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Projects Updates for Big Ten & Friends Sustainability

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  1. Big Ten & Friends - a very interesting presentation based on data anayltics

    Associated Project(s): 
    Big Ten & Friends Sustainability

    Rob and Tony,

     

    This topic was presented at the Big Ten & Friends Conference last week. This is a truncated version of the slide deck, shared with me by the presenter (Jayd Grossman - https://cpf.iu.edu/contact/people-directory/grossman-jayd.html). Not all slides were shared, due to the sensitive nature of the data analyzed. I was wondering, is the University performing similar analyses? If so, is that data available (and where can it be found)? The energy baseline and usage trends are very interesting, when considering long-term energy plans.

     

    Thank you,

     

    Sylvia Mcivor

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

    Here was the presentation that sparked the idea.

     

    Best,

     

    Tony

    Attached Files: 

  2. Background research on anaerobic digesters

    Associated Project(s): 
    Plan for Organic Waste
    Big Ten & Friends Sustainability
    Achieve Zero Waste
    Reduce Foodwaste

    Sarthak Prasad shared 2018 notes from conversations held with stakeholders at The Ohio State University, West Lafayette (Purdue University), Bevier Cafe (University of Illinois), US Army Corps -- Champaign, and Michigan State University -- East Lansing on the topic of anerobic digesters. Attached are the notes. The document will continue to grow as more conversations occur.

    Attached Files: 

  3. F&S, iSEE to investigate anaerobic digestion at other campuses

    Associated Project(s): 
    Plan for Organic Waste
    Reduce Foodwaste
    Achieve Zero Waste
    Big Ten & Friends Sustainability

    Sarthak Prasad, Jen Fraterrigo, and Daphne Hulse intend to pursue conversations with campuses that have successfully installed anaerobic digesters. Michigan State University and Pennsylvania State University have been identified as the first campuses to initiate a conversation with. The goal of these conversations will be to understand how campuses achieved momentum and will for the digesters to be financed and built (stakeholders include but are not limited to farmers, relevant academic departments, crop sciences, digester operators, waste management and sustainability, organic waste haulers, researchers).

  4. Sustainability Goals and Campus Plans Meeting 7/26/23

    Associated Project(s): 
    Big Ten & Friends Sustainability

    The following email was sent by Anya Dale on July 17, 2023:

    Hello Big 10 and Friends - 

     

    A number of partners across our university and college network expressed interested in having a casual conversation around Sustainability in Comprehensive Plans -  including any challenges or opportunities/lessons learned we can share around how to ensure campus sustainability goals are fully integrated into campus planning efforts.  To help aid further discussion, I've set up a Zoom meeting next week Wednesday, July 26th, from 11a-noon Eastern Time.  

     

    Please email me directly if you are interested in being added to the calendar invite.

     

    Thanks!

     

    On August 12, 2023 Morgan White asked:

     

    Hi Anya,

    Did you happen to record this zoom call?  Can I get a copy of that?

    Thanks!

    Morgan

     

    On August 14, 2023 Anya replied:

    Hi Morgan,

    I did not record the Zoom, but most of our brainstorming and sharing was captured on this JamBoard. Hope you find it helpful!

     

  5. Times Higher Education Impact Rankings

    Associated Project(s): 
    Big Ten & Friends Sustainability

    Hi Jen & Morgan,


    At the BTAF sustainability network meeting this morning, MSU highlighted the Times Higher Education Impact Ranking, oriented around the 17 UN SDGs. SDG 11, “sustainable cities and communities,” ranks universities by their sustainable impact. MSU ranked #14 in the world. To be included in these rankings the universities must apply. We had not heard of this before and thought that this might be something worth pursuing, perhaps appropriate for Meredith’s successor.

     

    Thank you!
    Daphne

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

    Interesting. I took a brief look – it seems universities can be ranked across any of the 17 SDGs. Rankings are based on research, teaching, and campus and local actions. I can talk this over with Madhu but I don’t see why we would not want to participate in the rankings, aside from the effort required to gather and submit data. From what I could determine, there is no fee to participate.

     

    Thanks,

    Jen

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

  7. UIUC, OSU, UMich, and Purdue analyzing the waste survey

    Associated Project(s): 
    Big Ten & Friends Sustainability
    Achieve Zero Waste

    From: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>

    Sent: Wednesday, May 3, 2023 7:37 AM
    To: B10andFriends@umich.edu
    Subject: Waste Affinity Survey & Meeting

    Morning Big 10 and Friends,

     

    Hope everyone everyone’s semester is wrapping up nicely. A big thank you goes out to everyone who participated in the Waste Survey [redacted] so far. We’ve already found the excel tool has been helpful in considering new initiatives. If you haven't had the chance to add your school's information, please do so at your earliest convenience.

    If you’re interested in reviewing the waste results together, fill out this When2Meet [redacted] by Wednesday, May 10th.

     

    Looking forward to catching up and discussing the findings with all of you!

     

    Mary, Tony, and the survey subgroup

     

    Mary Leciejewski, MS
    Zero Waste Manager

    Pronouns: She/Her/Hers 

    Facilities Operations and Development, Sustainability & Strategic Services
    1130 Service Building Annex | 2578 Kenny Road, Columbus, OH 43210
    (O) 614.292.3637
    fod.osu.edu/sustainability

     

     

    From: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>
    Sent: Wednesday, May 3, 2023 6:52 AM
    To: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>; Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>; Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; nberg@umich.edu
    Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

     

    Hi Dominika,

     

    Thanks for the nudge. I just had an email exchange with Tony, and we've decided to send out an email to find a time to review results, as well as to encourage everyone who hasn’t yet to complete the survey. We'll have to work with the responses we get, and I know our group has already found the results useful. This is a good litmus test for gauging people's availability for benchmarking surveys in the future.

     

    Hope everyone is making it through the tsunami that is move-out! I am continually shocked at the amount of material going to waste this time of year.

     

    Mary Leciejewski, MS

    Zero Waste Manager

    Pronouns: She/Her/Hers 

    Facilities Operations and Development, Sustainability & Strategic Services
    1130 Service Building Annex | 2578 Kenny Road, Columbus, OH 43210
    (O) 614.292.3637
    fod.osu.edu/sustainability

     

     

     

    From: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
    Sent: Friday, April 28, 2023 1:09 PM
    To: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>; Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>; Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; nberg@umich.edu
    Subject: Re: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

     

    Hello all,

     

    Just to briefly reintroduce myself, I am an intern working with Daphne on this waste management survey. I'd like to thank you all for the contributions that you have made for this initiative; it has been very exciting witnessing the collaboration and ideas that have been taking place. Given that we have some responses, do you believe that we have enough information to move forward to the analysis phase of the project? As of today, we are still awaiting responses from nine universities for the general questions and fourteen universities for their diversion rate methodologies.

     

    Thank you,

    DOMINIKA P. SZAL (she/her)

    Waste Management Intern

    (217) 333-9191 | dszal2@illinois.edu

    Facilities & Services | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

     

    Bu0VAhW8+s0AAAAASUVORK5CYII=

    Please consider the environment before printing out an email. Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act any written communication to or from university employees regarding university business is a public record and may be subject to public disclosure.

    From: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>
    Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2023 06:09
    To: Patrick T Brown <    brown471@purdue.edu>; Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>; Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu <alisonlr@umich.edu>; nberg@umich.edu <nberg@umich.edu>
    Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <    dszal2@illinois.edu>
    Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

     

    Thanks everyone for your feedback. I will get the survey out later today! Mary

     

    Mary Leciejewski
    Zero Waste Manager

    Pronouns: She/Her/Hers 

    Facilities Operations and Development, Sustainability & Strategic Services
    1130 Service Building Annex | 2578 Kenny Road, Columbus, OH 43210
    (O) 614.292.3637
    fod.osu.edu/sustainability

     

     

     

     

    From: Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
    Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2023 1:44 PM
    To: Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>; Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>; Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; nberg@umich.edu
    Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
    Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

     

    Hi, all. I added a few clarifying comments to the Diversion Rate Methodology sheet. The comments are on cells: Precious Metals, Yard Waste, Recycled Batteries, Recycled Vehicles, and Surplus Donate Items. I also added a few more streams we

    Hi, all.

     

    I added a few clarifying comments to the Diversion Rate Methodology sheet. The comments are on cells: Precious Metals, Yard Waste, Recycled Batteries, Recycled Vehicles, and Surplus Donate Items.

    I also added a few more streams we track that were not on the list. Those cells are filled with yellow. Feel free to remove if they don’t make sense. For the added Surplus Sold Items stream, it will be dependent on the answer to the comment on Surplus Donated Items.

     

    Thank you!

     

    Patrick T. Brown | He/Him
    Sustainability Coordinator | Campus Planning, Architecture and Sustainability

     

    m: 219-677-6330

    Website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

     

    219B2D5D

     

    From: Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>
    Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2023 9:38 AM
    To: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>; Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
    Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
    Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

     

    Thanks Daphne.  Mary actually made that draft (thank you Mary!) and Patrick and I had a few minor edits to add.  Hopefully that can be completed today or tomorrow and back to you for review.  We will definitely include the idea of the “other – list please” being added.

     

    Thanks again,

    Tony

     

    From: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>
    Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2023 8:10 PM
    To: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
    Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
    Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

     

    ---- External Email: Use caution with attachments, links, or sharing data ----

     

    Thanks for the feedback, Daphne.

     

    Once we have the go-ahead from Tony, I will send to the larger affinity group.

     

    Excited to see all the results!

     

    Mary

     

    Mary Leciejewski
    Zero Waste Manager

    Pronouns: She/Her/Hers 

    Facilities Operations and Development, Sustainability & Strategic Services
    1130 Service Building Annex | 2578 Kenny Road, Columbus, OH 43210
    (O) 614.292.3637
    fod.osu.edu/sustainability

     

     

     

     

    From: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
    Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2023 4:33 PM
    To: Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>; Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
    Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
    Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

     

    Hi Tony, I took a look at the new tab for diversion materials and think it looks great. There was a comment made asking about what to do if a school has a material they include in the rate that isn’t listed on the sheet, so I added a “Other

     

    Hi Tony,

     

    I took a look at the new tab for diversion materials and think it looks great. There was a comment made asking about what to do if a school has a material they include in the rate that isn’t listed on the sheet, so I added a “Other – please list” column for that purpose.

     

    Otherwise, I am happy with the survey and would call it good! Thanks so much for the assistance.

     

    Thank you,

     

    Daphne

     

    Daphne Hulse (she/her)
    Zero Waste Coordinator
    Facilities & Services | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
    +1 (217) 333-7550 | dlhulse2@illinois.edu
     
    Bu0VAhW8+s0AAAAASUVORK5CYII=

    Please consider the environment before printing an email. Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act any written communication to or from university employees regarding university business is a public record and may be subject to public disclosure.

     

     

     

    From: Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>
    Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2023 8:05 AM
    To: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
    Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
    Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

     

    Thanks Daphne.  We will get back to you ASAP!

     

    From: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
    Sent: Friday, January 13, 2023 10:19 AM
    To: Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>; Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
    Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
    Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

     

    ---- External Email: Use caution with attachments, links, or sharing data ----

     

    Hi Tony,

     

    Thanks for the update! We are appreciative of the feedback you and OSU have provided and are happy to incorporate it. I think the suggestion to add a tab for diversion rate materials is a great one, and we would appreciate your help with integrating it into the survey!

     

    Thank you,


    Daphne

     

    From: Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>
    Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2023 12:55 PM
    To: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>; Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
    Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
    Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

     

    Hi Daphne,  Mary and I met to discuss the Waste Affinity Group topics and we are hoping to be able to focus in on the survey you have developed.  Once the document is ready to share, we are happy to help send it to the group, and then we can remind folks to complete it at the February BTAF Meeting (exact date TBD).  We are anticipating not having a Waste Affinity Meeting prior to the full BTAF Meeting in February, but if this group needs to get together, just let me know and I would be happy to schedule. 

     

    In terms of finishing the survey, it appears that you have largely incorporated all the recommendations, thank you!  There is one modification that I wanted to validate with you that our group has offered to make:  a separate tab in the same spreadsheet where the answers for cell AH Materials included in your diversion rate can be put into its own grid and easier to compare school to school.  If you are good with this idea, we will try to complete this next week and send it back. 

     

    Thank you,

    Tony

     

    From: Anthony Gillund
    Sent: Friday, January 6, 2023 12:42 PM
    To: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>; Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
    Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
    Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

     

    Hi Daphne, we just had a meeting today with our local waste district and one of the questions that came up is if there are institutions that have found methods to eliminate the plastic bags from the recycling stream.  I thought some institutions do this (e.g. breaking bags of recycling into the recycling dumpster but tossing the bag into the trash).  If you think it is beneficial, perhaps this is another item to add to the survey.

     

    Thanks again,

    Tony

     

    From: Anthony Gillund
    Sent: Friday, January 6, 2023 8:51 AM
    To: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>; Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
    Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
    Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

     

    Hi Daphne, great survey and I agree with Mary it is very comprehensive!  Patrick and I reviewed the document we came up with a few recommendations for your consideration:

    1. It might be beneficial to add another question after cell G3 that asks if there are secondary waste goals.
    2. Cell K3 was a little confusing trying to determine what was meant by ‘Benchmark Year’…. Is this supposed to say ‘Baseline Year’ instead? 
    3. For Cell AG3, we are recommending that a separate tab in the same spreadsheet where the answers can be put into its own grid and easier to compare school to school.  For instance, I found it very interesting to see UIUC include tires but not surplus material, and it would be interesting to see how many folks include tire recycling/repurposing.  Patrick is going to take a 1st stab at creating this for your review.  
    4. In the Waste Metric Tracking section, would it be possible to add a few questions around accounting for avoided waste?  Take-back programs would be a prime example of this… for instance, if a university handles furniture whether by diverting it or landfilling it, but then works with a manufacturer on a take-back program, do you get to count that material as diverted?  I am not sure of the best way to ask this question(s)… maybe it should be integrated with the matrix developed as part of bullet #2? 
    5. The organics section might benefit by clarification on what should be included.  We interpreted it as more than just food scraps and included animal bedding and landscape debris in our answer, but questioned if other items should be included here such as food grease recycling.

     

    Thank you again for putting this together.  Looking forward to seeing it once it is all filled out!

    Thanks,

     

    Tony Gillund 

     

    Director of Sustainability

    Campus Planning, Architecture, and Sustainability

     

    o: 765-494-3911 | agillund@purdue.edu

     

    eSdqdsuBYwAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==

     

     

    From: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>
    Sent: Wednesday, January 4, 2023 8:26 AM
    To: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
    Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
    Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

     

    ---- External Email: Use caution with attachments, links, or sharing data ----

     

    Daphne,

     

    Thanks for reopening the conversation and putting this together. This survey looks comprehensive. We’re excited for the results!

     

    Here’s our quick feedback:

    • For “Waste Reduction Goal” section, add question asking if school has formal, published waste plan and request link.
    • For D5, we usually count interns as a 3:1 FTEs. Might be useful to make this clear or to have a separate column for number of FTE’s vs. number of interns.
    • For the Surplus category, I’d be interested to learn if other schools have internal reuse or external donation programs to nonprofits. (Our Surplus group has mentioned some legal/logistical issues with donation…)

     

    We can make these edits directly in the survey but didn’t want to make changes without giving you a heads up/getting sign off from the group.

     

    Once the other folks on the chain provide feedback, we can help disseminate to the larger BTAF group. When the results are in, it’d be a perfect intern project to assemble results in a slide show and do some data visualization. Happy to donate our intern time towards that task.

     

    Best, Mary

     

    Mary Leciejewski
    Zero Waste Manager

    Pronouns: She/Her/Hers 

    Facilities Operations and Development, Sustainability & Strategic Services
    1130 Service Building Annex | 2578 Kenny Road, Columbus, OH 43210
    (O) 614.292.3637
    fod.osu.edu/sustainability

     

     

     

    From: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
    Sent: Tuesday, January 3, 2023 5:07 PM
    To: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; agillund@purdue.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
    Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
    Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

     

    Hi all, Happy New Year - I hope you enjoyed a nice holiday break! Dominika and I wanted to re-open the conversation on the BTAF waste survey. The questions are ready for your review/input when you have a chance J Mary & Tony, we are happy

     

    Hi all,

     

    Happy New Year - I hope you enjoyed a nice holiday break! Dominika and I wanted to re-open the conversation on the BTAF waste survey [redacted]. The questions are ready for your review/input when you have a chance J

     

    Mary & Tony, we are happy to coordinate with you both on getting this spreadsheet out to the schools when everything is finalized.

     

    Thank you,


    Daphne

     

    Daphne Hulse (she/her)
    Zero Waste Coordinator
    Facilities & Services | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    +1 (217) 333-7550 | dlhulse2@illinois.edu
     
    Bu0VAhW8+s0AAAAASUVORK5CYII=

    Please consider the environment before printing an email. Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act any written communication to or from university employees regarding university business is a public record and may be subject to public disclosure.

     

     

     

    From: Hulse, Daphne Lauren
    Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2022 9:43 AM
    To: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; agillund@purdue.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
    Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
    Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

     

    Thank you, Mary! We’ve got all our original survey questions inputted now and are working to finalize questions on other topics such as sustainable procurement and organic waste, which we didn’t previously include.

     

    If you all have an opportunity to take a look and provide feedback, that would be appreciated!


    Thank you,


    Daphne

     

     

    Daphne Hulse (she/her)
    Zero Waste Coordinator
    Facilities & Services | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    +1 (217) 333-7550 | dlhulse2@illinois.edu
     
    Bu0VAhW8+s0AAAAASUVORK5CYII=

    Please consider the environment before printing an email. Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act any written communication to or from university employees regarding university business is a public record and may be subject to public disclosure.

     

     

     

    From: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>
    Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2022 8:12 AM
    To: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; agillund@purdue.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
    Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
    Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

     

    Hi everyone,

     

    Hope everyone had a nice holiday.

     

    Just want to give a shout out to Daphne and her team for uploading the survey onto the google drive in a spreadsheet format. The benchmarking tool is looking pretty robust. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the google drive, here’s the link [redacted].

     

    Aside from adding additional relevant survey fields and filling in our school’s data, is there anything else we need to do to provide feedback before we take this to the larger BTAF group?

     

    Thanks, Mary

     

    Mary Leciejewski
    Zero Waste Manager

    Pronouns: She/Her/Hers 

    Facilities Operations and Development, Sustainability & Strategic Services
    1130 Service Building Annex | 2578 Kenny Road, Columbus, OH 43210
    (O) 614.292.3637
    fod.osu.edu/sustainability

     

     

     

    -----Original Appointment-----
    From: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
    Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2022 3:15 PM
    To: Hulse, Daphne Lauren; alisonlr@umich.edu; Leciejewski, Mary; agillund@purdue.edu; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown
    Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja
    Subject: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey
    When: Friday, November 11, 2022 11:00 AM-12:00 PM (UTC-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada).
    Where: https://illinois.zoom.us/j/83465397844?pwd=K0dHcWlkaXExOTQyUDdrN3J6VXhVUT09

     

    Daphne Hulse (she/her) is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Join Zoom Meeting https: //illinois. zoom. us/j/83465397844?pwd=K0dHcWlkaXExOTQyUDdrN3J6VXhVUT09 Meeting ID: 834 6539 7844 Password: 337564 ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍

     

    Daphne Hulse (she/her) is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

    Join Zoom Meeting
     

  8. Big 10 & Friends Sustainability Network - Meeting Follow-up

    Associated Project(s): 
    Big Ten & Friends Sustainability

     

    Big 10 & Friends,

     

    Thank you to all those who attended the meeting on February 28th, and a special thanks to our presenting schools and affinity group leaders.  As follow-up to the meeting here are the meeting slides and draft notes.

     

    Next Meeting: June TBD. We need 2-3 more schools to volunteer to share updates at this meeting. Please let Nicole, Ken, or Tom know if you are interested. We currently have Notre Dame and UM Dearborn listed as up next. 

     

    Nominate Co-Chairs: Nicole & Ken's co-chair term is up in June. If you would like to join Tom as a co-chair for a 2-year term, please let us know. Or nominate others you think would be a good fit!

     

    Affinity Groups: As a reminder, you can sign up for affinity groups here. If you haven't already, please consider completing the Waste & GHG Benchmarking surveys linked in the draft meeting notes above. 

     

    Best,

    Nicole, Ken, & Tom

    BTAF Sustainability Network Co-Chairs

  9. Big 10 & Friends?

    Associated Project(s): 
    Big Ten & Friends Sustainability

    Hi Morgan!

     

    I hope this email finds you well, and I hope you're feeling well-prepared for Earth Month! I was wondering, what is the status of the Big10 & Friends Sustainability Network? I attended a meeting in October-ish 2022, thanks to an invitation from Meredith. But since Meredith is gone now. Do you know if the group is meeting again soon? 

     

    Alas, I'll be gone soon too, so I think this would be a great resource to get Codie plugged into. Can you help us make this happen? 

     

    Codie, I'll provide more context to you about this network during our 1:1 on Tuesday. 

     

    Thanks! 

     

    --

    Maria Maring

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

    Hi Maria and Codie,

     

    I’m adding Jen here, as she has been able to participate in those meetings more than me this year.  Jen, do you know how Codie can get added to the Big 10 and Friends emails/invites?

     

    Thanks,

    Morgan

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

     

    Hello,

     

    I will forward the contact information for the current co-chairs at Univ Michigan so that you can inquire about being added to the email list. The next general meeting is in June. Affinity groups meet separately at different times.

     

    Best,

    Jen

  10. Single-use plastic elimination at Vanderbilt University

    Associated Project(s): 
    Big Ten & Friends Sustainability

    Hi Jen & Morgan,

     

    I’ll be putting additional notes I took onto the shared OneNote, but wanted to put it on your radar that I met with a school that has successfully eliminated almost all its single-use plastic, Vanderbilt, and they shared the overview and insights into this process:

    • Implemented fall 2019. Products are now sold in aluminum, boxes (e.g “Boxed Water”), or glass.
    • This was an initiative that Dining led (with great vigor, it sounds like).
    • Dining had the infrastructure and support to do it:
      • Reusable aluminum bottles are provided to new students each year with information about plastic reduction efforts on campus.
      • The school has many water bottle filler stations.
      • Unanimous support from the rest of the school (students, faculty, staff, admin).
    • It was not an easy transition:
      • Originally the school had Coca-Cola as the beverage partner. Coca-Cola was not on board with supplying only aluminum long-term, so when the contract ended, the school switched to Pepsi.
    • And the transition is attempting to be expanded…
      • Plastic bottles are still served to athletes at Athletics’  “nutrition centers” where the athletes eat: Gatorade bottles and sports drinks are their biggest consumption habits here. Sustainability is working on convincing their Athletics unit to get on board with this elimination. It is the student athletes who consume more single-use plastic than the fans who attend the events.
    • Dining is a huge advocate of sustainability efforts in general:
      • They’ve implemented a compost program for kitchen scraps and leftover student food at the dining halls.
      • They have a reusable to-go program.
      • At markets you can fill your own reusable bottle with bulk drinks: sparkling water, cold brew, nitro coffee.
      • They very recently piloted a bulk foods program for one of their markets (picture attached).
    • Anecdotally, the sustainability and recycling contacts I talked with think single-use water sales are down in the non-plastic materials.

     

    Not to chase a pipe dream here with eliminating plastic on our campus, but the zero waste coordinator should be an instigator, right? 😊

     

    Thank you,

    Daphne

     

    Attached Files: 

  11. Webinar: Ohio State University energy partnership

    Associated Project(s): 
    Big Ten & Friends Sustainability

    Below is an email exchange following a webinar with Ohio State University:

    Team,

     

    There is quite a bit of a back story to this partnership, much of which likely won’t be highlighted in the conversation tomorrow.

     

    When this partnership was announced several years ago it garnered a lot of interest because of the stated $1 billion that was coming to the University as part of this private-partnership agreement.

     

    Iowa engaged in a similar agreement a few years later, again with a stated huge “influx” of cash to the University.

     

    Suffice it to say, nothing comes for free, much less $1 billion dollars.

     

    It is not quite this simple and don’t take what I am about to say literally or without doing your own homework, but the $1 billion dollars is going to cost well over $2 billion to the University over this 50 year agreement.  My summary of this deal is that the University basically leveraged the value of future energy payments to get a bunch of cash up front. From a financial perspective, this is a really bad deal.

     

    When this deal came out, the University of Illinois was charged with looking at the viability of doing something similar. We hired a consultant to help us evaluate the merits and financing of the deal, and the result of that evaluation was that financially this was a really bad deal.

     

     

    All that being said, we are already doing much of what Ohio State is talking about doing and more.

    A big part of the Ohio State deal is investment in a new Co-Gen plant. We have been investing in our infrastructure consistently for the last 20 years and are looking actively at additional investments in the near and long term.

    The investment in buildings and energy savings have been going strong through ESCOs, building and controls upgrades, as well retro commissioning for 10+ years. Those savings continue to be re-invested resulting in more savings. We have already achieved the 25% savings and Ohio State is talking about.

     

     

    In no way I am discouraging anyone from listening to this conversation tomorrow. I am sure that there are some things that we can learn from them, but please keep in mind that there is a lot more to this agreement that I am sure will not be covered in the hour they have allotted.

     

     

    If these is additional interests in the Ohio State deal let me know and I can share more.

     

     

     

    Mike Larson

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

     

    Hi Mike,

     

    Thanks for the information. It is great to hear your perspective and the backstory. I recollect we talked about this several years ago at a team meeting.

     

    My interest is to hear about the student and faculty collaborations.

     

    Andy

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

     

    If you are interested here are the slides from the webinar yesterday. The recording will be made available later.

     

    Andy

    Attached Files: 

  12. BTAF Waste Affinity Group asks schools to input their answers into a spreadsheet

    Associated Project(s): 
    Big Ten & Friends Sustainability
    Achieve Zero Waste

    Good morning BTAF,

     Hope everyone’s year is off to a good start!

    At the last BTAF Waste Affinity group meeting in October, the group members shared many exciting initiatives and programs related to recycling and waste diversion. Over the past few months, a working group has developed a comprehensive benchmarking survey to facilitate knowledge sharing and to organize program information. So, now we need your participation in the Waste Survey [redacted].

     At the suggestion of Nicole Berg, a google spreadsheet format was chosen for ease of use, as well as the ability to update the survey each year. In the link, you’ll find two tabs on the survey:

    1. Waste Survey: Broad swath of questions related to Zero Waste and Recycling, including strategic planning, outreach, waste management operational processes, waste metric tracking, procurement, athletics, organics, medicine/research labs, and surplus. This an “everything and the kitchen sink” approach to enable comparative analysis.  
    2. Diversion Rate Methodology: One question that continues to bubble up from time to time is, “What do you include in your diversion rate?” This survey tab requests that you mark a “x” next to each category that is included as diversion in your annual diversion rate report.   

     Three schools have already filled out the survey, so our hope is that it’s intuitive to follow along and to input your school’s information. If you have any clarifying questions, feel free to shoot me an email. We ask that each school completes the survey by Friday, February 13th.

     Once the data is collected, an intern will compile the data, and we will share the results in another BTAF Waste Affinity Group meeting at a date TBD—probably in March.

     Shout out to the team, including Tony Gillund (Purdue), Patrick Brown (Purdue), Daphne Hulse (Illinois), Dominika Szal (Illinois-intern), Nicole Berg (Michigan), and Alison Richardson (Michigan).

    Mary

     

    Mary Leciejewski
    Zero Waste Manager

    Pronouns: She/Her/Hers 

    Facilities Operations and Development, Sustainability & Strategic Services
    1130 Service Building Annex | 2578 Kenny Road, Columbus, OH 43210
    (O) 614.292.3637
    fod.osu.edu/sustainability

  14. The survey is further refined

    Associated Project(s): 
    Big Ten & Friends Sustainability
    Achieve Zero Waste

    Hi Daphne, great survey and I agree with Mary it is very comprehensive!  Patrick and I reviewed the document we came up with a few recommendations for your consideration:

    It might be beneficial to add another question after cell G3 that asks if there are secondary waste goals.

    Cell K3 was a little confusing trying to determine what was meant by ‘Benchmark Year’…. Is this supposed to say ‘Baseline Year’ instead? 

    For Cell AG3, we are recommending that a separate tab in the same spreadsheet where the answers can be put into its own grid and easier to compare school to school.  For instance, I found it very interesting to see UIUC include tires but not surplus material, and it would be interesting to see how many folks include tire recycling/repurposing.  Patrick is going to take a 1st stab at creating this for your review.  

    In the Waste Metric Tracking section, would it be possible to add a few questions around accounting for avoided waste?  Take-back programs would be a prime example of this… for instance, if a university handles furniture whether by diverting it or landfilling it, but then works with a manufacturer on a take-back program, do you get to count that material as diverted?  I am not sure of the best way to ask this question(s)… maybe it should be integrated with the matrix developed as part of bullet #2? 

    The organics section might benefit by clarification on what should be included.  We interpreted it as more than just food scraps and included animal bedding and landscape debris in our answer, but questioned if other items should be included here such as food grease recycling.

     

    Thank you again for putting this together.  Looking forward to seeing it once it is all filled out!

    Thanks,

     

    Tony Gillund 

     

    Director of Sustainability

    Campus Planning, Architecture, and Sustainability

     

    o: 765-494-3911 | agillund@purdue.edu

     

     

    From: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>
    Sent: Wednesday, January 4, 2023 8:26 AM
    To: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; alisonlr@umich.edu; Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>; nberg@umich.edu; Patrick T Brown <brown471@purdue.edu>
    Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
    Subject: RE: Purdue/OSU/Michigan/UIUC Waste Survey

     

     

     

    Daphne,

     

    Thanks for reopening the conversation and putting this together. This survey looks comprehensive. We’re excited for the results!

     

    Here’s our quick feedback:

    For “Waste Reduction Goal” section, add question asking if school has formal, published waste plan and request link.

    For D5, we usually count interns as a 3:1 FTEs. Might be useful to make this clear or to have a separate column for number of FTE’s vs. number of interns.

    For the Surplus category, I’d be interested to learn if other schools have internal reuse or external donation programs to nonprofits. (Our Surplus group has mentioned some legal/logistical issues with donation…)

     

    We can make these edits directly in the survey but didn’t want to make changes without giving you a heads up/getting sign off from the group.

     

    Once the other folks on the chain provide feedback, we can help disseminate to the larger BTAF group. When the results are in, it’d be a perfect intern project to assemble results in a slide show and do some data visualization. Happy to donate our intern time towards that task.

     

    Best, Mary

     

    Mary Leciejewski
    Zero Waste Manager

    Pronouns: She/Her/Hers 

    Facilities Operations and Development, Sustainability & Strategic Services
    1130 Service Building Annex | 2578 Kenny Road, Columbus, OH 43210
    (O) 614.292.3637
    fod.osu.edu/sustainability

     

  15. Fall Meeting Follow-up

    Associated Project(s): 
    Big Ten & Friends Sustainability

    Below is an email from Big Ten and Friends:


    Subject: Big 10 & Friends Sustainability Network: Fall Meeting Follow-up

     

    Hello Big 10 & Friends Sustainability Network,

     

    Thank you to all who attended our fall meeting last month.  We are currently working with the presenting schools to schedule our next meeting sometime in February - details to come soon! In the meantime, if you haven't already, make sure you are checking out this year's affinity groups on specific topics you'd be interested in exploring more!

     

     

    This year's affinity groups are:

    • Green Labs
    • Agricultural/Land Based Sequestration Strategies
    • Staff Engagement
    • Engaging Facilities
    • Waste Reduction
    • Data Analysis
    • Funding Decarbonization

    If you are an affinity group lead and haven't already - please consider scheduling a meeting with your group before our February meeting. Affinity groups will have the opportunity to share out to the entire network during the February network meeting.

     

    If anyone else has proposed agenda items for the February network meeting, please let us know.

     

    Thank you,

    Co-Chairs:

    Tom Reeves (OSU)

    Nicole Berg (UM)

    Ken Keeler (UM)

  18. Multiple schools (OSU, UMich, Purdue) begin involvement with the creation of the survey

    Associated Project(s): 
    Big Ten & Friends Sustainability
    Achieve Zero Waste

    Thank you Mary and Daphne!  The way that Mary worded the question is great to me! 

     

    Daphne, if it is not too bold of me to ask, I was wondering if there might be opportunities to add more questions to the Survey?  I ask as I was recently emailing with the Michigan folks (copied) and both our institutions are interested in pulling together some waste related benchmarking data, specifically around their individual waste goals and how they measure it (hence the diversion rate calculation question).  I am hoping that there is a way we might be able to collaborate, whether that is collaborating through your current survey or perhaps supplementing the data.  That being said, I know very little about the survey, its timeline, the questions, etc.; thus, a collaboration may not be feasible. If you believe a collaboration might be feasible, I would be happy to coordinate a quick schedule where we could discuss how Purdue staff and/or students could assist.  I am interested to hear your thoughts!

     

    Thank you,

    Tony

     

    From: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>
    Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2022 8:43 AM
    To: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
    Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>; Anthony Gillund <agillund@purdue.edu>
    Subject: RE: Big Ten Waste Management Survey: Diversion Rate Calculation

     

    ---- External Email: Use caution with attachments, links, or sharing data ----

     

    Daphne,

     

    Apologies for the delay- I was out of the office last week and am still getting caught up.

     

    Thank you so much for including that question in your survey!

     

    One item might be to ask, “What information do you include in your diversion rate report?”

     

    Ohio State includes the following:

    Landfill tonnage data

    Commingled recycling

    Reused pallets

    Recycled pallets

    Scrap metal

    Landscape waste

    Composted food scraps, biodegradable materials, coffee grounds, and animal bedding from labs

    Biodigested food waste (ex. enviropure systems)

    Donations of furniture and other items

    Motor oil

    Tire Recycling

    Cooking oil recycling

    Donated food

    Mattresses

    Paper shredding

    Batteries

    Recycled toner cartridges

    Donated books

    Reprocessed medical devices

     

    We do not include construction waste or manure from farms. We also do not estimate avoided materials (ex. weights kept out of landfill through projects like implementing hand dryers or reusable containers). Instead, we just assume those numbers will be kept out of the landfill data.

     

    I’m looping in Tony to make sure I got to the hear of his question. Please let me know if you need anything else! Mary

     

    Mary Leciejewski
    Zero Waste Manager

    Pronouns: She/Her/Hers 

    Facilities Operations and Development, Sustainability & Strategic Services
    1130 Service Building Annex | 2578 Kenny Road, Columbus, OH 43210
    (O) 614.292.3637
    fod.osu.edu/sustainability

     

     

     

     

     

    From: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
    Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2022 11:58 AM
    To: Leciejewski, Mary <leciejewski.8@osu.edu>
    Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja <dszal2@illinois.edu>
    Subject: Big Ten Waste Management Survey: Diversion Rate Calculation

     

    Hi Mary, It was great to meet with you and the other Big Ten schools last week! Per the request to include the diversion rate calculation as a part of the comprehensive survey, could I inquire about OSU’s process? ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍

     

    Hi Mary,

     

    It was great to meet with you and the other Big Ten schools last week! Per the request to include the diversion rate calculation as a part of the comprehensive survey, could I inquire about OSU’s process?

     

    Thank you,

     

    Daphne

     

    Daphne Hulse (she/her)
    Zero Waste Coordinator
    Facilities & Services | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    +1 (217) 333-7550 |     dlhulse2@illinois.edu
     
     

  19. Ohio State University includes the waste survey as part of the agenda for the upcoming BTAF meeting, to solicit a better survey response rate

    Associated Project(s): 
    Big Ten & Friends Sustainability
    Achieve Zero Waste

    From: Leciejewski, Mary leciejewski.8@osu.edu
    Sent: Tuesday, October 4, 2022 12:19 PM
    To: Hulse, Daphne Lauren dlhulse2@illinois.edu
    Cc: Szal, Dominika Patrycja dszal2@illinois.edu
    Subject: RE: Scheduling a Waste Management Survey

     

    Hi Daphne,

     

    Pleasure speaking with you last week. I was going to send out an agenda for the Big 10 and Friends meeting on Thursday. Are you still interested in introducing yourself and your project to try to solicit a better response rate? If so, I can put you on the agenda.

     

    Thanks! Mary

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