From: Scrogum, Joy Joann <jscrogum@illinois.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2023 5:39 PM
To: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
Cc: Samaras, Zach <zsamaras@illinois.edu>; Feher, Savannah <sfeher@illinois.edu>; Jacobson, Debra F <djacobso@illinois.edu>
Subject: Revised proposal for UIUC waste audit

Daphne, as promised based on our conversation yesterday, attached is a revised version of the proposal for the campus waste audit. The attached is the same as the previous version of the proposal except for the following changes:

• Mention of “tiers” has been removed from the text. What had previously been described as “Tier I,” along with its associated activity zones and buildings, is now the exclusive focus of the proposal. Estimated total project costs are those previously shown for the Tier I option ($37,958).
• The timeline has been shifted so that the project starts in the Fall 2023 semester, as requested. We’ve preserved the same total number of months (seven) for the project, so the timeline now begins in August 2023 and ends in February 2024. If/when you’ve applied for and received matching funds from SSC, we can revisit the timeline if needed to address any reporting deadlines associated with SSC funding.
• Kealie Vogel has been removed from the list of ISTC personnel and staff bios. A placeholder (“TBD, Senior Scientific Specialist”) has been included instead for her forthcoming replacement.

Please let me know if you have any questions or if additional adjustments are needed. If we can provide a letter of support or any other assistance to you as you prepare your application for SSC funds, we’re happy to help!

Best wishes,

Joy

Joy Scrogum
Assistant Scientist, Sustainability
LEED Green Associate | Sustainability Excellence Professional (SEP)
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Prairie Research Institute
Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC)
Champaign, IL 61820
 

On January 9, UIUC sustainability representatives met and discussed the following:

Attendees: Shawn Patterson, Aaron Finder, Pete Varney, Bryan Johnson, Marty Kaufmann, Meredith Moore, Steve Breitwieser, Jen Fraterrigo, Thurman Etchison, Daphne Hulse, Julie Wurth, Tony Mancuso

Agenda:

Spring 2023 Overview:

• Don’t Waste Campaign

  • “Don’t Waste Wednesdays”

    • • Split contribution: iSEE, F&S, Housing/Dining, Illini Union, DIA each take one Wednesday per month

      • Task: units share initiatives/success stories on their social media platforms

      • Purpose: establish a shared social media presence around waste initiatives/sustainability

        • Concept of waste can be applied in many contexts: Illini Lights Out (energy waste), Grind2Energy (food waste)

• Meeting cadence with Coca-Cola:

  • Once a month, end of the month, Tues-Thurs, early afternoon

  • Can increase the meeting frequency ahead of events

• Big Ten men’s basketball game: next zero waste basketball event:

  • Target date: February 23 (Northwestern) or March 2 (Michigan)

  • F&S: Daphne to lead coordination/execution, F&S CR&C to assist with publicity

  • iSEE: tap into student volunteer network (75-100), assist with publicity

    • Jen: ahead of the game, strategize with Coca-Cola + Daphne on metric tracking (beyond diversion rate). What else can be measured?

  • DIA: venue logistics

  • Coca-Cola: digital/physical signage, giveaway items, t-shirts (tap into sustainability funds, ~$3k used last semester for shirts)

• On the horizon

  • iCAP Zero Waste Team: creating a football tailgate recycling roadmap for fall 2023

Discussion:

• Determining the revenue of water bottles sold at Athletic events:
  • Athletic kiosks should have transactional knowledge of what is sold.
    • Marty can figure out how sustainability can communicate for purchasing data,
• For Athletics social media for the Don't Waste Wednesdays campaign, Leigh McGuirk oversees it.
• To host another zero waste game in spring, we need to be cognizant of the Orange Krush, Krush Cancer event which will be one of the Big Ten games.
• Athletics can support us doing the recycling event at least on the operational side,
  • We probably cannot have the extent of support as we did the first time: Orange Krush area/t-shirt toss won't happen.
• Think about sorting after the fact - can we get that recovery rate, or is the lift too high?
• Athletics stance on bringing in reusable cups: you can bring a clear plastic water bottle (empty) into the facility.
  • Seems like its an issue of communication. tim knox had said its 50/50 possibility of getting it in. it’s because they really rely on their door security which can be interpreted in different ways (supposed to be clear, and unsealed. some people brought vodka in).
  • Incentivize bringing it in, but it depends on how much athletics can get that message out on top of everything else.
  • The clear bag policy is sent out when you purchase a ticket from athletics (SFC), but its a question of whether people actually read through it.

F&S is to pursue SSC funding to fund half of the cost of the project. SSC reviews and awards funding at the end of the spring semester, so the waste characterization study, if funded, will be pushed to August 2023.

Attached are notes provided on solar farm talking points from Ehab Kamarah.

Hi Daphne, great survey and I agree with Mary it is very comprehensive!  Patrick and I reviewed the document we came up with a few recommendations for your consideration:

It might be beneficial to add another question after cell G3 that asks if there are secondary waste goals.

Cell K3 was a little confusing trying to determine what was meant by ‘Benchmark Year’…. Is this supposed to say ‘Baseline Year’ instead? 

For Cell AG3, we are recommending that a separate tab in the same spreadsheet where the answers can be put into its own grid and easier to compare school to school.  For instance, I found it very interesting to see UIUC include tires but not surplus material, and it would be interesting to see how many folks include tire recycling/repurposing.  Patrick is going to take a 1st stab at creating this for your review.  

In the Waste Metric Tracking section, would it be possible to add a few questions around accounting for avoided waste?  Take-back programs would be a prime example of this… for instance, if a university handles furniture whether by diverting it or landfilling it, but then works with a manufacturer on a take-back program, do you get to count that material as diverted?  I am not sure of the best way to ask this question(s)… maybe it should be integrated with the matrix developed as part of bullet #2? 

The organics section might benefit by clarification on what should be included.  We interpreted it as more than just food scraps and included animal bedding and landscape debris in our answer, but questioned if other items should be included here such as food grease recycling.

Thank you again for putting this together.  Looking forward to seeing it once it is all filled out!

Thanks,

Tony Gillund 

Director of Sustainability

Campus Planning, Architecture, and Sustainability

o: 765-494-3911 | agillund@purdue.edu

From: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 4, 2023 8:26 AM
To: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

Daphne,

Thanks for reopening the conversation and putting this together. This survey looks comprehensive. We’re excited for the results!

Here’s our quick feedback:

For “Waste Reduction Goal” section, add question asking if school has formal, published waste plan and request link.

For D5, we usually count interns as a 3:1 FTEs. Might be useful to make this clear or to have a separate column for number of FTE’s vs. number of interns.

For the Surplus category, I’d be interested to learn if other schools have internal reuse or external donation programs to nonprofits. (Our Surplus group has mentioned some legal/logistical issues with donation…)

We can make these edits directly in the survey but didn’t want to make changes without giving you a heads up/getting sign off from the group.

Once the other folks on the chain provide feedback, we can help disseminate to the larger BTAF group. When the results are in, it’d be a perfect intern project to assemble results in a slide show and do some data visualization. Happy to donate our intern time towards that task.

Best, Mary

Mary Leciejewski
Zero Waste Manager

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers 

Facilities Operations and Development, Sustainability & Strategic Services
1130 Service Building Annex | 2578 Kenny Road, Columbus, OH 43210
(O) 614.292.3637
fod.osu.edu/sustainability