Women in Engineering (WIE) Grainger First-Year Experience (GFX) student, Abby Culloton, is working with Morgan White and Sinead Soltis at F&S to lead the integration of SmartWay on campus, pending the completion of the EPA SmartWay Affiliate Agency agreement for campus. Abby will do this as part of her class project, and in support of campus sustainability.
Executive Director of Facilities & Services, Mohammed Atalla, responded over email to Ximing Cai (iSEE Associate Director for Campus Sustainability) in support of the recommendation:
"Facilities & Services, in collaboration with Jamie Singson at the Illini Union, will proceed with investigating the recommendation to join the EPA’s SmartWay partnership program. Morgan will be arranging a webinar/conference call with the representatives from EPA’s SmartWay program and the associated departments on campus per your recommendation. Then each respective department will determine how to proceed, when the process is clear. Morgan will provide updates via the iCAP Portal SmartWay project page: https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project/smartway-transport-partnership."
See the iWG Assessment of PWR011 SmartWay Union here.
See SWATeam recommendation PWR011 SmartWay Union here.
This recommendation has been submitted to the Illini Union and F&S Stores.
See attached iWG assessment.
See SWATeam recommendation PWR011 SmartWay Union here.
Morgan White talked with Denise Kearns at EPA about the SmartWay program and options for UI participation, in addition to the existing partnership with Dining Services.
Morgan asked Denise to:
The iCAP Working Group (iWG) met on April 9, 2018, to start the discussion on SWATeam recommendation, PWR011 SmartWay Union. The iWG started the assessment of this recommendation during the May 10, 2018, meeting. The iWG's draft comment on the recommendation was:
"We agree that F&S and the Illini Union should participate EPA SmartWay Program. EPA has identified someone to assist with considering options."
Attached are the meeting minutes from the iWG meeting that was held on April 9th, 2018.
The PWR SWATeam submitted a recommendation to the iWG stating, "We recommend that Facilities and Services and the Illini Union become certified as an EPA SmartWay Logistics Company Partner, following the example set by University Housing and Dining Services in 2013."
See attached the SWATeam recommendation PWR011 SmartWay Union complete with comments from all the PWR SWATeam members.
The PWR SWATeam had their first meeting of the semester, where they discussed several updates related to purchasing, waste, and recycling. The Team discussed concerns about recycling bins on the Main Quad, persistent issues with the purchasing of recycled paper on campus, challenges with a centralized battery recycling program, and the formal adoption of EPEAT standards for electronics on campus. The SWATeam also discussed and provided feedback on a formal recommendation for the expansion of SmartWay to other campus units.
The PWR SWATeam met to discuss objectives and goals for the year, as well as provide feedback on the proposed Campus Administrative Manual policy on purchasing paper of recycled content. The team discussed a broad range of projects and delegated next steps for moving forward on each.
Many purchasers require that their trucking carriers participate in the SmartWay Transport Partnership. In addition, purchasers can participate in SmartWay as shippers (as UIUC Housing did), which facilitates the tracking of emissions from their carriers and allows them to compete for awards presented annually by EPA.
Here are some examples.
1. The State of Illinois' contract for Small Package Air and Ground Parcel Delivery Services, signed in 2014, requires that the carrier "must maintain its enrollment in the USEPA SmartWay® Program and continue in 'good standing', by submitting required data annually, for the duration of any awarded contract without backsliding." "Backsliding" refers to maintaining the carrier's annual SmartWay performance ranking (1 to 5). See State of Illinois Contract CPOGS15001 (attached), Section 1.5.1 and Attachment A. This contract is available for agency and university use. The RFP required that bidders participate in the SmartWay Transport Partnership.
2. A federal contract -- Domestic Delivery Services 3, for the General Services Administration and at least 14 other participating agencies, signed in 2014 -- includes the following provision: "Contractors are required to belong to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) SmartWay Transport Partnership, a voluntary partnership between the Federal Government and the trucking industry, to improve the environmental performance of freight and small package transport by adopting fuel and emission-reducing strategies. As an alternative, contractors may also report GHG emissions directly to GSA and the Department of Energy through the annual GHG inventory process which is followed by federal agencies." See GSA, "DDS 3 Green Features Fact Sheet" http://www.gsa.gov/portal/getMediaData?mediaId=196419.
3. Federal Executive Order 13693 ("Planning for Federal Sustainability in the Next Decade", March 2015) directs agencies to apply preferences in purchasing for SmartWay participating carriers and SmartWay products. See Section 3(i)(ii): "[T]he head of each agency shall, where life-cycle cost effective, beginning in fiscal year 2016, ... promote sustainable acquisition and procurement by ensuring that each of the following environmental performance and sustainability factors are included to the maximum extent practicable for all applicable procurements in the planning, award, and execution phases of the acquisition by ... purchasing sustainable products and services identified by EPA programs including ... WaterSense certified products and services (water efficient products); Safer Choice labeled products (chemically intensive products that contain safer ingredients), and SmartWay Transport partners and SmartWay products (fuel efficient products and services)." https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/03/19/executive-order-planning-federal-sustainability-next-decade
4. The SmartWay Excellence Awards for 2014 recognized seven shippers for moving 98 percent of their products and merchandise with high-performing SmartWay carriers: Lowe's, The Home Depot, Hewlett-Packard, Johns Manville, Kimberly-Clark, S. C. Johnson, and Nordstrom. http://www.epa.gov/smartway/about/documents/awards/420f14052.pdf As another illustration, Best Buy strongly encourages its carriers to participate in SmartWay, contractually requires all of its over-the-road trucking and intermodal business to be handled by SmartWay partners, and provides SmartWay partners prime docking times and locations. http://www.fleetequipmentmag.com/best-buy-an-active-smartway-shipper-partner/
From: Milbrandt, Janet
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2014 2:02 PM
To: Lavey, Warren Gary; McCall, Benjamin; Bartels, Bart A
Cc: Bohlen, Kayci; Taylor, Mark A
Subject: RE: new State of Illinois UPS contract
I am forwarding you to the Sourcing Office for the University of IL.
From: Lavey, Warren Gary
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2014 9:27 AM
To: Milbrandt, Janet; McCall, Benjamin; Bartels, Bart A
Subject: new State of Illinois UPS contract
Hello, Janet. The State of Illinois is implementing a new contract with UPS for ground and air package delivery services. UIUC is an eligible customer under this contract.
This contract was awarded pursuant to the Illinois Transportation Sustainability Procurement Program Act of 2013, with environmental factors comprising 20 percent of the bidder evaluation criteria. The contract includes provisions for tracking emissions and fuel consumption related to the services provided. Alternative fuels, including biofuels, and cleaner vehicles are encouraged for UPS's services under this contract. I don't have any information on the rates under the new contract.
Can you arrange a meeting with UIUC's UPS contract representative to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of migrating UIUC's shipments from UIUC's existing UPS contract to the new State of Illinois contract? I would like to participate in this meeting.
Thanks and best wishes.
Professor Lavey presented a seminar through the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) last week on governments' efforts to promote cleaner trucking services. The focus was on tools beyond legislation and regulations, especially imposing low-emissions conditions on access to properties and applying environmental preferences in government purchases. Here is the short description:
Technologies to cut truck emissions are available and cost-effective, and should be encouraged by a range of government and private actions. In 2013, Chicago approved the expansion of a railroad terminal contingent on retrofitting dozens of trucks with clean diesel filters. Illinois agencies are reforming freight and package delivery purchasing programs to implement the Transportation Sustainability Procurement Program Act of 2013. Similarly, the U.S. General Services Administration is applying new environmental preferences in selecting transportation vendors and tracking their performance.
Project advocates met with representatives of iSEE and F&S to discuss the SmartWay program. Additional follow up information was shared from Professor Lavey.
NRES Professor Warren Lavey helped the University become the first academic institution to join the EPA's SmartWay program. See the NRES press release. It was picked up by the Pontiac Daily Leader.
