Hello Colleagues and Sustainable Electronics Enthusiasts. It’s been a while since we had a meeting, and in case you missed it, I wanted to point out a recent Sustainable Electronics Initiative blog post which may be of interest. Students from the Illinois Business Council’s Green Initiative have been recycling printer cartridges as a fundraiser. We had hoped to have them give a presentation for the consortium, but due to scheduling conflicts, they instead provided some information for our blog. See http://wp.istc.illinois.edu/sei/2014/09/26/ui-sustainable-electronics-campus-consortium-bc-green-initiative-recycles-printer-cartridges/. If you want to set up a similar cartridge recycling program in your office or unit, pay particular attention to the referral information in the post, so the BC Green Initiative can receive additional funding for the referral.

Also, I want to encourage you to participate in a webinar next Tuesday, October 21, at 9:00 AM on “Sustainable Electronics for Purchasers.” You can register at https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/890717127. I’ll be presenting on topics such as purchase avoidance, reuse, repairing instead of replacing, supply chain issues (e.g. conflict minerals), and resources to help make more responsible choices. This webinar is a presentation for the IL Green Governments Coordinating Council Procurement Subcommittee, but is open to other interested parties. The presentation will be around 30 minutes long with time for questions after, so although we’ve set aside an hour, it will likely be more like 40-45 minutes long. I hope you can join us!

Best wishes,

Joy

Joy Scrogum

Emerging Technologies Resource Specialist

Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC; www.istc.illinois.edu)

Co-coordinator, Sustainable Electronics Initiative (SEI; www.sustainelectronics.illinois.edu)

Great Lakes Regional Pollution Prevention Roundtable (GLRPPR; www.glrppr.org)

ISTC is a Division of the Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

217-333-8948; 1 Hazelwood Drive, Champaign, IL 61820; MC-676

Dear iCAP Working Group,

First of all, I'd like to invite each of you to join us for the iCAP Forum from 1-4 pm on October 22 (Campus Sustainability Day), where the SWATeams will present their recommendations for the 2015 iCAP.  More details are appended below, along with a link to the RSVP form.  I hope you can join us!

Second, I attach the minutes from our last meeting.  I apologize for the delay in getting these to you, but iSEE has been swamped in the past few weeks as we hosted both a Congress on sustainable agriculture and a roundtable on sustainability education.  Please let us know by October 15 if you have any corrections.

Finally, I wanted to let you know that Morgan recommended separating the wind PPA process issue from the utilities master plan issue.  I took her advice, and sent the attached letter on the wind PPA process to Al Stratman today; I will follow up in ~10 days with a separate letter about the master plan.

Thanks again for your service on the working group!

Cheers,

Ben
 

Join us at iSEE’s iCAP Forum

What has the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus done to reach its Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) goals? Where have we fallen short? What’s next?

It’s time to update the iCAP, and we need input as we evaluate where we are — and where we want to be. The Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) invites you to attend a iCAP Forum from 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 22 — Sustainability Day — in Illini Union Room 314B. The event is an opportunity for the Sustainability Working Advisory Teams (SWATeams) to seek public input on their proposed 2015 revisions to the 2010 iCAP, and for iSEE to recognize sustainability leaders on campus through the Certified Green Office Program and the Energy Conservation Incentive Program.

All faculty, staff, students and community members are invited to attend the forum and give valuable feedback to SWATeams. We need campuswide investment in the sustainability movement as we target ambitious goals here, including carbon neutrality by 2050. RSVP at http://bit.ly/1BIPn4K

Attached here are the agenda and other relevant materials for the September 25, 2014 meeting of the iCAP Working Group.

This letter is in response to the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) Working Group (iWG) recommendation #EG001, which Facilities & Services (F&S) received on August 28.  F&S agrees that the campus should investigate the feasibility of entering into a Wind Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) to increase the use of renewable energy for campus. 

Regarding the EG001 general statements about campus energy use, data points, and assessments of anticipated financial impacts, F&S will need more time to compile a useful response.  Regarding the three specific EG001 recommendations, I have consulted with Al Stratman, Kent Reifsteck, and Mike Larson to provide the responses below. 

1. Recommendation: “The campus should undertake a Power Purchase Agreement for wind energy. Based on currently available information, we recommend that the amount be at least 119 million kWh per year (25% of our total electrical usage), but we should aim to purchase as much as we possibly can, given any technical, financial, and contractual constraints.”

From this recommendation, we understand that the iWG recommends entering into a Wind PPA for at least 25% of the FY15 electrical demand.  However, the campus cannot make an informed decision about whether or not to undertake a PPA until the financial impact is fully understood.  A key component of the financial impact is the fully burdened cost of the purchased wind power, which will not be known until after the successful completion of the Request for Proposal (RFP) process.  Therefore, F&S does support pursuing a PPA so the feasibility can be evaluated, but we do not support making a final decision to undertake a PPA until completely evaluating the financial implications.

1. Recommendation: “The effort to secure a PPA should be pursued as quickly as possible. The campus should inform PEI that this is a top priority, and that the review of RFI submittals and the issuance of the RFP should be expedited by all necessary means.”

During this summer, F&S worked with PEI to define a schedule for issuing a Request for Information (RFI) and a subsequent Request for Proposals (RFP).  This schedule shows a completion date of April 2015, so that the PPA could commence with delivery of power on July 1, 2015, at the start of FY16.  We have informed PEI that this is a top priority, along with safety and reliability of the overall campus energy system.

1. Recommendation: “The iCAP Working Group should be kept informed and advised during the process of pursuing the RFI, RFP, and PPA, and given the opportunity to provide recommendations before key decisions are made about the PPA, to ensure that technical and financial considerations are appropriately balanced with our campus sustainability objectives.”

F&S values the advice and input from sustainability advocates on campus.  Therefore, we suggest developing a set of interim checkpoints for keeping the iWG informed as the process unfolds.

To meet our Climate Commitment and achieve carbon neutrality, there is a lot of work that needs to be done.  I look forward to working with the iWG and the SWATeams as this recommendation is pursued.

Sincerely,

Morgan B. Johnston

Associate Director of Sustainability, F&S

Hello,

Thank you so much for taking out time from your busy schedules to attend the Monthly Certified Green Office Program Meeting last week. I am reaching out to you to let you know that the presentation is available online under Certified Green Office Resources and can be accessed using this link: http://sustainability.illinois.edu/CertifiedGreenOfficeEnroll.html. 

Our next meeting will be Sept. 25, 10-11am in Room 210, Illini Union and you can RSVP for the meeting here. Please spread the word about the program with your peers and encourage them to enroll for the program. 

One of the program participants pointed out to me that the application (excel file) didn't affectively calculate the number of points because the cells weren't referred right in my formula. I am sorry for inconvenience, it has been fixed now and you use the attached application form instead. It is updated on our website as well. Please use the new file instead of the previous one, the only thing we changed is the formula in Cell B61. 

In other news, the iSEE Congress registration deadline is Sept. 5, 2014 and you can register here. And iSEE is looking for self nominations for the Sustainability Working Advisory Teams Consultations Groups to help with rewriting the Illinois Climate Action Plan and you can read more about the opportunity here. Feel free to follow us on Twitter (@sustainILLINOIS) and facebook (https://www.facebook.com/iSEEatUofI) to stay updated about our events and programs. Feel free to tweet at us to share more information about your sustainability orientated events! 

Thank you so much for committing to making the campus community greener. I am really excited to work with all of you in the months to come. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions. 

Regards,

Nishant Makhijani

See attached minutes from the iCAP Working Group.

iSEE leaders provided an introduction to the SSLC

Six Objectives: Facilitate communication, facilitate collaboration, provide a forum for student leaders to voice their opinions to iSEE and thereby to the campus administration, help identify students who can serve on iSEE working groups or advisory groups, help identify potential interns, encourage more awareness about sustainability among student body

Unofficial objective: Create political will/pressure to implement sustainability initiatives

Topics covered:

• 2010 iCAP progress toward 2015 objectives
• iSEE Congress
• Zero Waste Game Day
• SSLC organizational structure