As part of the Lighting Retrofit #5, 10 T-12 fixtures in the FSI South Storage Building were replaced with more energy-efficient T-8 fixtures. This switch will incur an Annual kWh Savings of 1,139 hours. The simple payback for this project is 12.71 years.

As of June 1, 2012, the University will again try to meet campus energy without burning coal in the summer months.

The Office of Sustainability (OS) applied for the Illinois Governor's Sustainability Award in 2012.  The OS provides overarching leadership to transform campus into a model for sustainability and to integrate sustainability principles into our campus culture.  The OS scope of work encompasses all components of the University’s mission: education, research, and engagement, as well as effecting change in campus operations and policies.  The OS sets campus-wide sustainability goals and works to enhance communication and collaboration among campus units to achieve these goals. The OS also provides organizational leadership for numerous sustainability initiatives that bring together campus and community on campus. Much of the work by the OS is about educating, motivating, communicating, and celebrating sustainability with various stakeholders.

A presentation about the Energy Dashboard was given at the Behavior Change / Energy Efficiency Conference on May 22, 2012: http://www.igencc.org/bhc12.speakers.

In 2012, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was recognized at the Gold Level in the Illinois Campus Sustainability Compact.

Staff gave a guest lecturer presentation to the Urban Planning / Civil Engineering UP430 class, regarding active transportation programs; met with a student team from Professor Rockett’s renewable energy course to discuss rooftop solar opportunities on campus; and gave a guest lecturer presentation to an Architecture class about the iCAP and sustainability initiatives on campus.

The Request for Proposal for a Solar Farm Public-Private Partnership on South Farms resulted in 12 proposals for the Solar Farm.  The technical evaluation committee worked on reviewing and scoring each proposal, and provided some clarification questions to the UI Purchasing contact person.  The committee will meet again in May to identify a preferred vendor.

F&S and the Beyond Coal student group portion of Students for Environmental ConcernS (SECS) held a joint celebration at Abbott Power Plant to recognize the efforts that have been made to reduce coal usage for campus.  There was a discussion about the additional projects F&S is pursuing and the financial decision makers for campus.