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Projects Updates for theme: all

  1. ILLINOIS WINS FREEZER CHALLENGE FOR THE SECOND STRAIGHT YEAR

    Associated Project(s): 
    Freezer Challenge
    Issue Press Releases and Sustainability Reports

    For the second straight year, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is the best at implementing cold-storage best management practices, including reducing the energy required for laboratory cold storage. Campus efforts in more than 70 laboratories across 15 buildings earned back-to-back first place awards in the International Laboratory Freezer Challenge’s Academic category.

    The total energy usage in these spaces decreased by an estimated 438 kWh/day or a combined annual total equivalent of 13.5 homes energy for 1 year. The reductions were achieved due to the dedication and creativity of researchers across campus in implementing best practices for cold storage management. They received points for taking actions such as properly maintaining freezers and refrigerators, discarding old samples, and retiring unneeded units.

    See attached file or visit: https://www.fs.illinois.edu/resources/announcements/2019/08/08/the-university-of-illinois-wins-the-international-freezer-challenge-for-the-second-straight-year for full press release.

    More information on the challenge is available at https://www.freezerchallenge.org/ and https://go.fs.illinois.edu/freezerchallenge. The program is jointly run by My Green Lab and I2SL.

    Attached Files: 

  2. Weekly Update - Bike Sales, Rodeo on campus

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, I was out of town on Friday and Monday so this is a little belated.
    Last week was good. We’ve been selling bikes a little more steadily. Tally of For Sale bikes: 16. We’ve got a few more that need final safety checks to get going so I’ll hope to get that number a little higher, especially as we approach the beginning of the academic year. On Thursday morning I did a Rodeo on campus with Cynthia and a couple of the student staff. It went really well! Kids seemed jazzed, enjoyed riding the bikes, and the basketball court was perfect for the skills course.

    No issues having the students cover for me and thanks to Todd for grabbing the scrap.

    This week I’ll be out on Friday for a Campus Recreation Staff Retreat. I’ll have Chris or Theo cover for me. We’re short on some supplies so I’ll get an order in with one of our suppliers for consumables.

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 69
    Sales: $743
    Memberships: 8 for $240
    Bike (refurb): 3 for $320
    Tire/tubes: 14 for $81

     

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Manager, Campus Bike Center

  3. Weeding info and more

    Associated Project(s): 
    Vet Med Rain Garden

    Hello all,

    Thanks for coming to our last meeting. For those of you who could not make it, no worries. Our next steps will be weeding the rain garden. I am still working on a list of plants with pictures, but in the meantime I have attached a updated list of the names of all the plants that should be there and notable weeds. Anythings you weed can be thrown into the lawn, if it happens that there are a lot of weeds that have been pulled still throw them onto the lawn, or perhaps a small tarp if anyone has one, and let me know so we can send Grounds to pick it up. 

    As far as trees go, we are still going to go ahead and try to pull all tree saplings out. We discussed that this will likely be easiest after a rain. If they just aren't coming up and digging them out does not seem viable, at that point we can have Grounds come herbacide. 

    We are going to continue this process likely until mid Fall, at which time I am hoping we will have plugs to put in. 

    I am also working on an event that we can do at the start of the school year to get more volunteers out and helping around the rain garden. I will have more news on that soon.

    Thanks again for everyone' your help! If you have nay questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to shoot me an email.

     

    Best,

    Vince

     

    vnd.google-apps.document Vet Med Rain Garden Plant Identifier Doc

     

  7. Light the night 2019 - funding agreements

    Associated Project(s): 
    Light the Night

    The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, City of Champaign, City of Urbana, and MTD agreed to contribute $1,500 each to purchase bicycle lights for Light the Night event.

    On July 25, 2019, Morgan White confirmed that Sarthak Prasad will be the primary contact for Light the Night for F&S.

  8. Weekly Update - Bike collection, Scrap Bins, Outreach to Engineering students

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

    All, Things were slow-to-comfortably-busy last week. A new employee started. On Tuesday I picked up 30+ bikes from JSM. Only about 1/3 of the bikes were of any quality. The rest we have been steadily scrapping. Consequently we’re pretty maxed out on our scrap bins. One of the good bikes was built up in record time on Friday. A Structural Engineering PhD student rolled in around 2:30 – 3 and finished building the bike a little after 5:30. Most of the bike was in good condition. While he worked I spoke with him about getting engineering students into the Bike Center to try some physical, practical applications to their studies. While he couldn’t get students in to CBC himself, it was encouraging that he agreed it would be a good idea.

    I spoke with my Parking Dept contact. Abated bikes have been collected. There are significantly fewer collected than in prior years. Whether that is due to VeoRide, education/awareness, or simply a diminished area of collection (due to construction), it’s hard to say. Bottom line is less work for me and my staff!
    This week I’ll be taking Friday afternoon off. I’ll be out of the office on Monday and Tuesday of next week as well. Chris will cover hours. Next week’s report, accordingly, will happen on Wednesday.

     

    The numbers:
    Visitors: 75
    Sales: $1,282.90
    Bikes (refurb): 6 for $810
    Bikes (B-a-B): 2 for $50
    Memberships: 2 for $60
    Tires/tubes: 17 for $89

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Manager, Campus Bike Center

  10. Meeting recap: Vet Med Rain Garden

    Associated Project(s): 
    Vet Med Rain Garden

    Good Afternoon,

    Thank you to everyone who came to our meeting yesterday. I am happy that we are going to get started! Here is a quick recap:

    • Our plan for this early stage is simply weeding the area as much as we can. Anything that is not listed as part of the original seed mix or as serving a purpose can be pulled out.
    • Special attention should be paid to tree saplings you spot. I told Brent about this and he said he would send Grounds over to specifically herbicide the trees. In the meantime, we can try to pull these out after rain showers to make things easier. 
    • I plan on updating the plant identification sheet I sent out and hopefully we can get a laminated copy to place near the rain garden for anyone who is out there. I know the first sheet was a bit hard to read, so until I get the new one with pictures figured out, I have attached a simple list of what should be there and some examples of what shouldn't be there (if you see something out there that is not on the list, feel free to weed it) 
    • Most of you said that you'd just go out during your lunch breaks to weed a bit throughout the week, that works for me. I know most you know each other in some form or another so if you'd like set up some sort of schedule feel free, I'll leave that up to you all.
    • As the weeds get pulled out we will start to see how much space we have to put in plugs. We might even be able to get gallon plugs to put in late Fall or Spring that will have a better chance of staying alive. 
    • When the school year starts I think it would be great to see if we could get some more volunteers and set up some day where bunch of us go out and do some work at the same time and make an event out of it. More info on that to come.  

    Thanks again for everyone's help! If you have any questions or comments related to what I stated in this email or just in general feel free to email me.

     

    All my best,

    Vince

     

    vnd.google-apps.document Vet Med Rain Garden Plant Identifier Doc

  11. Weekly Update - New Hire, Heat, and JSM Haul

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

    All,

    This past week was abbreviated due to the sweltering and oppressive heat. We closed Thursday and Friday. The rest of the week wasn’t too busy, either.

     

    I had a training with a new hire, purged some old parts, and worked on shop builds.

     

    This week I’ll pick up “quite a few” bikes from JSM that they have ready for us, keep purging some of the old junk, and safety check the student-built bikes.

     

    The numbers:
    Visitors: 42
    Sales: $724

    Memberships: 2 for $60
    Bikes (refurb): 3 for $475
    Bikes (B-a-B): 2 for $55

    Tires/tubes: 7 for $$43

     

    Thanks!

     

    Jacob Benjamin
    Manager, Campus Bike Center

  13. An Alternate Solution: GreenQ

    Associated Project(s): 
    Track Waste from Frontload Trucks
    From: Shlomy Ashkenazi <shlomy@greenq.co.il>
    Sent: Monday, July 22, 2019 9:18 AM
    To: Varney, Peter W <pvarney@illinois.edu>
    Subject: Heads up - Front loader in Chicago

        Hi Pete,   Trust all is well, Just wanted to update about a development that might be relevant for you.   We are going to install later on this week a lite system on a front-loader (in Chicago). If everything goes well that means we can supply reduced cost system to all types of trucks – front,rear & side loaders in about half the price of the previous system. In addition we will have a local rep in Illinois. I’ll keep you posted.  

    Best,

    Shlomy

  15. The Buzz on Native Bees in East-Central Illinois

    Associated Project(s): 
    Bee Campus USA

    Join us on Monday, July 22 at noon at the Champaign Ext. This seminar is part of our Lunch with an Expert series with Maddy Kangas, a master's student from NRES, as our expert on native bees. There will be a short presentation on native bees in East-Central Illinois followed by your photos and questions. Do you need help with identification or more information? Bring your questions and your lunch.

    Amanda Christenson . Cooperative Extension Service

     

    The Buzz on Native Bees in East-Central Illinois

  16. Weekly Update - Keeping it Cool and Returned Bike

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

    All,

     

    The one day last week that it wasn’t blazing hot was the one day we were really busy. But we’re always at the whim of the weather. Other than the one busy day, it was business as usual.

     

    We got a new giant fan delivered by the maintenance crew which has been a great help. Keeps things manageably cool in here. Don, the guy we did a bike exchange with, brought us a case of bottled water from Meijer, which was also awesome.

     

    The real big news was the bike we were able to return to its rightful owner. A woman donated a bike that she said was abandoned in front of her apartment. With assistance from Durst, we were able to track down the original owner who came and picked it up on Friday. It was a good start to the weekend!

     

    Outside of the regular day-to-day I’ll be training a new hire and looking to rig up some weatherproofing for the garage doors to keep it a little cooler in here as we look towards the super-hot end of the week we’re expecting.


    Numbers:
    Visitors: 75
    Sales: $582.75
    Bikes (refurb): 3 for $301
    Membership: 3 for $90
    Tire/tubes: 11 for $60

     

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Manager, Campus Bike Center

  17. Cruze Barn new address

    Associated Project(s): 
    Solar Farm 1.0

    The Cruze Barn was moved as part of the agreement with the Student Sustainability Committee for their funding support of the first solar farm. It was moved by Trillium Dell, and it is now located at 316 Leman Lane, Congerville, IL.

  19. Timeline Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Track Waste from Frontload Trucks

    From: Pai, Shantanu <spai@illinois.edu>
    Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2019 8:21 PM
    To: John Cramer <john@loadman.com>
    Cc: Larry Santi <larry@loadman.com>; Calvin Cotton <Calvin@loadman.com>; Duda, Patrick Raymond <pduda@illinois.edu>; Bulbule, Kanchan Krishna <kanchanb@illinois.edu>; Hiser, Daniel William <dwhiser@illinois.edu>; Varney, Peter W <pvarney@illinois.edu>
    Subject: RE: Load Manager Real-Time Export to local database

     

     

    John,

     

    Thank you so much for your demonstration yesterday and your willingness to accommodate our needs. I am looping in Patrick and Kanchan, who would appreciate the offer you all have graciously made more than I would. We are certainly moving forward with the Loadman system. A PO has been issued to Randy and Dan on our team is working with him to schedule the installation and deployment. The Facilities staff would need about 6-8 weeks from when Randy can come down and train our drivers to be operational with the RFID tags on the containers. I am hoping that once we have a timeline set with Randy, I will have a clear timeline but I would say we don’t need a ready solution for at least the next 8 weeks.

     

    Shantanu

     

     

    From: John Cramer <john@loadman.com>
    Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2019 6:49 PM
    To: Pai, Shantanu <spai@illinois.edu>
    Cc: Larry Santi <larry@loadman.com>; Calvin Cotton <Calvin@loadman.com>
    Subject: Load Manager Real-Time Export to local database

     

     

    Hi Shantanu,

     

    When we did the last webinar, we discussed real-time export of data in the cloud to a locally hosted database. We also discussed the web API that could be used to fetch records and provided you with the API documentation.

     

    I wanted to let you know we are planning to write a client application using the web API to fetch records from the cloud and store those records in a database. When it is complete, it will function much the same as the real-time export that we discussed but without the complexity of SQL Server queries over the Internet and the security concerns of having open SQL ports in the University firewall.

     

    If you plan on moving forward with the Loadman system, could you let us know the timeframe of when you would be looking for the export capability? Also, let us know if you need any particular features. As a prospective “launch” customer for this application, you can make sure that your requirements are considered for being included in the product.

     

     

    Thanks,

    John Cramer

    Software Engineer

    john@loadman.com

    Phone: 425-235-4335

    Fax: 425-235-4937

    15224 SE Renton Issaquah Road, Renton, WA 98059, USA

  20. Weekly Updates for Zero Waste

    Associated Project(s): 
    Achieve Zero Waste

    Hi Pete and Shawn--

    This week's zero waste activities were

    • To coordinate with Morgan on an offer from the Student Alumni Ambassadors to help with zero waste actions on the iHelp Day of Service, Sept. 28. I replied to them with a cc to Morgan to see what projects we may have that student volunteers can help with.
    • To respond to a University of Virginia survey on organizational recycling.

    Best regards,

    Marya Ryan

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