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Projects Updates for place: Agricultural Engineering Sciences Building

  1. Spring 2022: iSEE Quarterly Update (iQ)

    Associated Project(s): 
    Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE)
    iSEE funding for Campus as a Living Lab (CALL)
    Certificate in Environmental Writing (CEW) [ARCHIVED]
    iCAP 2020: Illinois Climate Action Plan
    Freezer Challenge
    Sierra Club surveys [ARCHIVED]
    Solar Farm 2.0
    Certified Greener Campus Programs

    The Spring 2022 iSEE Quarterly Update (iQ) was released with the following message from Madhu Khanna, the Interim Director of iSEE:

     

    Greetings Colleagues,

     

    Attached, please find the Spring 2022 edition of iQ, our quarterly update. You will see that in this six-page pdf recapping the recent semester, we had plenty of news and updates from our research, education, events, and campus sustainability fronts.

     

    But the work did not end there! Since the semester ended, we have had two other exciting announcements:

     

    • The U of I campus was rewarded with the only USDA NIFA “Farm of the Future” grant. Our I-FARM project will be an 80-acre testbed for merging technology, sensing, and agronomy into a farm setting with crops and livestock that will be productive and profitable. Read our June 1 news release >>>
    • In addition, for the fifth consecutive time, our campus reached Gold-level status in the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) run by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). New solar and geothermal energy projects, a reduction in water use, and wide-ranging sustainability research helped us reach this level yet again. Read the May 25 news release >>>

     

    For more up-to-date news from iSEE, please sign up for our E-newsletter at https://illinois.edu/fb/sec/5031776.

      

    Best wishes for a healthy and productive summer,

     

    Madhu

     

    Attached Files: 

  5. UIUC Freezer Challenge in R&D World Magazine

    Associated Project(s): 
    Freezer Challenge

    Becky Chambers Hennessy, writer of R&D World magazine, wrote a Q&A style piece on UIUC's "Winning Streak Award" for the International Freezer Challenge. The piece contains answers from Deborah S. Katz-Downie, Martin Gruebele, and Paul Foote. The piece can be found here.

  6. ECIP Award Winners

    Associated Project(s): 
    Energy Conservation Incentive Program (ECIP)

    On October 20, 2021, the 2021 Energy Conservation Incentive Program (ECIP) Award Winners were announced at the Campus Sustainability Celebration!

    UIUC is home to a total of 10 winners and honorable mentions, as listed below according to their categories:

    • Occupant Action Category
      • Ice Arena
      • Student Dining and Residential Programs
      • English Building
      • Campus Recreation Center East (CRCE)
    • Energy Advancement Category
      • Stock Pavilion
      • Forbes Natural History Building
      • Levis Faculty Center
      • Early Development Lab
    • Honorable Mentions
      • State Farm Center
      • Bielfeldt Athletic Administrative Building

    See the attached file to read the official announcement of 2021 ECIP Winners, including the locations' % improvements and monetary savings.

    Attached Files: 

  7. 2021 Campus Sustainability Celebration!

    Associated Project(s): 
    Facilitate campus-wide sustainability events
    Energy Conservation Incentive Program (ECIP)
    iCAP 2020: Illinois Climate Action Plan

    All are invited to the 2021 Campus Sustainability Celebration and appreciation event! Meet and network with your peer sustainability advocates and hear about exciting campus sustainability progress! Since the event is in person, please be prepared to wear a mask and show your Safer Illinois app or equivalent status. If you can't make it in person, watch the livestream on YouTube! >>>

    October 20, 1–4 pm • National Center for Supercomputing Applications lobby, 1205 W. Clark St., Urbana

    Julie Wurth • Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment

    2021 Campus Sustainability Celebration!

  8. 2021 Freezer Challenge Results

    Associated Project(s): 
    Freezer Challenge

    For the second year in a row, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign won the "Winning Streak Award" for earning the most points and saving the most kWh/year of any academic institution. This is the fourth year in a row we have topped the academic sector list! UIUC estimated annual energy savings was at 383,615 kWh's or approximately $32,262.

    All of the freezer challenge winners can be found here.

  9. 2021 Freezer Challenge Recap & Summary

    Associated Project(s): 
    Freezer Challenge

    In the 2021 Freezer Challenge, 222 labs participated from over 100 different research institutions across 17 countries. The combined efforts of the scientists and labs saved 4.6 million kWh of electricity over the past year, which is the equivalent of reducing carbon emissions by 3,260 metric tons. 

    Based on the U of I's submitted scoresheets (33 in total), the combined actions of the university saved a total of 1051 kWh/day across multiple labs throughout campus. 

  10. iWG Meeting 7-22-21

    Associated Project(s): 
    iCAP Working Group (iWG)
    Energy iCAP Team
    Clean Energy Plan
    Green Research Committee
    Freezer Challenge
    Topical iCAP Teams

    The iCAP Working Group met on 7-22-21. Attached are the meeting minutes. The agenda was as follows: 

    1. Introductions
    2. Energy006
      1. Update on Freezer Challenge (Paul Foote) ~4 min
      2. Update on Greener Labs Inventory Toolkit (Morgan White) ~4 min
      3. Energy Team introduce the recommendation (Bill Rose, Andy Stumpf) ~8 min
      4. Group discussion ~10 min
    3. Energy007
      1. Overview of Energy Management Plan (Rob Roman) ~6 min
      2. Energy Team introduce the recommendation (Bill Rose, Andy Stumpf) ~8 min
      3. Group discussion ~45 min
        1. Should the scope only utilize existing technology?
        2. Do we want project-specific preliminary costs or prorated estimates based on historical costs?
        3. Does this document need stakeholder engagement?
        4. This is for meeting the 2050 iCAP goal.
        5. Should this document include net-zero space aspects or should it utilize an anticipated growth percentage?
        6. How does deferred maintenance interact with this plan?
        7. What scenarios would we like to see? For example, what if every new building on campus had to be net-zero energy?
    4. Overview of vision for iCAP Teams this academic year (Meredith Moore) ~5 min
      1. Enhanced interaction about the iCAP
      2. Standard recommendations from topical teams – encourage small-scale recommendations that will get to more campus units/groups
      3. Active participation at Campus Sustainability Celebration – afternoon of 10/20/21
      4. Increase connections with other groups – Student Affairs, SSLC, etc.
    Attached Files: 

  11. Archived Info - Previous Project Description

    Associated Project(s): 
    Environment-Enhancing Energy Paradigm for Food Waste to Biofuel and Biomaterial [ARCHIVED]

    A student research team, under Dr. Yuanhui Zhang, will expand the Environment-Enhancing Energy (E2E) research program to campus application by augmenting wet food waste produced through the dining halls. They will first survey dining services food waste and make their findings available to campus affiliates. Next, they will take dining waste and convert it into biofuel and asphalt. This process will reduce UIUC’s food waste, advancing the Illinois Climate Action Plan efforts. Likewise, the project will bring awareness to food waste at a local level. In December 2017, this project received $10,000 from the Student Sustainability Committee to kickstart the project.

  12. Archived Info - Previous Project Description

    Associated Project(s): 
    Environment-Enhancing Energy Paradigm for Food Waste to Biofuel and Biomaterial [ARCHIVED]

    A student research team, under Dr. Yuanhui Zhang, will expand the Environment-Enhancing Energy (E2E) research program to campus application by augmenting wet food waste produced through the dining halls. They will first survey dining services food waste and make their findings available to campus affiliates. Next, they will take dining waste and convert it into biofuel and asphalt. This process will reduce UIUC’s food waste, advancing the Illinois Climate Action Plan efforts. Likewise, the project will bring awareness to food waste at a local level. In December 2017, this project received $10,000 from the Student Sustainability Committee to kickstart the project.

  13. iSEE Annual Report and iCAP Portal Updates Request

    Associated Project(s): 
    Environment-Enhancing Energy Paradigm for Food Waste to Biofuel and Biomaterial [ARCHIVED]

    Tony Mancuso, the Communications and Public Affairs Director, has requested updates on the progress of Professor Sinha and Professor Zhang's 2018 Campus as a Living Lab seed-funded projects for the iSEE website and the iSEE annual report.

    Professor Zhang sent updates for this project per Avery Maloto's request to update the iCAP Portal. Pictures were included in the update but there was an issue determining the status of the funding. 

  15. Archived Info - Previous Project Description

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainable Agricultural Food System

    This project is a significant expansion of the current local food partnership existing between the Student Sustainable Farm (SSF), Multifunctional Woody Perennial Polyculture (MWP), FSHN Pilot Processing Plant (PPP), and UIUC Dining.  Presently the Sustainable Agriculture Food System grows, processes, and serves on campus a variety of tomato sauces (pizza sauce is served across campus) and hot sauce.  Soon, the Sustainable Agriculture Food System will add a whole wheat flour milling line.  It have a very successful and growing program to provide quality, sustainable, and local food products and education to the UIUC students.

    This particular project will focus on the addition of a fresh juice processing line that will be able to handle a wide array of fruits and vegetables, packaged into an array of containers from single serving to bulk.  As with the other projects, this partnership has no funding for large capital equipment expenditures, and relies on grants to increase our capacity.  Dining Services is a strong partner in our project and has agreed to provide a grant to help with the purchase of items needed to produce fresh juice products including a harvester for fruit from the MWP site.

  16. Archived Info - Previous Project Description

    Associated Project(s): 
    Tomato Processing and Packaging

    The goal of the Sustainable Agricultural Food System is to further collaboration between the production activities of the Sustainable Student Farm; the teaching, research, and outreach activities at the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition (FSHN); and Dining Services' goal of increasing procurement of locally grown foods. The specific action the project would take in order to support this goal would be purchasing tomato processing equipment.

    By weight, tomatoes are the farm's main crop. The Student Sustainable Farm sells most of its tomatoes to Dining Services raw, where they are either used fresh or processed and made into sauce. There are several issues with this system, however. Firstly, the Dining Services prefers to buy ready-to-eat sauces, as opposed to having to make the sauces in-house. Furthermore, only 60 to 70 percent of the possible tomato crop is harvested due to the seasonality of locally grown tomatoes not coinciding with the needs of Dining Services.

    Tomato processing could allow FSHN students to process tomatoes from the Student Sustainable Farm and produce shelf-stable products to be used by Dining Services. This would alleviate both of the current issues with the process, along with incorporating FSHN students into the sustainable agricultural efforts of the University. FSHN students and faculty would be able to use the equipment to research sustainable processing practices and establish processing protocols for small-scale production lines that could support local farmers.

    Student involvement would be a significant part of this project. The Student Sustainable Farm already introduces 200-300 student volunteers to sustainable agriculture each year. The project would add to this number by incorporating FSHN students, who would be involved as part of their coursework at the University.

  18. 2021 International Freezer Challenge

    Associated Project(s): 
    Freezer Challenge

     

    Research, managing labs, and personnel keeping you busy? No worries!

    International Freezer Challenge Coordinators can enter your lab's information and the cold-storage sample management efforts you have made during the past year.

    Any changes, upgrades, cleaning out, defrostings, filter cleanings, and reductions to freezer/refrigerators can all be added to your score sheets. 

    Sample management, reductions, inventory creation or changes and upgrades, as well as, increasing room-temperature sample-storage inventory are all actions that increase your score and reduce the environmental impact of your lab operations.

    All actions in sample management you have made since August 2020 help your lab improve environmental impact, reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption, and are eligible to boost your lab and UIUC's overall point totals in the 2021 International Freezer Challenge.

    If you would like us to register your lab and complete your score sheet?

    • Send a completed copy of the linked word document with your action items, or send a request for assistance to gfoote2@illinois.edu.
    • If requesting assistance, we will arrange a time to meet with you and gather the necessary information to complete your lab's registration and scorecard.

    Help UIUC defend our 1st place international standing and win the opportunity to be highlighted and have your photo in NATURE magazine!

    For more information and questions about the International Freezer Challenge, please contact Paul Foote, F&S energy efficiency and conservation specialist, gfoote2@illinois.edu, 217-244-1048.

     

     

  20. Take action, register today, and submit your efforts by July 1, 2021

    Associated Project(s): 
    Freezer Challenge

    Did you buy an energy-efficient refrigerator or freezer, discard or unplug a fridge or freezer, clean out samples, start a sample inventory list, adjust a fridge or freezer to a warmer temperature, defrost a fridge, or clean the filters? These actions promote equipment longevity, better sample management, and improve efficiency; they also help you earn points for the Freezer Challenge. 

    For more information and questions about the International Freezer Challenge, please contact Paul Foote, F&S energy efficiency and conservation specialist, gfoote2@illinois.edu, 217-244-1048.

    Take action, register today, and submit your efforts by July 1, 2021.

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