Hello, SWATeam and Consultation Group. Thank you for your comments on the draft report and for providing additional information.
Here is the report that our SWATeam is submitting to iSEE. Let's hope that it will be helpful.
The next step is drafting a revised section of the iCAP. Let's meet on Monday, October 13 at 4:30 pm (Dilip, can you find a room?). I'll send around a draft before the meeting.
Best wishes.
Warren Lavey
Dear Purchasing, Waste, and Recycling SWATeam,
The iCAP Working Group met today, and would like to thank you for your report!
In the hopes that it will provide some assistance as you formulate your recommendations for the revised iCAP, to be presented at the iCAP Forum on October 22nd, we wanted to provide you with some additional files:
1) A "template" for the iCAP sections that we ask that you use. This was written using Transportation as an example, but it should be easily adaptable.
2) A "resources" document that summarizes the 2010 iCAP strategies, excerpts from a document that was put together back in FY13 summarizing progress at that time, a set of links to relevant pages on the iCAP Portal, and a list of the questions in the STARS report that are relevant to your team. The STARS report is how our campus gets "graded" on our sustainability performance, so these questions may inspire ideas for things the campus should be doing.
3) A table of emissions in your area as determined by the Clean Air Cool Planet calculator, which represents our officially reported emissions. You can fill this in with your proposed goals, and include it in the template.
4) A summary of all of our emissions in different categories, for context.
5) The Clean Air Cool Planet calculator itself, updated for FY2014, in case you wish to dive into how the calculations are performed.
We hope this information will be helpful to your team. If there is anything we can do to help you with your important work in the coming month, please just ask!
Cheers,
Ben
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Professor Benjamin J. McCall
Associate Director for Campus Sustainability
Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
campus-sustainability@illinois.edu
Attached here are the agenda and other relevant materials for the September 25, 2014 meeting of the iCAP Working Group.
Thank you for the great report, Warren (and SWATeam). I am very impressed. I added some comments and sent Warren some data on the building-servicing by the WTS. If you have any questions, contact me.
Cheers,
Marcus
Marcus Ricci, MS, MUP
Building Energy Specialist, Smart Energy Design Assistance Center (SEDAC)
Several companies in the area provide a $2 credit for each ink cartridge returned. These companies include Best Buy, Office max, and Office Depot. ISTC does not get a credit for the toner cartridges but does return them to the company that they purchased them from. - Bart Bartels
Hello, team. The attached list prepared by the State of Illinois may be helpful in our discussion of goals and strategies. See you tomorrow. Best wishes. - Warren Lavey
The Facebook page for the Game Day Recycling Challenge has been launched. For the October 25th homecoming game we will be setting up 3 bin stations throughout the stadium for recycling, compost, and landfill. All collected weights will be reported to the Game Day website for the national competition. More details to follow.
Here is the Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/518311078270593/.
Here is the site for the Game Day Challenge: http://gamedaychallenge.org/.
Hello SWATeam,
Can we talk about the GHG emissions from waste being sent to the landfill(s) please? Take a look at this complicated emissions calculator.
The Input screen shows that the landfilled waste is going to a methane capture landfill (“Brickyard”). The “ACUPCC Reporting” screen shows that emissions from solid waste is NEGATIVE 172 MT CO2e.
I wonder. How much of the methane is actually collected at that landfill?
Thanks,
Morgan
Hello waste SWATeam and Ben,
As you know, the iCAP called for a Zero Waste Policy to be developed, and we have a draft for a CAM policy (attached).
I’m not sure a CAM policy is the best solution, so I asked around for information about where campus policies usually reside and I was given the following info. As the SWATeams are approved to move forward to the next phase, it would be great to have iSEE and the iCAP SWATeam take the lead on getting a formal Zero Waste Policy adopted.
Ben, Bart, and I have discussed this over the last few months, and I believe it is most appropriate advancing to campus decision makers through the iCAP process rather than through F&S. Please let me know what you think.
Thanks, Morgan
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Dear Purchasing, Waste, and Recycling SWATeam, I just wanted to add my $0.02 that I concur with Morgan that it makes sense to pursue the review and approval of a Zero Waste Policy through the SWATeam process, and your team is clearly the right one for this task. Cheers, Ben
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I like the idea. If there is an agreement, we can discuss the policy itself in our next meeting.
Regards,-Dilip Chhajed------------I'm in. - Warren Lavey
Intros. Ben McCall, Bart Bartels, Morgan Johnston, Olivia Webb, Guy Urugo (clerk), Dillip C. (faculty in business admin, Supply change management, Remanufacturing research, Happy to be here), Warren Lavey (wife with med school, Lawyer by training, Doing environmental progr work, American clean skies foundation in Washington, Focus on purchasing and using them to spur more clean markets and the sustainable leadership council), and Matt Murphy (Intern with green purpose in champaign).
Delighted that you've agreed to serve. Intro to iSEE. And SWATeams. Ben charged with figuring out how to make the icap happen. Quickly realized that it is impossible to have one person make much of an impact at all. So these six teams. Long term vision is these teams will provide recs to campus. Who do the recs go to and who decided what to approve. Discussion at vice chancellor and chancellor level happening now. So step one initial teams to evaluate where we are. And once it is decided where these teams report and how this process will work. The teams will be renewed to continue on. Core team of six with a surrounding consultation group around campus. They wouldn't necessarily be involved on the heavy lifting that this group would do. Too large a group is hard to get anything done and too small is too difficult. And also public sessions for whole campus to come and give advice and feedback. Right now fairly limited scope of SWATeam charge. We have missed a number of interim waste management goals already so Ben is declaring we will count everything before or by 2015 as a 2015 goal. A report of assessing where we are. Lavey - do we also have possibility of providing an action plan or expertise to bring our recs to adoption. Right now the team doesn't actually have authority to make those recs. but when the reporting / political issues are resolved, the long term program. Is there framework for developing data and reporting with respect to carbon footprint. Bart-It is a component in our annual report to acupcc. It is in there and only based on the weights going off campus which may not be very complete. Dillip. What format of a report? Are there milestones? BJM needs to report on it at earth week and he doesn't want to invent what to say. He wants a team of experts to present that. Vision is that one of the faculty members will serve as a chair of the group. How to move forward is up to this group. Dillip says he should have read the icap first. BJM says there isn't a whole lot in there. Goal of 75%. Ricci report says we are at 84.5% now. That includes animal waste. But what is our personal waste diversion rate? Discussion ensued about Marcus' report. Janet Milbrandt hasn't responded about being on the team. Lavey asked if there is any push on the vendor side. Bart said yes related to nitrile gloves. Explained the program Seth Rients started. If we charged an extra $1.80/box we could recycle them. Lavey. What about recycled content of what we are buying? has there been one. Bart had a conversation about recycled content paper. Ben noted that the BOT won't let us use recycled content paper for official business cards and letterhead. Office award program could include sustainable 30% recycled content. BJM said they have an intern. Ken Merrill told Bart they buy less than a truck a year at Central Stores. Warren asks about the scope of their work. Smartway system seems like it fits within the context of saving energy and purchasing. But it is not prolly the way you think about Zero waste? Can we look at the sustainability of our suppliers? BJM encouraged to think about the charge as broadly as you can. But keep in mind we have a fairly limited scope at this time. Avoid "should" and use "could." Olivia. We are a group of very passionate and highly connected people with a good opportunity to move this forward. How open is the admin to changing this doc formally? Or are they? Five year revision is appropriate. Updating the document? Great support for that. How ambitious should the goals be? We won't know how far we can go until we try. At a turning point. The iSEE is a direct action of the chancellor. A manifestation of her personal interest. Not easy. Need to build consensus. Dillip. How easy will it be to get the data. ISEE can certainly help. Feel free to ask for what you need and guy and BJM will help figure out how to get it for you. Bart. The decentralized nature of campus presents some difficulty. Ex gloves where are they getting it? Easier to ask vendor. Purchase process. The glove program is a pilot. Bart thinks that most of what we want to do will start with pilots. Discussed chair and selected Warren. Olivia said we could also share the workload of setting agendas. BJM said yes the activist approach is needed, but there needs to be a nominal leader. Olivia asked if we could make a list of issues. Bart read through Marcus' list of priorities. We recycle only #1 and 2, plastic bottles, paper and cardboard. Olivia asked, What about specific items that are problem areas for purchasing? Is there a critical area for purchasing? BJM there is a lot of space. Food. Locally sourced food. That's a different SWATeam working on that. Cleaning products. Bart thinks There's a state program.
