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Projects Updates for theme: all

  1. Certified STARS Gold!!

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System™ (STARS)
    Apply for Recognition

    I am excited to share the news that the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has now been recertified at the Gold ranking in the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (STARS). This is the sixth time we have received a Gold STARS rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). This achievement represents our ongoing commitment to making sustainable change on campus. The updated 2025 report builds on previous reporting and helps hold us accountable for continuous improvement toward our sustainability goals.

    The reporting process required a huge amount of data collection from across different campus units, covering our academic programs, orientation and training programs, energy and emissions, landscape management, transportation systems, administrative policies, and much, much more. I would like to give special thanks to Codie Sterner at SSIB for helping to lead the data collection process, and to our student interns Jenna Schaefer and Lucy Zhou for their invaluable contributions.

    If you are receiving this email, it is because you helped provide key data and insights during this process. We sincerely appreciate your efforts and contributions to our campus sustainability efforts – completing this report and achieving this result would not have been possible without you!

    Best,

    Miriam

    Miriam Keep
    Sustainability Programs Coordinator

    Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE)

  3. Introductory meeting with Housing

    Associated Project(s): 
    Fleet Replacement Plans
    F&S Sustainable Fleet Plan
    Decrease Emissions from UI Fleet

    Following are the notes from our meeting with Housing about their potential Fleet Management Plan. The meeting took place on 6/13/2025 at 9 a.m.

    Attended by - Sarthak Prasad, Shawn Patterson, Matt Brown, Aaron Lewis, Jessica Hauserman

    • We did introduction
    • Jessica is the Office Manager
    • We are looking for a single point of contact
    • Not reinvent the wheel - not dictate
    • What are we trying to do?
    • 12 year replacement plan
    • What is the useful life of the vehicle
    • Fuel consumptions, idle time,
    • Conversations about what would be the correct path
    • Right-sizing the application
    • We need to purchase a vehicle - what type of vehicle can be purchased
    • Matt Brown -
      • They make some purchases of heavier duty trucks based on what the tasks are, the weight of those things
      • Some small transit vehicles
        • Ford transit
      • They are looking for a huge number of things
      • Availability, right sizing, - have some issues with that
      • They are retiring 20 year old vehicles or more
      • They are finally out of pre-2000s vehicles this FY
      • They are now updating
    • How we might interact with these goals= planned rotation vs force rotations
      • Deterioration of these vehicles
      • Shawn -
        • The prices have skyrocketed
        • Digging deep - if we have a process in place.
        • If this is the goal, we can do what we can
        • What is the most feasible thing. The university is not going give us so much money to buy whatever we want
        • Housing is the first department we are reaching out
        • Same or similar fleet as F&S
        • We can share our expertise
        • Build a group and plan as to what can be done to improve iCAP goals
    • Looking to identify a contact person
      • Start off with Matt Brown and then direct conversations to other departments
      • Various fleets (4)
        • Facilities and Maintenance
        • Building services
        • Student Affairs Technology for Housing
        • Dining - Dell
      • Jessica has helped with costs and ownership of vehicles
        • To maintain or to fuel
        • There is data
      • If the iCAP wants to put a number before we rotate
        • Put a high number, like 15 years.
        • Some vehicles are used less
        • Vehicle by vehicle basis
    • Aaron -
      • Has it ever been discussion - drive thru car was on campus to remove debris and gunk - to improve the life?
        • Shawn -
          • Frame - Rust or something
          • Parts are no longer available for that vehicles
          • Undercarriage -
            • $100k to get the equipment
        • Deterioration of the body
      • Rust and under carriage - vehicles deteriorate
    • Next Step
      • List and come up with an operation plan
      • For one of the fleet operation or all 4 fleet? Evolving plan
      • Create a Teams Channel
      • Give them a skeleton plan to give to Housing
        • They will fill in what they can do - Based on the F&S Green Fleet Plan
        • The objectives we came up with were through NAFA and based on F&S fleets
      • Maybe a follow up in the end of July 2025
    • Matt asked about Idle time sensor
      • GPS sensors that we operate with
      • Not every vehicle is the same
      • External GPS system
    • Idle Times are related to Fuel Consumption
    • Matt and his team will get a shot on the plan and get back to us
    • Housing fleet is at a certain level - swap one for one
      • Very occasional and sporadic that they add a vehicle
      • They can commit to not adding to the fleet

  4. Abandoned Bicycles: Tagging and Identifying

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

     
    Unwanted Bicycles Will Be Identified and Removed This Summer

     

     

     

    Don't Leave Them Out to Pasture (Or We'll Take Them) All unwanted bicycles parked on campus will be collected. Remove the orange sticker to avoid impound. Visit go.fs.illinois.edu/BicycleRoundup

     

     

    F&S and the Parking Department identify and collect unwanted bicycles left on campus at the beginning of the summer. 

    All bikes remaining on university property will be tagged this week with an orange sticker that reads, "Remove this tag by 6/30, or your bicycle will be removed." Any bicycle still displaying the sticker after that date will be impounded. 

    If you presently have a bike in a campus rack, shelter, or parking location, please remember to remove this sticker to ensure your bike is designated as active. Individuals who don't take this action and want to reclaim their bicycles later this year will be charged a $40 fee. All recovered bicycles must also be registered before being returned.  

    Donate Your Bike!

    Last year, almost 250 bicycles were retrieved during the annual roundup and stored as part of the Bike at Illinois reclaiming and donation process. Help reduce the roundup and preserve campus resources by donating your bike! 

    If you no longer need your bicycle, consider donating it to the Campus Bike Center (51 E. Gregory Drive, Champaign) or the Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign (202 S. Broadway Avenue, room 24). No appointment is required. Donations are tax-deductible, and bikes will be refurbished or recycled, with as many parts reused as possible. 

     

    Read the email online: https://emails.illinois.edu/newsletter/68/1492591568.html

  5. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - June 13, 2025

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Agenda

    • Celebrations
    • Michael's updates
      • Recommendation pages: changed sort order for Recommendation Updates
        • Old sort order: Applicable Date (descending), Created Date (descending)
        • New sort order:Applicable Date (descending), Status (by its order in the dropdown listing, descending)
      • Project pages: column widths issue
        • When project update contains an element with a fixed width larger than the column, it was causing the left sidebar to expand to fill as much space as possible. Fixed by setting maximum column widths.
        • Follow-up question: should we strip formatting from project update teasers? Since they're often copy-and-pasted from elsewhere, they tend to bring in their own formatting, which can sometimes look strange.
    • National Research Programs analytics
    • Discussion about Recommendations - May 19, 2025
      • See notes for updates
    • Discussion about Metrics - May 19, 2025
      • See notes for updates
      • Discuss metric naming convention

    Discussion

    • Project Update teasers
      • Let's strip out HTML from project update teasers
      • How does it impact embedding project updates?
        • Won't impact them - their Project Update descriptions are defined separately
    • Recommendations on Project pages
      • Decided to make each Recommendation's title a link
      • Decided to remove the table of Recommendation Updates for now
      • Will consider whether to display the Recommendation titles & statuses in a table - current list is clean, but table would be good for quickly identifying the statuses of the various projects
    • Discuss metric naming convention [deferred to next meeting]

    TODOs

    • ✅ Strip out HTML from ALL project update teasers
    • Add expand/collapse to Recommendations listing on Project pages

  6. Tagging for Abandoned Bicycles Complete

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

    This past week, Sarthak and interns Emily and Max have been working on tagging bicycles on campus for the abandoned bicycles project. Today, the tagging portion of the abandoned bicycles project was completed. Across all blocks of campus, 665 bicycles were tagged. After June 30th, bicycles that do not have their orange tags removed will be collected.

  12. Ventilation System Installed and Electrical Work In-Progress for the Shipping Containers

    Associated Project(s): 
    Collection and Donation of Abandoned Bicycles
    Shipping Containers for Bicycle Storage

    Ventilation systems were installed in each of the seven shipping containers last week and electrical work is currently being done to add power to the shipping containers. There are also hooks installed to hang bikes on one side of the wall in each shipping container. 

    Attached Files: 

  13. Work Order Created to Install 7 Metal Signs on the 7 Shipping Containers

    Associated Project(s): 
    Shipping Containers for Bicycle Storage

    Work order #11257249 was created for for the Sign Shop to create and install seven (7) 18'x24' metal signs to be installed on each of the seven shipping containers for bicycle storage. These containers are located between the Abbott Chilling Plant and the Personnel Building. Attached is a png of the sign design for shipping container 1.

     

    Attached Files: 

  15. Status update sent to iCAP Teams

    Associated Project(s): 
    iCAP 2025
    iCAP Working Group (iWG)
    Topical iCAP Teams

    The iCAP Topical Teams and iCAP Working Group were provided the following status update for the iCAP 2025 development process.

    Hello iCAP teams,

    Thank you again for all that you did to support the Illinois Climate Action Plan this year.  I’m writing to share a quick update on the development of the iCAP 2025, and let you know the next steps we are taking.

    Miriam Keep has developed a schedule for the creation of the actual iCAP 2025 document, which I’m summarizing here.  During the next few weeks, Miriam will be drafting the 2-4 page chapters using the information your teams have provided, and I’ll send them to the iCAP chairs and a few key stakeholders for a technical review. Then iSEE and F&S will work together to complete the draft document for formal approval by the Chancellor (or Interim) this fall.  The intention is to do a grand release during the Campus Sustainability Celebration, which is typically in October.

    If you have any questions about this process, please feel free to contact me, Jen, Miriam, or your team’s chair.  I’m excited to see the next version of the iCAP!

    Thanks,

    Morgan

  16. archived project description

    Associated Project(s): 
    Carbon Commitment

    On February 22, 2008, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign became a signatory to the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). We are currently one of more than six-hundred Colleges and Universities that are participating in this endeavor. The commitment requires annual reporting that includes updated greenhouse gas emissions inventories on even years and progress reports on odd years. Illinois' progress report was submitted on January 15, 2013 and can be viewed here.

    In the future, Illinois will be required to submit updated GHG emissions inventories and progress reports on alternating years. The first GHG emissions inventory was submitted in 2012 and the first progress report was submitted in 2013. As reports become available, they will be publicly available on the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) and ACUPCC websites.

  18. Weekly Update: Training new staff, Donated bikes

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

    All, Been slow but good here, as we’re in a lull between spring semester and summer sessions. Slow times allow us to provide better service to the folks that do come through, so that’s a positive.

    Training up new staff and trying to keep on top of builds/donations as the spring and summer clean outs have netted us a good amount of bikes. But of course no matter how many bikes we have for sale, we’ll sell out come August. A good problem to have, I suppose.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 31
    Sales: $841
    Memberships: 6 for $180
    Bikes (refurb): 2 for $335
    Tires/tubes: 10 for $72

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center

  19. F&S departmental bike repaired

    Associated Project(s): 
    Departmental Bike Sharing
    Campus Bike Center

    One of the F&S departmental bike share bikes was repaired by Sarthak Prasad and Jake Benjamin at the Campus Bike Center on May 22, 2025. There is one more F&S departmental bike share bicycle that will repaired sometime next week.

    F&S is also looking to purchase a small frame bicycle to add to their departmental bike share.

     

    Attached Files: 

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