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Projects Updates for theme: all

  1. Land and Water Team November Monthly Meeting Minutes and Notes

    Associated Project(s): 
    Land and Water iCAP Team
    Prairie Restoration at Florida & Orchard
    Bee Campus USA
    Rainwater Management Plans

    The Land and Water Team met for its November monthly meeting on Friday, November 21, from 2:00 to 3:00 PM on Teams. This month, the team listened to a student conducting research on the usage of gray water systems in Illinois and other states and institutions. This research will help the team gain support from other organizations to potentially amend the Illinois plumbing code to permit the use of gray water in toilet flushing systems. The team was also updated on the status of the Florida Orchard Prairie maintenance, which will be taken care of by Red Bison, who is eager to work on this project. The team also discussed the pros and cons of maintaining our Bee Campus USA certification, which requires significant funds and effort to improve pollinator status, a task that is largely already accomplished by various campus groups. Attached are the meeting agenda and notes. 

    Attached Files: 

  2. Illini Lights Out 11/14/2025

    Associated Project(s): 
    Illini Lights Out

    At this past Friday's Illini Lights Out event, a total of 245 volunteers shut off 3068 light bulbs that otherwise would have been left on all weekend, saving $466.78 in energy costs. This also prevented 4.78 metric tons of CO2 equivalent from entering the atmosphere, which is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from 469 gallons of gasoline being consumed. That's a huge impact! 

  3. Weekly Update -- Crankgiving, Kids Bike Giveaway, Future Events, & Sales

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    Email from Jacob Benjamin:

    All,

    This past weekend was the Bike Project’s Cranksgiving event, which we helped promote. The event raised over $2,000 worth of food/supplies for Wesley Food Bank and the McKinley Pantry at Garden Hills.

    Elsewhere, I’ve got most of the abandoned bikes separated in each of the containers but not yet fully organized. Will continue work on that this week.

    Next up will be our Kids Bike Giveaway event. I’ll get a count of current inventory between here and the Bike Project in urbana this week, and begin refurbishing them.

    This will be our last week being open M – F as we are closed for Fall Break and will be M/W/F after the break.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 58
    Sales: 490.25
    Memberships: 6 for $180
    Tires/tubes: 13 for $103

    Thanks!

  5. iCAP Education Team November Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Education iCAP Team
    iCAP Working Group (iWG)
    Sustainability at Career Fairs
    Sustainability Literacy Assessment
    Inventory Sustainability Courses

    The iCAP Education Team met on November 7th from 12-1pm via Teams. The group discussed reviving the Levenick Teaching Fellows Program with updated incentives, planning the Green Career Forum for February 18–19, and reviewing findings from the Sustainability Literacy Assessment. They also noted progress on creating an automated database of sustainability-related courses. The meeting minutes are attached. 

    Attached Files: 

  6. Weekly Update -- Cranksgiving & Sales

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    Email from Jacob Benjamin:

    Snow! First significant snowfall of the year. Made for a messy commute in, but always better than driving.

    This upcoming weekend is the Bike Project’s event Cranksgiving, a bicycle food drive. We have a bike trailer set up for canned food donations this week. Weather’ll be great for the event—projected to be 70°!

     

    We’ll continue to tackle donations this week and get some more bikes done for our various programs.

    The numbers:

    Visitors:
    Sales: $823.50

    Bikes (Refurb): 1 for $170
    Memberships: 11 for $330

    Tires/tubes: 13 for $105

     

    Thanks!

     

  8. iCAP Engagement Team November Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Engagement iCAP Team
    Certified Green Office Program (CGOP)

    The iCAP Engagement Team met on Thursday, November 6th, 2025 from 4:00pm-5:05pm via Microsoft Teams. The team shared updates about the status of OneIllinois engagement, Greener Campus, and the ZeroWaste Training Module. The team also discussed a possible Newsletter post for E-Week regarding sustainability and the Certified Green Office Program.

    The meeting minutes are attached.

    Attached Files: 

  9. Weekly Update -- Future Events & Sales

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    Email from Jacob Benjamin:

    Deceptive time of year: cooler temps usually mean fewer folks in, but that did not prove out. We were all-stands-full for a good bit last week. This week feels like just about peak foliage, which is a great time to ride a bike!

    Additionally, this week we’ll be tackling the abandoned bikes and preparing for our Kids Bike Giveaway event. We have ~5 kids bikes done already here at CBC. I’ll do inventory at Urbana and meet with Marketing folks to get the word out.

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 89
    Sales: $595

    Memberships: $10 for $300
    Tires/tubes: 16 for $146

     

    Thanks!

  10. Grounds for the Garden at Illini Union Bookstore

    Associated Project(s): 
    Reduce Foodwaste

    Grounds for the Garden at Bookstore Starbucks

    The Illini Union Bookstore Starbucks offers the Grounds for the Garden program. Faculty and staff can stop by the Starbucks at the Illini Union Bookstore and pick up FREE five-pound bags of used coffee grounds which you can use to add to your gardens and/or compost pile. Bags are available on a first-come, first-served basis and are placed outside of the Starbucks counter. Stop by any time and any day. If bags aren't available, just ask a barista. Details and why coffee grounds are good for your garden.

  12. Weekly Update -- Kids Bike Giveaway & Sales

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    Email from Jacob Benjamin:

    I was out Friday and Monday so this is a day late. I was in Berkeley, CA which has roundabouts at all of their side-street intersections. (Hint, hint.)

    Pretty uneventful week otherwise. I’ll continue work on the containers and begin prep for our Kids Bike Giveaway event, which’ll be on 12/20. Look for flyers/advertisements for that next week.

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 106

    Sales: $157.50
    Memberships: 15 for $450
    Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $50
    Tires/tubes: 12 for $101

    Thanks!

  13. Illini Lights Out 10/24

    Associated Project(s): 
    Illini Lights Out

    At this past Friday's Illini Lights Out event, 3068 light bulbs were shut off that otherwise would have been left on all weekend, saving $466.78 in energy costs. This also prevented 4.78 metric tons of CO2 equivalent from entering the atmosphere, which is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from 469 gallons of gasoline being consumed. That's a huge impact! 

  14. Illini Lights Out 10/3

    Associated Project(s): 
    Illini Lights Out
    Illini Lights Out

    At this Friday's Illini Lights Out event, 3454 light bulbs were shut off that otherwise would have been left on all weekend, saving $525.51 in energy costs. This also prevented 4.7 metric tons of CO2 equivalent from entering the atmosphere, which is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from 462 gallons of gasoline being consumed. That's a great impact! 

  15. ILO 10/3

    Associated Project(s): 
    Illini Lights Out

    At this Friday's Illini Lights Out event! With your help, 3454 light bulbs were shut off that otherwise would have been left on all weekend, saving $525.51 in energy costs. This also prevented 4.7 metric tons of CO2 equivalent from entering the atmosphere, which is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from 462 gallons of gasoline being consumed. That's a great impact! 

  16. Land and Water Team October Monthly Meeting Minutes and Notes

    Associated Project(s): 
    Land and Water iCAP Team
    Prairie Restoration at Florida & Orchard

    The Land and Water team met for their monthly October meeting on Friday, October 24th, 2-3 PM. This month, the team discussed ongoing research around the usage of gray water in Illinois and other states' plumbing systems, the new map locating the milkweed planting locations, current and ongoing MOU requests, the status of the maintenance of the Florida Orchard Prairie, and green stormwater infrastructure controls on campus. Attached below are the agenda minutes, which show the details of what was discussed during the meeting. The meeting recording is available to watch in the meeting minutes. 

    Attached Files: 

  17. October Meeting Transportation Team

    Associated Project(s): 
    Transportation iCAP Team

    The Transportation Team met on October 17th, between 1:00 - 2:00pm. We discussed the Air Emissions Recommendation we had just sent on to the IWG and drafted a recommendation on e-bike policy changes on campus. We talked about student research projects, including commuter program research and expanding bike racks on campus.

    Attached Files: 

  18. Weekly Update -- Bike Parts & Sales

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center
    Collection and Donation of Abandoned Bicycles

    Email from Jacob Benjamin:

    Things are a tick slower now that the temps have dipped. I’ve been pulling from the abandoned bike containers for parts, mostly tires and saddles as those have been most in-demand. We have two bikes on the sales floor with a handful in the queue.  Our supply of checked-over Build-a-Bikes is returning to an acceptable number as well.

    This week I’ll tackle the containers of bikes and work to get them organized between bikes we’re keeping and those we’ll have scrapped.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 96

    Sales: $1,224.39

    Memberships: 19 for $570
    Tires/tubes: 39 for $353

     

    Thanks!

  19. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - October 17, 2025

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Agenda

    Discussion

    • Next steps from strategic discussion
      • We'll review what Christina sent and circle back next week
    • Discuss sending message to current iCAP Portal users informing them to avoid posting emails on the iCAP Portal
      • Summarizing email communications is ok, but don't copy-and-paste and don't include email addresses
      • Define "current users" - e.g. accounts created in past few months + anyone who's made an iCAP Portal addition or edit since the beginning of the calendar year?
        • This is part of a larger user permissions review
      • Send email through website or manually?
        • Send emails manually to various groups (e.g. iCAP Clerks, iCAP Working Groups)
    • Discuss metric naming convention (see Discussion about Metrics - May 19, 2025)
      • Morgan has asked Avni to remove objective numbers from beginning of Metric names
      • Still need to come up with naming protocol - Miriam and Morgan to discuss
    • Research programs restructuring/archiving completed!
    • Michael shared some accessibility resources:
    • [Moved to next meeting] Discuss 2025 Objectives dashboard (add in September, start displaying in October) - see "Adding Key Objectives" private file under Sustainability iCAP Portal project
    • [Moved to next meeting] (Continue discussion) New iCAP Team (Sustainable Buildings) being formed - discuss what that looks like on the iCAP Portal

    TODOs

    • TBD

  20. iCAP Engagement Team 2nd October Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Engagement iCAP Team
    Certified Green Chapter Program

     

    The iCAP Engagement Team met on Wednesday, October 15th, from 3:00pm-3:30pm via Microsoft Teams. The team shared updates on the Green Chapter project, composting efforts at Illinois Street Resident Halls, and the Sustainable Learning Living Community's film festival.

    The meeting minutes are attached.

    Attached Files: 

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