Morgan White and Sinead Soltis met with Katherine Yoshida, the University of Illinois-Chicago's Sustainabiliy program director about our system's status of being an EPA SmartWay Affiliate. Discussion included the history of SmartWay on our campus, along with ideas of how to integrate into UIC's campus.
A follow up call is scheduled for the end of October.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is now a registered SmartWay Affiliate! The EPA SmartWay Affiliate Agreement was signed on 6/19/20, and the university was officially welcomed to the program by a representative from the EPA on 7/16/20. Civil Engineering student Abby Culloton and F&S Sustainability Intern Sinead Soltis will begin integrating the SmartWay messaging within campus departments beginning in the fall 2020 semester.
A SmartWay Affiliate is an organization that agrees to educate and support their members' efforts to improve freight sustainability. Please follow the link below for more information and to explore how your team can become a SmartWay partner!
Final Project Deliverables for Spring 2020
There were 7 projects completed by the WIE-GFX Abroad Scholars in the Spring 2020 semester of ENG 177
Here are the files associated with the EPA SmartWay Program.
Abby Culloton, a freshman in Civil and Environmental Engineering, put together a project proposal for the SmartWay program and presented it on February 28th. This proposal included why being an affiliate of this program would be beneficial to campus, who/ what departments across campus would be involved, proposed objectives, and other facts that needed to be considered.
Attached is the full proposal.
Women in Engineering (WIE) Grainger First-Year Experience (GFX) student, Abby Culloton, is working with Morgan White and Sinead Soltis at F&S to lead the integration of SmartWay on campus, pending the completion of the EPA SmartWay Affiliate Agency agreement for campus. Abby will do this as part of her class project, and in support of campus sustainability.
Executive Director of Facilities & Services, Mohammed Atalla, responded over email to Ximing Cai (iSEE Associate Director for Campus Sustainability) in support of the recommendation:
"Facilities & Services, in collaboration with Jamie Singson at the Illini Union, will proceed with investigating the recommendation to join the EPA’s SmartWay partnership program. Morgan will be arranging a webinar/conference call with the representatives from EPA’s SmartWay program and the associated departments on campus per your recommendation. Then each respective department will determine how to proceed, when the process is clear. Morgan will provide updates via the iCAP Portal SmartWay project page: https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project/smartway-transport-partnership."
See the iWG Assessment of PWR011 SmartWay Union here.
See SWATeam recommendation PWR011 SmartWay Union here.
This recommendation has been submitted to the Illini Union and F&S Stores.
See attached iWG assessment.
See SWATeam recommendation PWR011 SmartWay Union here.
Morgan White talked with Denise Kearns at EPA about the SmartWay program and options for UI participation, in addition to the existing partnership with Dining Services.
Morgan asked Denise to:
The iCAP Working Group (iWG) met on April 9, 2018, to start the discussion on SWATeam recommendation, PWR011 SmartWay Union. The iWG started the assessment of this recommendation during the May 10, 2018, meeting. The iWG's draft comment on the recommendation was:
"We agree that F&S and the Illini Union should participate EPA SmartWay Program. EPA has identified someone to assist with considering options."
Attached are the meeting minutes from the iWG meeting that was held on April 9th, 2018.
The PWR SWATeam submitted a recommendation to the iWG stating, "We recommend that Facilities and Services and the Illini Union become certified as an EPA SmartWay Logistics Company Partner, following the example set by University Housing and Dining Services in 2013."
See attached the SWATeam recommendation PWR011 SmartWay Union complete with comments from all the PWR SWATeam members.
The PWR SWATeam had their first meeting of the semester, where they discussed several updates related to purchasing, waste, and recycling. The Team discussed concerns about recycling bins on the Main Quad, persistent issues with the purchasing of recycled paper on campus, challenges with a centralized battery recycling program, and the formal adoption of EPEAT standards for electronics on campus. The SWATeam also discussed and provided feedback on a formal recommendation for the expansion of SmartWay to other campus units.
The PWR SWATeam met to discuss objectives and goals for the year, as well as provide feedback on the proposed Campus Administrative Manual policy on purchasing paper of recycled content. The team discussed a broad range of projects and delegated next steps for moving forward on each.
Campus currently gives out tens of thousands of single-use plastic bags every year through its retail operations, including more than 50,000 each year at the Illini Union Bookstore alone. This proposal seeks to address waste by offering reusable bags via a partnership with on-campus traditions and university-affiliated retailers.
Approximately 20,000 bags will be supplied to students alongside an educational campaign about the impact of bag waste. The combination of replacing plastic bags with cloth reusable ones and an educational campaign to ensure reuse is projected to save hundreds of gallons of oil and thousands of pounds of CO2 emissions.
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.
Dear iCAP Working Group Members,
As a reminder, we will be meeting this Thursday at 1:30 (and also next Thursday, 4/9, at 1:30).
This week we will discuss the timeline for completing our work on the iCAP, and then turn our attention to the 7 attached formal recommendations we've received from the Transportation and Purchasing, Waste, and Recycling SWATeams. Please review these in advance of the meeting, so that we can discuss them most efficiently. If you will not be able to join us due to a schedule conflict, please email me in advance if you have any particular concerns.
Next week (4/9), we'll be joined by Kent Reifsteck and Mike Larson from F&S, and also Scott Willenbrock from the Energy Generation SWATeam, so that we can discuss what the iCAP should say about charting a pathway for clean energy for our campus.
Thanks,
Ben
Professor Benjamin J. McCall
Associate Director for Campus Sustainability Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus-sustainability@illinois.edu
Final Waste Stream Characterization Study of Swanlund Administration Building, Henry Administration Building, the Illini Union Bookstore, and the Alice Campbell Alumni Center.
From: Milbrandt, Janet
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2014 2:02 PM
To: Lavey, Warren Gary; McCall, Benjamin; Bartels, Bart A
Cc: Bohlen, Kayci; Taylor, Mark A
Subject: RE: new State of Illinois UPS contract
I am forwarding you to the Sourcing Office for the University of IL.
From: Lavey, Warren Gary
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2014 9:27 AM
To: Milbrandt, Janet; McCall, Benjamin; Bartels, Bart A
Subject: new State of Illinois UPS contract
Hello, Janet. The State of Illinois is implementing a new contract with UPS for ground and air package delivery services. UIUC is an eligible customer under this contract.
This contract was awarded pursuant to the Illinois Transportation Sustainability Procurement Program Act of 2013, with environmental factors comprising 20 percent of the bidder evaluation criteria. The contract includes provisions for tracking emissions and fuel consumption related to the services provided. Alternative fuels, including biofuels, and cleaner vehicles are encouraged for UPS's services under this contract. I don't have any information on the rates under the new contract.
Can you arrange a meeting with UIUC's UPS contract representative to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of migrating UIUC's shipments from UIUC's existing UPS contract to the new State of Illinois contract? I would like to participate in this meeting.
Thanks and best wishes.
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.
