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Projects Updates for theme: all

  3. Green Power Partnership’s 2022 Year in Review

    Associated Project(s): 
    EPA Green Power Partner

     

    The EPA GPP has realeased a 2022 year in review graphic and data. Please see the attached graphic.

    • EPA Partners reported more than 3,000 green power purchases and projects, up 13 percent over the previous year.
    • EPA Partners increasingly engaged directly with new projects through project-specific supply options like PPAs, surpassing retail supply options for the first time in program history.
    • Nearly half of all 687 EPA Partners procured enough green power to meet 100 percent of their total annual domestic electricity demand.
    Attached Files: 

  4. UIUC works with Ecolab to transition to soap concentrate

    Associated Project(s): 
    Green Cleaning Products and Practices

    Soap waste is especially prevalent on large campuses and facilities that experience high day-to-day foot traffic. Through North American, UIUC's custodial product vendor, the university is transitioning to Ecolab's soap concentrate. This allows soap dispensers to be refilled rather than tossed and replaced with a single-use dispenser. This choice was made in an effort to address waste reduction practices in the Building Services division of F&S.

     

    ***************************************************************************

    From: Dean, Sean <Sean.Dean@ecolab.com>
    Sent: Thursday, January 4, 2024 10:43 AM
    To: Varney, Pete <pvarney@illinois.edu>
    Cc: Walter, Christopher <Christopher.Walter@ecolab.com>; zhansen@na.com
    Subject: Thank you from Ecolab

     

    Hello Pete,

     

    Was a pleasure to meet you yesterday, thank you for the time, especially unannounced!  Look forward to scheduling a formal review once installations are done and your teams have had a chance to acclimate to the concentrated program.  Sending a recent link highlighting a topic from our discussion, environmental responsibility is key guiding principle for all Ecolab businesses.  It’s nice to be recognized for it and perhaps there’s more opportunities for North American, Ecolab, and the University to partner on sustainable initiatives in the future.

     

    Thanks again,

     

    Ecolab Honored for Sustainability Initiatives (cleanlink.com)

    Sean Dean
    Regional AVP Facility Care

    ECOLAB  T 336 207 2732  E sean.dean@ecolab.com

  7. Winners of the 2023 Reimagine our Future competition + Thank you!

    Associated Project(s): 
    ReImagine Our Future

    Below is an email sent by Leon Liebenberg thanking the participants of the 2023 ReImagine Our Future competition:

    Dear Participant, Specialist Advisor, Judge, and Organizing Team in the 2023 Reimagine our Future Competition,

     

    I would like to thank you for your participation in the 2023 Reimagine our Future Sustainability Competition for Undergraduates! Thank you for your participation in the 2023 Reimagine our Future Sustainability Competition for Undergraduates! You can read about this year’s winners here and view the winning fact sheets on the competition webpage.

     

    I appreciate the invaluable support of our volunteer advisors and judges! A special word of thanks to this year’s student assistants, Erin Kelley and Allie Garlin, who did a phenomenal job with countless administrative tasks. Allie Cruz, Shreyas Venkatarathinam, and Wondrous Jenkins provided additional support, with thanks.

    I am indebted to the competition co-founders, Professors Robert McKim and Warren Lavey, for providing superb direction and seemingly endless support. Our organizing committee was very fortunate to also benefit from the enthusiastic support of Codie Sterner, Coordinator of Student Sustainability and Advisor to the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC), and Claire Keating, the dynamic chairperson of the SSC. Professor Mike Yao (College of Media; Gies College of Business) agreed to mentor the top-three teams to help take their ideas further. The Office of the Associate Chancellor and Vice Provost for Global Affairs & Strategies (Prof. Reitu Mabokela), and the Center of Global Studies (Prof. Donna Tonini) again supported this year’s competition, as did the Siebel Center for Design (Rachel Switzky and Dr. Saad Shehab). Thank you to one and all!

     

    I look forward to your continued support in future competitions. In the meantime, I wish you and yours the very best over this festive period.

    Kind regards,
    Leon

  10. EV charging

    Associated Project(s): 
    Install Public Use Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Stations
    Use Electric Vehicles (EV)

    Some of the comments from parking seem to imply a LOT of external vendor “input” on corded Level 2 chargers. I sense a reluctance about outlet-based charging, even though it can get to extreme scale.  I am not sure the folks have thought much about the energy costs and effective costs of moving a car. We still have the experience of minimal use because of high cost and inconvenience of moving cars with the commercial units in place.

     

    The Curbside technology certainly makes sense along a street with two-hour parking spaces, and my sense is that we are headed there. In the lots, I just do not see a fundamental problem with installing several dozen outlets and not worrying about the all-day aspect. Of course, today’s discussion was about Curbside and it makes sense in context.

     

    Philip T. Krein, Ph.D., P.E.

  11. RE: carbon credit sales fund

    Associated Project(s): 
    Utilize Carbon Credits

    Hi Rob,

     

    We have about $1.4M in Carbon Credit Sales Funds, and (as just one of the potential uses) we would like to know the most impactful energy project this could support in terms of maximum emission reductions.  Could I talk with Sylvia about that, or do you have someone else I should contact?

     

    Thanks,

    Morgan

    ----------------------------

    Morgan,

     

    We have a stack of project requests that we can look at to see where the best use of the funds could be. Please let me discuss with Tony, and we will reply with our recommendations.

     

    Thanks,
    Rob

    ---------------------------

    Hello Morgan,

     

    Thanks for your patience. I have worked with the others in UES to develop the attached list of recommended projects. The file is sorted by the mtCO2/$ to show the projects with the most carbon emissions reduction for the money.  We recommend to use the $1.4M to fund the first three projects and partially funding the fourth or the fifth project (the fifth project has higher energy savings and is slightly less on the mtCO2/$). 

     

    Thanks for reaching out to us with your inquiry. I hope that you find these projects acceptable. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

     

    Best Regards,
    Rob

    ------------------------

    Hi Rob,

     

    Thank you for this list.  Could your team please provide an estimated life in years for these projects?  If we say the Controls Upgrade at the Conference Center will last 30 years, then the footprint reduction cost is $32.44/mtCO2e.  We can assume 30 years for all the projects, but that is just a WAG from my perspective.

     

    Thanks,

    Morgan

    ------------------------

     

    Morgan,

     

    I have attached an amended table to this email with a new column for life expectancy as defined by ASHRAE. Generally, ASHRAE indicates 15-20 years for each of the projects.

     

    Thanks,
    Rob

    Attached Files: 

  12. iSEE building feasibility study committee

    Associated Project(s): 
    Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE)

    Sending on behalf of iSEE Director Madhu Khanna:

     

    Morgan,

     

    The Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) is exploring a dedicated building to raise the profile of iSEE on campus and provide space for the institute to grow and expand sustainability research, education and operational support. I would like you to be part of the committee we are assembling to give feedback during the building feasibility study.

     

    This committee will help shape the way the physical space can facilitate building multi-disciplinary research teams, hosting classes for the sustainability minor, supporting sustainability student groups, and overall, being a hub for sustainability activity on campus.

     

    The feasibility study was recently approved and a design firm has been selected. We anticipate meeting monthly through the Spring semester.

     

    If you accept this invitation then you will receive a formal charge letter from VCRI Martinis. You may also delegate this to a colleague or staff member if appropriate. Please respond by December 22. Thank you for your consideration.

     

    Elizabeth A. Murphy

    --------------------------

    Sure, no problem.

    Morgan White

  13. IACT - Energy for Service and Source Well Procurement

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainable Procurement
    Use Clean Power

    Good morning, Mike!

     

    Great to hear from you.  Absolutely can provide you with some additional information on both of those procurement pathways:

     

    1. Sourcewell:

     

     

    The University is a member of a purchasing co-op which provides pre-negotiated pricing for a variety of solutions – including microgrids – which enables them to purchase directly through Sourcewell without needing to go out to bid.  Please see attached for an example of the Siemens Sourcewell contract offerings and below for the University’s member information:

     

    1. Energy as a Service:

     

    Siemens could design, develop, own, implement and maintain a turn key energy system allowing the University to avoid capital investment and simply pay a “subscription cost” if you will for all their energy needs for I-ACT.  This would also enable them to stay up to date on new technologies as they come on line.  Please see attached “4-Steps for Integrating EaaS” for additional information.

     

    Again, we would be very happy to get on a call to walk through how to customize either of these offerings to meet their needs in cooperation with the work they are doing with AECOM.

     

    Could be a really exciting collaboration!

     

    I warmly welcome your thoughts.

     

    Thank you and

     

    All the best!

    -----------------------------

    Kevin,

     

    Here is the info I received from Siemend for your review.


    Thanks

     

    Mike

    -------------------------------

     

    Hello,

     

    Regarding the ongoing discussion of the electrical microgrid design (including PV panels on site) for U20029:IACT the PSC has wondered if UIUC has ever participated in either of this type of programs for procuring such systems by what appears a more design/build method?

     

    Kevin

    ------------------------------

     

    Good Afternoon Aaron and Graham,

     

    Can you advise if the attached Sourcewell Contract is one that we can utilize, if not, is there an IPHEC contract that would provide this type service? I tried to research the existing IPHEC vendors.

     

    Thank You

     

     

    MARIA THOMPSON

    -----------------------

     

    Hi, Maria

     

    The awarded contracts on the flyer all appear to be expired per the Sourcewell website.

     

    #031517-SIE for building technologies

    #051017-SIE for EV supplies and equipment

    #030817-SIE includes HVAC systems and mechanical

     

    Which contract were you interested in using? We may have something already.

     

    Also, IPHEC must adopt a consortia award first before a member can leverage it.

     

    Thank you

    ------------------------

    Graham,

     

    I am not really sure. Morgan or Kevin can you advise on Graham’s question?

     

    Thank You

    --------------------

    Hello Graham,

     

    I’m the F&S-CP Project Manager for the U20029: IACT track and fleet building project.  This is an automated and connected track for testing autonomous vehicles and anticipates having renewable energy production from wind turbines and PV panels on the large track site.

     

    The question which launched this email chain was received from the track designers who became aware of the existence to programs such as Sourcewell when discussing the PV design with potential sub designers for that portion of the track design.  I’m afraid I am not familiar enough with the three projects to know for sure but from the thumbnail descriptions perhaps the first one might be most similar to what is involved here, although this project would involve a large system covering both site elements producing renewable energy and only one building.  Their questions were really if the UIUC had interacted with Sourcewell in the past, and if Sourcewell might be an avenue to explore further as part of their design work.

     

    Would it be acceptable to share your contact information with the designers so that they could determine if your program could help provide some of the elements required for the IACT track and fleet building?

     

    Thank you,

     

    Kevin

  14. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - December 15, 2023

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Done:

    Discussion:

    • Discuss Christina's iCAP Portal Header Page Layout designs
    • Question about a TODO: "Collections page: Add image upload option". At a previous meeting we had this TODO, but what was the context? Was it to have a thumbnail for each Collection? Or a banner image? Or an image gallery?
    • Should we link to "Take Action" project from homepage?
      • Replace map link in Highlights?
      • Need to finish Take Action page content
    • Continue discussion of Fancy Page Layout (see the 4 mockups in the October 21, 2022 meeting notes)
    • Continue discussion of improving site's aesthetics
    • Archiving projects
      • Add "Archived" checkbox?
      • Add "Archived" to Visibility options?
      • Add "Archived" to Project Status options? (probably not - this mixes the status of the project itself with whether we still want it to show up on the site)
      • Remove from nested listings, still publicly available?

    TODO:

    • Main map:
      • See CSU's campus map (Sustainability section) for inspiration
      • Campus boundary, like ArcGIS Bicycle Map
      • Improve mobile filter?
      • Use heatmap when zoomed out, switch to markers when zoomed in?
    • (long term goal) look into importing information from another source, e.g. SSC students without iCAP Portal access can put together info in a structured format for automatic import into iCAP Portal
    • Look into Collection embedding again, à la Drawdown Solutions Library Sammy had found ("Filter by sector or area of action" section)
      • SSC project embedding: add category filtering options
    • Metric search/display:
      • Theme (via connected Project, i.e. Theme -> Project -> Metric)
      • Most recent updates as of: (list of years) -> can we query Tracking data?
      • (Internal only) Last updated before (list of years) -> can we query Tracking data?
    • (Low Priority) Make column headers click-sortable on Projects by Project Status page
    • Fancy project layout mockups - keep tweaking #3 to improve contrast
    • Discuss metrics
      • Metrics with lots of data
      • Consider how to handle old metrics that no longer track new data. Archive somehow?
      • Fun with math (e.g. combining multiple metrics)
      • Calculated Metrics on Dev site

    Ideations:

    • Map brainstorming:
      • What if we had a separate Campus Sustainability Tour expandable section, alongside Collections and Themes? Perhaps with a specific order to the locations and information about each location in the infowindow popup? We might have to hand-craft it rather than using Collections, but it might be worth it if we want an interface more like the CSU sustainability map. This could also work for any other bespoke sections we might want to include in the future.
      • Are there other things we'd like to highlight on the map beyond Themes and Collections? If we can think of them, Michael can try to figure out how to make it happen.
      • Michael is working on trying to make the map queries work asynchronously so each filter doesn't require a new pageload. This would make interactions with the map much snappier.
      • Would we like to provide the ability to view individual projects for each section in the sidebar, à la CSU's map?
      • Are there other categories we would like to include, either in addition to or instead of Collections and Themes? Is that information already in the iCAP Portal? If so, perhaps there's a way we can use it... If not, perhaps a new tagging system specifically for the map might help us achieve it?
      • Sarthak: would like to create a Biking Tour
      • Reed: highlight things students can see/experience
    • SSC projects
      • May want to use this Archive of Funded Projects on old SSC site (2019) as a reference for showing SSC project info
      • Discussed using iCAP Portal projects for SSC projects page vs. maintaining own project pages directly on SSC website.
      • One possible challenge - SSC sometimes funds part of a project or provides funding for a period of time (e.g. 1 year) for a longer-term project, so only the project updates for that period of time are relevant, not all updates in perpetuity. How do we handle that?
      • Decided to start with map embed from Student Sustainability Committee Funded Projects collection, then look at adding card-based project embed as well.
      • SSC project integration discussion on 11/30/2023:
        • New projects need to be approved and located appropriately in portal hierarchy
        • Codie considers an SSC project worth adding once it has a CFOAP
        • Projects can be updated w/SSC info by SSC students/employees once they exist in portal
        • How to show projects with multiple funding allocations over time? (e.g. $100K in spring 2020, $100K in fall 2020)
          • Is it the same project over time? Sometimes it is, but sometimes the leaders change and the direction changes significantly
          • Discussed dusting off the Project Funding feature we'd deprecated several years ago. It looks promising for showing SSC's funding of projects!
        • Michael and Codie will meet next week to discuss specifics about what SSC needs the iCAP Portal to be able to do in order to use the iCAP Portal for the SSC website's project listing.

  15. Big Ten & Friends - a very interesting presentation based on data anayltics

    Associated Project(s): 
    Big Ten & Friends Sustainability

    Rob and Tony,

     

    This topic was presented at the Big Ten & Friends Conference last week. This is a truncated version of the slide deck, shared with me by the presenter (Jayd Grossman - https://cpf.iu.edu/contact/people-directory/grossman-jayd.html). Not all slides were shared, due to the sensitive nature of the data analyzed. I was wondering, is the University performing similar analyses? If so, is that data available (and where can it be found)? The energy baseline and usage trends are very interesting, when considering long-term energy plans.

     

    Thank you,

     

    Sylvia Mcivor

    --------------------------

    Here was the presentation that sparked the idea.

     

    Best,

     

    Tony

    Attached Files: 

  17. Champaign County Climate Coalition 12/14 Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Support Regional Sustainability

    The following are notes from the meeting.

     

    There was a small discussion on hazardous materials and how to dispose of them.

     

    Earth day event planning and idea session.

    Should the location be altered?

    Crystal Lake

    Meadowbrook

    Success in the past:

    Wide range of activities

     

    Spring flower ID books/ Plant Walk

    A booklet that people can use to hunt spring flowers and identify them.

     

    C4 Hike Series

    A volunteer offered to lead hikes in the spring or summer

    What times would be best for hikes?

     

    C4 Social Event

    January evening social event?

    Riggs as a location

     

     

     

  18. Communication with Sterling

    Associated Project(s): 
    Energy-Efficient HVAC Infection Control

    Hi everyone,

     

    Getting these meetings scheduled for the next semester.

     

    Sterling, does this time at 1:30-2 work for you? I will alter the time slot if needed.

     

    Thanks,

     

    Quinn M. Connolly

    -------------------------

    Hi Quinn,

     

    Yes, 1:30-2:00pm works fine for me.

     

    Also, now that you're added our Google Drive please feel free to take a look at the content folders and comment. If you prefer to email me your questions privately, you can do that as well.

     

    Over the holiday I plan to set up a similar Google Drive for us as iCAP Energy-Efficient HVAC Infection Control as well.

     

    Hi Sarthak + Morgan,

     

    Leon Liebenberg is on the top of my list to answer his questions regarding engineering student participation and SSC.

     

    Thank you for being patient with us up until now and rest assured that it will all be worth the journey!

     

    Have a happy and safe holiday!

     

    Thanks, Sterling

  19. Illinois General Assembly SB1769

    Associated Project(s): 
    Use Electric Vehicles (EV)

    Illinois General Assembly - Full Text of SB1769 (ilga.gov)

    This will be fun.

     

    Confirming my intention to be retired by 12/31/2029

     

    Thank you,

    Pete

    -----------------------

    Sarthak, please read the link and provide a short summary for me and Stacey.

    Thanks, Morgan

    ----------------------

    Hi Morgan and Stacey,

    It just says that by Jan 1, 2030, all new passenger vehicles that a state agency purchases or leases has to be zero emission.

     

    Sarthak

  20. RA Tax Credit - CDB IGA

    Associated Project(s): 
    Facility Standards

    All

    Per our discussion from the meeting on 12/8/2023 I reached out to Ebone White and Angela Jacobs with your concerns that language be included to the current IGA template that is being produced to ensure that CBD cannot file for the IRA tax credit due to property being owned by the University. Ebone informed me that they will add it to their working draft for discussion with CDB and legal.

     

    Thank you

    Angie

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