There are a few examples of clean thermal energy in use on campus at this time. These include:

• the solar thermal panels on the Activities Rec Center, heating the three swimming pools
• the biomass boiler at the Energy Farm, heating the two story greenhouse on south Race Street
• geothermal installations providing heating and cooling at the Fruit Farm Admin Building, the RIPE greenhouse, the Campus Instructional Facility, a few buildings at Allerton Park, the solar decathlon Gable Home at the Energy Farm, and a few rooms in the Hydrosystems Building
• a wood-fired stove heating some maintenance buildings at Allerton Park

We could expand these types of energy systems...

• Additional geothermal installations are being planned for various places around campus, including a geothermal battery system at the Energy Farm.  The other geothermal locations in planning discussions now include the South Campus Center for Interdisciplinary Learning, a future greenhouse for CABBI, and the Doris Christopher Kelley Illinois Extension Building in the Arboretum.
• The biomass boiler at the Energy Farm was designed with the anticipation of future expansion.
• Solar thermal is a great option for our area of the planet, but it is not easy to integrate it in our existing energy enterprise.

Another option for clean thermal energy is biogas, which UIUC contributes to locally through the Grind2Energy system, which takes food waste from the dining halls to the Urbana-Champaign Sanitary District (UCSD).  UCSD puts it through their anaerobic digester which captures the methane (a very strong greenhouse gas).  Currently, that captured methane is used to run an electrical generator, which provides power to the UCSD facility.  An alternative would be to upgrade the methane to pipeline quality and use the biogas a Abbott Power Plant on campus.  This is an expensive option that would require a lot of coordination and funding.

Another strong option is a micronuclear reactor, which is being studies by the Grainger College of Engineering faculty and researchers.  This system could be integrated with the existing steam distribution system and provide ghg-free energy to campus.

Please see attached the final presentation for the CTAC fall 2022. Watch the meeting recording here: https://uofi.box.com/s/6fp2xuq2qnwv4vgm34itku4pbdy2bioy

The August 26, 2022 issue of Insider featured the "Achievements in Transportation". Read the article online at https://fs.web.illinois.edu/Insider/2022/08/26/achievements-in-transport... or see below.

Achievements in Transportation

Be it walking, bicycling, taking transit, or driving vehicles, getting around the campus is done more sustainably than ever.

The F&S Transportation Demand Management (TDM) department creates, maintains, and coordinates the overall transportation network for all modes of travel. TDM implements campus and community policies and plans, like objectives in the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP).

“Safe and sensible transportation, in all its forms and complexities, is essential to a functioning campus,” said Stacey DeLorenzo, transportation systems manager.

Read the full Transportation Demand Management Plan FY22 Achievement Report on the F&S website.

Students walking to Quad on Centennial Plaza in spring between the Chemistry Annex and Noyes Laboratory.

Key achievements include:

Asset Management Plan

• $1.25M was allocated for pavement maintenance and improvement projects, starting in FY22.
  • Pennsylvania Ave – Asphalt patching West of Maryland: $98,471.81
  • First and Peabody – Concrete patching: $47,866.28
  • College Ct westbound lane near PAR – Concrete patching: $42,055
  • Campus-wide – Spray injection: $25,000
  • Campus-wide – Crack sealing: $25,000

• F&S TDM is responsible for the 2014 Campus Bicycle Master Plan. The department installed the campus’ first bicycle shelter, removed abandoned bicycle paths, and enhanced bicycle facilities.

• Installed bicycle and pedestrian counters by Eco-Counters at 4 campus locations, with more planned soon. Learn more at Pedestrian and Bicycle Counts.

Programming

TDM educates and encourages students, faculty, and staff to use active modes of transportation. TDM evaluates and plans campus infrastructure to create a safe environment.

The Bike at Illinois website features information on bicycle education and facilities, bike sharing, registration, safety, and more. The F&S website includes information on walking, MTD buses, accessibility, and car-share options.

Collaborations

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is home to some of the world’s brightest researchers and students. The phrase “an active partner in research, teaching, and learning” added to the F&S mission, to academic collaborations. Working with researchers is an essential component to the future of F&S, and a major theme emphasized in the F&S Strategic Plan. F&S collaborates with students and researchers to envision the campus as a living lab and implement research to see the impact with real-world application.

All INSIDER stories on F&S academic collaborations, visit https://go.fs.illinois.edu/Academic.

Can pavement construction use food waste?
Dr. Lance Schideman (ISTC), Dr. Yuanhui Zhang (ABE), and Dr. Ramez Hajj (CEE) use bio-oil produced from food waste as a rejuvenator for asphalt. F&S is collaborating with these researchers to implement this technology on campus pavement in the near future.

Do students collaborate with F&S?
The TDM department collaborated with more than 25 students in the last year to help with class projects, research, or interests in transportation systems on campus.

Walkability Audit
F&S conducted a thorough walkability audit. Nearly 75 volunteers collected data for the following surveys: a) Walkability Audit survey, which focused on the general walkability of the campus (macro level), and b) Deficiency Reporting survey, which focused on identifying specific faults on campus (micro level analysis). Sutapa Banerjee, a master’s student in urban planning, analyzed the walkability audit survey to determine the “walk index” of 76.2 for the campus. The deficiency reporting survey data and ADA transition plan supplement will improve accessibility on-campus.

Those involved: Sutapa Banerjee (MUP-2 student), Dr. Lindsay Braun and Dr. Bumsoo Lee (Department of Urban and Regional Planning), Mylinda Netherton (Disability Resources Educational Services), Allison Kushner (Office of Access & Equity), Ryan Welch (F&S Grounds), Brent Lewis (F&S Capital Programs), and Chad Kupferschmid and Justin Pinnell (F&S Facilities Information Resources).

Please see attached the final report by Sutapa Banerjee for her capstone project, where she assisted with the Walkability Audit of the campus.

On Thursday 28th April, 2022, Sarthak and Sutapa met to discuss the results of Phase 2 data collection of the Walkability audit.

The highest and lowest scoring map blocks have been updated as well as the individual category scores according to the new data received by the volunteers.

Please see attached spreadsheet.

Results:

• Highest scoring map blocks: 1,7, 9, 12, 13
• Lowest scoring map blocks: 19, 23, 24
• Overall Walkability Index of campus: 76.2/100

The final results and recommendations will be presented by Sutapa on 3rd May, 2022.

Please see attached the final presentation for the CTAC spring 2022. We also talked about abandoned bicycles and Campus Landscape Master Plan during this meeting. Also watch the meeting recording and read the chat from during the meeting: https://uofi.box.com/s/lv1xbqlcevdp6f2dfmiep2fpx3cq2zde

Just wanted to provide a wonderful update on Indoor bins for the iCAP portal: The campus has 180 out of 200 available multi stream bins deployed in 56 different campus buildings. According to the iCAP metric, we are 1/3 of the way to our FY24 goal. ~Sydney Trimble