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  1. Land & Water iCAP Team October 2023 Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Meadow at Orchard Downs
    Plantings at Dorner Drive Retention Pond
    Green Roof on Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics Building (formerly called Foreign Language Building)
    Cover Crops on South Farms
    Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
    Land and Water iCAP Team

    The Land & Water iCAP team met on Teams from 1-2 PM on Friday, October 6th. The team reviewed the iCAP Land & Water objectives, discussed area/projects of focus for the year, and brainstormed next steps in relation to projects that are underway. Meeting minutes are attached.

    Attached Files: 

  3. Sustainability tour route

    Associated Project(s): 
    Walking Tours and Events
    Offer Tours of Sustainability Facilities

    Hey Dave,

     

    Can I get a copy of the route for our sustainability tour?  I’m going to touch base with Morgan and pick up on some talking points.  You had said you would send that route over, but I am not finding it yet.

     

    Thanks!

    Brent.

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

    Brent,

     

    Here is the draft as it stands. The second page is my start at partially populating some talking points, but change whatever you see fit.

     

    FYI, we have an hour of float built into our schedule after the tour, so we can potentially stop by Red Oak on the way back to the Union.

     

    Dave

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

    Hi Morgan,

     

    Looks like this is the list of things we will drive past.  I know we are stopping at Solar Farm 1, plus the Solar Decathlon house, and Gable House & Biomass Generator, with a potential stop at the red oak rain garden.  I know a little about a lot of these, but I would appreciate some time to chat about some talking points here.  I know you can do this off the top of your head.  This should be interesting for me.  I just talked to Dave and he said someone is going to meet us at the 3 stops.  That’s great.  I just need to fill in the other points along the tour.  I do feel better about that, but would still love a short chat.

     

    😊

     

    The best time for me to talk is probably sometime late Saturday afternoon.  I hope to ride a 100 miles or so tomorrow am.  Then I should be free Sunday afternoon as well.   Gayle is taking the kids up north as her sister is in town.  I hope to catch up on some stuff then. 

     

    Thanks!

    Brent.

    Attached Files: 

  4. SSC applications submitted in fall 2023

    Associated Project(s): 
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)
    Increase Bicycle Use

    Hi Morgan and Lisa,

     

    This fall I have submitted two SSC step-1 applications:

    1. Shipping containers for bicycle storage - $85,000
    2. Purchase and Installation of bike shelter - $250,000

     

    See attached the application. Thank you,
    Sarthak

    Attached Files: 

  5. Education iCAP Team October 2023 Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability Internship Program
    Sustainability in Study Abroad
    Sustainability at Career Fairs
    Education iCAP Team
    Sustainability Gen-Ed Requirement

    The Education iCAP team met on Teams from 1-2 PM on Thursday, October 5th. The team reviewed the iCAP Education objectives, discussed area/projects of focus for the year, and brainstormed next steps in relation to projects that are underway. Meeting minutes are attached.

    Attached Files: 

  6. Landfill tonnage for FY22 and FY23

    Associated Project(s): 
    Measure Waste Levels in Dumpsters [ARCHIVED]

    Hi Daphne,

     

    My name is Miriam Keep, and I am the new Sustainability Programs Coordinator with iSEE. I’m working with the iSEE team to complete the annual reporting of GHG emissions for campus, and we need to report landfill tonnage for FY22 and FY 23. Could you provide these numbers? Please let me know if you have any questions, and thank you!

     

    Best,

    Miriam

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

    Hi Daphne,

     

    I hope you are doing well. I wanted to follow up and see if you could provide the landfill tonnage data. If you have any questions about this request I would be happy to try to find more information about what is needed.

     

    Thanks,

    Miriam

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

     

    Hi Miriam,

     

    Thanks for your follow up on this, my apologies for the delay! Please see the data below:

    • FY22: 5,024.25 tons
    • FY23: 5,846.83 tons

     

    I am curious what was written in for FY21 and FY20 – do you have those numbers?

     

    Thank you,

    Daphne

  7. Illinois Green Infrastructure & Erosion Control Conference

    Associated Project(s): 
    Green Infrastructure Conference

    The following is an email sent by Betsy Ligget Richardson:

    Hello everyone, hope you are doing well!

    I am writing to share information regarding an upcoming stormwater conference on October 24th at the iHotel to see if you are interested in attending and if you could share the attached flyer with your staff and colleagues. The Illinois Green Infrastructure & Erosion Control Conference is hosted by the Champaign County Stormwater Partnership which the University, Facilities & Services, Safety & Compliance is a member.

     

    The conference presenters this year are from the University of Illinois, the University of Illinois Extension Office, Penn State and the City of Peoria. We will also have a tour at Crystal Lake Park in Urbana following the presentations (MTD transportation available). 5 PDHs will be provided, along with breakfast and lunch!

     

    We do not currently have a high registration count and hope to get more attendees registered this week to support our presenters. We have promoted a soft close registration date on October 10th . Registration will still be open after that, but we are asking attendees to register by Tuesday for the food order and table set up information needed.

     

    Please sign up and share. Thanks in advance!

    https://www.ccstormwater.org/2023-conference.html

    Betsy

    Attached Files: 

  11. N-G Mailbag question: Output vs. expectations for UI solar farms

    Associated Project(s): 
    Solar Farm 1.0
    Solar Farm 2.0

    Hi, Steve. A News-Gazette Mailbag question for you:

     

    "The University of Illinois has 2 large solar farms near Savoy.  How are they doing compared to expectations?  What percentage of the UofI power do they provide?  Are there any plans for more? If so ... where and when will they be built?"

     

     

    (I rooted around a bit on the F&S energy/utility pages, and found a lot of info. Figured I'd best ask you, though, for the most current data.)

     

     

    Thank you,

    KR

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

    Hi Morgan/Mike/Tony,

     

    Do we have updated FY23 data that can be shared to answer the question about current output of both arrays as it relates to expected performance and the percentage of electrical demand?

     

    A similar question was answered in March 22', please see attached. I have addressed the second part with the below statement previously (let me know if there is any update is needed there as well or if that can be used again).

     

    The university is evaluating the potential procurement of additional clean energy through an off-campus virtual power purchase agreement to meet Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) goals.

     

    I would like to finalize the information and reply by Wednesday, October 4. Thanks for your help with this.

     

    Steve B.

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

    Steve,

     

    Here is the information being requested.  I would like Rob to have a chance to comment on the last sentence before you respond.

     

    Both Solar Farms are performing as expected.  Solar Farm 2.0 produced 99% of the vendor’s guaranteed production in the first two years of operation.  Solar Farm 1.0 produced 96% of estimated production over a two year period.  In FY23 the solar production was 6.6% of the campus electricity demand.  The University is considering another solar project, but the location and timing have not been determined yet.

     

    Best,

     

    Tony

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

    I would suggest that the final sentence state something such as: “While there are no immediate plans to add further solar capacity to the system, the University continues to evaluate and consider a multitude of carbon neutral energy solutions that would provide benefit to the Universities energy portfolio, including additional solar array capacity.”

    Rob Roman

  12. Resilience iCAP Team Invitation

    Associated Project(s): 
    Resilience iCAP Team

    Dear Carrie,

     

    Yilan Xu and Madhu Khanna shared your name with me. I am the Associate Director of Campus Sustainability for the Institute for Sustainability, Energy and the Environment (iSEE), and I coordinate implementation of the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) with colleagues at iSEE and F&S. I am writing today to invite you to join the Resilience iCAP Team.

     

    The Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) outlines a path for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to achieve carbon neutrality as soon as possible, and no later than 2050, and to work with our local communities to build resilience to climate change. There are 56 specific SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based) objectives crafted in pursuit of this goal, grouped into eight key themes: Energy, Transportation, Land & Water, Zero Waste, Education, Engagement,  Resilience, and Implementation. You can find the list of objectives for all themes here.

     

    The iCAP teams are organized around these seven themes and comprised of students, faculty, staff, and a paid student clerk who work together to advocate for the advancement of the iCAP objectives. The Resilience iCAP Team specifically works to bring campus and the surrounding communities (Champaign, Urbana, Savoy) together to address what must be done to prepare for vulnerabilities to extreme weather and other results of climate change. Given your experience in community-level disaster preparedness and mitigation planning, we think you would be an excellent resource for the Resilience Team.

     

    Teams meet at least once per month during the academic year to develop recommendations aimed at advancing the iCAP objectives, which are then reviewed by the iCAP Working Group, co-chaired by Morgan White and myself. Recommendations that are positively reviewed by the iWG are either transmitted to units for implementation or brought to the Sustainability Council for further review. The role of staff members on teams is to share ideas and knowledge, and assist with information gathering in support of campus sustainability goals. Paid student clerks are responsible for logistics, including scheduling meetings, working with the team chair to set the agenda for meetings, note-taking, and reporting.

     

    If you have any questions or would like to discuss this opportunity further, please let me know. I look forward to your response!

     

    Best,

     

    Jennifer

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

    Jennifer-

     

    Are the meetings in person or virtual?  I would love to participate, but not sure I can be on campus every month.  I current serve on the ECOP(Extension Community of Practice) Program Area Team (PAT) for climate change.  This national Extension initiative is looking at broader research and programming goals, but there seems to be a good synergy between the two. If you could give me a little more information on when and how the team meets, I would like to be involved.

     

    Carrie

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

    Carrie,

     

    The team meets virtually and the first meeting is this Friday, October 6, at 9 AM on Teams. Morgan White is serving as the chair, Mirim Keep (iSEE) is the vice-chair, and Claire Keating is the student clerk. I copied Claire so that she can share the details for the upcoming meeting in the event that you are able to attend.

     

    It would be great to have you on-board!

     

    Best wishes,

     

    Jennifer

  14. Weekly Update: Abandoned bicycles, new staff

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

    All, Big news of last week is the abandoned bikes. Bike Project folk and I were able to take an inventory of the bikes that are available and given the number of bikes—fewest in my tenure!—we are not partnering with Working Bikes this year. I communicated as much last week and no hard feelings. If anything, they’re happy to hear we have less bike waste—and they would know, they’ve got a 3 story building full of bikes.

    This week we have a couple new staff members starting here. We’ll do some off-hours training with them.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 40
    Sales: $1,030.50
    Memberships: 18 for $540

    Tires/tubes: 27 for $212

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Coordinator -- Campus Bike Center

  15. RE: fuel data from FY22 and FY23

    Associated Project(s): 
    Encourage Low-Emission Vehicles and Renewable Fuel Options

    Hi Pete,

     

    Please send us the fuel data for FY22 and FY23, so we can do the GHG emissions for campus.

     

    Thanks,

    Morgan

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

     

    Below is the fuel breakdown for FY22 and FY23.

     

     

    FY22

    		                  
     

    University Fleet

     
     

    Gasoline Fleet

    Diesel Fleet

    Natural Gas Fleet

    E85 Fleet

    B5 Fleet

    B20 Fleet

    B100

    Hydrogen

    Other Fleet Fuel

    Electric Fleet
     

    Gallons

    Gallons

    MMBtu

    Gallons

    Gallons

    Gallons

    Gallons

    MMBtu

    MMBtu

    kWh

    On Campus

    187308.7

     

     

    18418.62

    97890.86

     

     

     

     

     

    Off-Campus

    173365.1

     

     

    2291.97

    27045.24

    		          

    Total

    360,674

    		    

    20,711

    124,936

    		          

     

     

    FY23

    		                  
     

    University Fleet

     
     

    Gasoline Fleet

    Diesel Fleet

    Natural Gas Fleet

    E85 Fleet

    B5 Fleet

    B20 Fleet

    B100

    Hydrogen

    Other Fleet Fuel

    Electric Fleet
     

    Gallons

    Gallons

    MMBtu

    Gallons

    Gallons

    Gallons

    Gallons

    MMBtu

    MMBtu

    kWh

    On Campus

    204750.5

     

     

    18596.02

    104183.5

     

     

     

     

     

    Off-Campus

    155729

     

     

    302.632

    21519.5

    		          

    Total

    360,479

    		    

    18,899

    125,703

    		          

     

     

     

    Thank you

    Neil

  16. RE: Carbon credits

    Associated Project(s): 
    Utilize Carbon Credits

    Hi Jen and Morgan

     

    Susan has asked me to give a short (less than 10 min) presentation at the next CRAWG/RIN meeting on Oct 6 on carbon credits.

    Can you please send me the documentation you have recently created on the carbon credit history etc. I will start to put a few slides together and be in touch to discuss them with you.

     

    Thanks

    Madhu

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

    

    Hi Madhu,

     

    I asked Miriam to start putting this information into a single document. It is not something we have created yet, but we will work on it this week.

     

    Thanks,

    Jen

    ____________

    That is great. The key things I would like

    The spreadsheet showing the timeline of the amount of carbon credits sold and value

    A bit of history with second nature and ICAP to put on one slide 

    A graph with the data on carbon reductions achieved on campus through ICAP 

    A slide with key mechanisms through which we have achieved these reductions 

    I am thinking  to put max 8 to 10 sides together  with a couple of slides on the 101 of why markets for carbon credits are appealing  and the role for credits and offsets for as opportunities for campus 

     I will start a slide deck with this and share this week. In the meantime if Miriam could put this info together that would be really helpful.  

    Can we plan to meet next Monday for half hour to discuss the slides

    Thanks

    Madhu 

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

    Some specifics from Madhu (trailing email), and files I think will be helpful. Please focus on the following. Morgan, please weigh in on highlighted items and let me know if I missed anything.  - Jen

     

    The spreadsheet showing the timeline of the amount of carbon credits sold and value – see attached.

    A bit of history with second nature and ICAP to put on one slide – see attached

    A graph with the data on carbon reductions achieved on campus through ICAP – portal has this, but we haven’t reported GHGs for past two years, so it is incomplete. Morgan – is there a better place to find these data?

    A slide with key mechanisms through which we have achieved these reductions  - I think these are solar farms, geothermal projects, retrofitting, and other energy-related; Morgan please weigh in. Also, where can we find these data? 

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

    Hi Jen, Miriam, and Elizabeth,

     

    I’m reviewing Jen’s email below.  Here are my comments.

     

    1. The latest spreadsheet I have is attached.
      1. I updated it to reflect the receipt of the sales from the 1,000 sold in June. 
      2. I also updated the total for the end of FY23 in the portal at https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project/carbon-credit-purchasing-program-c2p2-second-nature.

     

    1. I agree the history in the campus MOU is the best resource for this.  There is more to the story, but it is kinda a convoluted mess that is probably not worth revisiting. (For example, there was an initial second nature MOU, then a revised version, then a new MOU with Second Nature…)

     

    1. If there is time, I suggest Miriam contact Second Nature to confirm the official GHG report options to use in SIMAP. Then she can run the SIMAP reports for the past years and confirm what we have officially submitted per their perspective. 
      1. This is NOT in the C2P2 perspective, but in the Carbon Commitment perspective. 
      2. The baseline year is 2008, so we should verify our reporting for FY08 through present.
      3. We collected the previously submitted GHG reports that were done with the excel file “campus carbon calculator”. They are here: https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project/greenhouse-gas-ghg-emission-reports.
      4. SIMAPs info is here: https://unhsimap.org/public/institution/193?show_years=goals_end&op=Change&graph_type=bar.

     

    1. With the Solar Farm 3.0 discussions in 2021, F&S put together the attached summary of emission reduction efforts.  I’ve been meaning to update it, but haven’t had a chance yet.  I think it has enough for the slides Madhu is requesting.  Don’t use the results from this word doc, as they are outdated.  Also, we lost some of the advantages when the pandemic pricing, clean energy jobs act, and war in the Ukraine impacted energy costs.

     

    Let me know if you have other questions.

     

    Thanks,

    Morgan

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

     

    Hi Morgan,

     

    I hope you had some time to rest today and are feeling better!

     

    Once you are back online, I wanted to follow up with a question on some figures from the Carbon Credits Funding spreadsheet you shared. Madhu would like to include the total revenue from carbon credit sales in her slides. She noted it looks like there may be discrepancies between different tabs in the spreadsheet. Looking at the latest spreadsheet you shared, “Carbon Credits Funding 20230927”, Jen and I noted there is one sale figure that seems to be inconsistent across tabs: the sale of 45,450 CCs to Bluesource @ $4.00/CC. In the attached spreadsheet, I’ve highlighted the relevant numbers in yellow. The first two tabs list the revenue for this sale as $183,981.60, but the third tab lists it as $181,800. I see that $181,800 is a direct calculation is 45,450*$4. I’m not sure where the slightly larger number came from. Do you have any idea, and do you know which figure we should use to calculate total revenue from CC sales?

     

    Thanks,

    Miriam
     

     

    Attached Files: 

  19. F&S Insider Article about Football Tailgating Event

    Associated Project(s): 
    Tailgate Recycling

    A recycling event was organized during the tailgate for football a game against Florida Atlantic University. A green recycling dumpster was placed in Lot 31, along with smaller bins in Grange Grove. More than 1,000 pounds of bottles and cans were successfully recycled by using limited-edition orange Block-I t-shirts as incentive for people to dispose of their recyclables in the appropriate bins. The goal of events like this is to gain a better understanding of how waste is produced and to be able to provide better recycling infrastructure for tailgaters. 

    Attached Files: 

  20. Unclaimed abandoned bicycles donated to the Campus Bike Center

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

    Following the deadline day to claim impounded bicycles, Sarthak Prasad reached out to Jake Benjamin, campus bike center coordinator, to inform that these bicycles are now considered donated to the Campus Bike Center and the Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign. See the email below:

    Hi Jake,

    The deadline to claim impounded bicycles have passed, so you can start checking the bicycles in the barn now. These bicycles are now considered donated to the Campus Bike Center and the Bike Project. I have the serial number information for almost all of those bicycles in the spreadsheet as well. We had about 240ish bicycles to start with and 24 bicycles were returned this year.

    Thank you,

    Sarthak

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