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  1. Week 2 - Water Reduction Challenge

    Associated Project(s): 
    Water Reduction Challenge

    Text copied from email

    Subject: Week 2 - Water Reduction Challenge

    Good evening!

     

    Congratulations on finishing the first week of the Water Reduction Challenge! How did it go? Did you find yourself thinking about how much water you use on a daily basis? As part of the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP), we think about water usage quite a bit. Objective 4.1 in the iCAP is to "reduce potable water consumption to 721,500 kgal/year by the fiscal year 2024, which is a reduction of 45% from the fiscal year 2008 baseline.”

     

    We hope that you have found it insightful to reflect on your water-related habits each day and that you are looking forward to seeing yourself decrease your water use over the next three weeks. Going into week 2, use what you learned in week 1 to increase your point total and incorporate more environmentally-friendly actions. If you have not already done so, please submit your Week 1 Google Form with an uploaded point grid by Tuesday, April 11th. 

     

    This week, we’re going to focus on reducing our water footprints in the bathroom. Did you know that the bathroom is the largest usage of indoor water; approximately 75% of the total amount of water in a household is typically used in the bathroom! Think about it - a half-filled bathtub holds about 50 gallons of water. You can additionally save water and energy by cutting back on hot water. Learn more about reducing bathroom water use in this week’s tips attached to this message; for example, focus on keeping shower length to a minimum (less than 5 minutes) and rewearing clothes instead of washing them right away. What other tips do you have for reducing water in the bathroom? 

     

    Continue to keep track of your points this week and submit your Week 2 Google Form and grid (attached) by Tuesday, April 19th. As a reminder, you can join or start tracking your water at any point in the month. For each submission at the end of the week, you’ll be entered into a raffle for sustainability prizes!

     

    As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or would like to share how the challenge is going for you, please email us. Don't tap out...have a great water-saving week!

     

    Jenna Schaefer (iSEE intern) and Meredith Moore (iSEE Sustainability Programs Manager)

    Attached Files: 

  2. Water Reduction Challenge Kickoff

    Associated Project(s): 
    Water Reduction Challenge

    Text Copied from email

    Subject: Welcome to the Water Reduction Challenge!

    Good evening! 

     

    It is April 4th which means Earth Month is officially kicked off, and iSEE’s Water Reduction Challenge has begun! Thank you, and congratulations, for signing up for the challenge and welcome to the community! 

     

    The challenge will take place from April 4th to April 30th. Throughout the month, the goal is to learn about your own water use and what steps can be taken to reduce this amount. We hope that you will be more conscious of how much water you use each day with newfound tools to continue in your water reduction journey!

     

    Each day, track the amount of water you directly and indirectly use based on the products/actions defined on the predetermined points sheet (attached). For each water-intensive action, you lose points, and for each sustainable action, you earn points. For example, you will lose points for taking a long shower (longer than 5 minutes), but earn points by wearing clothes multiple times without washing. The goal is to earn as many points as possible, but the most important goal is to become more cognizant of your daily water habits and understand how to incorporate more water-conscious behaviors into your lifestyle. 

     

    Start keeping track on Monday, April 4; attached is the week 1 grid to record your points. We suggest keeping track of your actions throughout the day using a note on your phone or a piece of scratch paper, and then fill out the grid at the end of each day. Each week, we will send resources, tools, and tips to check in and help guide your experience; at any time, feel free to reach out with questions, comments, or feedback on the challenge.

     

    Please submit your point grids at the end of each week by the following Tuesday. For week 1 of the challenge (April 4-10), fill out this form and upload your grid by Tuesday, April 12. Each week you participate and submit your grid, you will be entered into a raffle for sustainability prizes!

     

    We are so excited that you have taken a significant step in managing your water usage. Please let us know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns at any point throughout the challenge! If you know anyone else who may be interested in challenging themselves to use less water, please pass this along and have them fill out this form to get involved and start accumulating tips and resources to aid in the process. Anyone and everyone are encouraged to join the challenge at any point in the month.

     

    Check out the attached guide with tips to help you get started in your water reduction journey, and be sure to thoroughly read the point system document. We are so excited to get started, and we hope you are too! Have a great week, and be on the lookout for the Week 2 email next weekend.

     

    ~Jenna Schaefer (iSEE intern) and Meredith Moore (iSEE Sustainability Programs Manager)

     

    P.S. Have you signed up for the iSEE newsletter yet? If not, click here! This is the best place to stay in-the-know with the latest sustainability events, programs, and opportunities . . . such as the trash clean-up on April 8 from 3-4:30 PM - meet at Alma Mater and open to all! More details here.

    Attached Files: 

  3. May TED Talk: Eco-Edition Series - Bikes!

    Associated Project(s): 
    TED Talk: Eco Edition Series [ARCHIVED]

    The May TED Talk: Eco-Edition event will be held on 5/31 from 6-7 PM. It is hosted by our very own Tyler Swanson, an incoming senior and the clerk for the Energy and Transportation iCAP Teams.

    Tyler will present a pre-recorded TED Talk by Adam Stones, “How Cycling Can Transform Places” followed by a guided discussion. The semester may be over, but this is a great opportunity to connect with each other in a casual, no-pressure setting. Sign up here to receive the Zoom link: https://illinois.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0rc-upqzkoG91isKwq2w-20GAxOU_qS4HM

    Feel free to pass this along to anyone who may be interested!

  4. Illini Union Events, Reusable Water Bottles

    Associated Project(s): 
    Zero Waste Messaging Campaign
    Reduce Single-Use Plastics

    In the Illini Union event marketing, they provide information about water bottle refilling stations that are near the event. This is apart of their messaging campaign to reduce single use plastic in campus events. Illini Union does not have a policy against providing single use water bottles, but encourages event attendees to bring their own reusable water bottles.

  7. ArcGIS Field Maps application to be used for tagging abandoned bicycles

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

    Sarthak Prasad worked with Chad Kupferschmid, from F&S FIR, to develop an electric way to tag bicycles on campus and mark them on a GIS based map. Chad developed the Field Maps application for this project. We would use it in three phases:

    Phase 1: Initial tagging of the bicycles - Only Tag ID and Comments section available

    Phase 2: Confirming the abandoned bicycles - New field (Abandoned or not) would be available

    Phase 3: Inventory of the impounded bicycles - Once confirmed, the Parking department would remove the bicycle and transport them to the Round Barns, where Sarthak Prasad along with his intern will inventory all the impounded bicycles. During this phase, more fields - Make/model information, Bike Registration information, Serial Number information, pictures, etc. would be available

    This app was ready for us to use by the end of May

  9. Sarthak met with Gabe Lewis to talk about Electric Vehicles and EV charging

    Associated Project(s): 
    Increase use of EVs and other Alternative Service Vehicles
    Use Electric Vehicles (EV)
    Install Public Use Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Stations

    On May 24, Sarthak Prasad met with Gabe Lewis to talk about EVs. Gabe is the Transportation Planner at the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission (CCRPC) and he currently leads the RPC Tech Committee which consists of 7 members – Champaign, Urbana, Savoy, Rantoul, St. Joseph, Mahomet, and Champaign County. Most recently, they had been talking about the feasibility of EVs in urban as well as the rural areas in the county.

    We talked about the US DOT's Charging Forward, an EV toolkit, that is primarily focused on EV Charging in the rural areas: https://www.transportation.gov/rural/ev/toolkit

    We also talked about Clean City Coalition. State of Illinois does not have a coalition, but Chicago has one and we could potentially reach out to them: https://cleancities.energy.gov/coalitions/

    https://cleancities.energy.gov/coalitions/chicago

    Also discussed the federal funding available through National EV Infrastructure (NEVI), Carbon Reduction Program (CRP), State and Local Planning for Energy (https://maps.nrel.gov/slope/), and EV Pro Lite (https://afdc.energy.gov/evi-pro-lite)

  11. Lighting Retrofits are important - article in Popular Science

    Associated Project(s): 
    Lighting Conservation Projects
    Provide Centralized Communication about Sustainability
    Centralized Energy Efficiency Efforts

    “Incandescent bulbs use more energy and produce more heat due to their engineering designs,” says Paul Foote, energy efficiency and conservation specialist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It’s important to shift to more energy-efficient alternatives to reduce the environmental impacts of incandescent bulbs from the utilization of fossil fuels for electricity, he added.

    By mandating a minimum light output or lumens per watt, manufacturers make sure all bulbs can effectively light up a room, which ensures that consumers will avoid overusing energy with substandard bulbs to get the same level of brightness, says Foote. “When upgrading from incandescent bulbs to LEDs, we have noticed a 60 percent decrease in energy consumption on average, and therefore energy cost avoidance has reduced our utility bill by similar amounts for lighting,” he adds.

    <--break->Popular Science interviewed Paul Foote at F&S as part of their article about the importance of lighting retrofits. the full article is available online at https://www.popsci.com/environment/light-bulbs-sustainability-energy/. 

     

     

     

  17. Suggestion for Reducing Plastic Waste

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability Council

    From: Fraterrigo, Jennifer M <jmf at illinois.edu>
    Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2022 5:27 PM
    To: Brown Young, Danita M <dbyoung at illinois.edu>
    Cc: Moore, Meredith Kaye <mkm0078 at illinois.edu>; White, Morgan <mbwhite at illinois.edu>
    Subject: swag for new students

     

    Dear Vice Chancellor Young,

     

    I am writing to follow up about reducing plastic waste and how we might accomplish that through the swag new students receive when they arrive on campus. At the Sustainability Council meeting last week, you mentioned that students are given water bottles, reusable straws and utensils, which is great! We wanted to explore with you the possibility of giving students a coupon that could be redeemed for a water bottle of their choosing instead of giving them a standard water bottle. The reason is that we think students might value a bottle more if they select it rather than if they are given a standard bottle.

     

    Thanks for considering it and looking forward to hearing from you.

     

    Sincerely,

    Jennifer

    ____

     

    Jennifer Fraterrigo (she/her)

    iSEE Associate Director for Campus Sustainability and
    Professor of Landscape and Ecosystem Ecology
    Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences

    University of Illinois

    W-423 Turner Hall, 1102 S. Goodwin Ave.

    Urbana, IL 61801

    jmf at illinois.edu
    ph 217-333-9428

    https://fraterrigolab.nres.illinois.edu/

  18. Low-Carbon Concrete Information

    Associated Project(s): 
    Green Infrastructure

    The production of concrete is responsible for 8% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. The articles below detail research about a low carbon concrete formula which reduces the carbon footprint by 40%. UIUC Professors, including Professor Lav Varshney and Professor Nishant Garg, have been involved in the development of this technology.

    https://www.npr.org/2022/05/18/1099680622/can-a-new-concrete-mixture-hel...

    https://theconstructionbroadsheet.com/meta-sees-success-with-lowcarbon-c...

    https://csl.illinois.edu/news/46838

     

  19. Sustainability Council Meeting 5-12-22

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability Council

    The Sustainability Council met on 5-12-22 and discussed the following agenda. The meeting slides and minutes are attached.

    Agenda:

    •Introductions

    •Sustainable Land Management Plan

    •Waste Reduction Strategies

    •Updates

    • Campus Landscape Master Plan
    • Sustainability in Gen Ed requirements
    • STARS Shifting to Platinum
    • Student Groups

    •Old business

    Attached Files: 

  20. meeting with F&S and iSEE about Zero Waste programs

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

    iSEE and F&S met to discuss commodity recyclables at F&S and the interest in looking at getting Coke to buy our PET, the Zero Waste messaging campaign and potential collaboration with Coke on the messaging for our Use the Bin campaign.  Also, Coke offers a tailgate package that may be helpful in our conversations about increasing recycling at athletic events.

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