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Projects Updates for theme: all

  1. iCAP Education Team May 2025 Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability Gen-Ed Requirement
    Sustainability Literacy Assessment

    The iCAP Education Team met on Monday, May 5th from 4-5 pm via Teams. First we had a discussion recapping the Green Globes and iCAP Reception event where student input on the 2025 iCAP objectives was collected. Then we discussed the next steps towards the sustainability Gen-Ed requirement and the sustainability literacy assessment. We closed by sharing iSEE partnered internship opportunities. The meeting minutes are attached. 

    Attached Files: 

  4. iCAP Energy Meeting May 2025

    Associated Project(s): 
    Energy iCAP Team

    The Energy Team held its final meeting of the semester on Thursday, May 1st, from 2:00–3:00 PM. We reviewed progress on the building occupant engagement interview questions and discussed summer plans for the solar rooftop project. We wrapped up by finalizing our infrastructure modernization recommendation and outlining next steps for fall. The meeting minutes are attached!

    Attached Files: 

  6. Potential Rooftop Solar for Krannert Art Museum

    Associated Project(s): 
    Energy iCAP Team
    Rooftop Solar Potential
    Solar Power on Campus

    In February, Paul Foote investigated the potential for rooftop solar on Krannert Art Museum. Individuals from F&S and the museum expressed interest in exploring this project.

    Attached is the findings for the potential solar output of the rooftop. 

    Currently, the project is being explored as Krannert Art Museum wraps up renovations and leadership changes occur. 

    Attached Files: 

  7. Sustainability Council Meeting 04/30/2025

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability Council
    Energy Performance Contracting / ESCO
    Division of Intercollegiate Athletics (DIA) Climate Action Plan

    The Sustainability Council met on April 30, 2025. The primary agenda items included: 

    • iCAP 2025: Objectives for DIA
    • iCAP 2025: Updating energy targets
    • Student perspectives
    • Energy Performance Contract for ACES

    The slide deck and meeting minutes are attached.

    Attached Files: 

  9. Weekly Digest

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center


    Friday was a busy day. First up was the quad event, which despite the rainy weather earlier in the day, ended up being a dry time and quite popular. We’ve had 2 – 3 people come by CBC after having been at the Quad event, so it’s definitely getting some new folks aware of our space. Our open hours were not crazy busy on the bike side of things, but our gear rental partners were positively slammed, which created some logjams at the entrance—nothing we couldn’t handle!

    This week we have our last Instructional Class of the semester, and unfortunately the lead staffer for that program is graduating. Replicating that staffer’s expertise and enthusiasm for the work will be a tall order.

    Tonight is the Bike Project Members’ Meeting, which I’ll be attending.

    Warm weather this week, so we’ll likely be busy.

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 60
    Sales: $1,005.25
    Memberships: 9 for $270
    Bikes (refurb): 2 for $360
    Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $50
    Tires/tubes: 14 for $111

  11. protecting the low mow zone by Univ. Primary School

    Associated Project(s): 
    Low Mow Zones
    Bee Campus USA

    Hi Ali,

     

    Great to hear you are seeing milkweed emerging!  I walked the field a couple of weeks ago and at that time they were not coming up yet.  I was also looking to see if any of the milkweed seeds dispersed in January were coming up but again, I think I was too early.  I plan to get out there again soon to check those areas to see if any of the seeds are germinating.  Attached is the map, areas highlighted in red are where the milkweed seeds were added.

     

    My direction to the Grounds mowing crew is not to mow the low mow field until late Nov-December at the earliest or in late February, early March of 2026.  If we happen to have a breakthrough of noxious weeds between now and then we will strategically spot treat or spot mow the outbreak area.  Moving forward, I instructed that before any such action is taken, I must approve it.  If I agree action needs to be taken, I will reach out to you to discuss what we are seeing and what measures we feel need to be taken.

     

    I like the idea of registering the field as a Monarch Waystation but I will have to check to see if that is something we/you can pursue and let you know.

     

    Thanks,

    Ryan

     

     

     

    From: Lewis, Ali 
    Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2025 11:47 AM
    Subject: Low Mow Zone Field by CRC: Monarch Waystation

     

    Dear Ryan and Grounds Crew,

     

    There is milkweed emerging in the field south of the Children’s Research Field. Last summer, this low mow zone field was mowed twice, removing most of the milkweed for which the migrating Monarch Butterfly population relies. Of course, we study the monarch population and field each year and are eager to have the field grow over the summer and through the fall. We know you have noxious weeds/invasive species to contend with on your end.

     

    What can we do to help the field grow over the summer/fall? How can we best communicate about it being mowed after the fall  Monarch Migration comes through?

     

    Is it possible to pursue the field area as a registered Monarch Waystation? If so, we could take the lead on that, pending agreement from whomever we need to ask including Ryan? https://www.monarchwatch.org/waystations/

     

    Thanks for thinking with the children/teachers at Uni Primary about this special area adjacent to the school. The field is a true source of delight and freedom for our small school, and we appreciate being in communication with you all about its care.

     

    Sincerely,

    Ali Lewis & Uni Primary School Community

     

    -- 

     

    Attached Files: 

  12. Illini Lights Out 4/18

    Associated Project(s): 
    Illini Lights Out

    At this past Illini Lights Out event,  2859 light bulbs were shut off that otherwise would have been left on all weekend, saving $434.98 in energy costs. This also prevented 4.3 metric tons of CO2 equivalent from entering the atmosphere, which is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from 489 gallons of gasoline being consumed. That's a great impact!

  13. Weekly digest

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    Last week was decidedly unbusy, surprisingly! Easter weekend made for a quieter Friday.

    We have two new student staff joining us this week or next. Should have a couple weeks to train them up before they forget everything over the summer. Summer learning loss isn’t just for book-learning!

     

    Warmer weather this week should bump our visit numbers. Tomorrow is a bike light giveaway, which we’ll mention to folks who come in today. Elsewhere, still turning out the bikes and hovering around 20 fixed up and ready for sale.

    The numbers:
    Visitors: 65
    Sales: $405.50
    Memberships: 5 for $150
    Tires/tubes: 10 for $83

  14. Bike for Earth Day 2025 Location Conflicts

    Associated Project(s): 
    Encourage Bicycle Use
    Light the Night
    C-U Bike to Work Day

    The Alma Mater Plaza welcoming center for Bike for Earth Day was moved to Graziano Plaza (plaza between the Engineering Hall and Everitt) because of a scheduled climate march and the March for Science rally. Morgan White was able to reserve Graziano Plaza for volunteers to hand out Bike Lights and Bike Month T-shirts to attendees. For future Bike for Earth Day events, it may be easier to move the welcoming center locations to actual reservable spaces.

    Attached Files: 

  15. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - May 9, 2025

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Agenda

    • Michael's updates
      • Recommendation page: added a Files column which shows any files associated with each Recommendation Update (e.g. ECONS004 Green Labs Coordinator)
      • SSC Projects:
        • Added column click sorting to SSC Projects table
        • Added ability to add/edit description to SSC Projects listing page
      • Metrics fixes:
        • Metric: Bicycle Registration in Project 529 system: Karina Jang had tried to restore a past Metric revision, which didn't work well and clobbered a few records. We reviewed the data and restored the broken/missing records. I have disabled restoring revisions for now. iCAP Admins and Moderators can view revisions, but cannot restore them. While it may typically work for basic content like text fields, it doesn't seem to work well for connected content like tracking records.
        • Metric: Total Purchased Clean Power: Somehow 2 empty records were created when Zach Bromberg updated this metric. I have made the Value and Date fields required, which should help avoid that in the future.
      • Showing Recommendations & Recommendation Updates on Project pages:
        • Initial version of how this could work available on live site (only visible when logged in):
          • Added Associated Recommendation(s) section in main column
          • List each associated recommendation w/its current status
          • Under each recommendation, show table of its related recommendation updates
        • You can find Project pages with associated Recommendations by visiting a Recommendation (All Recommendations) and clicking on its associated Projects.
        • Example pages:
        • Thoughts? For projects with a lot of recommendation updates, it gets a bit busy...
    • Discussion of how to handle projects with large numbers of metrics (see notes from Sarthak & Michael's discussion)

    Discussion

    • Recommendations on project pages
      • Will have a side channel meeting to discuss how best to cross reference iCAP Projects and Recommendations
    • Discussion of how to handle projects with large numbers of metrics
      • Need better way to display metrics with large numbers of tracking records
        • Michael will return to investigating switching charting systems
      • Need to be able to combine multiple metrics on a single graph
        • Michael had previously started work on this; can resurrect and continue it
        • Will have a side channel meeting to discuss needs in more depth

    TODOs

    • Various follow-up side channel meetings between monthly meetings.

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