On May 11, 2017, the Public Works Department of City of Urbana issued a letter to the residents informing them about the construction of new street lighting that is planned for Illinois Street, Gregory Street, and Oregon Street and is scheduled to start this spring. The project is expected to end in late October 2017. The new streetlights will resemble the streetlights currently on Goodwin Avenue adjacent to the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts except the lamp will be a LED lamp instead of a metal halide lamp as is installed on Goodwin Avenue.  

The proposed roadway lighting improvements are located along Oregon Street from Mathews Avenue to Lincoln Avenue, Gregory Street from Oregon Street to Illinois Street, and Illinois Street from Goodwin Avenue to Lincoln Avenue in the City of Urbana. The City of Urbana will oversee the construction of this project, which is presently being competitively bid.

The project is expected to run from June through October.  Work will commence on Gregory Street, then move to Illinois Street, and finish on Oregon Street.

Attached are the presentations prepared by the students in ENVS 301. The course syllabus is also attached.

The report is about behavior change messaging, which lets the occupants of each building see their consumption changes over time and it will motivate them to conserve energy. The goal of the report is to display “past-current-new” patterns of energy conservation change. The result will be a paper with recommendations how to motivate people to be more sustainable.

The data for FY08-FY2016 was used.  The scope of the project are 175 buildings at the UIUC campus. Then the pilot project was about the Lincoln Hall. After Lincoln Hall, the work was started with the Soybean National Laboratory and the Illini Union.

During seven Friday evening “Illini Lights Out” events in the 2016-17 academic year, teams of student volunteers switched off more than 11,000 fixtures and closed windows in campus buildings around the Main Quad at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. One bulb at a time, this small action taken by more than 200 students saved campus about $3,400 in energy costs — not to mention lengthened the lifespan of several thousand lightbulbs.

New York Times article on electric vehicles (EVs):

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/04/automobiles/wheels/plug-in-electric-hybrid-automobiles.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FElectric%20and%20Hybrid%20Vehicles&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection.

All, last week we totaled 99 visitors to the Campus Bike Center (I blame the rain). Our sales were at $1,104. We sold one Build-a-Bike; three refurbished bikes for $570; five memberships for $150; $102  in tires/tubes; and $93 in locks.

Beyond the numbers, last week was a doozy! We had Bike To Work Day on Tuesday and it was a great success. While I haven’t heard any official numbers, I estimated about 50 or so people at our station. There were 400 official registrants online as of 6am the morning of BTWD. And of course, the chilly and windy weather probably kept a few people home. Lorenzo, a CBC staffer, was interviewed for a Fox Illinois news piece during the event.

On Wednesday we had a CBC staff meeting/pizza party. 7/8ths of the CBC student staffers were able to make it and we had a  good discussion and reflection on the experiences of working at the Campus Bike Center and how we can improve looking towards the future of the Center.

On a sad note, Friday I got news that staffer extraordinaire Logan will not be able to work at the CBC this summer, as he’s taking a job up in Minnesota. I will have to scramble a bit to find his replacement (an impossible task, given his skills and familiarity with the Center).

This week I will be interviewing for summer help, building bikes, checking on our Housing donation racks, and juggling all the weird finals scheduling mess that throws off everyone’s normal shifts for working here.

Sincerely,

• Jake Benjamin
  Campus Bike Center Manager

Hello all,

Here are my updates from last week:

• Met with Jessica Tran, a resident of Ashton Woods, to discuss graduate and family housing recycling; sent follow-up questions to Morgan.
• Signed off on the label for glass recycling that Anna Barnes created.
• Reviewed iWG minutes and draft assessments related to recommendations from the PWR SWATeam related to the CAM paper policy and the recycling component of the ethics training video and paragraph summary thereof; also reviewed a draft assessment of the ECBS SWATeam recommendation to conduct the “Illini Lights Out” program ongoing. The assessments are in draft form and are being circulated for iWG member comments.
• Updated the iCAP portal with my name and email address for zero-waste staffing.
• Updated battery recycling description in the iCAP portal.

Sincerely,

Marya Ryan
Zero Waste Coordinator