For the second straight year, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is the best at implementing cold-storage best management practices, including reducing the energy required for laboratory cold storage. Campus efforts in more than 70 laboratories across 15 buildings earned back-to-back first place awards in the International Laboratory Freezer Challenge’s Academic category.

The total energy usage in these spaces decreased by an estimated 438 kWh/day or a combined annual total equivalent of 13.5 homes energy for 1 year. The reductions were achieved due to the dedication and creativity of researchers across campus in implementing best practices for cold storage management. They received points for taking actions such as properly maintaining freezers and refrigerators, discarding old samples, and retiring unneeded units.

See attached file or visit: https://www.fs.illinois.edu/resources/announcements/2019/08/08/the-university-of-illinois-wins-the-international-freezer-challenge-for-the-second-straight-year for full press release.

More information on the challenge is available at https://www.freezerchallenge.org/ and https://go.fs.illinois.edu/freezerchallenge. The program is jointly run by My Green Lab and I2SL.

F&S coordination of the 2019 Freezer Challenge is making progress, gaining momentum and is half way to meeting last year’s participation of 45 labs. Designed to engage, educate and motivate efficient lab sample management thereby increasing energy efficiency and reducing consumption, this competition ends May 1st at midnight.  

From: White, Morgan
Sent: Wednesday, April 3, 2019 7:47 PM
To: bee-campus@lists.illinois.edu
Subject: [bee-campus] Bee Committee meetings

Hello Bee Committee,

The student chairperson, Sara Mason, met with me, Brent Lewis, and Vince Spagnola today. We talked about the signage plans, committee meetings, funding options, potential events, and tracking progress (such as meeting notes) on the iCAP Portal.

We also set up this email list, so Sara can let the faculty and staff members know when a committee meeting is planned. Next time she calls a meeting, she will send it to this list. 

Thanks!

Morgan 

We Won 1st place internationally in the Institutional category for last year’s efforts!

My Green Labs and I2SL hosted the 2018 International Freezer Challenge see category winners here

Place Photo here

Worldwide recognition published through these media outlets:

Lab Manager Magazine, Cold Storage March 2019

Published article with participants quoted for expert advice here  

Nature Magazine feature published in Oct. 2018 (see attached PDF)

S-Labs highlights our achievements in their short-listed profiles here (PDF of short list attached)

ISEE and Facilities & Services published news releases U of I Wins Freezer Challenge & 2018 International Freezer Challenge Champions

Highlights from lab efforts in 2018

Goal for this year is to DOUBLE last year’s participation of 45 labs in 17 buildings and energy reduction, which totaled an estimated 720 kWh/day from October 2017 through June 2018. The annual total of 262,800 kWh of electricity saved during the competition is the approximate equivalent of the yearly energy used by 25 typical U.S. homes.

We can repeat the WIN; so far, the CDC is the only group to win twice in their division.

Join us

Thank you

Paul Foote

Think Globally- Act Locally

The Fall 2018 semester was used as a planning stage for the Bee Campus signage project. On November 15th, the Bee Campus USA committee met to discuss the content and design on each of the permanent signs. Additionally, we discussed locations to consider for placing the signage. During Spring 2019, I plan to have the locations of the signage approved by March. Purchasing and orders should be completed by April.  

The final report submitted to the Student Sustainability Committee for the Freezer Challenge project. UIUC took first place in the 2018 International Laboratory Freezer Challenge Academic Organization category.

• The first meeting was held on 1/31/2018 with the full committee, and the agenda focused on the overall plans for 2018. The chair reviewed the responsibilities of the committee and delegated responsibilities to each committee member.
• At the 2/14/18, 3/7/18, and 3/28/18 meetings, we planned the content and display of the Bee Campus web page. All code and design were done by two student committee members.
• At the 2/21/18, 3/21/18, and 4/22/18 meetings, we planned the first annual pollinator-awareness event. It was decided that the event would be a film screening and trivia night.
• The integrated pest management plan was developed via email exchanges.
• At the 5/10/18 meeting, we planned the habitat plan and permanent signage.