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  9. Sustainability Week 2011 website

    Associated Project(s): 
    Center for a Sustainable Environment (CSE) [ARCHIVED]

    2011 Sustainability Week
    November 1-4

    The Office of Sustainability will be hosting the 2011 Sustainability Week on November 1-4. There will be a variety of exciting campus and community events planned throughout the week.

    There will be a poster session on November 1-3 from 12-6pm at the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC) Winter Garden, 201 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign. We invite University of Illinois faculty, staff, and students working on sustainability education, research, outreach, and operations to present a poster or art display at this open session.

    There is no charge to present and you do not need to staff your poster during the session. We sincerely hope you will participate this year.

    sustainabilityWeek_colorweblarge.jpgTuesday, November 1st:

    10am-2pm: Free Bike Repair: Volunteers will be on hand to evaluate your bike and do simple maintenance. North of Henry Admin Building on the Quad

    12pm: Garden walk with Diane Anderson, Research and Education Specialist in Crop Sciences and Michele Guerra, Director of Wellness Center: The walk features Red Oak Rain Garden, Illini Grove, Idea Garden, Sunken (Hartley) Garden, Japan House Gardens, new Arboretum trails.The group will meet at the main entrance of the Campus Recreation Center East Building, 1102 W. Gregory Drive.

    12-6pm: Sustainability Poster & Art session: ARC Winter Garden, 201 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign

    4-6pm: Sustainable Student Farmer's Market: The farmer's market will provide fall produce for sale from our student farm on the University of Illinois campus. ARC Winter Garden, 201 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign

    6pm: Recyclables Costume Contest: Use your imagination and come up with a homemade costume out of recyclable materials. Prizes will be awarded. Refreshments following. ARC Winter Garden, 201 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign

    6:30pm: Latrelle Bright, Director, performer and arts advocate in the Department of Theatre will be performing a solo performance piece "matter": Graduate Dance Center, East Art Annex 2, 1206 W. Peabody Drive, Urbana

     

    Wednesday, November 2nd:

    12-6pm: Sustainability Poster & Art session: ARC Winter Garden, 201 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign

    1:30-3:30pm: "iCAP Forum" open house: A review and progress report of the University's Climate Action Plan, originally signed May 2010. Participants will be able to provide feedback, suggestions, and comments. Illini Union, 1401 W. Green Street, Urbana, Rooms B&C

    4pm: Quad walk with Chancellor Wise: The walk will feature sustainability projects on the quad.Michele Guerra, Director of the Wellness Center will be leading the walk. The group will meet outside at the south entrance of the Illini Union, 1401 W. Green Street, Urbana.*This is an “approved event” for civil service employees.  Employees may attend, without loss of pay or having to charge a benefit, with prior supervisory approval and operations permitting.*

    6:30-9:30pm: CyclingSavvy traffic cycling course with Gary Cziko and Carl Stewart: ARC Auditorium, 201 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign


    Thursday, November 3rd:

    11am-1pm: Sustainable Student Farmer's Market: The farmer's market will provide fall produce for sale from our student farm on the University of Illinois campus. 57 North, Ikenberry Dining Hall, 301 E. Gregory Drive, Champaign

    *Bookstore remote sales stations selling books related to sustainability

    12-6pm: Sustainability Poster & Art session: ARC Winter Garden, 201 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign

    1-3pm: Facilities & Services presentations about Utility Rates, Net-Zero Buildings, and Campus Planning: Illini Union, 1401 W. Green Street, Urbana, Room B

    4-5:30pm: Green Career Panel with Chris Pyke, Vice President Research at USGBC.  Join Chris and other professionals in the green industry to discuss recent and future trends in this growing career path.  Other participants include: Bart Hagston, Environmental Sustainability Manager at City of Urbana, Lacey Rains Lowe, Planner at City of Champaign, Wayne Wargo, Site Director at Abbott Nutrition, and Cassie Carroll at Illinois Green Business Association: Asian American Cultural Center, 1210 W. Nevada Street, Urbana

    4:30-8pm: Dining Services 8th Annual Chef's Challenge: This year’s event will be a mystery box theme featuring proteins provided by the Meat Sciences Lab.  They will also be providing a pantry to each team to cook with featuring local products.  There will be six teams competing from Catering, PAR, IKE, LAR, ISR, and Busey.  Each team consists of a chef/coach and two full time dining employees.Ikenberry Dining Hall multipurpose room, 301 E. Gregory Drive, Champaign

    7pm: Chris Pyke, Vice President Research, U.S. Green Building Council: “Accelerating Green Building Market Transformation with Information Technology" will be speaking at Newmark Hall, room 1310, Stoughten Street, Urbana ** Chris Pyke is part of the Sustainable Innovations Seminar Series, a collaboration between the University of Illinois and ERDC-CERL-CASI**:

    Friday, November 4th:

    2:30-3:30pm: Students Sustainability Chat with Chancellor Wise: As part of the Chancellor’s listening and learning tour the sustainability related RSO’s have been invited to give short presentations.  There will also be time for questions and answers. University YMCA, Latzer Hall


    Shoe Donation:
    The ARC and CRCE will be collecting shoes throughout the week to donate to local charities. Please stop by one of the locations below.

    ARC - 201 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign, IL 
    CRCE - 1102 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 


    We look forward to seeing you at Sustainability Week!

     

    Co-sponsored by: Campus Recreation, Facilities & Services, Illini Union, University Housing, and the Wellness Center.

  10. draft charge letter for teams

    Associated Project(s): 
    Weatherization of Small Campus Buildings [ARCHIVED]

    see attached first draft

    Also Morgan,
    I forgot to copy you for a couple e-mails with Eva Sweeney. We just met today at 1pm, she had some good input. The most important was probably that the lighting retrofit project has already done lighting assessments for all the buildings on campus, she said she can send them to me once I let her know what buildings we were planning on doing. I guess they are upgrading all flourescents from T-12 to T-8 bulbs. So for the sake of not duplicating information we could remove checklist items: count total number of lights, and note wattage used by each light. But she did suggest looking at exterior lighting: if they are working, if they are bright enough, if there are dark areas that require more lighting (for safety), and what type of lighting it is. She also suggested to think about where occupancy sensors could be used.

    I'm going to meet with Dean at 2:30 today to go over the checklist again as well.

    Attached Files: 

  13. to do list for Tom

    Associated Project(s): 
    Weatherization of Small Campus Buildings [ARCHIVED]

    Hi Tom,

    Amy Allen will be our contact with the SSC this year.  She and I are sitting in my office, and sending you this email about first steps. Please do the following, and let us know if you have questions.

    1)      Summarize the history from last year.  DUE 9/12/11

    a.       Ask James Hoffer to give you the contact information from each of the five teams last year.

    b.      Ask James for the documentation of what they were told to accomplish for the $500. - There is a concern that the work completed was not the work requested, and therefore the funding is not approved yet.  If we can get details of what James told the groups they had to do for the funds, then we could compare their final reports with the expectations.

    c.       Ask James for the copies of their final submittals. - The actual reports from the teams may have had additional information, not just what was on the small excel files I have seen.  Please get a copy of those excel files, and any other materials the teams provided to James last spring.  Did they use the sample assessment form from the Training Manual?

    d.      Make a list of all the buildings they did, and note if any of them do not need additional data gathering.

    e.      Write a brief opinion, based on your data gathering: did the teams do what they were supposed to do for the money?

    2)      Finalize the to do items for each team for each building.  Write a charge letter for the teams.  DUE 9/30/11 - but get a draft by 9/19/11

    a.       Take the to-do list you created from James' manual, with Dean's notes about the F&S shop that would handle it.  Remove the items that
    are not on our list of selected items to review.

    b.      This is the list of selected items to review, per our notes this summer: "We're going with electronics, lighting, faucet aerators and running toilets, and weather stripping for student tasks."

    c.       Draft a charge letter for the teams, based on the to do list. We can talk about this more once you are ready to dig in.  Basically, this needs to document what the teams have to do in order to earn the money.  We agreed to give them $150 per building.

    3)      Solicit 4-7 teams. DUE 9/30/11 - for asking them in the first place...

    a.       Take a look at who worked with James last year, and ask them if they want to participate this year.  You can let them know that the process is being revised, and you can try to avoid the question about the funding from last year.

    b.      (If they want more details about last year's money, tell them you will ask me.  Then send me an email and copy them.)

    c.       Reach out to other RSOs that may want to participate this year. For starters there is a huge list of RSOs on the Illini Union's website. You can grab president emails from that site somehow, and send a big email, or you could pick and choose RSO's that you think would be interested.  Amy can also give you suggestions.

    d.      Draft an email explaining this opportunity.  Amy, Dean, and I will review the email before you send it.

    We will have plenty more to do after this part.  We will need to hold a meeting with all the teams, Dean, Amy, you, and me.  We will need to identify which buildings each team will review, and a process for evaluating their reports such that they can be approved for the funding. We will need to get estimates of the costs, so the teams can prioritize the work to do based on the funding from Dean's office.

    It would be good to make a networked folder for all these materials, if James didn't already create one.  We really need more organization this
    time, and I have every confidence that you can take care of that. 

    Please send me and Amy your schedule.  We would also both like to be copied whenever you send any emails about this program.  Let us know if
    you have any questions!!!

    Thanks,
    Morgan
     

  16. SSC and F&S work to develop a conservation fund

    Associated Project(s): 
    Revolving Loan Fund (RLF)

    During the summer of 2011, the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) Chair, Suhail Barot, and the F&S Sustainability Coordinator, Morgan Johnston, worked with the Utilities and Energy Services Division of F&S to develop an energy conservation fund.  Discussions included topics such as:

    • source of initial funds
    • qualification requirements for projects
    • selection process for funding
    • resources needed to manage the fund and process

    One comment made by the Director of Utilities and Energy Services, Kent Reifsteck, was that this is a "fund for departments to access to allow them to implement energy conservation measures in order to take advantage of the Energy Incentive Program."  The incentive program was next step#2 from the Utilities Stewarding Excellence report. 

  17. Tom, Suhail, and Morgan met to discuss next steps

    Associated Project(s): 
    Weatherization of Small Campus Buildings [ARCHIVED]

    We're going with electronics, lighting, faucet aerators and running toilets, and weather stripping for student tasks.

    Right when I get back on campus, I'll contact you to get me started on getting set up at F&S. Then we'll finalize a plan, and start recruiting people early september. From mid september to mid October, I'll be doing a test run on a house to note how long it takes, and to familiarize myself with what needs to be done by other students. I'll spend a few days training them, and then they'll take from mid october to november to complete their jobs. In the meantime i'll meet with them weekly and give you and Dean updates. We'll have them do 1 house at a time to better track their work quality. Up to the final weeks of the semester they'll write reports and in the spring they'll do a presentation about the whole process and what not. They can earn up to $500 for good work.

    ~Tom

     

  20. Prairie Zone Signs Installed

    Associated Project(s): 
    Prairie Restoration at Florida & Orchard

    Signs have been installed at the prairie plot on the corner of Florida Avenue and Orchard Street. These signs announce the designation of this area as a Prairie Zone. The signs also list the benefits of planting native vegetation-- which increases the habitat for beneficial insects and wildlife, saves energy and reduces CO2 emissions by not using mowers, promotes sustainable landscapes and beautifies the campus, and provides an environment for scientific observation. The signs are funded by the Student Sustainability Committee.

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