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Projects Updates for theme: Engagement

  1. Upcoming sustainability events - August 2022

    Associated Project(s): 
    TED Talk: Eco Edition Series [ARCHIVED]
    Urbana Park District (UPD) Climate Action, Resilience, Education and Sustainability (CARES) Plan
    Facilitate campus-wide sustainability events
    Guest Speakers for Sustainability Topics

    The semester is right around the corner. Welcome back to campus! You are invited to several upcoming climate-related events:

    1. Let’s Talk about Sustainability: iSEE (Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment) is hosting a daily in-person gathering from 10-11 AM during the first week of the semester (August 22-26) in the South Lounge at the Illini Union. Coffee and light refreshments will be provided. Together, we will listen to a brief presentation by a subject-matter expert (agenda below), followed by an open discussion of ideas and questions from attendees. Stop by one morning - or each day next week - and help spread the word! This is a great opportunity to get connected, ask questions, network, and strengthen your interest in campus sustainability.
    • Monday 8/22: Meet iSEE/iCAP with campus sustainability staff
    • Tuesday 8/23: Plastic reduction with ISTC and Champaign County
    • Wednesday 8/24: Student involvement with SSLC (Student Sustainability Leadership Council)/SECs (Students for Environmental Concerns)
    • Thursday 8/25: Sustainable transportation (learn how to register your bike – and more!) with F&S and the Bike Center
    • Friday 8/26: Educational opportunities with iSEE
    1. Urbana Park District's Climate Action Week 2022 will be held throughout next week, August 22-28. Daily events include tours, hiking and lunch & learns. The week will culminate in a main event at Crystal Lake Park on Saturday, August 27, from 1 PM-4 PM. Click the title link to learn more about UPD's Green Initiatives and Programs.
       
    2. iSEE’s TED Talk: Eco-Edition series: Kick start your commitment to sustainability this academic year on Wednesday, August 31 from 7-8 PM. This month’s Zoom Ted Talk event is hosted by the four co-presidents of the Student Sustainability Leadership Council (SSLC): Jack Reicherts, Danika Ford, Owen Jennings, and Maiah Caise. We will watch a pre-recorded TED Talk followed by a guided, thought-provoking discussion. The discussion will highlight environmental activism and how to get involved in environmental initiatives on campus. All are welcome, whether near or far! Register here.

    Have you signed up for the iSEE newsletter yet? This is the best way to stay up-to-date on all things sustainability. Let me know if you have any questions, and see you soon!

  5. "Let's Talk about Sustainability" Event Agenda

    Associated Project(s): 
    Facilitate campus-wide sustainability events

    From: Moore, Meredith Kaye <mkm0078 at illinois.edu>
    Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2022 2:23 PM
    To: Mancuso, Anthony D <tmancuso at illinois.edu>; Wurth Asmussen, Julie Ann <jwurth at illinois.edu>
    Cc: White, Morgan <mbwhite at illinois.edu>; Fraterrigo, Jennifer M <jmf at illinois.edu>; Murphy, Elizabeth A <eamurphy at illinois.edu>; Khanna, Madhu <khanna1 at illinois.edu>
    Subject: "Let's Talk about Sustainability" event agenda

     

    Hi all,

     

    We now have confirmation for the “Let’s Talk about Sustainability” event agenda. As a reminder, this will be held each morning (10-11AM) in the South Lounge of the Union during the first week of the semester (August 22-27).


    Monday 8/22 – Meet iSEE/iCAP with sustainability staff

    Tuesday 8/23 – Plastic reduction with ISTC

    Wednesday 8/24 – Student involvement with SSLC/SECS/SSC

    Thursday 8/25 – Sustainable transportation (learn how to register your bike, take the bus, etc) with F&S and Bike Center

    Friday 8/26 – Educational opportunities with iSEE

     

    The purpose is to welcome students to campus, help them learn more about sustainability efforts on campus and in the community, and engage them in panel discussions on specific topics. Each morning, there will be a brief presentations (10-15 minutes) about a topic by a subject-matter expert, followed by open discussion and questions from attendees. They are not meant to be very formal but instead to spark the curiosity and interest of students and staff, particularly those who are new to campus, and help them find ways to become involved in advocacy and a local culture of sustainability. This event is open to all!

     

    The Communications Team is in the process of creating a Facebook event for the event; it will also be advertised in the iSEE newsletter next week, EWeek/iNews/GradLinks, and at the Welcome Celebration. Please help advertise the event in your circles as well and let me know if you have any questions in the meantime.

     

    Thank you!
    Meredith

     

    --------------------------------------------
    “There are a lot of dreamers – dreaming is very important, but it’s really the dreamer and the doer. You’ve got to be the doer.” –Will Steger  

    MEREDITH MOORE
    Sustainability Programs Manager 

    University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
    Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE)
    1101 W Peabody Drive (Suite 382), Urbana, IL, 61801
    217.333.0119 | mkm0078 at illinois.edu
    www.sustainability.illinois.edu
     
    signature_2127019860
     

  6. Inquiry about SSC Micro Grants

    Associated Project(s): 
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)

    Sarthak Prasad reached out to Jack Reicherts to ask if SSC awards micro grants. 

    Jack replied with the message below, 

    Hi Sarthak,

     

    In the interest of streamlining things, I think we got rid of microgrants as of a year and a half ago or so. We still do student-led under $10k projects on a rolling basis, but everything else still goes through the normal 2-step process. If you ever need to connect with interested students, I’m happy to plug potential projects on our Discord server!

     

    Best,

    Jack

  9. TED Talk: Eco-Edition Series - Climate Action 7/27 at 6PM

    Associated Project(s): 
    TED Talk: Eco Edition Series [ARCHIVED]

    TED Talk: Eco Edition Series - Climate Action

    All are invited to attend iSEE’s TED Talk: Eco-Edition event, this month hosted by Savannah Donovan, Environmental Program Manager at the Urbana Parks District and President of the Environmental Education Association of IL. The discussion will center on local and global climate action. Participants will view a prerecorded TED Talk followed by a guided discussion. No preparation is necessary!

    July 27, 6–7 pm

    Meredith Moore • Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment

  11. iWG Meeting Minutes 5-23-22

    Associated Project(s): 
    iCAP Working Group (iWG)
    Clean Energy Plan
    Zero Waste iCAP Team

    The iWG met on 5-23-22 and discussed the following agenda. The meeting minutes are attached.

    1. Revisit ZW008
    2. ABE469 – student group worked on developing a scope for the Clean Energy Plan - https://uofi.box.com/s/p8rov2a176ow0nbwy5n3dh3b1ym2u36m
    3. Continue discussion on what to include in the scope of Comprehensive Energy Planning Document
    4. Thanks for all of your hard work this year!
    Attached Files: 

  12. TED Talk: Eco-Edition - Celebrating Pride Month and Juneteenth

    Associated Project(s): 
    TED Talk: Eco Edition Series [ARCHIVED]

    We have a lot to celebrate this month, including Pride Month and Juneteenth! In the spirit of celebrating achievements, we also acknowledge challenges we continue to face and we may find ourselves discouraged and overwhelmed. I hope you can join us on Zoom this Wednesday, 6/15 from 7-8 PM for the June TED Talk: Eco-Edition event which will focus on overcoming barriers. After watching a pre-recorded TED Talk, we will discuss in the context of sustainability action how we can persist beyond the challenges to empower a climate-conscious society. The conversation will be led by April Wendling, iSEE Communications Specialist and UIUC graduate student in Journalism.

    We hope you are able to come and participate in the conversation this week! Register here: https://illinois.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAqd-mopj8vH9PF58pfJIfICscc_DL4EEVw. As a reminder, all are welcome and feel free to spread the event to anyone who may be interested. Let me know if you have any questions. Have a great week!

  13. 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: 

  15. May TED Talk: Eco-Edition Series - Bikes!

    Associated Project(s): 
    TED Talk: Eco Edition Series [ARCHIVED]

    The May TED Talk: Eco-Edition event will be held on 5/31 from 6-7 PM. It is hosted by our very own Tyler Swanson, an incoming senior and the clerk for the Energy and Transportation iCAP Teams.

    Tyler will present a pre-recorded TED Talk by Adam Stones, “How Cycling Can Transform Places” followed by a guided discussion. The semester may be over, but this is a great opportunity to connect with each other in a casual, no-pressure setting. Sign up here to receive the Zoom link: https://illinois.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0rc-upqzkoG91isKwq2w-20GAxOU_qS4HM

    Feel free to pass this along to anyone who may be interested!

  16. Lighting Retrofits are important - article in Popular Science

    Associated Project(s): 
    Lighting Conservation Projects
    Provide Centralized Communication about Sustainability
    Centralized Energy Efficiency Efforts

    “Incandescent bulbs use more energy and produce more heat due to their engineering designs,” says Paul Foote, energy efficiency and conservation specialist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It’s important to shift to more energy-efficient alternatives to reduce the environmental impacts of incandescent bulbs from the utilization of fossil fuels for electricity, he added.

    By mandating a minimum light output or lumens per watt, manufacturers make sure all bulbs can effectively light up a room, which ensures that consumers will avoid overusing energy with substandard bulbs to get the same level of brightness, says Foote. “When upgrading from incandescent bulbs to LEDs, we have noticed a 60 percent decrease in energy consumption on average, and therefore energy cost avoidance has reduced our utility bill by similar amounts for lighting,” he adds.

    <--break->Popular Science interviewed Paul Foote at F&S as part of their article about the importance of lighting retrofits. the full article is available online at https://www.popsci.com/environment/light-bulbs-sustainability-energy/. 

     

     

     

  17. Suggestion for Reducing Plastic Waste

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability Council

    From: Fraterrigo, Jennifer M <jmf at illinois.edu>
    Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2022 5:27 PM
    To: Brown Young, Danita M <dbyoung at illinois.edu>
    Cc: Moore, Meredith Kaye <mkm0078 at illinois.edu>; White, Morgan <mbwhite at illinois.edu>
    Subject: swag for new students

     

    Dear Vice Chancellor Young,

     

    I am writing to follow up about reducing plastic waste and how we might accomplish that through the swag new students receive when they arrive on campus. At the Sustainability Council meeting last week, you mentioned that students are given water bottles, reusable straws and utensils, which is great! We wanted to explore with you the possibility of giving students a coupon that could be redeemed for a water bottle of their choosing instead of giving them a standard water bottle. The reason is that we think students might value a bottle more if they select it rather than if they are given a standard bottle.

     

    Thanks for considering it and looking forward to hearing from you.

     

    Sincerely,

    Jennifer

    ____

     

    Jennifer Fraterrigo (she/her)

    iSEE Associate Director for Campus Sustainability and
    Professor of Landscape and Ecosystem Ecology
    Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences

    University of Illinois

    W-423 Turner Hall, 1102 S. Goodwin Ave.

    Urbana, IL 61801

    jmf at illinois.edu
    ph 217-333-9428

    https://fraterrigolab.nres.illinois.edu/

  18. Sustainability Council Meeting 5-12-22

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability Council

    The Sustainability Council met on 5-12-22 and discussed the following agenda. The meeting slides and minutes are attached.

    Agenda:

    •Introductions

    •Sustainable Land Management Plan

    •Waste Reduction Strategies

    •Updates

    • Campus Landscape Master Plan
    • Sustainability in Gen Ed requirements
    • STARS Shifting to Platinum
    • Student Groups

    •Old business

    Attached Files: 

  19. Eco-Counter set installed and activated at Green and Goodwin

    Associated Project(s): 
    Pedestrian and Bicycle Counts
    Multimodal Corridor Enhancement Project (MCORE)
    Bicycle Counts
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)

    A set of Eco-Counters were installed at the intersection of Green St and Goodwin Ave by Loomis Laboratory on Monday, May 9, 2022. This was a new set of counters with no groundbox, purchased in October 2021. This set of Eco-Counter was purchased using the SSC funding. These counters were activated on May 10, 2022, and they are now collecting and transmitting data. See attached the pictures of these counters.

    Attached Files: 

  20. iWG Meeting Minutes 4-19-22

    Associated Project(s): 
    iCAP Working Group (iWG)
    Zero Waste iCAP Team
    Resilience iCAP Team
    Earth Month

    The iCAP Working Group met on 4-19-22 and discussed the following agenda: 

    1. ZW007 Composting Committee (Alexa Smith and Sydney Trimble)
    2. ZW008 Adopt a Highway/Drain (Alexa Smith and Sydney Trimble)
    3. Res003 Collecting Info about Environmental Justice Needs (Stacy Gloss)
    4. Updates
      1. Earth Month – Meredith
      2. SSC
      3. SSLC
      4. ISG

    The meeting minutes are attached. 

    Attached Files: 

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