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Projects Updates for place: Natural Resources Building

  1. Native Planting at Burrill Hall

    The following is an email sent by John Marlin on May 16, 2023:

     

    As most of you know I am retired from campus and involved in other off campus conservation activities. I will no longer be overseeing the Burrill Hall native planting.

     

    During the pandemic, maintenance at campus native plantings by volunteers was not allowed.  This coupled with very dry conditions caused deterioration of several sites including the one at Burrill Hall. F&S bought the woodland wildflowers for the planting and the Entomology Department installed them and provided some maintenance in conjunction with some students.

     

    Department head May Berenbaum has put together an effort to revitalize the planting and has some limited funding for some maintenance of the native plants.  F&S plans to make some changes in part of the area and the path is to be restored.  Daniel Bush will initially work with the native plants and supervise any students. 

     

    In the past weeds removed from the site were placed by the two square concrete benches and I notified Ryan Welch who had the maintenance crew remove them.  I assume a similar arrangement can be made possibly with Mr. Dalby as the contact.

     

    This site was quite popular with people walking past and provided a good instructional resource, especially the area near the sidewalk.  I hope that this will continue.

     

    John C. Marlin

     

    Dennis Dalby replied:

     

    Thank you John,

     

    It was nice meeting you today to gain some of your tips and input regarding the planting and upkeep of this area.  I’ve been working with Ryan Welch and SIB to get this area brought back up to its current level and look forward to its improved upkeep with the discussions that we had today.  We’ll be working with Ryan to have a wood chip path added once again and will add a few small plants of our own within the areas that we (MCB) will maintain.  SIB will maintain the areas of the native plants.  It will look and function much better once all is in place.

     

    Thanks again for stopping by to share your experience,

     

    Dennis

  2. ECIP next steps

    Hi Paul,

     

    Should we set up a calendar time to talk via Teams about the ECIP plans?  I’d think it would include Jen Fraterrigo, and maybe Rob?

     

    Thanks,

    Morgan

    ----------------------

    Hi Morgan,

    During Monday’s meeting we chose to follow your advice and go with the fall schedule.

     

    We are again having conference schedule during this week and wonder if the sustainability week can be chosen on a week other than the week of Oct 16th – the 20th?

     

    Best

    Paul

    --------------------

    Hi Paul,

     

    I think the date of the Campus Sustainability Celebration can move, as long as it is within October. I'll touch base with Jen about it and confirm. 

     

    Thanks,

    Morgan 

    -------------------

    Good morning,

     

    I am fine with moving the Campus Sustainability Celebration to another week in October.

     

    Thanks,

    Jen

  3. Monarch seeds or plugs

    Jen and Morgan asked Brent Lewis about the use of plugs instead of seeds. They also want to explore partnering with schools and community groups to collect seed from local sources and that The Urbana Free Library has a seed library, in which we could help encourage participation.  Also, Jen would like to engage University Primary School, which is adjacent to the prairie where students found a lot of milkweed. One of their lessons is about monarchs. Milkweed pods are easy to harvest in the fall.

    Brent responded with the following message:

    Hi Jennifer,

    If we are doing butterfly weed on the main part of campus, then I want to use plugs.  For this recommendation, we’ve shifted to enhancing the low mow areas.  In that case, we are talking about a huge amount of space.  Due to the easy nature of growing these from seed and the large impact we are looking for, having them broadcast seed through these zones is the most effective way of accomplishing this. 

    We will make sure to get some out at the school there too.  That’s a great suggestion.

    Thanks,

    Brent.

  4. Outreach for Bee Campus advisory board members

    Associated Project(s): 

    Good afternoon! I’m Sinead Soltis, one of the sustainability interns at Facilities and Services. In representing my team at F&S, I am planning on getting a committee together to once again to advise our campus’ Bee Campus affiliation. Our campus has previously held this designation in 2018 & 2019, but the committee has since dissolved. As a committee, we will weigh in on all things pollinator related, in addition to having a space for students to share their volunteer efforts regarding bees with faculty/staff (& vice versa)! I can see this being a low-commitment group, as we will likely be sharing efforts already being made across the Champaign-Urbana area.

     

    With that being said, I wanted to gauge interest for joining as a member. Meetings will likely be held monthly, or bi-monthly, as needed. I am aware that some of you have previously been members of this committee, or at a minimum, listed as a member. I would appreciate members who have previously sat to join us, at least for the first few meetings. Also, feel free to forward this invitation to anyone you would feel would benefit from sitting on this committee!

     

    If you are interested in joining the committee, please respond to me when you can. A tentative meeting is planned for some time in April, although an exact date has not yet been chosen.

     

    Bee Campus USA website, for more information: https://beecityusa.org/bee-campus-usa-commitments/

     

    Thanks in advance,  

    Sinead Soltis  

  5. ECIP awards for 2022

    Hello Jen and Morgan,

    I have attached a draft of the award letter to be sent to the deans and dept heads, and am reaching out to iSEE in regards to supporting this program.

     

    I believe in the past ISEE co-presented these awards with F&S and more recently the awards were presented at the Sustainability Celebration which works well to promote more exposure for all sustainability items on campus.

    Unfortunately, the BTAF Mechanical Engineering conference and I2SL conferences are during the same week so we were not available to join this past year.

     

    We are now looking at 5 separate presentations at each location to present this years awards and wondering what support or involvement ISEE would be interested in?

     

    Thank you 

    Paul Foote

    ----------------------------

    Hi Paul,

     

    Jen and I spoke about this, and iSEE is interested in continuing to participate in the presentation of the ECIP awards.  We would like to suggest that this be a single award presentation, rather than the five separate events.  It can occur during Earth Month, and perhaps it could be held at the ACES Library, which is a nice venue and it was the ECIP winner with the highest energy savings.

     

    Please let us know if this is an acceptable plan, and we can arrange a call to talk about the details.

     

    Also, I asked Ehab about the Henry Admin Building leadership, and he suggests Paul Ellinger be the point of contact for the award letter.

     

    Thanks,

    Morgan

    --------------------------

    Hello Everyone,

    This is a terrific plan, Rob gave the go-ahead to plan the venue, date & time etc.

     

    When works best for all?

     

    Thank you

    Paul

    ----------------------

    Hello All,

    I am bumping this to the top of the email list for scheduling the venue and timing for this event.

    Let me know when we can discuss/finalize the details?

     

    Best

    Paul Foote

    ----------------------

    Hi Paul,

     

    Is there anything that you were anticipating including in this event agenda, other than the ECIP announcements and plaque distribution?  If not, it might be better to include both years’ winners in the fall 2023 campus sustainability celebration. 

     

    I realize this is a shift from what we were thinking of, but it would be a shame to put together an event that is only 15 minutes long…  It would also be difficult to get a broad audience.

     

    Thanks,

    Morgan

    -----------------------

    Hi Morgan,

    We were thinking this timeframe might fit better than the fall venue with multiple conferences etc…

    Pending the date, we should have information regarding the next round of funding and were planning to gather the facilities managers at this event to share examples and promote future project applications.

     

    Thoughts everyone?

    Best

    Paul

    ------------------

    Hi Morgan and all,

    I crossed the revolving loan fund and ECIP, the ECIP awards can be discussed at our next monthly meeting.

     

    Thank you

    Paul Foote

    -------------------

     

    Hi Paul, What monthly meeting?

    thanks, Morgan

    ------------------------

    Hi Morgan,

    UES has a monthly meeting for ECIP, RLF, rapid back and other funding items as needed.

     

    Best

    Paul

     

  6. Update from Brent regarding milkweed recommendation

    Jen asked Brent on March 1 about the status of LW004 Monarchs Need Milkweed and ALUFS006 Increased Agroforestry. Brent responded on March 1 with the following message:

    Hi Jennifer,

    On this one, Morgan has our response.  We want to do the work with F&S Grounds, but would like to have the SSC pay for seeds.  I think I have a cost of $2200, which would allow for us to seed a fairly large amount of the low mow spaces on campus.  F&S wouldn’t charge for our time as we would be broadcasting, which isn’t difficult.  The benefit of having us do the seeding is that we would know where it was.  We would also focus on the higher visibility areas to greatest impact.

    If we can get funding soon, we can get the seeds ordered for this year. 

    Thanks!

  7. iSEE Quarterly update for Winter 2022

    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

    • Registration is open for iSEE Congress 2023 — “Addressing Crises of a Planetary Scale: Lessons from Pandemics and Climate Change.”
    • The Fall 2023 Critical Conversation is expected to bring together stakeholders to discuss climate-smart commodities.
    • iSEE’s Environmental Leadership Program for Spring 2023 is already more than past the midway point; check out our student blog for some perspective on the immersive learning experience.
    • Read a Certificate in Environmental Writing (CEW) success story in former Q author and CEW recipient Zack Fishman.

     

    IN CAMPUS SUSTAINABILITY

    • Our Grind2Energy video explored how dining hall food waste produces energy and fertilizer; its release spurred coverage by The News-Gazette and WCIA-TV.
    • iSEE’s new, more comprehensive Student Action webpage offers listings for iSEE jobs, volunteering, and student organizations to join.
    • Illini Lights Out fall semester featured RECORD totals: more than 640 volunteers turned off 20,303 bulbs, saving the campus as much as 35,000 kWH, $3,090, and nearly 25 tons of GHG. Spring dates: Jan. 27 (130+ volunteers, 5,043 bulbs, 8,700 kWH, $760, 6.2 tons of GHG), Feb. 10 and 24, March 24, and April 21.
    • At the November Zero Waste basketball game (see video) more than 280 pounds of beverage containers and other recyclables were diverted from the landfill. The next Zero Waste basketball game March 2 seeks 100 volunteers. iSEE partnering with F&S, Housing, Athletics, and Union for a #don’twasteWednesdays twitter campaign all spring. FALL PLAN: a ZW football tailgate.
    • A new Waste Transfer Station video shows the great work by Facilities & Services — but also the need for all campus community members to pre-sort their recyclables to prevent them from becoming landfill waste.
    • Greener Campus certifications in the new year: One new office (Visit Champaign County!), one new chapter (Sigma Lambda Gamma sorority), and nine new events (including Illini Lights Out) certified in January.
    • Read our article about the sustainable features of Campus Recreation and our feature about the new beekeeping club on campus.

     

    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

     

     

     

  8. 28 bin order arrived

    Associated Project(s): 

    On Friday, February 17, the bin order from MAX-R arrived at the Waste Transfer Station. 20 26-gallon bins (standard size) and 8 18-gallon (slim) bins arrived.

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