Stacy Gloss and Meredith Moore met on 4/27 to discuss the following:

1. DFA Student project on E-waste recycling poster was added to portal on 4/27/2022.
2. Environmental Justice Next Steps by August 2022:
   
   1. Make 1 – 2 page fact sheet about EJ Planning
   2. Define plan for outreach this summer
   3. Implement the plan
3. Capstone project on carbon offsets
   
   1. Obtain final deliverables on carbon offset project to include in iCAP portal
4. Sustainability Clinic (Leading on Sustainability Issues)
   
   1. Socializing sustainability clinic to faculty; identify potentially interested faculty
5. Community Conversations on Sustainability (Leading on Sustainability Issues)
   
   1. This is a newish idea that Meredith will socialize to iSEE and others and we can start working on it this summer. 

From: Heidi Leuszler <HLeuszler at parkland.edu>
Subject: Tree Map partnership

Hello all, I hope this finds you and yours well!

I am on the Sustainable Campus Committee at Parkland College and we are discussing updating our campus tree map and digitizing it. I am including all of you in this email because I am wondering if we do not have to recreate the wheel and can join an existing tree map in our community.

I have worked with https://www.opentreemap.org/ in the past, but the $3000 price tag per year is rather steep for us. Do any of you use this program?

In a quick search, I found the following local Tree Inventory maps (all of which Parkland campus is missing from):

City of Urbana https://urbanail.treekeepersoftware.com/index.cfm?deviceWidth=1920

UIUC campus https://illinoisedu.treekeepersoftware.com/index.cfm?deviceWidth=1920

City of Champaign ROW Trees https://cityofchampaign.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=7e979451571143abbf5befb6eeb9b01b

City of Champaign  https://gis-cityofchampaign.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/cityofchampaign::city-owned-trees/explore?location=40.130930%2C-88.279305%2C13.85 

Champaign Park District https://cparkdistirct.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=88afa8b642a1464585eaad55a999dd5a

Urbana Park District https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aaX3IOinNA&t=23s (but I could not find public access to the inventory)

Is it possible we can add our campus data to an existing map? Perhaps we all partner and can add city, park, and campus data to make a more comprehensive community map.

If you are interested in this, have thoughts, know a better person to contact, etc., let me know and we can get a meeting together to discuss possibilities.

Thank you!

My best,

Heidi

From: Marta Monti <marta@midwestrenew.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2022 10:05 AM
To: jhoeflinger@gmail.com; Scott Tess <srtess@urbanaillinois.us>; White, Morgan <mbwhite at illinois.edu>; christina@faithinplace.org; Amanda Pankau <apankau@prairierivers.org>; alruedi@urbanaillinois.us; lawilcock@urbanaillinois.us; cjm@cityofmonticello.net; bamilton@piattfs.com; Dennis.Donaldson@savoy.illinois.gov; stacygloss@gmail.com; g-hazel@village.rantoul.il.us; jbustard@parkland.edu; kpfeifer@mahomet-il.gov; Paul.Storke@cityofdanville.org; nichole.millage@champaignil.gov; Kim Knowles <kknowles@prairierivers.org>; Andy Robinson <andrew.robinson.1980@gmail.com>; Cassie Carroll <casandcarroll@gmail.com>
Cc: Taylor Ball <taylorb@midwestrenew.org>; Peter Murphy <peterm@midwestrenew.org>
Subject: [THANK YOU!] Urbana-Champaign Solar Group Buy Celebrates Another Successful Year

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your support of the Grow Solar Urbana-Champaign program. It's been another successful program, with 16 properties decided to go solar, resulting in 120.12 kW of new renewable energy generating capacity in our region. We passed our 50 kW benchmark, resulting in an average household bulk buying discount of an additional $270.

Final press release for the 2021 program, if you're interested and would like to share with your networks. If you are able to help circulate the press release, or the results, that would be great. Let me know what you need from me if you are going to share the press release!

We have one final ask of you to help us wrap up the program: If you could be so kind as to fill out this program evaluation survey. The feedback you provide will help us continue to improve and facilitate more successful Grow Solar programs like this one. https://forms.gle/9MouKj8NKt3frqcP9 

This program couldn't have happened without your support. So whether you went solar yourself (congratulations!), or represented one of the partnering municipalities, neighborhood associations, or organizations, whether you co-hosted a Solar Power Hour presentation, or simply helped spread the word about the program to your network, thank you!

All the best, 

Marta

--

Marta Monti, she/her/hers

Solar Program Manager

marta@midwestrenew.org

414-988-7963

Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA)

3628 W Pierce St. Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53215

www.midwestrenew.org

Grow Solar in your community with help from our team. 
Become a proud member of the MREA.

Attached is a banner fund request associated with UIF Fund 337632.

On Wednesday, March 30th, the Resilience iCAP Team had their second meeting of the semester. The team discussed updates on projects such as the Environmental Justice Plan, the Biodiversity Plan and events for Earth Month. Meeting minutes are attached. 

1. Syd Trimble and Dominika Szal began efforts to create a comprehensive waste management survey to dissmeninate to all Big Ten and Friends affiliated insitutitons. With the results in hand, they would collate and summarize the data, and give back the analysis to each of the schools for their benefit. The purpose was to benchmark schools against one another and determine the highlights and opportunities for improvement at each school.
2. Draft of the initial survey:
   1. I saw that your school has a goal of achieving a [insert % waste diversion by whatever year]. Why did your school decide to work on reducing your waste production in the first place?
      
      1. What year was the goal initially decided? (what is your benchmark year?)
      2. What was the waste diversion rate of your benchmark year?
      3. Why did you decide on this rate as a goal?
      4. If you accomplish your goal by [desired year], would you then work on maintaining that waste diversion rate or would you work on diverting even more waste?
      5. What waste goal metrics do you track?
      6. What do you include in your waste diversion rate?
   2. What are the most common challenges you face when attempting to reach waste reduction goals?
      
      1. How did you identify your next course of action to deal with these challenges?
   3. Which initiatives would you say were the most effective in reaching your goals for waste reduction?
   4. Do you provide your own recycling or waste collection services or is it outsourced?
   5. How is recycling funded?
      
      1. Do you sell your collected recyclables?
         
         1. How is that revenue used?
   6. How is waste disposal funded?
   7. How important is investing in public education about recycling/waste reduction?
      
      1. How do you get the word out about recycling or any initiatives you have going on
      2. Have you noticed which types of marketing tend to be more receptive by certain demographics (such as students or faculty?)
      3. Does your institution have any training for students and/or faculty for them to be more aware of recycling?
      4. What are ongoing initiatives that your institution is developing? (ex. recycling app, recyclopedia)
   8. With football games, we typically see a lot of waste, whether it’s from tailgating or the game itself. What has your institution done to effectively increase recycling/reduce waste at these events? If you haven’t done so yet, are there any plans in the works?
      
      1. Do you work directly with the concessionaire?
      2. Who works as the liaison with Athletics? Do you have a sustainability specialist working within Athletics?
      3. How do you get enough volunteers to help with achieving your waste reduction goals at the games?
      4. What would you say helped the most with increasing recycling rates during football games?
   9. Do you have any specialty recycling initiatives? Some examples of specialty recycling include batteries, PPE, glasses recycling, or phone recycling.
   10. Question related to procurement goals (look up “sustainable leadership purchasing council”)
       
       1. Do you currently have a sustainable procurement policy in place?
          
          1. If no, is your institution pursuing a sustainable procurement policy?
       2. Were there any challenges that arose while developing this policy?
   11. Does your institution address e-waste, whether through re-use (ex. a surplus store) or donation?

The following email describes an online session about various Green Lab Certification Programs.

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

From: Vandenbergh, Lydia Bodman
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2022 8:35 AM
To: Vandenbergh, Lydia Bodman
Subject:BTAF Sustainable Lab Programs Presentation and Discussion - Feb 24th

As Higher Education Institutions develop their Climate Action Plans, one opportunity repeatedly arises: culture change in our approach to research. The US Department of Energy estimates that lab buildings consume anywhere from three to ten times the energy and water of administrative and classroom buildings and generate high amounts of single use plastics and hazardous wastes. One question is, how to change the culture without compromising the integrity of the science? 

Members of the Big Ten and Friends Network are encouraged to join together on February 24th at 11am EST to learn how three universities are promoting change in their campus labs using three variations on a green lab certification program.  

• Ken Keeler, from the University of Michigan, will kick off the meeting describing the University’s decade-long successful program that combines a lab self-assessment and staff visit. Over 200 labs have worked through this program, but it requires substantial staff time. Ken will describe their exploration to tap efficiencies.  
• Next is Tim Lindstrom, who leads the University of Wisconsin at Madison Green Lab Program, which is similar to the Michigan’s assessment model, but integrates a student internship component to support the labs’ efforts. 
• University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Nick Ciancio will showcase his four-year effort collaborating with MyGreenLab’s certification program, a unique pilot that UAB is eager to expand. 

The session will conclude with time for discussion with the panelists. Please register to join in this inspirational presentation and exploration of culture change.  

Register here  

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information to join meeting. We are purposefully limiting the invitation to BTAF’s members to encourage a fruitful discussion, but we will record the session and make it available to share with other colleges and universities.  

Lydia

Lydia Vandenbergh (she/her)
Associate Director of Employee Engagement and Education
Sustainability Institute

Penn State University

The Pennsylvania State University campuses are located on the original homelands of the Erie, Haudenosaunee (Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora), Lenape (Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe, Stockbridge-Munsee), Shawnee (Absentee, Eastern, and Oklahoma), Susquehannock, and Wahzhazhe (Osage) Nations.  As a land grant institution, we acknowledge and honor the traditional caretakers of these lands and strive to understand and model their responsible stewardship. We also acknowledge the longer history of these lands and our place in that history.

Check out our programs:
sustainability.psu.edu/greenteams
sustainability.psu.edu/greenpaws

The Disaster Planning and Preparedness interest group meeting was held on January 25, 2022.

The agenda includes:

• Introduction to Extension disaster preparedness programming, both in Illinois and across the country
• Successful models for Extension-Faculty applied research partnerships
• ISEE perspective on collaboration potential
• Extension identified applied research and outreach gaps
• Open discussion of potential topics for applied research and pathways to partnership
• Identification of people who are interested in continued discussions on topic specific projects and partnerships

The email attached below contains more information.