like the only one we didn’t have yet. We had to migrate to a new version of Google Analytics last year, so the process for looking up the user count will change for FY24. Fortunately, there was overlap between the old Google Analytics system and the new one, so we could get all of FY23 on the old system and all of FY24 on the new one. The new system counts things a bit differently (for example, it focuses on Active Users rather than Total Users), and the numbers are often lower than the previous system, so we should probably expect a bit of a dip in the future. For example, for the period of time where both the old and new systems were collecting data (Jan 9, 2023 – Oct 4, 2023), the old system counted 35,311 users while the new system counted 27,206 users. At least that’s what I’m finding with what I think is the most equivalent user count. The new system is much more complicated to use (and powerful!) than the old system, so there may be another way to count the users that will give us something more similar to the old system. I’ll keep messing around with it to see if I can build a report that’s useful for counting users, and I’ll let you know what I come up with, Quinn.

     

    Additionally, the old system will be shut down on July 1, 2024, and all its historical data deleted, so if there’s any information we want to glean from it from before January 9, 2023, we should do that in the next couple months. I’ll put that discussion on the agenda for Friday’s meeting.

     

    </Michael>

     

    Michael McKelvey

  12. Transportation iCAP Team Meeting 2/28/2024

    Associated Project(s): 
    Transportation iCAP Team
    Electric Vehicle (EV) Task Force
    2024 Campus Bike Plan

    The Transportation iCAP Team met on 2/28/2024 to discuss the outlined proposal of the DESMAN report, the 2024 Campus Bike Plan, and end-of-year reporting initiatives. Attached is a link to the meeting recording.

    Attached Files: 

  15. Discussion about updating iCAP recommendations - February 21, 2024

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Miriam Keep, Sarthak Prasad, Christina Tran, and Michael McKelvey met to discuss a proposed structure for updating iCAP recommendations.

    Agenda

    • Discussed structure outlined in iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - February 2, 2024 under Discussion/Decisions section plus attached file
    • Christina walked through the Figma Recommendations mockup she created, showing the workflow of the current approach and the proposed new approach. Notable changes:
      • Remove duplication of effort by providing only one place to enter information about a new Recommendation status
      • Once basic structure is in place, adding new Recommendation updates will require minimal extra work
      • Current Recommendation status and history can be automatically shown in multiple places across the iCAP Portal, either for individual Recommendations or all Recommendations under a Team

    Discussion

    • Miriam requested a "Next Steps" text field on Project Updates (in the Recommendations tab), visible only to people with iCAP roles (i.e. clerk and above)
    • Discussed using Tasks section in Project Updates to keep track of pending tasks related to Project Updates (especially helpful for Recommendations). Pending Tasks are Project Updates which have a due date and no completion date. See Pending Tasks page.

    Questions/Proposals

    • Propose allowing a Team to have no associated Theme. This currently only impacts the iWG Recommendations Team, since there is no Implementation theme.
    • Propose removing "Recommendations Summary" projects associated with each team (e.g. Resilience iCAP Team Recommendations Summary). The need for those projects will be supplanted by the automatically generated page for each team.

  16. Engagement iCAP Team Meeting Minutes 2/21/2024

    Associated Project(s): 
    Engagement iCAP Team
    Sustainability Literacy Assessment
    Sustainable Events Program

    The Engagement iCAP Team met on 02/21/2024 to touch base on the ongoing Sustainability Literacy Survey. The Engagement iCAP Team is currently collaborating with other iCAP teams to generate questions to include in the survey. The group also discussed member collaboration with other universities to survey residence hall sustainability recommendations. Other upcoming iSEE events were also discussed. 

    Attached Files: 

  17. iSEE newsletter - green career forum

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability at Career Fairs

     

     

    Blue background with green image of a piggy bank: Green Career Forum. Invest in yourself, invest in the environment. 1-4 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 27. 2024, Illini Union Ballroom.

     

    		  

    Green Career Forum Next Tuesday!


    Looking for a career in sustainability? Invest in yourself and the environment by attending iSEE's Green Career Forum on Tuesday, Feb. 27! Illinois students meet with "green" employers from government, industry, and the nonprofit world, including the Wetlands Initiative, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, clean energy companies, and firms specializing in environmental design, ecological restoration, or manufacturing. Co-hosted by the Illinois Career Center and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, this free event is scheduled for 1-4 p.m. at the Illini Union Ballroom. No advance registration is required!  

     

  18. Zero Waste iCAP Team Meeting Minutes 2/19/2024

    Associated Project(s): 
    Zero Waste iCAP Team
    Adopt Environmentally Preferred Procurement (EPP) Guidelines
    Sustainable Procurement
    Sustainability Literacy Assessment

    The Zero Waste iCAP Team Met on 2/19/2024 to discuss initiatives regarding environmentally preferred procurement, updates on the university's participation with Coca-Cola buyback, and recyclopedia feedback. The Engagement iCAP team chair, Codie Sterner, joined to discuss the sustainability literacy survey. The Zero Waste Team will come up with questions to add to the survey. 

    Attached Files: 

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