Zero Waste iCAP Meeting 4/25/23
On April 25th, the Zero Waste iCAP team met to discuss the State Farm Center Recycling (ZW011) recommendation and brainstorm on the Zero Waste iCAP summary report for the 22-23 FY.
Meeting minutes are attached.
On April 25th, the Zero Waste iCAP team met to discuss the State Farm Center Recycling (ZW011) recommendation and brainstorm on the Zero Waste iCAP summary report for the 22-23 FY.
Meeting minutes are attached.
Greetings, Colleagues,
I hope the start of 2023 is going well. I’m reaching out today to send you iSEE Quarterly update for Winter 2022 from the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment.
For more up-to-date news from iSEE, please sign up for our E-newsletter at https://illinois.edu/fb/sec/5031776.
IN RESEARCH
IN EDUCATION & OUTREACH
IN CAMPUS SUSTAINABILITY
Thanks for reading, and best wishes for the remainder of the spring semester!
Best,
Madhu Khanna
Madhu Khanna
Pronouns: she, her
Alvin H. Baum Family Chair & Director, Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Environment
ACES Distinguished Professor in Environmental Economics
Co-Director, Center for Economics of Sustainability
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
1301, W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801
On December 8th, the Zero Waste iCAP team met to discuss a new approach to creating recommendations for next semester. During the meeting, the team created subcommittees based on aspects of the key priorities document and provided feedback on an environmental engineering sustainability project.
Meeting minutes are attached.
On November 7th, the Zero Waste iCAP team met to discuss DIA sustainability initiatives with Tim Knox and made edits on the Project 4 Less expansion recommendation to be submitted in the coming month(s).
Meeting minutes are attached.
Attached is the "Save the Date! March Monarch Meeting" invitation:
Information about how commercial bee keeping functions and its impact to overall bee populations was inquired about by Brent Lewis, Landscape Architect. Below is the response from Adam Donzel, an Assistant Professor in Entomology.
'Hi Brent,
Yeah, there is work on that. Here are links to couple studies about it:
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep32023
https://academic.oup.com/jinsectscience/article/22/1/17/6523145
Basically, yes, there are some stresses involved with migratory beekeeping but sedentary colonies can also have similar issues. In some scenarios, migratory colonies could be healthier as they are moved to areas with good nutritional resources all the time, while those left in place have to deal with times of low food availability. In reality, though, migratory colonies do undergo a lot of stress as they are used to pollinate crops and a lot goes into that - the stress of confinement, heat, exposure to agrochemicals, etc. From a beekeeping perspective, this is calculated into the fees charged for pollination (to some extent at least). Right now, beekeepers charge about $200/hive to pollinate almonds for example (the most lucrative pollination event). Big beekeepers manage 20,000-50,000 hives! "Small" commercial beekeepers usually have 2-5000.
Migratory beekeeping uses about 85% of the managed colonies in the USA (incredible!). One big issue with this is that, if a new pest or pathogen is introduced, it will be spread throughout the country very fast. And in big pollination events, like almonds, hives are concentrated at very high densities, which does present a lot of opportunities for spreading diseases. They do mitigate this to some extent, however, as there are health checks required to move bees across state lines, and almond growers usually require checks of colonies to make sure they are healthy.
Hope this helps - always happy to answer questions when I can!"
Morgan White, Eric Green, and Meredith Moore spoke to the Sustainability Living Learning Community today (8/17/22) prior to the start of the semester. We outlined the iCAP, how to get involved, and educational opportunities (sustainability minor, a certificate in environmental writing, etc).
Click here to read the "Our Campus Composts" case review of institutions that compost, per the Composting Council in 2018-2019.
Join Piatt County Master Gardener Kent McFarland as he explains the importance of having a Mason Bee House in your garden, and walks you through the steps of building one using recycled and natural materials. Registration is required; $15/person, includes all materials.
March 26, 10–11 am • Registration Deadline: 3/18/22 • Greenhouse Auditorium at Allerton Park & Retreat Center
Olivia Warren • Allerton Park & Retreat Center
Dr. Jeff Moore, Director of the Beckman Institute, responded to Morgan White, Associate Director for F&S for Sustainability, with the following email on 1/18/22:
"Thank you, Morgan and Jennifer. We'll discuss this at our next meeting. On first glance, it looks like a prudent practice to follow."
See iWG assessment and transmittal of ZW004 Reusable Dining Containers Program here.
See recommendation and submittal of ZW004 Reusable Dining Containers Program here.
For future updates, please refer to the Reusable Containers project
The Zero Waste iCAP Team met on Thursday, January 27 to finalize the recommendations drafted at the end of last semester, the Water Drinking Behavior Survey and the Water Filter System Tracking. The team also discussed several recommendations they intend to pursue this semester, including: Adopt-a-Highway program, Food Literacy Project, Composting Committee, P Card Training and Sustainable Receipt options. Meeting minutes are attached.
From: White, Morgan
To: Moore, Meredith Kaye
Hi Meredith,
Where on the portal do you think BeeSpotter belongs? I'm thinking it should be in the Resilience theme, but I'm not sure whether it should be under one of the other projects or just under the main one.
Morgan
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From: Moore, Meredith Kaye
To: White, Morgan
Hi Morgan,
That’s a good question. In my opinion, it doesn’t seem to fit well with any of the other projects under the resilience theme page. So unless we want to create a new project “support local pollinator projects” (or something of the sort) with the intention of adding additional pollinator projects, I vote for now let’s make it a project under the main theme. Does that make sense?
Thanks,
Meredith
Link to proposal:
https://uillinoisedu-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/fandsamaloto2_ad_u...
Link to BeeSpotter:
Arden Youn, Wei-Ting Yang, Alaa Eldemerdash, Jasmine Jacome, and Gil Perez, Gies College of Business graduate students, spent the semester reviewing the Good2Go Reusable Dining Container program. The PowerPoint is attached and the link to the recording of the final presentation is found below.
Below are the counts of meals logged in our POS systems as served in To Go boxes from the beginning of the semester thru Thursday, Sept. 30.
Breakfast To Go, Meals 349
Lunch-To Go, Meals 402
Dinner- To Go, Meals 143
Late Night To Go, Meals 2
Box - To Go, Meals 147
Total meals: 896
The link was updated for the primary Bee Campus USA page and some adjustments were made to links that were not responsive. The following links were added in the Bee City/Campus USA main page:
http://beecampususa.web.illinois.edu/
https://www.facebook.com/Bee-Campus-USA-at-UIUC-228849297661692/
https://www.beecityusa.org/what-is-a-bee-campus.html
True food circularity must include waste reduction on the agricultural and consumer sides. Don't miss this third iSEE Congress webinar on "Circular Food Systems," with Brian Roe, Van Buren Professor of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics at Ohio State; and Tom Theis, Director of The Institute for Environmental Science and Policy, University of Illinois Chicago. Register here >>>
November 3, 12–1 pm • Zoom webinar
Julie Wurth • Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment
"How Can We Reduce Waste from Agricultural and Food Systems?"
University Housing doubled the number of reusable containers this month from 10,000 to 20,000.
Previous Title: Reusable Dining Options
Previous Project Description: The Zero Waste SWATeam is interested in pursuing reusable service options for campus facilities which serve food at any capacity. This particularly applies to to-go options.
A to-go option using reusable containers will be implemented this fall in University Housing Dining at three locations: Lincoln Avenue Dining, Illinois Street Dining and Ikenberry Dining.
Previous Project Background:
As stated in the iCAP 2020,
"Objective #5.3 ensures that items used on campus-particularly at large events- are durable, repairable, and reusable, and that they contribute to our university-wide culture of reuse."
This project is aligned with the goals of cultivating a zero waste culture on campus. Food is an enormous portion of the human experience, and rather than eliminate it, the Zero Waste SWATeam hopes to shift the paradigm towards the sustainable future the University of Illinois is planning. By providing opportunities for students to utilize reusable containers and participate in a reusable dining program, it will not only yield measurable reductions of single-use items in the waste stream, but will also bring sustainability to the forefront of each participant.
From: Moore, Meredith Kaye
To: White, Morgan
Recipients: mbwhite at illinois.edu
Hi Morgan,
I think we should add a project page on the Portal for “Reusable To-Go Containers” under “Decrease Wasteful Practices Through Behavior Change”. Then, the “Bevier Café Reusable Carry-Out Program” project could go under the “Reusable To-Go Containers” page, and a new project can be made for “Dining Hall Reusable Carry-Out Program” along with the subsequent locations that implement similar programs. What do you think?
Thanks!
Meredith
SSC received semester report for Spring 2021 for Eco-Olympics project on 9/18/2021. Please see attached.