Interest in this project began in October 2017, at the AASHE Student Summit. Several residents of the Sustainability Living-Learning Community attended a workshop at this summit about the Bee Campus USA movement. These students were inspired by the progress of other universities and decided to start this project on our own campus. From that point on, the Sustainability LLC, Facilities & Services, Red Bison Ecological Restoration (RSO), and the Pollinatarium have collaborated to ensure the success of this project. The application process in this project must be done annually to maintain the Bee Campus USA certification.

A 24" by 36" blank sign was installed at the corner of Florida Avenue and Orchard Street, by the Florida-Orchard prairie, near Orchard Downs and the Presidents’ House. The information planned to be featured in the sign will originate from the new Bee Campus brochure. This text will highlight the Bee Campus student organization, information about pollinators, as well as university and campus initiatives to be more pollinator-friendly. Thanks to funding by SSC, the signage will be ready for public display by the end of 2021!

See the attached files to view the installation of the blank sign!

https://www.thetelegraph.com/features/article/Butterflies-are-free-Illin...

The Bee Conservancy, an environmental NPO, is handing out hundreds of free native bee homes across the U.S. and Canada in hopes of boosting native bee populations.

As part of its Sponsor-A-Hive program, the group is offering 500 native bee homes to community-focused organizations that support food growth, education, or ecological conservation. (Two hundred were awarded in fall and 300 are being awarded this spring.) Eligible groups include community gardens, nature centers, schools, tribal organizations, parks, and zoos. According to Guillermo Fernandez, founder and executive director of The Bee Conservancy, "We’re looking for organizations that share our passion to nurture local bee populations, create habitat for them, and support their communities and local food systems."

Applications are open until the end of April 2021!

Read more about The Bee Conservancy native bee home giveaway in the TreeHugger article.

The following scope change was submitted to SSC for the Pollinator Awareness Sign:

Originally, there were no signs at all on campus showing how pollinator friendly the campus is. Now there are four; and the University is now considered part of Bee Campus USA. Now we want to add a bigger sign outlining the bee campus student organization, progress the campus has made, and changes the university implemented to be more pollinator friendly. This sign will include an acknowledgment of the SSC funding for the signs and for several of the pollinator friendly plantings around campus.

The funding does not need to be increased, but we are requesting a schedule extension of one year.  The design of the sign is anticipated to take at least one month, so that students can assist with the content development, then the sign will be ordered, and since it may be winter –time when the sign is ready for installation, we may not be able to install it until the spring thaw. Please approve an extension to May 2021.

Read the Scope Change in its entirety in the attached files below.

The Fall 2020 iSEE Quarterly Update (iQ) was released with the following message from Madhu Khanna, the Interim Director of iSEE:

Dear Colleagues,

Attached, please find attached the Fall 2020 “iQ” – the quarterly update from the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE).

It has been two months since I became interim director of ISEE.  It has been exciting to see ISEE bring in multimillion-dollar research grants, launch a new research initiative in regenerative agriculture, and help coalesce sustainable agriculture research on our campus during this period.

Our Certificate in Environmental Writing has engaged students in making insightful contributions to a new issue of Q Magazine. We have also expanded our opportunities for education and scholarly discourse with several online events, including those on nuclear energy and geothermal energy research.

We formally launched the new Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP 2020) on Oct 20, 2020. This ambitious plan is the result of the hard work of campus sustainability folks who worked hand-in-hand with Facilities & Services and incorporated the vision of hundreds of students, faculty, staff, administrators, and community members into a plan for the next five years and beyond — all the way to carbon neutrality no later than 2050!

I am so grateful to Evan Delucia for his efforts over the first seven years as the first director of our Institute. He has left iSEE as a vibrant part of the Illinois community, and I am working with our outstanding ISEE staff to expand upon the work already begun — as evidenced in this six-page update.

Please take a quick look at those updates and more in “iQ.” For more regular news, please sign up for our E-newsletter at https://illinois.edu/fb/sec/5031776.

Wishing you a successful end to the fall semester,

Madhu