On September 19, UIUC sustainability representatives discussed the following:

• We need to talk with Coca-Cola about best practices from other schools regarding zero waste athletic events.

• Jen: coordinating a phone call with Ohio State University — think about how we (UIUC) can partner with other campus units:

  • Reusable containers, change behaviors through Dining Services folks. Will invite people from the Union. Jen will invite Daphne to this conversation.

• Daphne will be talking to a OSU about general waste practices and athletics specifically as part of the Big Ten & Friends Waste Affinity Survey being worked on.

• Zero Waste Events:

  • Think about our ability to compost.

  • We could do this for the Nov 14 zero waste game, and we could collaborate with the Recycling Center (Scott Tess) — organic waste (food and yard debris), not any compostable goods (no cutlery).

  • In the upcoming call with the Landscape Center, we will discuss the feasibility of this.

  • In the previous zero waste game, Student for Environmental Concerns stood around the bins and said to passersby where to put recycling

    • Will want to get volunteers for our event (iSEE can help with their sustainability network).

    • SSLC would be a great resource.

• Clerk for Zero Waste: how does Jen feel about glass recycling?

  • Shreya, Daphne could communicate how this is done

  • Glass: dining and catering services recycle

  • Glass: athletic events

    • Aaron: Spectra (vendor)

    • In order to be LEED Certified, the State Farm Center committed to recycling concessions

    • Aaron: the majority of what they buy comes in aluminum cans.

      • Specialty drinks like Kombucha may come in a glass bottle.

  • Waste audits: 8 buildings. Small amount of glass coming out of buildings that it isn’t an urgent issue. Glass going into landfill is wasteful, but not poisonous like plastic is

• Picnic table cell phone charging stations:

  • Request by Jake to put together a timeline.

• Recycling bins at DIA — Morgan is unclear about this:

  • 3 bins with Smith.

  • State Farm Center is in progress.

• Sponsorship fee coming from advertisements on campus:

  • If we increase their advertisements around campus, when do we need to start considering that they owe us more for this increased advertising on campus?

  • OSU contract: much larger fund. Their athletic revenue exceeds ours by a couple hundred million a year. They have a 100,000 person stadium, we are around 60,000. Limits our advertising revenue potential.

  • Usually other schools are happy to talk contracts with other schools, unless there is a NDA.

  • No NDA for us. Usually there is some level of confidentiality. Releasing agreement information depends on legal offices at universities.

• Aaron: interested in hearing from OSU, pursuit of refillable bottles. Riff with Coca-Cola? Ramifications of that, if we pursue at UIUC?

  • Reusable containers, glass, plastic, cardboard, continue to talk with Coke about this. Interns digging into research about the different materials. Coke has said plastic better for Earth than aluminum cans. Some sustainability advocates agree. Shantanu Pai had looked at plastic vs aluminum for UIUC campus and came up with: it’s not an easy answer. we could be looking long term, large scale. Our campus could identify the best option for people who don’t have reusable items

• Long term, could Coca-Cola support the dump and run in the spring? Coke pays employees to help with our efforts?

  • Aaron: sounds complicated. company hiring interns with a tie to procurement could be a concern, in terms of tying into a contract. Aaron could look into this more.

  • Shreya suggests volunteers from iSEE or zero waste team. Morgan explains that it’s during finals week, and is not ideal for students.

    • Staff and faculty are usually swamped with graduation events, etc.

• Dump and run: collaboration with Housing, iSEE.

• Illini Union: go through Dave Guth. Ask for student contacts available on Wednesday? Illini Union Board interested in Zero Waste Events (do they have a liaison for this?)

Next steps:

• Proposals for athletic events (based on the contact Jake has) — what’s worked and what hasn’t for other institutions.

• Acquiring materials for Don’t Waste campaign (digital signs).

• Does Jake have revised drawings for the picnic table charging stations?

• We are asking for support from Coca-Cola about our waste audit (September 30 meeting, internal, ISTC). We need a quote. Then we can go to Coca-Cola about financial support and human resources support.

• Coca-Cola said they would do a refreshed timeline for the year about initiatives for the Don’t Waste campaign— we are interested in seeing this soon!

• Clarification on the bin discussion. Are they replacing? Are they sending with the new colors? Is there something going on with providing bins to athletics?

A few members of the iCAP Engagement Team (Ann Witmer, Kathy Adams, Sophie Fox, Mika Lew, and Justin Holding) attended the midterm presentations for ADV 498, the Sandage Project. The course is currently taught by Shachar Meron.

Students that were apart of this 8-week Capstone course presented their brand audits and main suggestions to improve the engagement side of iSEE. The teams brought new and creative ideas to advertise sustainability efforts on campus.

Geothermal Urbana-Champaign Project updates:

• Geothermal Urbana-Champaign is an ongoing project with no end deadline.
• John Freitag is the Project Consultant.
• So far, 11 geothermal contracts have been signed for 47 tons of capacity.
• During the first year of the Geothermal Program, the Midwest Renewable Energy Association MREA was involved in helping to start and run the program. 

The marketing resources document of the project is attached.

Project update from Gabriel Harper-Hagen:

Over the course of the 2022 summer, Gabriel Harper-Hagen interviewed 45 members from the Champaign-Urbana region to understand more about the regions position on biodiversity. This process has created support for the plan from the community. Achievements and gaps were identified in the region along with barriers and recommendations to successfully integrate a biodiversity master plan. Photos of key aspects and sites were gathered. Strategies for achieving goals have been identified and are in the revising process. The plan is currently being constructed as a draft. Background research and information has been collected and used for support on the topic of urban biodiversity. 

WCIA conducted an interview with Sarthak Prasad at the Alma Mater station during the Light the Night event. This interview was published on September 15 and 16.

Final volunteer list was sent out to the station leads on September 15, 2022 at 12:24 pm. We had a total of 50 volunteers signed up for this event, however, 6-8 volunteers had to back out at the last minute.