Earth Week 2012

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will be celebrating Earth Week on April 16-20. Several exciting activities are being planned for the week. We hope you will join us in celebrating!

All Week

The One Shirt National Collegiate Clothing Challenge - The ARC and CRCE will be collecting clothing to be donated to local charities!

Saturday, April 14

9:00am – Noon – Boneyard Creek Community Clean Up Day
Join us to protect our local creeks and lakes to ensure a healthier community. Volunteers pick-up litter, remove non-native plants and install stormdrain medallions.
Schedule:
9:00 a.m.: Check in begins at Scott Park, 207 E. Springfield Ave., Champaign,  or remote sites. 
9:00 a.m. to Noon: Work time! Activities are all around the community.
Noon: Lunch at Scott Park!

Check-in at Scott Park unless you have been told to go to remote check-in site. 

What should I wear/bring for the event? 
Wear closed-toe shoes (no flip-flops), long pants recommended. If you'd like, bring a filled water bottle. You can refill it at the Scott Park registration site. Wear last year's orange t-shirt if you have one - reduce, reuse, and recycle!

Thank you for making our community waterways healthier!

Monday, April 16

1:30-3:30pm - ICAP Forum/Review 
I-Hotel and Conference Center - Chancellor Ballroom
At the iCAP Forum, the Office of Sustainability will present a status update about progress towards meeting our commitments in the Illinois Climate Action Plan.  This will include a broad overview of the various initiatives that are currently underway and a summary of the next steps in this process.  After the presentation, participants will be asked to work in groups to provide feedback about setting priorities for further iCAP implementation.  As stakeholders in this campus-wide effort, all members of the campus and community are welcome to attend the iCAP Forum and participate in the discussions.

4:00-5:00pm - Green Building Presentation
University YMCA 
Want to learn more about the most cost effective way to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and lower building operating costs? Come hear Kristine Chalifoux of the Smart Energy Design Assistance Center(SEDAC) present a primer on energy and how buildings use it. She will discuss the costs of energy from different sources(including efficiency), the "top ten" energy efficiency measures for new and existing buildings, and the strengths and limitations of the LEED process in producing energy efficient buildings.   "The only guarantee is that a building won't perform the way you expect."  This presentation will provide valuable information for anyone considering a career in designing buildings or their systems. Find out more about SEDAC's work here. Organized by the U.S. Green Building Council Students-UIUC and Students for Environmental Concerns.

6:30-9:30pm - CyclingSavvy Course - Truth & Techniques of Traffic Cycling
Activities and Recreation Center (ARC) Auditorium
Free and open to all 15 years and older, regardless of cycling experience.
Using guided discussion along with photos, illustrations, animations and videos, this classroom course provides all the knowledge you need to drive your bike safely and confidently in traffic. Knowledge of the Law covers the legal rights and responsibilities of cyclists. Knowledge of Bicycling Safety shows that cycling is safe and that understanding the causes of bicycle crashes and how to avoid them makes cycling safer still. Knowledge of Traffic Cycling Problem Solving examines a variety of traffic cycling situations and how a savvy cyclist negotiates them.
Follow-up on-bike CyclingSavvy sessions will be held in Urbana on Saturday, May 5. For more information, see CyclingSavvyIllinois.notlong.com.

Tuesday, April 17

8:30am-4:30pm: Water in a Changing World:  A Comparison of Midwest and European Approaches 
I Hotel and Conference Center, Champaign, IL

Water@leeds is the largest university-based water research center in the UK.  A team of scientists from the University of Leeds will participate in a workshop with Illinois researchers to compare different approaches to address climate uncertainty and the impacts on water resources.  The format will feature short presentations followed by panel discussions on the following:

The workshop is supported by a grant from the European Union Center of Excellence.  Other sponsors include the Illinois State Water Survey, the University of Leeds, the Prairie Research Institute, the Midwestern Regional Climate Center, and the Office of Sustainability.

For more information contact, George Czapar gfc@illinois.edu
 

4:00pm-5:00pm - Speaker Panel - Environmental Ethics 
Asian American Cultural House 
Come hear University Professor Madhu Viswanathan and Pastor Steve Shoemaker speak about the link between the environment, religion, and ecology.

8:00pm-10:00pm - Movie showing - Wall-e 
On the Quad if weather permits or Activities and Recreation Center (ARC) Auditorium
http://www.facebook.com/events/386697074696703/?notif_t=plan_user_joined

Wednesday, April 18

11:00am - 3:00pm - Bike Blender
On the Quad 
Made from vegan, organic ingredients, you can make your own smoothie using our bike blender! A bike will be attached to a blender so that when pedaled, activates the blades of the blender. Smoothies will be made by letting students “pedal” their own. Smoothies will be sold for $2. Come get a refreshing, sustainable drink between classes!


11:00am-3:00pm - Globe/Picnic for the Planet
On the Quad 
Come enjoy another day of the Globe while having a picnic on the quad! Bring your lunch and celebrate the planet we live on, the food it provides, and the people with whom we share it.

12:00n-1:30pm - Permaculture a Dangerous Enterprise
Illini Union, room 210
The presentation will be followed by questions and a 30 min reception  
Mark Shepard farms and teaches in south western Wisconsin where he has been building a 106 acre permaculture paradise for over 15 years.  The farm is a diversified venture that is growing ideas and community culture along with a polyculture of plants, animals and enterprises.  Over 250,000 trees have been planted by the keyline technique in the beautiful coulee district of Wisconsin. Trees and market garden patches are planted on contour to retain water via a network of small pocket ponds and spreader swales that slow and spread rain water and protect the land from erosion.  His farm embodies the radical idea of managing a perennial food ECOLOGY, which means that all of the rules of ecology apply.  According to Mark “When conventional disturbance ceases, (stop the plow and herbicides) a site begins to aggrade... soil fertility increases, organic matter increases, soil life diversity increases, nutrient cycling improves, plant and animal populations and diversity increase.   Pests and diseases come into their "natural" population cycles and levels.  What ends up happening is that input costs (tillage, herbicide, fertilizer, pest control, disease control) decline. When your input costs approach zero, your net profitability increases”.  Mark is encouraging young farmers to contribute to this vision and he backs this up by supporting ‘collaborative enterprisers’.  Aspiring permaculture entrepreneurs learn through doing as they design and implement projects on the ground.   In his talk, Mark will explain how and why his permaculture paradise differs from traditional permaculture, how it is a force for good and, explain how he is spreading this dangerous idea through collaborative enterprisers.   Attend this event to learn about his edible woody crops nursery, and how growing trees shrubs, vines, and canes to produce food, medicines, fuels and fiber are revolutionizing agriculture in nature's image while simultaneously revitalizing culture, stabilizing the economy, and restoring the environment. 

Sponsored by: Agroecology and Sustainable Agriculture Program (ASAP)

3:00pm-5:00pm - Environmental Expo
Courtyard Cafe inside the Illini Union
The Environmental Expo will be an exhibit of campus RSOs, organizations, and foundations that help to promote and attain sustainability on and off campus. Come see what “green” groups Illinois has to offer.

3:00-6:00pm: Public Engagement Symposium: Transforming Our Society
Activities and Recreation Center (ARC)
Your participation will provide faculty, staff, students, and community partners the opportunity to share innovative ideas and approaches to community engagement activities. We hope you will learn from, support, and celebrate the quality and variety of our scholarly and creative community engagement efforts. It is our hope to enlighten, educate, and inspire; to strengthen relationships; and to develop a culture of engagement across the campus and local communities. The Symposium is free and open to the public.

8:00pm - Benefit Concert 
Canopy Club
Come see the Ragbirds, the Great Divide, and Jaik Willis in a performance at Canopy Club. The concert will be benefitting the University YMCA as they help to fund Students for Environmental Concerns’ projects toward a more sustainable campus and world. Tickets will be sold $8 in advance and $10 at the door.

Thursday, April 19

11am-3:00pm - Globe
On the Quad
Come get your picture taken and write your Earth Week pledge and put it on the globe!

5:30pm - Keynote Speaker Majora Carter - Home(town) Security
NCSA , room 1122
Come hear the visionary voice of Majora Carter speak on environmental equity and the work she has done to lead environmental and economic development.
http://www.facebook.com/events/366608156715201/

Friday, April 20

12:00pm - Coal-Free Summer Celebration - Beyond Coal
At the tennis courts across from Abbott 
On Friday, April 20th, at noon, SECS’ Beyond Coal group and Facilities and Services(F&S) will be hosting a ‘Coal Free Summer Celebration’ to celebrate the fact that Abbott Power Plant will not burn coal over the summer, and encourage the campus to further reduce coal use and move completely beyond coal. Come here information about campus coal use and how it can further be reduced from students from SECS, scientists from Prairie Rivers Network, Professor Brian Deal of Urban Planning, and F&S, and sign petitions to show support of going beyond coal on campus. Free food! Basketball courts at Oak and Gregory(across from Abbott)–meet at the YMCA at 11:30 to walk over as a group, or take the Yellow South from campus.

Saturday, April 21

9:00am-1:00pm - Community Electronics Collection for Earth Day!
Atkins Building Parking Lot - 1800 S. Oak Street (NE corner of Oak and St. Mary's) 
Keep the Earth Clean and Green this Earth Day!

Mervis Industries, WICD and the Illinois Green Business Association are hosting this free event to reduce the amount of old electronics sent to landfills. Collection will be open to the community.

Accepted Items: Computers, servers, network devices, monitors (CRT and Flat screen), printers, tv's, vcrs, dvd players, stereos, copiers, cell phones and smart phones.
**We DO NOT accept speakers or microwave ovens.

Sunday, April 22

1pm – Earth Day Prairie Work Day 
Florida Orchard Prairie Site
Come help Red Bison, Students for Environmental Concerns, and Alternative Spring Break work on transplanting some native plants that RB/SECS have been growing in the campus greenhouses to our own campus’ prairie site.

Sponsors: 
Students for Environmental Concerns, Office of Sustainability, Environmental Change Institute, ARC, Illini Union, University of Illinois Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership, College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences, School of Architecture, College of Business, Center for Advanced Study, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Institute for Computing in the Humanities, Arts, and Sciences, School of Earth Science and the Environment, College of Engineering, Office of Equal Opportunity and Advancement, I-TOPP project, Department of Geography, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, Prairie Research Institute, Office of the Provost, Social Dimension of Environmental Policy Initiative in the Beckman Institute, funded in part by SORF, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research; Action Research Illinois; Center for the Advancement of Sustainability Innovations, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Stephanie presented an overview of the iCAP at the MSTE Friday luncheon, and shared the first release of the sustainability video for the Climate Leadership Award.

The Campus Bike Project celebrated its second anniversary with the survey’s Naturally Illinois event.

We participated in meeting with representatives from Columbia, Missouri about their transit goals.  Articles were written about the visit: http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2012/mar/13/gold-standard/, http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2012/03/13/final-bus-trip/, and http://wjf.im/xkmY5f.

We also provided information to Arizona State University about our bike registration system and intentions.

On February 16, CCNet hosted Angela Adams, the Recycling Coordinator at the City of Champaign, to explain the proposed bag ban in the city; Pattsi Petrie, a Champaign County Board Member, to discuss local foods; Mike Monson, the Urbana Chief of Staff, to explain the Electrical Aggregation proposal; and Marya Ryan, from the Urbana Sustainability Advisory Commission to review the City of Urbana’s Climate Action Plan.

Staff facilitated meetings with students and staff about potential letters of support for the City of Champaign Single Use Disposable Paper and Plastic Bags study item.

In an effort to standardize emissions calculations throughout the community and county, staff met with transportation planners from the Regional Planning Commission to share information about calculating transportation emissions.

Staff continued working with the Office for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education (MSTE) on the sustainability portal.  The portal will host a database of the iCAP/sustainability projects for campus, with searchable details about the projects, people, funding, and metrics.

Staff met with Inside Illinois to develop an article about campus sustainability.  The article is online at http://news.illinois.edu/ii/12/0301/sustainability.html.

The Alumni Magazine included a story about being a Bronze Level Bicycle Friendly University.

The Office of Sustainability is working with MSTE to develop the Illinois Sustainability Portal, an online hub for sustainability-related information on the Urbana-Champaign campus.  We met with MSTE several times in January to develop the site architecture and database structure for the site. A preview of the site will be shared during Earth Week (April 16-20). When complete, the portal will be the go-to place for people to learn about all iCAP projects and goals, to submit ideas for consideration, and to research historical data about emissions and other sustainability metrics.  Additionally, project leaders will be able to report to the OS on their progress and plans. We envision this to be an incredibly useful tool going forward.

Sustainability staff met with Corporate Relations to discuss the potential for developing a database of sustainability research at Illinois.  Corporate Relations already has a database for water related research that is very detailed.  Future meetings are planned to move forward with this project.

Office of Sustainability Staff have posted the Fall 2011 Progress report to its website, along with the greenhouse gas inventories under the ‘Illinois Climate Action Plan’ section.

2011 Sustainability Week
November 1-4

The Office of Sustainability will be hosting the 2011 Sustainability Week on November 1-4. There will be a variety of exciting campus and community events planned throughout the week.

There will be a poster session on November 1-3 from 12-6pm at the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC) Winter Garden, 201 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign. We invite University of Illinois faculty, staff, and students working on sustainability education, research, outreach, and operations to present a poster or art display at this open session.

There is no charge to present and you do not need to staff your poster during the session. We sincerely hope you will participate this year.

Tuesday, November 1st:

10am-2pm: Free Bike Repair: Volunteers will be on hand to evaluate your bike and do simple maintenance. North of Henry Admin Building on the Quad

12pm: Garden walk with Diane Anderson, Research and Education Specialist in Crop Sciences and Michele Guerra, Director of Wellness Center: The walk features Red Oak Rain Garden, Illini Grove, Idea Garden, Sunken (Hartley) Garden, Japan House Gardens, new Arboretum trails.The group will meet at the main entrance of the Campus Recreation Center East Building, 1102 W. Gregory Drive.

12-6pm: Sustainability Poster & Art session: ARC Winter Garden, 201 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign

4-6pm: Sustainable Student Farmer's Market: The farmer's market will provide fall produce for sale from our student farm on the University of Illinois campus. ARC Winter Garden, 201 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign

6pm: Recyclables Costume Contest: Use your imagination and come up with a homemade costume out of recyclable materials. Prizes will be awarded. Refreshments following. ARC Winter Garden, 201 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign

6:30pm: Latrelle Bright, Director, performer and arts advocate in the Department of Theatre will be performing a solo performance piece "matter": Graduate Dance Center, East Art Annex 2, 1206 W. Peabody Drive, Urbana

Wednesday, November 2nd:

12-6pm: Sustainability Poster & Art session: ARC Winter Garden, 201 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign

1:30-3:30pm: "iCAP Forum" open house: A review and progress report of the University's Climate Action Plan, originally signed May 2010. Participants will be able to provide feedback, suggestions, and comments. Illini Union, 1401 W. Green Street, Urbana, Rooms B&C

4pm: Quad walk with Chancellor Wise: The walk will feature sustainability projects on the quad.Michele Guerra, Director of the Wellness Center will be leading the walk. The group will meet outside at the south entrance of the Illini Union, 1401 W. Green Street, Urbana.*This is an “approved event” for civil service employees.  Employees may attend, without loss of pay or having to charge a benefit, with prior supervisory approval and operations permitting.*

6:30-9:30pm: CyclingSavvy traffic cycling course with Gary Cziko and Carl Stewart: ARC Auditorium, 201 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign

Thursday, November 3rd:

11am-1pm: Sustainable Student Farmer's Market: The farmer's market will provide fall produce for sale from our student farm on the University of Illinois campus. 57 North, Ikenberry Dining Hall, 301 E. Gregory Drive, Champaign

*Bookstore remote sales stations selling books related to sustainability

12-6pm: Sustainability Poster & Art session: ARC Winter Garden, 201 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign

1-3pm: Facilities & Services presentations about Utility Rates, Net-Zero Buildings, and Campus Planning: Illini Union, 1401 W. Green Street, Urbana, Room B

4-5:30pm: Green Career Panel with Chris Pyke, Vice President Research at USGBC.  Join Chris and other professionals in the green industry to discuss recent and future trends in this growing career path.  Other participants include: Bart Hagston, Environmental Sustainability Manager at City of Urbana, Lacey Rains Lowe, Planner at City of Champaign, Wayne Wargo, Site Director at Abbott Nutrition, and Cassie Carroll at Illinois Green Business Association: Asian American Cultural Center, 1210 W. Nevada Street, Urbana

4:30-8pm: Dining Services 8th Annual Chef's Challenge: This year’s event will be a mystery box theme featuring proteins provided by the Meat Sciences Lab.  They will also be providing a pantry to each team to cook with featuring local products.  There will be six teams competing from Catering, PAR, IKE, LAR, ISR, and Busey.  Each team consists of a chef/coach and two full time dining employees.Ikenberry Dining Hall multipurpose room, 301 E. Gregory Drive, Champaign

7pm: Chris Pyke, Vice President Research, U.S. Green Building Council: “Accelerating Green Building Market Transformation with Information Technology" will be speaking at Newmark Hall, room 1310, Stoughten Street, Urbana ** Chris Pyke is part of the Sustainable Innovations Seminar Series, a collaboration between the University of Illinois and ERDC-CERL-CASI**:

Friday, November 4th:

2:30-3:30pm: Students Sustainability Chat with Chancellor Wise: As part of the Chancellor’s listening and learning tour the sustainability related RSO’s have been invited to give short presentations.  There will also be time for questions and answers. University YMCA, Latzer Hall

Shoe Donation:
The ARC and CRCE will be collecting shoes throughout the week to donate to local charities. Please stop by one of the locations below.

ARC - 201 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign, IL 
CRCE - 1102 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 

We look forward to seeing you at Sustainability Week!

Co-sponsored by: Campus Recreation, Facilities & Services, Illini Union, University Housing, and the Wellness Center.