On 11/20/13 2:16 PM, Sue Hall wrote:

Dear Evan
 

As you may have already heard from colleagues who attended the AASHE 2013 conference this year, Chevrolet has been quietly announcing the fact that it is now making available new funding through its Campus Clean Energy Efficiency Campaign to support US campuses’ clean energy leadership.  ( See http://www.chevrolet.com/culture/article/carbon-footprint-reduction.html )  

Since the University of Illinois at U-C, based upon your historical GHG performances shared publicly via your AUCPCC reports, has been such a strong leader in this domain, Eban Goodstein, Director of Environmental Policy Center at Bard, who is also one of several Chevy Environmental Advisors on this initiative, also strongly encouraged me to contact you.  Indeed, based on your historical PCC GHG performance, the University of Illinois at U-C may well be eligible for Chevy funding on a campus-wide basis.
 
As a result, I would be more than glad to set up a time when we could discuss these Chevy funding opportunities further together to explore the fit with your university.  By way of a little further background, the Chevrolet funding is available to campuses whose GHG performance, based on their clean energy leadership, exceeds certain benchmark levels for either their LEED certified buildings or on a campus-wide basis.

 The details regarding these qualification criteria and other frequently asked questions can be found at one of our partner, USGBC’s, web site:
For LEED buildings:
http://insight.gbig.org/chevrolet-campus-clean-energy-campaign/
For Campus-wide:
http://insight.gbig.org/chevrolet-campus-wide-funding-opportunities/

I’ve also attached a brief overview summary in case you’d like to circulate this opportunity more readily to your colleagues.
 
Current pilot projects at Ball State University and Valencia College have confirmed how compelling the business case can be to sell and transfer qualified carbon reductions (2012-14) to Chevy in order to enable campuses to deepen their clean energy leadership still further.

 
So do let me know when you might be able to join a phone call together to see how this funding might be applicable to your campus.
 

All the very best

Sue


 

Craig Grant had an initial meeting with Kevin He from the student biodiesel group yesterday to hear his initial thoughts about building a biodiesel processing facility in a trailer. They have been unable to find another suitable facility for their program since they had to leave the ISTC facility on Hazelwood. They were looking at purchasing a mobile pre-manufactured set-up, but the company has since dropped the trailer systems. They want to construct their own system in a trailer using newer processing technologies, but many of the previous raised issues remain problems for them.

Attached is a copy of their written “Initial Plan” for this endeavor. After listening to the presentation of the plan, Craig identified a number of significant issues that would need to be addressed to even consider the “trailer option” further. Obvious concerns included the approval of possible sites to park the trailer and operate the plant (including off-loading of WVO and storage of processed Biodiesel as well as glycerin processing for liquid soap). The need to take into consideration the approvals needed to be able to available electrical power supplies and connection methods, environmental precautions, etc. will also be significant criteria to be resolved.

Illinois completed the STARS submission in June 2013. STARS is the most comprehensive sustainability rating system in the country.  The rating system is divided into 4 categories: education and research; operations; planning, administration and engagement; and innovation. STARS rates institutions on 5 levels: platinum, gold, silver, bronze and reporter. Illinois has achieved the Gold Level Recognition, and no institution thus far has achieved Platinum.  

Let's make C-U a bike thief Un-Friendly Community.

I think that our local cycling community would benefit from a relatively simple system which would compile and distribute information on stolen bikes.  I gave it some thought last night and we discussed and refined a possible system at our weekly staff meeting this morning.  This is not a finished product and I'd welcome suggestions to improve it.  But here's the idea.

The system would consist of three parts:

1. An easy way for the owner to register their bike as stolen.
2. A way to disseminate that information to appropriate people in our community.
3. An accessible list of stolen bikes that people could refer to.

Champaign Cycle is volunteering to set up and run this system.  We could implement it in the following manner:

  1.  Register your bike as stolen.

The bike owner would email service@champaigncycle.com  (I'm changing this to stolen@champaigncycle.com) with "Stolen Bike" as the subject and provide the information on the stolen bike.  We will develop an email form that they could fill out and email back.  That form would include:

*IMPORTANT INFORMATION

• *Serial Number
  • Check with the bike shop you bought the bike from.  They should have recorded the serial number and have that record for you.
• *Brand
• *Model
• *Color
• *Frame type (men's or women's frame)
• *Bike Shop Sticker
• *Distinctive Features (white aero wheels, yellow baby seat with frog stickers, 12" rusty scratch on top tube, black fenders and rear rack)
• Size (frame size or wheel size)
• Style (road, mountain, hybrid, cruiser, kids, etc)
• Where it was purchased
• Year Purchased
• Date Stolen
• Location of theft (First and John, Cherry Hills, UI Library)
• Locked with (U lock, cable, chain, in garage, unlocked)
• *Name
• *Email
• *Phone

We would ask that the Police departments also submit their stolen reports so we could disseminate their information.

All this information would help everyone identify the bike to help return it to its owner.  The information could also provide a view of how big a problem bike theft is and where and how bikes are stolen.

  2.  Dissemination of stolen bike information to interested parties.

We would maintain an email list and we would send the information on the stolen bike to:

• Police: Champaign, Sheriff, UI, Urbana
• CCB eMail list
• KMBC eMail list
• PCC eMail list
• UC Bike Ride eMail list
• Bakers Bikes
• Bike Project
• Bikeworks
• Durst Cycles - Urbana and Champaign
• Itty Bitty Bike Shop
• Neutral Cycle Workshop
• The local pawn shops

   3.  Maintain an accessible list of stolen bikes.

We would maintain a list of the stolen bikes on a page on our website to which anyone could refer at any time.  It would be under the Service Tab as Stolen Bikes.  The list would include all the stolen bikes reported to us and would be sortable by column of the categories listed on the report form.  So you'd be able to sort the list by brand, serial number, or whatever.  That way you wouldn't have to print out each report or keep a list which might be out of date. 

So that's the system as we envision it.  We could have it up and running next week.  Any ideas on improving it would be welcome.  We don't suggest that this is a finished project.  It can evolve as we gain experience with it.  I would especially appreciate input from our Police departments.  I'd also be glad to hand this off to another organization, but we are happy to develop and maintain it.  I don't think it will be much of a job for our staff.  We've assigned a person to administer it.  The thing that will make it work and be effective is that we list all the stolen bikes.  So promoting notifying the system of your stolen bike is very important. 

As this system became more widely used, and more widely known, it should act as a bicycle theft deterrent.  If prospective thieves know there is a system to register stolen bikes and that there are Police, bike shops, pawn shops, and individuals on the outlook for stolen bikes, it may make stealing less attractive.  Think of this as a Bicycle Community Watch.

What do you think?

Peter Davis
Champaign Cycle
217-352-7600

The Radiation Safety Section of the Division of Research Safety addresses all matters relating to radiation safety on the campus.

About campus radon policies, our approach is to use the EPA action levels as the standard for radon exposure. We do not have an ongoing testing program on campus, but when the issue was first raised many years ago there was a comprehensive testing program in campus buildings and they showed low radon levels. - David Scherer, Associate Director of the Radiation Section at the Division of Research Safety

The LED Campus commitment includes having all the interior wayfinding signs converted to LED by 2025.  This is primarily LED Exit Signs.   We had hoped to use the Revolving Loan Fund to implement another phase of the LED Exit Sign project.  However, that funding is only applicable if there is a reasonable payback through utility savings.  LED Exit Signs have a good payback, but not through Utilities.  The savings come from reduced maintenance, which also provides a reasonable payback.   Given the shortfall in maintenance funding and the Chancellor’s commitment to becoming an LED campus, Mike Andrechak agreed to provide $100,000 per year for two years toward LED Exit Signs.  This funding could be continued in future years, subject to funding approval.

From: Shane Stennes <stennes@umn.edu> Date: November 6, 2013 at 11:37:26 AM CST To: "Johnston, Morgan B" <mbjohnst@illinois.edu>, Lydia Vandenbergh <lydia@psu.edu>, Matan Gill <matan.gill@unl.edu>, Jennifer Battle <Jennifer@msu.edu>, Tamm Hoggatt <tjhoggatt@purdue.edu> Cc: Chris Kelleher <kelle847@umn.edu>, Stacey White <whit0691@umn.edu>, Elizabeth Spotts <ehspotts@umn.edu>, Emily Kossila <kossi002@umn.edu> Subject: Re: Campus Conservation Nationals   I'm glad to hear that there is interest. We've corresponded with the folks at CCN a bit about how to facilitate this and it sounds like they have a process that we can start working through in the next few weeks. Have any of you conducted an inter-university competition through CCN (or other means) before? If yes, any insights on how that went or what you'd recommend to make it successful would be appreciated.   As a starting point, I thought it might be helpful for all of us to identify the scope of our campus competitions and that might inform what we do for a competition among our schools. Here's what we are planning right now at the U of Minnesota: 11 residence halls participating, possibly 12 if we can figure out how to get their data into the system (leased property). We are currently planning to report electricity data only. Dates of competition will be February 17 - March 17. Baseline data would be gathered two weeks prior to competition. This may change a bit in the coming weeks, but it shouldn't shift much. What are all of you planning on your campuses?   Thanks,   Shane   Shane Stennes Interim Chief Administrative Officer, Facilities Management Sustainability Coordinator, University Services University of Minnesota   300 Donhowe Building 319 15th Avenue SE Minneapolis, MN 55455 (612) 626-2588   http://www.facm.umn.edu/ http://italladdsup.umn.edu/     On Thu, Oct 31, 2013 at 11:43 AM, Johnston, Morgan B <mbjohnst@illinois.edu> wrote: I agree.    Sent from my mobile device   On Oct 31, 2013, at 11:18 AM, "Matan Gill" <matan.gill@unl.edu> wrote:   Absolutely! UNL is already working with MSU's USGBC Student Chapter to arrange a competition. I think having all Big 10 schools compete is a great idea.     How do we move forward?    From: Shane Stennes <stennes@umn.edu> Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2013 11:13 AM To: Matan Gill; Lydia Vandenbergh; Jennifer Battle; Tamm Hoggatt; Morgan Johnston Cc: Chris Kelleher; Stacey White Subject: Campus Conservation Nationals   I see that all of our schools are registered for CCN. Any interest in having a little friendly competition among the Big 10 schools participating? Or maybe some head to head match ups?    Shane Stennes Interim Chief Administrative Officer, Facilities Management Sustainability Coordinator, University Services University of Minnesota   300 Donhowe Building 319 15th Avenue SE Minneapolis, MN 55455 (612) 626-2588   http://italladdsup.umn.edu/