The Sustainability Council met on 12-13-22 and discussed the following agenda:
The meeting minutes and slide deck are attached.
The Sustainability Sub-Council met on Thursday, November 17 and discussed the following agenda.
1) Zero waste
2) Energy planning
3) Campus Strategic Plan
4) Old business
a. Sustainability General Education requirement
b. Sustainable land management committee report
The meeting minutes and PowerPoint presentation are attached.
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
•Old business
The Sustainability Sub-Council met on 3-30-22 in preparation of the Sustainability Council meeting. The agenda was as follows:
The meeting minutes and PowerPoint presentation are attached.
The iWG met on 3-29-22 and discussed the following agenda. The meeting minutes are attached.
Jennifer Fraterrigo reached out to Alexa Smith and Aaron Finder asking to have "pouring operations" defined in preparation for her presentation about plastics at the Sustainability Sub-council. Aaron Finder replied explaining that "pouring operations encompass everything outside of the campus vending machine program. This includes but is not limited to Athletics, Housing's dining, catering, and retail locations, Illini Union''s retail locations, and the conference center at the i-Hotel.
The SSLC underwent many changes under the new leadership of co-presidents Owen Jennings, Maiah Caise, Jack Reicherts, and Maria Maring. The board experimented with the mission and niche of the SSLC, ultimately establishing that the organization shall act as a medium of communication between student groups and the administration. The organization will also be the primary host of the annual Student Sustainability Summit in October, touting – among other interdisciplinary events – Green Quad Day, Sustainable Student Research Symposium, and Tuesday Talks at Bevier Cafe.
This Summit was the Council’s most noteworthy accomplishment this semester. The SSLC collaborated with: Red Bison, Outdoor Adventure Club, the Department of Agriculture and Biological Engineering, the Sustainable Student Farm, the Pilot Processing Plant, Grand Prairie Friends, the F&S Solar House, Stop Line 3 CU, Students for Environmental Concerns, Prairie Rivers Network, and the Student Sustainability Committee. This myriad of events had varying levels of attendance. The SSLC leadership learned two primary lessons from the inaugural Student Sustainability Summit: first, quality over quantity in terms of events; and second, planning well ahead of time is absolutely essential in order to adequately advertise each event. If you attended or co-hosted any Summit event, and you would like to let the SSLC board know your feedback, please fill out this form. The current SSLC leadership looks forward to how future leadership will expand upon the Summit.
Another noteworthy accomplishment of the SSLC this semester was action following the publication of the Campus Admin Manual’s Expressive Activity Policy draft. Students were largely emotional about the policy’s stringent punishment for demonstrations on campus, so the SSLC – in conjunction with SECs and the SSC – wrote a letter to Chancellor Jones demanding that the policy more closely align with the student body’s needs. As of January 2022, the SSLC has received no reply from the Office of the Chancellor.
Co-presidents Maria Maring and Owen Jennings spoke at the Campus Sustainability Celebration and Sustainability Council meeting, respectively, on the topic of divestment. Though SSLC leadership was merely prompted to give basic updates at these meetings, they utilized the face-to-face opportunity with campus administrators to voice student concerns about completing iCAP Objective 9.1: Fully divest from fossil fuel companies by FY25.
In a first, the SSLC and general members participated in the Homecoming Parade. Roughly a dozen students marched with divestment-related signs. The SSLC hopes to expand Homecoming attendance next year.
The SSLC revived its dormant Facebook account (@sslcuiuc) and newly established an Instagram account (@uiuc_sslc). On the latter, the SSLC made 40 posts and gained 227 followers. The Facebook account has 93 followers; engagement on this platform is much less. The SSLC also made a linktree and a Google calendar to which other RSOs can sync. That way, all events from all different orgs are all conveniently on one calendar. This joint calendar is still undergoing troubleshooting, and it is not yet available for public viewing.
Amidst these new endeavors, the SSLC held full membership meetings roughly once a month, as did the previous leadership. One recurring issue was lack of attendance and engagement. Leadership held many conversations with both general members and staff advisors about how to increase the efficacy of the Council, but no good solution was found. The SSLC will continue to hold these monthly meetings and brainstorm about how to increase engagement throughout the upcoming spring semester.
The SSLC board met weekly. If you have any questions or feedback, please contact the Council at sslc-chair@mx-illinois.edu.
The Sustainability Council is in support of further discussion about the Vet Med Parking Lot Re-Design and broader rainwater management issues, as discussed at the meeting on November 29, 2021. F&S will get the committee together to discuss broad rainwater management issues, and one of the tasks will be to discuss the Vet Med challenge. For future project updates, visit the Vet Med Parking Lot Re-Design project page here.
=====================
See transmittal and iWG assessment of the LW002 Vet Med Parking Lot Re-Design.
See submittal of LW002 Vet Med Parking Lot Re-Design here.
Following the completion of iWG assessment for LW002 Vet Med Parking Lot Re-design, the recommendation was transmitted to the Sustainability Sub-Council (11-10-21) and Sustainability Council (11-29-21).
See the attached iWG assessment for LW002 Vet Med Parking Lot Re-design.
See the Land and Water recommendation of LW002 Vet Med Parking Lot Re-Design.
Following the completion of iWG assessment for Engagement001 General Education Board Sustainability Sub-group, the recommendation was transmitted to the Sustainability Sub-Council (4-5-21) and Sustainability Council (4-28-21).
===========================
Dr. Ximing Cai sent the following message to Dr. Bill Stewart on 4-14-21:
Dear Dr. Stewart:
Greetings! I’m writing about the ongoing student senate resolution on sustainability education. As you noticed, the Engagement SWATeam submitted a recommendation to support the resolution. Thanks for your comments as attached to the end of the recommendation. The iCAP Working Group (iWG) discussed the recommendation and concluded that “The iWG supports the creation of a General Education Board task committee to discuss feasibility and implementation of a sustainability gen-ed requirement as soon as possible. This is in support of the ISG resolution, which was approved February 2020.”
The Engagement SWATeam & iWG recommendation will be presented to the Sustainability Council meeting on April 28th as a discussion item, which will go after the introduction of the resolution by a student senate representative. iSEE Interim Director Madhu Khanna and I would like to invite you to join the discussion, given that you’re familiar with the resolution, the Engagement SWATeam recommendation and your membership with General Education Board. In particular, you’re expected to answer some questions from the Council members, as well as provide relevant information.
We assume this effort will eventually go through the Senate mechanism. iSSE/iCAP hopes to show our support & engagement since it is consistent to some major education objectives of iCAP 2020. We also hope the discussion at the Council meeting chaired by Chancellor with attendance of Provost and Deans will speed up the process.
The meeting is at 10:00-11:30 on April 28th. The particular discussion will take about 20 minutes. I will tell you later the appropriate time at which the discussion will start.
Best regards
Ximing Cai
iSEE Associate Director on Campus Sustainability
===========================
See iWG assessment of Engagement001 General Education Board Sustainability Sub-group attached.
See original recommendation and submittal of Engagement001 General Education Board SUstainability Sub-Group here.
The Sustainability Council met on 11-29-21. The presentation is attached and the agenda was as follows:
Following the completion of iWG assessment for Energy006 Integrate iCAP Goals into Research/Learning Labs, the recommendation was transmitted and discussed at the Sustainability Council meeting on November 29, 2021.
See iWG assessment of Energy006 Integrate iCAP Goals into Research/Learning Labs attached.
See submittal of Energy006 Integrate iCAP Goals into Research/Learning Labs here.
The Sustainability Council is in support of the development of a Clean Energy Plan, as discussed at the meeting on November 29, 2021. Madhu Khanna and Ehab Kamarah agreed to work together on behalf of iSEE and F&S to move this forward and go through the RFP process.
===============
See transmittal and iWG assessment of Energy007 Implementation of Comprehensive Energy Plan here.
See submittal of Energy007 Implementation of Comprehensive Energy Plan here.
For future updates, see the Energy Planning Document project page.
The Sustainability Council met on November 29, 2021 and discussed:
The presentation is attached.
The iWG met on 11-19-21 to discuss the following agenda. The meeting minutes are attached.
The Sustainability Sub-Council met on November 10, 2021 in preparation of the Sustainability Council meeting. The primary agenda items included:
The slide deck is attached with meeting minutes to follow.
Colleagues,
Please see the attached correspondence sent on behalf of Chancellor Robert J. Jones regarding the FY22 Sustainability Council.
Kindest regards,
Wendy
Wendy M. Bertram
Executive Assistant to the Chancellor
The Energy004 recommendation was discussed at the spring 2021 Sustainability Sub-Council meeting and was then sent to UES to address. Rob Roman, F&S Director of Energy and Utility Services, sent the following response:
“UES has had the opportunity to have discussions with the College of ACES and the Provost office regarding a large ESCO project being performed at the ACES facilities. This project has received a priority status for the Energy Performance Contracting group, who will begin working with the College on scope development of the project. The Provost Budget Office remains supportive of the ESCO initiatives.”
See iWG assessment and transmittal of Energy004 - Energy Conservation Funding here.
See iCAP Team submittal and recommendation of Energy004 - Energy Conservation Funding here.
For additional progress on this effort, see Energy Performance Contracting / ESCO.
Interim Director for iSEE, Madhu Khanna, released the formal charge letter for the FY22 Sustainability Sub-Council. In this document, Khanna outlines the members' official campus sustainability duties for the academic year.
See the attached file to read the formal FY22 Sustainability Sub-Council Charge Letter!
Attached are the meeting minutes from 9-22-21. The agenda focused on iWG iCAP 2020 priorities, Council/Sub-council updates, ZW004 and LW002 next steps, an overview of campus sustainability month, and updates from the student groups.
