Daivd Guth has requested SSC approval for a project with the Kitchen Exhaust Hoods at the Union.  Morgan Johnston and Karl Helmink called Marques Burris to discuss the next steps for getting David the funds.  Marques planned to contact SSC chair, Amy Liu, and then reach out to David Guth.

Shantanu Pai and Madeline (an ISTC intern) are taking over the implementation of the Nitrile Glove Recycling program at Housing Dining Services, after Seth Reints left the university.  Shantanu has 24 containers that can hang on the edge of Dining's slim containers.  Dawn Aubrey also needs containers that hang on the edge of the larger brute containers.  Madeline has created a 3-D printed prototype, which will be sent to Shantanu's contact in Canada for replication.

Morgan provided Shantanu with the information that Seth had received or provided to SSC. 

Professor Lavey presented a seminar through the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) last week on governments' efforts to promote cleaner trucking services.  The focus was on tools beyond legislation and regulations, especially imposing  low-emissions conditions on access to properties and applying environmental preferences in government purchases.  Here is the short description:

Technologies to cut truck emissions are available and cost-effective, and should be encouraged by a range of government and private actions. In 2013, Chicago approved the expansion of a railroad terminal contingent on retrofitting dozens of trucks with clean diesel filters. Illinois agencies are reforming freight and package delivery purchasing programs to implement the Transportation Sustainability Procurement Program Act of 2013. Similarly, the U.S. General Services Administration is applying new environmental preferences in selecting transportation vendors and tracking their performance.

See the video on ISTC's website.

Small Starts is a federal grant program administered by the Federal Transit Administration for eligible transportation projects that cost less than $250 million total. A Small Starts grant proposal is being spearheaded by MTD for a segment of high-traffic streets in the center of campus, which would require a cost-sharing component by all the CATS member agencies.  Within the University District, this grant proposal includes bike lanes on White Street, Wright Street, Green Street from Wright Street to Lincoln Avenue, and Armory Avenue from Wright Street to Fourth Street.  Within the Small Starts proposed improvements, the University has jurisdiction over Armory Avenue from Wright Street to Fourth Street, the Wright Street existing bike path to the east of the roadway from Armory Avenue to Green Street, and the Green Street existing bike path to the north of the curb from Wright Street to east of Goodwin Avenue. 

The Green Street bike path removal should occur when the City of Urbana installs bike lanes on Green Street.  The Wright Street bike path removal will need to happen in conjunction with the installation of bike lanes on Wright Street, which is under City of Champaign jurisdiction.  The bike lanes on Armory Avenue should occur when the Wright Street and Armory Avenue intersection is reconfigured.  That reconfiguration will include shifting the street and sidewalk southern edges farther to the south, so it will be primarily under the jurisdiction of the University.  However, this work will require careful coordination with the City of Champaign, and the intersection should be done in conjunction with the bike lane installation on Wright Street.

The projects in this grant proposal are the top priority safety concerns for the University and the other CATS agencies.  Every effort should be made to assist MTD with obtaining this grant, so these safety issues can be addressed quickly and completely. Additionally, because the Small Start Grant will require some matching funds from the member agencies of CATS, the University should be diligent in helping to meet the required match.

Lunch Meeting from Tuesday, September 3rd 2013

What Happened: Today was a first informal meeting of minds sharing an interest in sustainability. There were five total attendees from very different backgrounds and levels of involvement.

Why: While a more formal meeting might get more done, the informal setting can happen under the pretense that people just like to share ideas. More importantly, sharing ideas just to do it is something that is strongly encouraged with the right motives in mind.

Details: This meeting was a follow up on an idea to improve the interconnectivity of “Green Teams.” These teams vary in scale as much as they do in internal organization and both currently exist throughout the community or will come into being in the near future.

Hopefully, the ideas that these meeting produce will be implemented to help each group become more aware of the rest. As put forward by an attendee, it should be a goal to eliminate the “reinvention of the wheel” for our community’s idea of sustainable culture.

Next Steps: The discussion was very geared toward the ability to get larger groups of people involved. The collaboration with officials that have knowledge of the given subject a team is associated with is essential, but the ability of a group to create incentive that hits home with your average consumer is tantamount to getting sustainability to take off. The idea was put forth of a virtual tracking system that showed a goal and its progress or assigned points to community members for involvements within goals, as such ideas have been successful in the past.

However, getting systems like this off the ground require getting people excited, and the idea of a goal or nominal reward is not enough. Well laid out systems must be designed.

Education: Along the lines of what is being sought after for these meetings is the education of the public of how they can get involved. We heard today about a lot of the ways that these teams are already interconnected in ways that your general resident likely has no clue about. Two examples are given below:

Learning IN Community, or LINC courses. These classes often are in a sustainable strain of thinking and are offered as a way to get students involved with local associations. Link provided in comprehensive list.

The Extention Progams. These are specific to land grant schools, such as UIUC, that attempt to focus on teaching, research and outreach. Link provided in comprehensive list.

I may need some help defining all the Green Teams that were mapped out today but a comprehensive list is a good first step. Please find the startings of one below:

• Campus Bike Shop (CBS) or The Bike Project (TBP) Link

• Students for Environmental Concerns (SECS) Link

• Engineering Department

  • CEE398PBL Link

    • Bike Signage

  • ENG315: Learning in Community (LINC) Link

• School of Earth Society and Environment (ESE) Link

  • ESE360OCE: Environmental Writing

• Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) Link

  • Land

  • Water

  • Energy

  • Food and Waste

  • Education

  • Transportation

• Center for a Sustainable Environment (CSE) Link

• Champaign County Sustainable Network (CCNet) Link

• Illinois Green Business Association (IGBA) Link

• Smart Energy Design Assistance Center (SEDAC) Link

• The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) Link

• ESC?

Additional points of contact that should be considered among lines of contact:

• Illinois Student Senate (ISS)

• City of Urbana

• City of Champaign

• Champaign County

• Illinois State Geologic Survey (ISGS)

• Federal Farm Bureau

NRES Professor Warren Lavey helped the University become the first academic institution to join the EPA's SmartWay program.  See the NRES press release.  It was picked up by the Pontiac Daily Leader.

SSC allocated $100,000 to the Illini Union Revolving Loan Pool.