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Projects Updates for place: Physical Plant Service Building

  1. Archived info - prior project background info

    Associated Project(s): 
    Revolving Loan Fund (RLF)

    The Revolving Loan Fund is managed by Facilities & Services (F&S) Utility and Energy Services that calculates cost avoidance from an RLF project using the fully loaded utility rates. The loan will be repaid at a fixed 1% interest rate with an annual payment equal to the calculated annual savings until the loan is fully repaid. When a project is funded by multiple funding sources, the annual savings to be returned to the RLF will be calculated by the payback associated with the work completed by the entire project.

    Project Submission and Selection

    Potential projects will be solicited from campus units by F&S Utility and Energy Services when there is at least $1M in funds available for allocation. Projects will be submitted through a web​-based PDF form by the requesting campus department. 

    Project selection will be handled through the RLF Committee that includes the Executive Director of Facilities and Services, Associate Provost for Capital Planning, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, Student Sustainability Committee Chair, Illinois Student Senate President, and a representative of the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment. The Committee will meet on a semiannual basis to approve/reject projects. 

    Project selection will be based on the following weighted criteria: 

    1. Payback Period (30%)
      Project has a short payback period.
    2. Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions (25%) 
      Does this project reduce greenhouse gas emissions for campus?
    3. Revolving Loan Fund Size Impact (20%)
      Projects that increase the Revolving Loan Fund size through grants or additional allocations.
    4. Visibility (5%)
      How visible/noticeable is the project to users of the facility, space and/or campus community?
    5. Project Coordination (20%)
      Projects that can be executed in conjunction with other planned or ongoing projects. The intent of the coordination is to make the RLF project more efficient to deliver for the University and/or departments.

    Project Tracking 
    Revolving Loan Fund projects are tracked using the Green Revolving Investment Tracking System (GRITS). This interactive system tracks annual energy, financial, and carbon savings from energy efficiency and other resource conservation measures.  ​

  5. Outfitting main quads with 3-bins

    Associated Project(s): 
    Indoor Bin Update

    Members of the Zero Waste Team analyzed the main buildings in each of the three central quads. Locations of current 3-bins were noted as well as areas where more were needed. The plan is to transition away from single flow trash and recycling bins towards a system where only 3-bins are used in main hallways. This will ensure that there are well marked bins in highly visible areas and will condense the many bins that need to be serviced by university workers into fewer overall bins. Overall this initiative will lead to improved waste management efficiency and increased recycling rates across the campus.

    Attached Files: 

  7. August 2024 Smartway Posts

    Associated Project(s): 
    EPA SmartWay Affiliate

    Using the #EPASmartWay logo helps differentiate your company from the competition. Be sure to let your customers and stakeholders know that you’re leading the way on clean, sustainable supply chain management. Learn more: epa.gov/smartway

     

    Attached Files: 

  9. January 2024 SmartWay posts

    Associated Project(s): 
    EPA SmartWay Affiliate

    Using the #EPASmartWay logo helps differentiate your company from the competition. Be sure to let your customers and stakeholders know that you’re leading the way on clean, sustainable supply chain management. Learn more: epa.gov/smartway

     

    Attached Files: 

  14. Revolving Loan Fund Research

    Associated Project(s): 
    Revolving Loan Fund (RLF)

    Hi Morgan,

     

    I created a spreadsheet of all of the participants of the Billion Dollar Green Challenge. This spreadsheet includes the population size and loan amount. I thought it would be easier to sort through the information with this. I will try to find data about current energy savings to add to this sheet. But almost all of the institutions have very little information about what they have done with the loan amount. And if they do have information, it is minimum 3-5 years old.

     

    I attached that document and my current word document. Still need to add a few more universities, but I wanted to see the numbers clearly before I picked a random one to look into.

     

    According to this data we have the 9th largest loan fund. Ill focus on the rest of the universities above us in the list.

     

    Thanks,

     

    Quinn M. Connolly

    Attached Files: 

  15. RECs for small solar rooftop arrays

    Associated Project(s): 
    Rooftop Solar Potential
    Solar Power on Campus
    ECE Net-Zero Energy Building
    ECE Rooftop Solar PVs

    Hi Rob and Tony,

     

    Tim Mies asked me who “owns” the RECs from small scale solar arrays at individual buildings.  I said I’d have to check into it.

     

    At first I thought all RECs are owned by central campus (UES), but then I questioned myself.  For a rooftop solar array, we don’t include it in the M-RETS program, and at ECE, we only “sold” them the solar farm 2.0 RECs.  We let them count their rooftop solar directly and they have the DOR accordingly. 

     

    So is it appropriate to tell him that the RECs associated with the 14.7 kW array he is planning to install at the Energy Farm (not the SCAPES project) will be considered “used” at the Energy Farm?

     

    I would caution that we do not want individual departments to get into selling RECs, without a much broader discussion.  So perhaps we should say that he can use/retire them at his site, but he cannot sell them without further discussion?

     

    What do you recommend?

     

    Thanks,

    Morgan

    -----------------------------

    Good questions. I think that if the department “owns” the REC, then they should also be able to sell the REC. I am interested in others views on the topic, and agree that it would lend to a much broader discussion.

    Rob Roman

    ----------------------------

    I agree that a broader discussion would be helpful.

     

    Best,

     

    Tony

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