Many purchasers require that their trucking carriers participate in the SmartWay Transport Partnership.  In addition, purchasers can participate in SmartWay as shippers (as UIUC Housing did), which facilitates the tracking of emissions from their carriers and allows them to compete for awards presented annually by EPA.

Here are some examples.

1. The State of Illinois' contract for Small Package Air and Ground Parcel Delivery Services, signed in 2014, requires that the carrier "must maintain its enrollment in the USEPA SmartWay® Program and continue in 'good standing', by submitting required data annually, for the duration of any awarded contract without backsliding."  "Backsliding" refers to maintaining the carrier's annual SmartWay performance ranking (1 to 5).  See State of Illinois Contract CPOGS15001 (attached), Section 1.5.1 and Attachment A.  This contract is available for agency and university use.  The RFP required that bidders participate in the SmartWay Transport Partnership.
2. A federal contract -- Domestic Delivery Services 3, for the General Services Administration and at least 14 other participating agencies, signed in 2014 -- includes the following provision:  "Contractors are required to belong to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) SmartWay Transport Partnership, a voluntary partnership between the Federal Government and the trucking industry, to improve the environmental performance of freight and small package transport by adopting fuel and emission-reducing strategies. As an alternative, contractors may also report GHG emissions directly to GSA and the Department of Energy through the annual GHG inventory process which is followed by federal agencies."  See GSA, "DDS 3 Green Features Fact Sheet"  http://www.gsa.gov/portal/getMediaData?mediaId=196419.
3. Federal Executive Order 13693 ("Planning for Federal Sustainability in the Next Decade", March 2015) directs agencies to apply preferences in purchasing for SmartWay participating carriers and SmartWay products.  See Section 3(i)(ii): "[T]he head of each agency shall, where life-cycle cost effective, beginning in fiscal year 2016, ... promote sustainable acquisition and procurement by ensuring that each of the following environmental performance and sustainability factors are included to the maximum extent practicable for all applicable procurements in the planning, award, and execution phases of the acquisition by ... purchasing sustainable products and services identified by EPA programs including ... WaterSense certified products and services (water efficient products); Safer Choice labeled products (chemically intensive products that contain safer ingredients), and SmartWay Transport partners and SmartWay products (fuel efficient products and services)."  https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/03/19/executive-order-planning-federal-sustainability-next-decade
4. The SmartWay Excellence Awards for 2014 recognized seven shippers for moving 98 percent of their products and merchandise with high-performing SmartWay carriers: Lowe's, The Home Depot, Hewlett-Packard, Johns Manville, Kimberly-Clark, S. C. Johnson, and Nordstrom.  http://www.epa.gov/smartway/about/documents/awards/420f14052.pdf   As another illustration, Best Buy strongly encourages its carriers to participate in SmartWay, contractually requires all of its over-the-road trucking and intermodal business to be handled by SmartWay partners, and provides SmartWay partners prime docking times and locations. http://www.fleetequipmentmag.com/best-buy-an-active-smartway-shipper-partner/

Brendan McDonnell is working with F&S to identify the best buildings on campus for rooftop solar.  Brendan is a MechSE graduate student working toward an MS in ME with a certificate in Energy Systems Engineering, and this is his summer capstone project.  Professor Elif Ertekin is his advisor for the project, and Morgan Johnston is his supervisor at F&S.   The files Brendan is collecting are stored in the iSEE Solar box folder at https://uofi.app.box.com/files/0/f/2802975201/iSEE_-_Solar_Working_Group....

I have realigned the way we account for projects in AiM, so each RLF will need to have a specific  AiM account number that maps to a banner plant fund.  As soon as I can transfer the open work orders off of MY862-Revolving Loan Fund, I will inactivate that account number.

So, each new RLF project will need a Banner Plant Account number (I obtain) and a new AiM account number (mee, too.) then I will let the PM know so he/she can set up work orders.  This way, it keeps project costs segregated.  Putting it all into one account like I did initially dumps all project costs into one AiM account making it hard to keep the expenditures separate.  - Mike

Dear Revolving Loan Fund Selection Committee,

For two reasons, we will be rescheduling the Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) project review meeting.  First, the funding available to allocate from the RLF has significantly increased with the roll-over to FY15.  We now have an additional million dollars to allocate, with a total of approximately $2.3M.  Therefore, additional potential projects need to be identified before the selection takes place.  Second, the AFMFA selection committee is being called this fall, for the first time in a few years.  The founding agreement for the RLF (attached for your reference) intended the project selection to occur with the AFMFA project selection process.  Therefore, this meeting will be arranged in conjunction with the fall AFMFA committee meeting. 

The AFMFA committee meeting will be arranged by Doris Reeser, and I will remain in contact to answer questions about the RLF.

Thank you,

Morgan

Launch of GRITS 1.0

On Earth Day, the Sustainable Endowments Institute will be launching the Green Revolving Investment Tracking System (GRITS) 1.0, a tool that streamlines tracking and calculation of project-level energy, financial and carbon data for sustainability and efficiency investments. On April 17, we will host a special webinar to provide a preview of GRITS 1.0 and the GRITS Affiliates program before its public launch (April 22). For information on the webinar and the GRITS Affiliates program, please see below for more details and how to register.

What is GRITS?

GRITS 1.0 is an online tool that offers a bridge between management and performance reporting by creating a space for institutions to track, analyze and share data on specific projects or groups of projects--well beyond the capabilities of spreadsheets. GRITS provides an accessible platform to better manage financial and environmental project performance.

What can you do with GRITS?

• Access and learn from the field-tested projects of peer institutions (the Project Library has hundreds of projects and is growing rapidly)
• Facilitate investments in efficiency projects by enabling fund administrators to easily and clearly communicate with stakeholders
• Simplify calculations of project-specific carbon and financial savings on both annualized and estimated life-of-project timeframes
• Create customized reports that tell the story of current and anticipated project performance.

The improvements offered in GRITS 1.0 are the culmination of more than two years of development and collaboration with participants in the Billion Dollar Green Challenge.

Interested in a tour? Email GRITS@GreenBillion.org to see first-hand the improved GRITS tool.

Special Preview Webinar of GRITS 1.0 on April 17

In partnership with the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), the Sustainable Endowments Institute will host a webinar to provide a special preview of GRITS 1.0 and the GRITS Affiliates program before its public launch on April 22. Many institutions in the United States and Canada have requested access to the GRITS web-based platform to better track project-level energy, financial, and carbon data, and we are excited to offer access to GRITS to all institutions.

The webinar will take place on Thursday, April 17 at 2:00 PM EDT. Please RSVP for this free webinar at gritswebinar.eventbrite.com.

Introducing GRITS Affiliates

What is GRITS Affiliates?
 
GRITS Affiliates is SEI's new program that opens access to GRITS 1.0 to all institutions and organizations.

Offering GRITS 1.0 to a wider community will build on the important work that is already being undertaken, strengthen best practices in the field, and help more institutions realize vital environmental and financial benefits. Members of the Billion Dollar Green Challenge will still have the advantage of a more cost-effective program for using GRITS. Challenge members will also benefit from new project-specific and fund-specific data provided by GRITS Affiliates that will help further expand the Project Library.

GRITS Affiliates will be available to schools and organizations outside The Challenge by subscription.

Interested in GRITS Affiliates? Sign up for free trial access by emailing GRITS@GreenBillion.org.

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.

Revolving Loan Fund Selection Committee,

Thank you to all who participated in the special vote. We received a majority vote of four “yes” responses, so the project is accepted. Our Business Office will get the MOU written and we will move forward with the work very soon. The terms of the loan will be outlined in the MOU and will be in accordance with the signed agreement dated 12/03/2015.

Again, thank you to all who participated and we’ll be in contact with you very soon regarding the next selection meeting.

Josh Whitson