From: Holding, Justin Kenneth <jholdi2@illinois.edu>
Sent: Monday, April 10, 2023 2:50 PM
To: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>; Fraterrigo, Jennifer M <jmf@illinois.edu>; Palella, Nikki <palella3@illinois.edu>; Keating, Claire Elizabeth <cek6@illinois.edu>
Subject: Re: Hendricks House and SAAC

 

Hey all,

 

The meeting with Jonathan went great and he is super open to new ideas.

 

Based on my previous meeting and Student-Athlete's feedback, Jonathan decided to buy these reusable containers: https://gfsstore.com/products/310397/ & https://gfsstore.com/products/310378/ (not sure if the oz sizes are exactly the same).

 

He said he had enough budget to buy 500 of each to give to every student-athlete. He has already seen a decline in the styrofoam containers. But deli containers (for things like cereal, yogurt, soup, and small snacks), plastic bags (sometimes), and plastic silverware are still being used. The reusable containers did feel flimsy - especially compared to the Good2Go ones - but they are much cheaper. So I would be worried about durability and scratching/damage if real silverware is used.

 

Daphne was able to join and got some good insight into the entire process. Hendrick House acts as the caterer and does not maintain the space so they don’t have a lot of control over the trash. But for the kitchen, they still put everything in the dumpster (including cardboard). So we have some room for improvement there.

 

Overall - I think we should help set up communication between Varsity and SAAC (or just students in general) to make sure this program can continue for years to come. I think a follow up with Colin and pushing for a sustainability position in SAAC is the best next step. I’ll give Colin a few days to respond to Daphne’s email but I’ll try to set something up again.

 

If you have any questions or comments, please let me know.

 

Best,

Justin

 

On Apr 7, 2023, at 5:23 PM, Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu> wrote:

 

Wow, this is amazing!! Please count me in for the 4/10 meeting at Varsity Room - happy to join you and continue this great momentum.

 

Thank you,

Daphne

 

From: Holding, Justin Kenneth <jholdi2@illinois.edu>
Sent: Friday, April 7, 2023 4:47 PM
To: Fraterrigo, Jennifer M <jmf@illinois.edu>; Palella, Nikki <palella3@illinois.edu>; Keating, Claire Elizabeth <cek6@illinois.edu>; Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
Subject: Re: Hendricks House and SAAC

 

Hi everyone,

 

I received this message from Jonathon last week: 

 

"Justin, thank you for your patience regarding this project. I am happy to announce that beginning on Monday, April 3rd Varsity Room Dining will be offering free, reusable, eco-friendly containers to any student-athlete that requests a set. A set of containers will consist of (1) 38-ounce rectangular container and (1) 48-ounce circular container.

Additional individual containers and/or sets may be purchased by student-athletes if they would like.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or would like to meet again to continue our previous discussions.”

This email came as a surprise as I had not received a response to my emails sent earlier this semester. I am planning to visit the Varsity Room this Monday, 4/10, at 12:45 PM to chat with Jonathon about the program. A friend sent me the information they have received (attached) and told me they weren't exactly sure how the program worked. I’m hoping we can bring together our knowledge and resources to create a stable, successful program. 

 

You all are more than welcome to join, otherwise I’ll send my notes and recommendations after. Additionally, I think another meeting with Colin, Jonathon, and everyone else will be important before the semester is over.

 

Best,

Justin

<IMG_0476.jpeg><Screenshot 2023-04-03 at 5.48.56 PM.jpg>

 

On Feb 15, 2023, at 8:48 AM, Fraterrigo, Jennifer M <jmf@illinois.edu> wrote:

 

Thanks, Justin. If you are talking with Jonathon, could you also mention food waste and Grind2Energy? It would be great to recruit the Varsity Room/Hendrick House into the program.

 

Jen

 

From: Holding, Justin Kenneth <jholdi2@illinois.edu> 
Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2023 6:58 PM
To: Fraterrigo, Jennifer M <jmf@illinois.edu>
Cc: Palella, Nikki <palella3@illinois.edu>; Keating, Claire Elizabeth <cek6@illinois.edu>; Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
Subject: Re: Hendricks House and SAAC

 

Hi Jen,

 

Thanks for the information!

 

I haven’t heard from Colin since our last meeting - I’ll reach out to him. I’ll also contact Jonathon Curtis, the chef at the Varsity Room, to talk about the prospect of reusbales.

 

I’ve actually spoke to multiple people at Hendrick House regarding sustainability. So, if we need a little push there, I know who to reach out to. Also, I know they have a good stock of reusable containers as well - I’ve borrowed them!

 

Best,

Justin

 

On Feb 14, 2023, at 5:21 PM, Fraterrigo, Jennifer M <jmf@illinois.edu> wrote:

 

Hi all,

 

Hope you are doing well.

 

I am writing to follow up about the prospect of establishing reusable container and Grind2Energy programs at Hendrick House. I met separately with Tim Knox and University Housing and Dining leadership over the past month. What I learned from Tim is that SAAC and student athletes have tremendous influence with Hendrick House and should request that Hendrick House implement these programs. University Housing and Dining does not have enough staff to wash additional containers or sort food waste for G2E, even if Hendrick House were to pay for these services. However, Housing seemed to think Hendrick House has the capacity (just not at the Varsity Room). Housing is willing to be a resource for Hendrick House by sharing information, answering questions, etc.

 

The next step is to convey this info to Colin and SAAC. Has anyone heard from Colin lately? If I recall correctly, he was going to ask SAAC members about whether they support these initiatives. Justin, if you want to ping him, that would be great. Any other ideas about how to keep this moving forward? 

 

Thanks,

Jen

 

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@illinois.edu
ph 217-333-9428

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

Please see attached the iWG meeting notes from the meeting held on March 27, 2023. During this meeting, the following recommendations were discussed:

• ZW010 Tailgate Recycling
• Energy011 Priority Technologies and Practices for a Clean Energy Plan

Hi Daphne,

 

Morgan and I spoke yesterday about mining data from the drinking water behavior survey that Meredith led. I started a list of question that I shared with Meredith, but she does not have time to take look into them. Morgan suggested you would be interested in working on this and could recruit Alec McKay to perform the analysis.

 

The survey and responses can be found here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSceArOvxVzrJDNEwuWICC8nY2sBsXaF1NgJp9ZXI9DJf1rAcQ/viewform?usp=sharing

 

My initial list of questions is below. There may be other items worth examining.

 

Let me know if you want to discuss further. I’ll reach out shortly about scheduling regular meetings.

 

Thanks,

Jen

 

*********************************

Hi Meredith,

 

I think it could be informative to analyze some of the responses to the survey. Specifically, it would be valuable to know if there is any consistency among respondents (in terms of gender identity and role on campus) to better target an information campaign. I made an initial list of questions and responses (below) that warrant a closer look (others could be added). Do you have an intern that could perform an analysis?

-         Agree or strongly agree to the statement: “Bottled water is my primary source of drinkable water.”

-         4 or 5 to the question: “To what degree do you prefer one type of water over another? Tap vs filtered” or “tap vs bottled” or “Filtered vs bottled”

-         4 or 5 to “Bottled water is safer to drink than tap water.”

-         4 or 5 to “Filtered tap water is safer to drink than tap water.“

-         4 or 5 to “One single-use bottle of water does not yield a significant environmental impact.“

 

 

 

 

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

Biodiversity Plan intern Gabriel Harper-Hagen is looking for students and student groups to help him develop two iNaturalist surveys for the project. Here is the detailed explanation from Gabe:

The survey will act as a pilot for future surveying around campus and the broader community. We will have two surveys: one focused on animals and one focused on plants. This is because of the different methods of surveying each. The surveys will benefit from as many students that would be interested in this for either one (Or both). The survey will attempt to efficiently gather data about the diversity of plant and animal species found on campus to create a baseline for what is present and to help identify gaps on the campus where diversity may be lacking. If successful, I hope to expand the model to other parts of the community including the park districts to have larger community based BioBlitz seasonally to keep track of the diversity in the area and measure success of the biodiversity plan. 

 

As far as students can help, we need enough people to survey the area efficiently in a reasonable amount of time. The student groups and individual students would be helping in an initial survey that focuses only on the campus. My thought is that a date will be set for each of the two surveys where the participants can join to go over brief instructions on identifying plants with iNaturalist, adding them to the project, and explaining the purpose of surveying. iNaturalist allows for specific project data to be collected within a region which is then peer reviewed. Ideally, there will be some experts (students or professors if appropriate) that join for each survey to help with logistics and identification. I hope this will not only be a useful database for our campus to utilize, but also a fun learning experience. 

 

All iCAP students and environmental student groups are encouraged to participate. If interested, please email Gabe (harperh2@illinois.edu) and Resilience iCAP Team clerk Asli Topuzlu (aslit2@illinois.edu).