Final Project Deliverables for Spring 2020

There were 7 projects completed by the WIE-GFX Abroad Scholars in the Spring 2020 semester of ENG 177

1. Armory Bike Path Restoration
2. Study Abroad Carbon Offset
3. Electric Vehicle Charging Stations
4. AASHE STARS Report 2020
5. Food Waste
6. Sustainability Best Practices Guide
7. EPA SmartWay Program

Hello Transportation SWATeam members,

Thank you again for your willingness to help our campus achieve the Climate Leadership Commitments.  There is great value provided by the bi-weekly meetings of student, faculty, and staff representatives evaluating our progress and recommending additional actions campus units could take.

The following is a list of current activities I am aware of, and suggestions I have about useful next steps.  I am happy to follow up with you on any of these, as needed.

Thank you very much,

~Morgan

Transportation

1. EV analysis for department’s assigned vehicles – Hursh Hazari worked with Pete Varney’s data to evaluate the possibility of replacing some fleet vehicles with EVs.  https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project/use-electric-vehicles-ev-campus
2. Pete Varney has established the F&S fleet as a certified green fleet.  Pete, do you create an annual report for the status of that which you can share?  If not, can you provide an update to the SWATeam and to me? 
3. Last year the SWATeam discussed encouraging additional campus units to get certified as green fleets.  Your team could submit a recommendation for another unit (or more than one) to pursue that certification. 
4. New EV Chargers – Scott Willenbrock is working on one at the Illini Union + Phil Krein is interested in getting more Type 1 chargers for the North Campus Parking Deck.
5. Potential EV Study – At the Oct. 11 Workshop for the Living Lab research connections to iCAP, there will be seed funding offered and the study for transitioning to EVs could collect and use data on campus vehicle use.  Pete has example data, which could be used to support the request for seed funding, which could then possibly fund data collection for the study.
6. We do not yet have new air travel emission data.  iSEE is working on creating a virtual storeroom to offer carbon offsets to campus units to voluntarily buy air travel offsets.  The storeroom has funding for the first 10,000 offsets, but I understand there was a hurdle on selecting appropriate offsets with additionality.  I recommend asking Ben McCall and Scott Willenbrock about it.
7. A new Mode split survey is needed as soon as possible.  Lily Wilcock intends to bring this as an item for discussion.  We would appreciate it if you would help define the survey questions, and then iSEE can help distribute the survey to get updated figures. 
8. Bike Plan – I suggest you ask Stacey DeLorenzo to join one of your meetings to give an overview of the status of the Bike Plan infrastructure upgrades.
9. Lily has funding for a Bike at Illinois website, which Creative Services will develop in the winter and spring months this fiscal year. 
10. Lily has worked with MTD to offer bus tours to show campus staff how to use the MTD.  We teach all our new student how to ride, but none of the new employees get the personal introduction.  These tours are very successful, when they are organized with a specific department or location. 
11. Bike Parking – there is a significant capacity issue, which is noticeable just by looking around campus, especially during class hours in the core area.  Lily has a new website that she can show you, and there is an upcoming Bike Census, which your team members should help with.
12. Bike Sharing – a handful of dockless bike sharing companies are wanting to come to town/campus.  To manage their impacts (imagine bikes in the boneyard) they will be required to obtain city permits.  Lily is asking the SSC to use the funds they allocated to bike sharing for additional bike parking areas in the heart of campus.
13. MCORE – this project has several impacts on multi-modal transportation.  You can learn more at http://www.mcoreproject.com/project-construction-updates.

The Foundation gift fund you have requested has been created:

338548 Campus Bicycle Plan Implementation and Mission Fund

When your unit is transmitting gifts to the Foundation for processing use this fund name and number on the gift transmittal.

On March 3, 2015, the Chancellor's Capital Review Committee formally approved the 2014 Campus Bike Plan for inclusion in the official Master Planning documents.

Dear Transportation SWATeam,

Morgan and I had a very nice discussion with Pam Voitik at F&S late last week, and I wanted to brief you on some of the key points as they relate to the iCAP revisions.

1) F&S is in favor of hiring a full-time "Active Transportation Coordinator," and having that person report to the Transportation Demand Management Coordinator (Stacey DeLorenzo).  "Active Transportation" (as you probably all know, but I didn't!) is industry lingo for all transportation except single-occupancy-vehicles.  So this person would be responsible for mode shift, the Bike Plan, and so forth...basically the last two bullet points in item #6 on page 30 of the current draft.

2) Pete Varney and his team would be the sensible locus for efforts related to shifting the fleet more towards EVs and bicycles, and exploring renewable fuels for the fleet.  [The second and third bullet points in item #6 on page 30.]

3) The first bullet point, about air travel, is outside of the scope of F&S, and should perhaps be a focus of iSEE or another entity in the domain of the Chancellor or Vice Chancellors.

4) The Campus Bicycle Plan is essentially finalized now, but F&S is working on ascertaining exactly what entity should formally approve it. 

Pam's suggestion is that it should be approved by the campus leadership (rather than by F&S), but the responsibility for implementing it should be with F&S.  This would give the Plan more authority/heft than if it were approved by F&S alone. There is reason to hope that this approval will be finalized before the iCAP.

Cheers,

Ben