Eco-Counter data for the month of July, 2025 collected on August 4, 2025.

This year, Bike to Work Day will be held on Wednesday, September 10th, 2025 from 7-10 am, with a rain date of Thursday, September 11th. Welcome station hosts will be available to provide snacks, drinks, handouts, and incentives to people who bike to work that day. Welcome stations will be located around the U of I campus, Savoy, Downtown Urbana, and Downtown Champaign. 

This project was called "Adopt Environmental Indicators to Guide Purchasing Standards" but the majority of discussions around it were referred to as "Environmentally Preferred Procurement (EPP)."  Therefore, the project title is changing herein to "Adopt Environmentally Preferred Procurement (EPP) Guidelines."

On July 25th, the bike ambassador and bike buddy questionnaire that was sent out June 28th and June 30th closed. In total, 12 responses were collected where one response was collected via a virtual interview. By examining various university, community, and cyclist organizations’ approaches to bike buddy and bike ambassador programs, the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign can better understand the benefits, challenges, and steps to implement such programs. Attached is a draft report and draft presentation that summarize the results of the research.

The proposed project for a solar array at the Speech and Hearing building was deemed canceled due to the design study which found the roof unable to hold the solar array, as well as an informal shade assessment which found that the panels would not get all day sun due to the existing buildings.

Please see below a conversation between Morgan White, Jen Frattergio, and Paul Foote regarding this project:

On January 26, 2024 Paul said:

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Hello Jen,

I hope you are having an enjoyable Friday!

I have a quick question, Marth, Aman and I did a quick assessment of the Speech and Hearing bldg. for rooftop solar array and found it to be a poor source for solar insolation due to the Psychology bldg.. shadowing over it for the morning hours and

then there are some trees that block summer sun to the north and west as well.

We are tasked with submitting an IL Green Fund (SSC) application for this project and I am wondering if there is a reason this location was chosen and/or can we select another location that may produce higher outputs from the sola array?

Here is the charge language: Develop and submit an application to IL Green Fund (SSC) for rooftop Solar on Speech and Hearing Sciences Building in collaboration with stakeholders.

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Jen forwarded the inquiry to Morgan White and Stacey DeLorenzo:

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Hi Morgan and Stacey,

See below for a question from Paul and the Energy Team.

Morgan, you had suggested the team apply for funding from the IL Green Fund (SSC) for rooftop solar on the Speech and Hearing Sciences Building. What was the reasoning behind this recommendation? Is a tool used or an analysis done to identify suitable buildings for installations?

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Morgan replied:

Hi Jen,

Just to close the loop on this old question from 1.5 years ago…  There was an analysis of large roofs that could potentially be retrofitted with solar.  Many of the large roofs are made with gypsum board which is not strong enough for panels, and the remainder would require a structural analysis.  Someone said the Speech and Hearing Sciences Building was retrofitted with a different lower-weight type of insulation which should make it viable to handle the weight of solar panels.  We did an in-house assessment with F&S Design Services, and it was found that the roof could hold the weight of the panels.  Then the Student Sustainability Committee funded a full design, which was completed and is on the iCAP Portal / in F&S records.  The iCAP Energy Team pointed out that the new high-rises around the facility block a lot of the sunlight, so the project was essentially cancelled.  I think it would still be helpful to do a shade study for the building, and potentially it could have a green roof on it.  It is very visible from the Hub (one of the highrises nearby), so it could be a visible sign of our climate action.

Today, members of the planning team attended the third meeting for Bike Month 2025. The team discussed sponsorships and advertising for Bike to Work Day as well as location and purchasing details for Light the Night. Attached is a document with agenda items and a document with roles & responsibilities.

All,

Pretty slow week, except for the last hour on Friday—fittingly enough. We’re working through scrapping the remaining low-quality bikes that are only good for the occasional component here and there.

We had staff in on Tue/Thurs to help ramp up for sale production and we’ve made some headway there. We’ll continue the trend this week. Total for sale bikes is, I think, 15-20 with more in the queue.

The numbers:

Visitors: 15
Sales: $316
Membership: 1  for $30
Tires/tubes: 14 for $129

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center

Emily is continuing to work on researching bicycle ambassador and bike buddy programs. As of July 18th, the form Emily sent out to various universities, municipalities, and organizations, on June 27th, has received 11 responses. Only 2 responses are from groups with bicycle ambassador programs and 2 from bike buddy programs. On July 17th, Emily interviewed a research specialist at the New Jersey Bike and Pedestrian Resource Center at Rutgers University about their former New Jersey Ambassadors in Motion Program. The call was very informational especially when it came to learning about the biggest successes from the program and the challenges that forced it to disband. Emily and the research specialist also discussed other bike programs and bike infrastructure at the university that were relevant to the New Jersey Ambassadors in Motion Program.  

While the form is open until July 25th, the current information that has been gathered can be useful for understanding potential events, applications, and procedures that students are responsive to in order to implement a bike buddy and bike ambassador program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Attached is a pdf of notes from the call and another pdf of notes from the form.

A survey of the bike repair stations on campus was completed on 7/17/2025. The survey found that several stations had faulty pumps and missing tools, problems which F&S will seek to fix. A PDF of the survey is attached to this project update.