The Illinois Biodiesel Initiative met with staff to discuss their plans for the near future.  They will be working with Housing Dining Services to create and sell soap from the byproduct of their biodiesel production. 

Staff assisted the Students for Environmental Concerns (SECS) to plan and prepare for Earth Week this April 16-20.  Events range from showing a movie on the Quad to Cycling Savvy bike education to a sustainability Expo in the Illini Union.

F&S worked with the College of Business’ Director of Information Management to provide detailed solar data from the Business Instructional Facility to a graduate student in ECE.

A team of MBA students in Madhu Viswanathan’s course worked with the Campus Bike Project to make recommendations about how the Campus Bike Project could become financially self-supporting.

Scholarship of Sustainability 10-part series began.

The Engineering 315, Learning in the Community UI Bikes (UIB) section submitted their project proposal for what the class will be working on this semester.  The UIB class has divided into three groups which will tackle three different bicycle-related projects this semester: 1.) the continuation of the bike sharing market analysis started last semester, including a campus-wide survey and several targeted focus groups; 2) the development of an online, interactive campus bicycle parking map using Google Maps; and 3) testing out various marketing tactics to encourage bike riders to park their bikes legally at designated bike parking, rather than on trees, signs, ramps, or fences.

Abbott Power Plant was granted an IEPA permit to co-fire biomass with coal until June 30, 2013.  F&S intends to do some test burns this spring with wood chips.  Wood chips have a good track record in stoker boilers, and we are fairly confident we can demonstrate a successful trial.  In addition, wood chips appear to be one of the most cost effective sources of biomass available at this time.

There 24 buildings currently on the Energy Dashboard. Information about electrical, heating, and cooling energy use is available on the website, but not every building has all three sources available at this point in the project.

The Environmental Change Institute (ECI) and Facilities and Services (F&S) are working in conjunction on the Energy Dashboard with funding from the Student Sustainability Committee. The SSC has set for responsibilities for each group to complete the project.

The Environmental Change Institute is to coordinate meetings with representatives of major stakeholder groups (ECI, SSC, F&S, etc.) for the purpose of development, communication and clarity concerning the scope of the project, funding expenditures, review of phases, and deliverables; coordinate selection of appropriate building for building metering system upgrades that will be providing real-time data to the dashboard display system, assuming that the connections are technically or technologically feasible; develop content for website, including incorporation of new buildings, with input from stakeholders; coordinate marketing, communications with stakeholders, and progress reports; and compose and develop a final project report with input from F&S and other stakeholders as required.

Facilities and Services responsibilities are implementing and launching the Energy Dashboard module; providing technical support for metering, direct digital connections and dashboard website; purchasing software and installing that software with funds designated in the SSC award letter; determining data connections, server needs, IITAA compliance issues for website; communicating regularly with ECI concerning implementation issues and progress updates; installing and connecting upgraded building metering systems; and determining technical feasibility of connecting building metering systems to Dashboard and supporting systems.

The SSC report also included a schedule extension.       

ACES will transfer assignment of 27.8 acres at Kruse Farm to Facilities & Services to provide property for the solar farm installation. ln exchange, Facilities & Services will provide ACES Crop Sciences with $84,250 to re-establish new organic acres as replacement for their research
plots.

Location of land identified for this purpose is near the southwest corner of Windsor Road and First Street, bounded by the railroad tracks to the west and First Street to the east. A total oÍ 27 .B acres has been identified, including the homestead area, as illustrated on the attached map. lf additional acreage is needed, up to a total of 30 acres, land directly east of the homestead area may be made available.

NRES is in the process of developing this farmland to meet organic designation/standards and relocation of this activity will be required in order to accommodate making the land available to F&S. The Department of Crop Sciences has agreed to provide similar acreage to NRES for this purpose. The location of the replacement land will be in the southern portion of the Cruse Farm and is reflected in the 27 acres identified as C1000W 14 acres and C100E 13 acres in the attached map.

To facilitate relocation and to compensate the Department of Crop Sciences, F&S agrees to provide $550/acre for each of 5 years, plus $10,000. Funds would be provided beginning FY12 as outlined below. After the 5-year period, any compensation required by the Department of Crop Sciences will become the responsibility of the Department of NRES.

With appropriate controls and monitoring systems this building and all others on campus could be integrated for additional efficiencies and advantages that go far beyond simply reducing electrical loads:

• All campus power generators and energy storage could be utilized more reliably and efficiently
• Buying and selling power over the grid could realize additional savings
• Researchers and students could use data from the campus grid for modeling software systems
• Researchers could develop proven secure and reliable dynamic load control systems
• Researchers could beta-test large systems developed elsewhere
• Researchers and students could explore cyber security technologies in new ways
• Researchers could further develop trustworthy validating systems

A partnership of researchers and campus power plant administrators* envision a way to very significantly enhance the role ILLINOIS has on the national stage of grid modernization, by using our own campus grid as a fully functioning and operational beta test site. ILLINOIS is unlike any other university, having an array of key complementary assets that make such an alliance compelling:

• A very significant financial commitment to improving campus energy infrastructure
• Diversified power generation capabilities (CHP, renewable energy sources)
• Significant energy storage capacity
• A for-profit university related organization that enables buying and selling electricity
• A microgrid with a single point of contact with the national grid
• Internationally recognized experts in computer science, electrical engineering, and bio fuels
• History of cooperation between academic and administrative departments
• Established institutes like the Information Trust Institute that are dedicated to developing trustworthy systems, validating systems intended to be trustworthy, cyber security, autonomous engineering systems, technical training and knowledge distribution.
• Established highly-trained support staff with a workload capacity for growth
• Strong reputation that draws top student talent; commitment to education excellence

The Office of Sustainability hosted the first monthly CCNet Sustainability meeting of 2012 on January 19. The meeting had 39 attendees, including faculty, staff, students, local government employees, and members of the community. There was a presentation and discussion led by SEDAC about the organization’s work and national energy trends.  CCNet Meetings will continue throughout 2012, taking place at noon on the third Thursday of each month, at the Natural Resources Building, room 101.

Sustainability employees from campus, Urbana, Champaign and the Regional Planning Commission (RPC) continue to collaborate. In January, we discussed each agency’s respective greenhouse gas inventories. It was decided that Champaign and Urbana will include any University emissions which fall within their respective jurisdictional boundaries in their city-wide reports. For the purposes of local reporting, the University will be considered a separate entity that overlays both cities, similar to any other business entity, rather than a distinct jurisdiction. It was also decided that a separate meeting will be necessary to specifically address transportation-related emissions and how each entity is tracking and reporting on these.

The YMCA/YWCA on Wright Street requested a meeting to discuss their sustainability efforts and how the University may be able to assist. They are working on building improvements and changes to their parking and outdoor space. We gave them suggestions of people they may want to contact for input and advice.

Sustainability staff attended an Illinois Green Business Association (IGBA) networking event and talked with IGBA board members about potential future collaborations.

The City of Champaign Recycling Coordinator requested information about the impacts of plastic and paper bags on campus facilities and the campus waste stream. She also requested letters of support for a bag ban from student environmental groups.

Sustainability staff attend monthly conference calls/webinars of the Governor’s Green Universities and Colleges subcommittee.  In January, there was a presentation at ISTC about weatherization of campus buildings, and the disconnect between LEED certification and weatherization practices.