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Projects Updates for theme: all

  1. Varsity Room Sustainability Initiatives

    Associated Project(s): 
    Green Sports Alliance (GSA)
    Zero Waste iCAP Team
    Engagement iCAP Team
    Division of Intercollegiate Athletics (DIA) Climate Action Plan

    Team Clerk Claire Keating met with Zero Waste Team Clerk Nikki Palella and Justin Holding, a member of the engagement team.

    The meeting content included brainstorming zero-waste food containers for athletes who participate in meals provided by DIA and Hendrick House.

    Meeting also covered updates on Green Sports Alliance recommendation and future contacts.

     

  2. Green Cleaning Program Update 10-2022

    Associated Project(s): 
    Green Cleaning Products and Practices

    According to Dominika Szal, F&S Waste Management Intern, "We have found green alternatives for most of the floor cleaning products as well as some multi-surface/glass cleaning products. We are continuing our search for green alternatives for other types of products such as carpet cleaners, bleach, etc.."

    Here is a link to the WELL Building Standard. 

     

     

     

  3. Land and Water iCAP Meeting 10/4/2022

    Associated Project(s): 
    Land and Water iCAP Team
    Campus Landscape Master Plan (CLMP)
    Cover Crops on South Farms
    Let It Flow
    Benefits of a Large-Scale Prairie Experiment

    On October 4th, the Land and Water iCAP team met to make final edits on the Campus Sustainability Celebration slides, review the Campus Landscape Master Plan, and discuss regenerative agriculture research on the South Farms.

    Meeting minutes are attached.

    Attached Files: 

  4. Week 1 Kickoff - Plastic Reduction Challenge

    Associated Project(s): 
    Plastic Free Challenge
    Campus Sustainability Month

    Happy October, and welcome to the 3rd Annual Campus Waste Challenge! Whether this is your third year participating in this challenge or first, we are so glad you’re here. To each of you, thank you for taking the first step toward decreasing your individual waste stream by challenging yourself to be more conscious of what you throw away every day.

    This year, the Campus Waste Challenge will focus on plastic reduction. The Plastic Reduction Challenge lasts four weeks, from Monday, October 3rd to Sunday, October 30th. Each day, keep track of the plastic you throw away (not reuse or recycle) using the predetermined point system (attached). The goal of the challenge is to earn as any points as possible each week. Every time you throw away a plastic item, points are subtracted from your weekly total. Environmentally friendly actions can earn you points back and are also listed on the points system. 

    At the end of each week, please submit your weekly point total using the Google Form. We have created a grid (attached) as an option to keep track of your weekly waste, but you may choose any method that works for you, such as your phone or a piece of scratch paper. This week, submit the Week 1 Google Form by Monday, 10/10 at 9:00 AM.

    Additionally, every Thursday of the challenge we will send a check-in email with resources to help you. Remember, refuse plastics when you can, and make sure to repurpose and recycle those you must take. Hopefully, throughout this challenge, you develop a personal habit of waste consciousness. All participants will be entered into a raffle for sustainability packs. You will earn an entry for each week you submit a Google Form.

    We encourage you to engage with fellow participants on UIUC’s Sustainability forum: Waste Reduction @ Illinois Facebook. In this Facebook group we welcome you to post questions, tips, and resources to support each other during this challenge!

    Please respond to this email if you have further questions and reach out to us at any time throughout the month. We would love to hear from you! We are very excited to kick off this fun, impactful challenge with you all. Remember to recommend friends, family, and colleagues to join the challenge, as well. It is never too late. 

    If you’re looking for other ways to celebrate Campus Sustainability Month this October, check out the iSEE Calendar for a month filled with engaging activities!

    Thank you and have fun! We will talk to you again on Thursday with the first weekly tip.

    Meredith Moore, iSEE Sustainability Programs Manager

    Emily Dickett and Jenna Schaefer, iSEE Sustainability Interns

    Attached Files: 

  6. Ohio State University includes the waste survey as part of the agenda for the upcoming BTAF meeting, to solicit a better survey response rate

    Associated Project(s): 
    Big Ten & Friends Sustainability
    Achieve Zero Waste

    From: Leciejewski, Mary leciejewski.8@osu.edu
    Sent: Tuesday, October 4, 2022 12:19 PM
    To: Hulse, Daphne Lauren dlhulse2@illinois.edu
    Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja dszal2@illinois.edu
    Subject: RE: Scheduling a Waste Management Survey

     

    Hi Daphne,

     

    Pleasure speaking with you last week. I was going to send out an agenda for the Big 10 and Friends meeting on Thursday. Are you still interested in introducing yourself and your project to try to solicit a better response rate? If so, I can put you on the agenda.

     

    Thanks! Mary

  7. Urban Biodiversity Master Plan Student Support

    Associated Project(s): 
    Urban Biodiversity Master Plan
    Resilience iCAP Team
    Education iCAP Team
    Land and Water iCAP Team
    Zero Waste iCAP Team
    Transportation iCAP Team
    Energy iCAP Team

    Biodiversity Plan intern Gabriel Harper-Hagen is looking for students and student groups to help him develop two iNaturalist surveys for the project. Here is the detailed explanation from Gabe:

    The survey will act as a pilot for future surveying around campus and the broader community. We will have two surveys: one focused on animals and one focused on plants. This is because of the different methods of surveying each. The surveys will benefit from as many students that would be interested in this for either one (Or both). The survey will attempt to efficiently gather data about the diversity of plant and animal species found on campus to create a baseline for what is present and to help identify gaps on the campus where diversity may be lacking. If successful, I hope to expand the model to other parts of the community including the park districts to have larger community based BioBlitz seasonally to keep track of the diversity in the area and measure success of the biodiversity plan. 

     

    As far as students can help, we need enough people to survey the area efficiently in a reasonable amount of time. The student groups and individual students would be helping in an initial survey that focuses only on the campus. My thought is that a date will be set for each of the two surveys where the participants can join to go over brief instructions on identifying plants with iNaturalist, adding them to the project, and explaining the purpose of surveying. iNaturalist allows for specific project data to be collected within a region which is then peer reviewed. Ideally, there will be some experts (students or professors if appropriate) that join for each survey to help with logistics and identification. I hope this will not only be a useful database for our campus to utilize, but also a fun learning experience. 

     

    All iCAP students and environmental student groups are encouraged to participate. If interested, please email Gabe (harperh2@illinois.edu) and Resilience iCAP Team clerk Asli Topuzlu (aslit2@illinois.edu). 

  8. Weekly Update: Slower times, Business Hours, Sorting abandoned bicycles

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center
    Collection and Donation of Abandoned Bicycles

    All, Slower times here at the Bike Center (in terms of visitors). We’re almost slow enough that we can reinstate the First Visit Free policy. Not quite there, as we’ll have lulls but pick back up again.

    It was discovered that the CBC Google Business hours were not updated when we moved to M – F, which explains why we we’ve been so slow on Tues/Thurs. That has since been corrected so we’ll see if that impacts visit numbers this week.

    Last week I started sorting bikes at the warehouse for shipment/donation. We’ll be saving even more bikes than usual as we’re critically low on consumable parts like tires.

    We managed to rehab a Huffy to an acceptable degree. The frame was in good shape and we piloted a new freewheel system that should hopefully help keep those types of bikes rideable for longer. That bike sold in about 20 minutes. Demand for cheap bikes is evergreen.

    This week I’ll do more sorting at the warehouse and coordinating the donation, an interview or two, and otherwise business-as-usual.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 78
    Sales: $479.50
    Bikes (refurb): 1 for $70
    Memberships: 5 for $150
    Tires/tubes: 9 for $58

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  9. Captstone meeting Week 1: Introduction to the topics

    Associated Project(s): 
    Bicycle Friendly University Status
    Reduce Bicycle Theft on Campus
    Independent Student Projects

    I, Aparna Padmakumar from the Department of Urban and Regional Planning am pursuing a master’s degree with a concentration focus in the field of transportation and currently is looking to take up a potential capstone project with the transportation iCAP team hoping to contribute to better bicycle safety/access on the UIUC campus. After multiple discussions and meetings with Sarthak Prasad,  the projects that I will be helping out with would be the ‘Bicycle Friendly University Status’ and ‘Reducing Bicycle Theft on Campus’ through the months of October until May. In today’s kick-off meeting (10/3/2022) previous data, studies, and information were shared with me for better clarity and expected to go through all the previously collected information on the iCap portal. Sarthak guided me through the 2022 Bicycle Friendly University (BFU) application to achieve Gold-level BFU certification and also the Bike at Illinois website as a source of information for the second ongoing project. I am also in constant touch with the other concerned team members to note down important background information on these 2 projects for a better sense of direction before our next weekly Monday meeting’

  10. 10-3-22 Internal Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    "Don't Waste" with Coca-Cola

    On October 3, UIUC sustainability representatives met and discussed the following:

    Attendance: Pete Varney, Meredith Moore, Shreya Mahajan, Bryan Johnson, Marty Kaufmann, Morgan White, Daphne Hulse

    • Bryan Johnson: res life. Will be having a conversation with the res life Director. Seeing if Sustainability LLC wants to take on the sticker.
    • Waste audit: submit a request for the SSC funding. Meredith and Dave discussed this before Daphne joined, wanting to pursue SSC funding.
      • Daphne would do the request. Ask for 25,000 for step 1, and then submit the actual cost in step 2.
    • Tim Knox is on the engagement iCAP team. Tim and Marty talk every couple of weeks. Tim had been talking with COO (Roger, chief operations officer) about the need for better recycling for tailgating. This will be in the works for Fall 2023. Marty says they’ve done flyers, but probably not bags before. Maybe we do a kiosk on busy game days.
    • Picnic tables. Morgan suggested ARC put them at Vet Med, arboretum, off-of-the-beaten path.
      • Marty says athletics could maybe utilize them? Not against them, but it wasn’t a request of theirs.
      • It’s not a great time of year to get them (they would have to be stored through the winter).
      • Will continue to look into these, but it’s on the back burner for now. Will address it in the spring.
    • Temporary Coca-Cola bin discussion. No one is sold on them. But they do provide a benefit at events, to show people (especially students) that we recycle.
      • Hard to clean? Marty: we may or may not need bins at athetics, especially for the zero waste event.
    • Meeting on Wednesday: Tell Jake that we do want the bins replaced, but need to clarify where they will go. 60 total? Could all of them get delivered to F&S and deployed for various situations.
      • Determine how many we got originally, and if they can all be replaced (with the Royal Blue).
    • Meredith: getting students to help out. Morgan had asked Marty to see if he could find a RSO. Marty has a staff meeting at 2, so he will ask for those contacts. Then, we will connect the students from sustainability to this athletic RSO.

     

  11. Metric for EV charging stations - Suggestion by Ria

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

    Hi Morgan,

    The proposed metrics (i.e., number of level 2 chargers) are certainly interesting. Could we also track the chargers' utilization? My group can help with such an analysis as needed. I am happy to discuss opportunities for a more comprehensive assessment of shared charging use by the university fleet and other passenger vehicles in the university. Effective charging sharing and management schemes will play an important role as electric vehicle adoption and use grow. Thanks in advance!

    Best regards,

    Ria

    -- 

    Eleftheria (Ria) Kontou, PhD

    Assistant Professor
    Civil and Environmental Engineering

    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

    publish.illinois.edu/kontou/home

    New publication: Evacuation route planning for alternative fuel vehicles https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2022.103837

  12. 120 original "Don't Waste It" bins provided for convocation, quad day, welcome week

    Associated Project(s): 
    Welcome Celebration Recycling
    Tailgate Recycling
    "Don't Waste" with Coca-Cola

    From: Jake Slager <jakeslager@coca-cola.com>
    Sent: Monday, October 3, 2022 3:22 PM
    To: Moore, Meredith Kaye <mkm0078@illinois.edu>
    Cc: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
    Subject: RE: Illinois Sustainability Campaign Messaging

     

    Hey Meredith,

     

    Hope you had a great weekend too!

     

    I’m working on getting estimates for a bit sturdier bins, but with the attached graphics if you all could approve for sure or provide any other feedback.

     

    We did deliver 120 total (60 recycling, 60 trash) for convocation/quad day/welcome week, but I’m not sure who all received them and if any went to athletics. That’s part of what we need to finalize too, is how many you want replaced (or all 120), and then how to divvy them up between departments/areas of campus that need them too. My plan is to replace all that you need, and determine if we need more permanent bins anywhere such as with Athletics particularly.

     

    I was hoping to give Daphne a call this week quick to align on calendars for just the smaller group to meet. I know we said could keep the weekly at 330CST on Wednesdays, but I’d like to move it up if at all possible, so let me know if your all schedules could accommodate that or not please or we can chat on that quick too.

     

    Agenda this week can be this topic, as well as the YAH agency discovery questions/answers, and perhaps discuss the Circular Solutions audit that I’m trying to get as many details as possible for you all on too by Wednesday. Let me know anything else you want to review as ewll.

     

    Talk soon, thanks!

     

    IgWvsfeNIuPx2eyAqwAqwAK8AKsAKsACvACrACT7wCj5Ann3jt+ICsACvACrACrAArwAqwAqwAK8AKPM0KPKp6PE+zpnx2VoAVYAVYAVaAFWAFWAFWgBVgBZ4GBZgnn4anzGdkBVgBVoAVYAVYAVaAFWAFWAFW4NdX4P8BtDKrViLyG3EAAAAASUVORK5CYII=

     

     

     

     

    Classified - Confidential

    From: Moore, Meredith Kaye <mkm0078@illinois.edu>
    Sent: Monday, October 3, 2022 12:14 PM
    To: Jake Slager <jakeslager@coca-cola.com>
    Cc: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
    Subject: RE: Illinois Sustainability Campaign Messaging

     

    Hi Jake,

     

    Hope you had a great weekend. Quick question – I seem to remember that Athletics received their own shipment of the recycling/trash sets. On campus, we received 60 (30 for housing, 30 for F&S) and are wondering how many DIA received.

     

    We can talk about this on Wednesday, but could you give us an idea of how the “rebranding” process will work? Will all of the bins be replaced, or just a portion, with the new “Don’t Waste” messaging?

     

    Thanks!
    Meredith

     

    --------------------------------------------
    “There are a lot of dreamers – dreaming is very important, but it’s really the dreamer and the doer. You’ve got to be the doer.” –Will Steger  

    MEREDITH MOORE
    Sustainability Programs Manager 

    University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
    Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE)
    1101 W Peabody Drive (Suite 382), Urbana, IL, 61801
    217.333.0119 | mkm0078@illinois.edu
    www.sustainability.illinois.edu
     
    signature_2127019860

    Please consider the environment before printing out an email. Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act any written communication to or from university employees regarding university business is a public record and may be subject to public disclosure. 

  14. Inventorying boxes in residential and non-residential locations

    Associated Project(s): 
    Single-Use Mask (PPE) Recycling [ARCHIVED]

    Attached files highlight the boxes that were found at each location where boxes were ogirinally deployed, and their filled status. Based on this survey, a decision will be made regarding the PPE mask recycling program

    Attached Files: 

  15. F&S, ISTC, iSEE, and Illini Union meet to discuss the first steps of the waste characterization study

    Associated Project(s): 
    Waste Stream Characterization Study Phase 3

    From: Scrogum, Joy Joann <jscrogum@illinois.edu>
    Sent: Friday, September 30, 2022 4:18 PM
    To: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
    Cc: Samaras, Zach <zsamaras@illinois.edu>; Feher, Savannah <sfeher@illinois.edu>; Vogel, Kealie Diann <kdvogel2@illinois.edu>; Varney, Peter W <pvarney@illinois.edu>
    Subject: Information available in the "UC Campus Waste Audit" group on Teams

     

    Daphne, thanks for taking the time to speak with our ISTC team this afternoon.

     

    As noted, the previous two UIUC building waste characterization reports (file names "Baseline_Waste_Stream_Characterization_Study_Final_Report" and "Waste characterization phase 2") are in the “Files” section of the “UC Campus Waste Audit” group on teams, so you can see the buildings previously audited and consider whether to include those in the new study for some temporal comparison.

     

    The document “Waste Audit Activity Zone Summary” provides links to our recent work with Northwestern University, the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and Missouri State University (MSU). When this document was originally added to Teams, the MSU plan had not yet been published, but it was released this month, so I’ve updated the file with a link to that plan. This summary document shows the activity zones defined at each university, the number of representative buildings analyzed within each zone, and refers to the specific pages within each respective plan in which activity zones are discussed. For all three of these campuses, ISTC conducted waste characterizations using the activity zone approach, summarized current waste management practices, and collected feedback from focus groups (we conducted the focus group sessions for Northwestern an UIC, but MSU conducted their own sessions virtually during the pandemic). We then worked with campus personnel to consider the data collected, along with their waste reduction and diversion goals, and formulated recommended strategies to reach those goals as part of waste management plans.

     

    Beyond focus group sessions, in past studies we’ve also collected feedback from conversations during building walkthroughs, as part of more informal conversations, and from surveys like the UIUC building occupant survey (also on Teams). We’re happy to work with you to find the right balance of approaches for your purposes. The questions from the previous building occupant survey, for example, need not be presented as part of a survey this time around. Perhaps those could be among the questions for discussion within in-person focus groups.

     

    Also within the files on Teams is a copy of an email in which I described the activity zone approach and put forth some possible zones for the UIUC campus, along with some campus buildings that might fall within them (including buildings that were part of previous waste characterizations).

     

    So, take some time to consider all of this material, and let me know some days/times that would work for your schedule later in October or early November to work with ISTC on the definition of activity zones, specific buildings to include, and whether/how to incorporate stakeholder engagement in ISTC’s proposal. We look forward to working with you!

     

    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
     

    Attached Files: 

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