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Projects Updates for Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)

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  1. Illini Lights Out

    The ECBS SWATeam would like to be able to continue the ‘Illini Lights Out’ program and expand it to one Friday night each month during the academic year. Interest in doing so is based on the phenomenal success of the pilot ‘Illini Lights Out’ conducted on April 15th, 2016. In an Illini Lights Out event, pairs or small teams of volunteer students are accompanied by campus security/other personnel (as necessary) and are assigned buildings to audit on the main Quad to turn off non-essential lights in classrooms/bathrooms not in use. Volunteers meet at a designated location to sign in, review safety protocols and receive their tally sheets. Students use these sheets to indicate any empty rooms where they turned off lights. After the audit is complete, students return all forms to designated staff and are then eligible for a complimentary meal (pizza/burritos) in exchange for their assistance. This event both results in direct energy conservation impact on campus and also helps to inspire students to make small behavioral changes to their routine to enhance sustainability more broadly and throughout life. Buildings audited in the pilot project included Altgeld Hall, English Building, Lincoln Hall, Gregory Hall, Daniel Kinley Hall, Foreign Languages Building, Davenport Hall, and Noyes Laboratory. Given that we would plan to audit a similar number of buildings each event this year, it is expected that 16–24 student volunteers are needed per event. This proposal directly funds: 1) Print and digital advertising for volunteer recruitment 2) Volunteer incentives.

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  2. Funding Letter - Geothermal TRT

    The applied for funding will be used in the construction of a Thermal Response Test unit for use in the Geothermal Pilot project that is currently being implemented on the UIUC Campus. The overall goal of the project is to assess the viability of geothermal heat exchange on this campus as well as the best implementation of this technology. The Thermal response test unit will measure the ability of the local geology to support geothermal heat exchange in the future. The unit will be designed to be used in all future geothermal projects. This project is student-led, and development and construction of the Thermal Response Test Unit will be conducted entirely by University of Illinois students. This proposal directly funds: 1) Construction Supplies 2) Transportation Costs.

  3. Funding Letter - Bike Maintenance Instructor

    Since 2010, The Bike Project has been collaborating with the University of Illinois to provide an educational space on campus. Bicycle education taught through that space encourages the campus community to ride bicycles for transportation because the bicycles sold and worked on at the Campus Bike Center are reliable and safe. While some people are willing to volunteer to teach advanced level bicycle repair classes at the Bike Center, few are willing to teach very basic entry-level classes addressing such issues as adjusting brakes, lubricating chains, and fixing flat tires. This project funds two semesters of stipend for an instructor to teach classes at the Bike Center covering these topics. Combined class capacity over the two semesters would exceed 200 new cyclists. This proposal directly funds: 1) Two semesters of labor for a beginner-level bicycle class.

  4. iSEE Collaboratory Agreement

    At the heart of iSEE’s mission is training students to become the next generation of sustainability leaders. To help fulfill this mission, iSEE will develop a “collaboratory” — a new classroom, conference, collaboration, and communications space next to our offices in the National Soybean Research Center (NSRC). This new complex will include space for experiential learning, a collaboration incubator, and a communications laboratory. Two major facets to iSEE’s instructional mission include a new undergraduate minor in sustainability and a new undergraduate environmental writing certificate. Together, these activities will involve up to ~500 students annually. To serve these students, as well as to provide space for student sustainability groups and other RSOs, we will develop, for the first time, a central Collaboratory designed to facilitate group activities, with state-of-the-art communications capabilities for research, collaboration, and conferencing. By providing advanced teleconferencing capabilities, the collaboratory will also provide access to virtual conferences and webinars for professional development, thus reducing campus carbon emissions derived from travel to offsite conference. This proposal directly funds remaining costs needed to begin the design and renovation process.

     

  5. Funding Letter - KCPA Lobby Lighting

    The Lobby of KCPA is a large 5,000 square foot student-centric multiuse area, arguably one of the most used spaces in one of the most iconic buildings on the campus of U of I Urbana-Champaign. The facility hosts an estimated 200,000 thousand guests, employees, faculty and students every year. The building is nearing its 50th anniversary, and assuring that the functions of the building continue to be upgraded and enhanced to maintain its popularity, frequent usage, and increased sustainable condition in keeping with the campus strategic plan is a priority of the Campus and the College of Fine and Applied Arts. Current fixtures in the KCPA Lobby are older LED technology built into the ceiling with fewer than two years remaining on their life expectancy. The goal of this project would be to replace the existing 560 LED fixtures (32 watts each) with new LED fixtures (18 watts each) that have the advantage of long term fixture life and with the added advantage of simply unscrewing an old LED lamp after 10 years or so and screwing in a new LED lamp. The need to replace fixtures after another 10 years will have been negated, and now the operations personnel of the building will be able to replace the lamps as needed for decades to come. This proposal directly funds: 1) LED fixtures, lamps, and controls 2) Field programming 3) Labor from skilled trades to remove old units and install new ones.

  6. Funding Letter - Raw Water Metering

    The Business Instructional Facility (BIF) was constructed with a separate raw water system that conveys non-potable water for the purpose of flushing toilets. While the system is in place, it was never connected to an outside source of non potable water largely due to current non-progressive plumbing codes. Metering the raw water system at BIF would provide data about the temporal total and non-potable water demand in a typical class/office building. F&S installed a temporary meter to measure flow to the raw water system and operated this meter for approximately one month between April and May 2016, which yielded promising results. In particular, for the month that the meter was in place, results indicated about 2/3 of the water used in BIF was for the non-potable lines. Because building usage can vary dramatically during the year, it is recommended to install a meter permanently. Once the meter is installed, the data is intended to be used to support changes to plumbing codes, allowing raw water to be used more easily, as well as changes to the campus construction codes, requiring that separate raw water systems be installed in new buildings and during major renovations of existing ones. This proposal directly funds: 1) An additional meter for the BIF Raw Water line 2) Installation costs.

  7. Project Paplet Agreement

    Project Paplet began in Malaysia as a paper recycling campaign aiming to take once-used paper and turn it into recycled notebooks for children in need. Localizing the project to the University of Illinois, students from the Society of Women Engineers will be collecting used paper from campus departments and producing hundreds of paplets to be donated to the on-campus Child Development Laboratory for use by the pupils. This project aims to educate the public on the social impact that recycling can have on the community. It also aims to increase awareness on the uses of recycled paper beyond its traditional applications. This proposal directly funds: 1) Spiral binding equipment 2) Supplies and cardstock.

  8. Residential Native Plants

    The Lincoln Avenue Residence Hall Living and Learning Community (LLC) is aware of the interest in increasing the number of campus locations with native plants. They would like to join the effort to plant Native Plant Species in selected areas around Campus. The goal of this project is to locate plants in places like the unused space between Allen Hall and Lincoln Ave. Residence. There are several other locations around these residences that are suitable for planting near the buildings and in areas where mowing is difficult because of corners and the placing of equipment like large compressors. By selecting a variety of plants that bloom over the growing season, this project provides habitat and food resources for a wide range of butterflies, bees, and other pollinators as well as birds. This proposal directly funds: 1) One Student Internship 2) Site Preparation Costs 3) Soil Supplies and Plants.

  9. Environmental Justice is Social Justice Agreement

    INNER VOICES Social Issues Theatre is raising awareness and address issues of Environmental Justice through the creation and production of an original play with accompanying educational materials and holding an inaugural National Call for Scripts focused on the theme Environmental Justice Is Social Justice. Through SSC funding, two theatrical pieces will be produced. The first is a newly-penned work from University of Illinois students and staff, and will be performed on campus throughout Fall 2017. The second will be a series of vignettes submitted through a national call for scripts. Both pieces will be performed dozens of times on campus, and each performance will be followed by reflection and discussion. This proposal directly funds: 1) Honoraria for national script submissions 2) Printing and publicity costs 3) Equipment rentals 4) A small amount of wages for student interns.

  10. Funding Letter - Illini EcoConcept

    This project funds the Illini EcoConcept team for their efforts to design and manufacture a Hydrogen Fuel Cell Urban Concept Vehicle to compete in the Shell EcoMarathon Competition in 2017. While the competition has always been centered on energy efficiency, it also promotes and rewards innovation that leads to a more sustainable energy system to support communities around the globe. Specifically, in the Urban-Concept Vehicle division, teams compete to have the most efficient vehicle that incorporates many features of real-world cars, such as wet-weather driving ability, headlights, turn indicators, and so on. The Illini EcoConcept has chosen to power their vehicle using hydrogen fuel cell, which has been gaining popularity lately, and is seeking to break the competition efficiency record in the coming school year. The team would like to build on the 2nd place finish in the Americas region last year and be able to compete in the world championship. Specifically, the team strives to (i) promote the use of hydrogen fuel cell as a clean alternative to combustion engines, (ii) build a whole new drivetrain system that would eliminate the causes of inefficiencies found in the previous years, (iii) design and fabricate a lighter chassis and body, and (iv) develop an air-cooling system that would prevent overheating of the system. This proposal directly funds: 1) Parts and Supplies 2) Manufacturing Costs for Custom Modules.

  11. SAFS Phase 2 Agreement

    This project is a significant expansion of the current local food partnership existing between the Student Sustainable Farm (SSF), Multifunctional Woody Perennial Polyculture (MWP), FSHN Pilot Processing Plant (PPP), and UIUC Dining. Presently the Sustainable Agriculture Food System grows, processes, and serves on campus a variety of tomato sauces (pizza sauce is served across campus) and hot sauce. Soon, the Sustainable Agriculture Food System will add a whole wheat flour milling line. It have a very successful and growing program to provide quality, sustainable, and local food products and education to the UIUC students. This particular project will focus on the addition of a fresh juice processing line that will be able to handle a wide array of fruits and vegetables, packaged into an array of containers from single serving to bulk. As with the other projects, this partnership has no funding for large capital equipment expenditures, and relies on grants to increase its capacity. Dining Services is a strong partner in this project and has agreed to provide a grant to help with the purchase of items needed to produce fresh juice products including a harvester for fruit from the MWP site. The full proposal requested both juice extraction and juice bottling equipment. This phase of funding covers remaining bottling equipment costs. All bottles will feature messaging urging students to recycle and spotlighting sustainable goals and outcomes This proposal directly funds: 1) Bottling equipment 2) Some associated supplies.

  12. Funding Letter - Bike Registration RFID

    This project funds an opt-in bike tracking system for all registered campus bikes working toward two goals: 1) Collecting useful data on where cyclists are biking on campus for more accurate and timely information than the perennial bike census; and 2) Providing incentives for people who bike to campus, in the form of points toward or drawings for gift certificates for local dining options near campus. When students and faculty of the University register their bikes, they will each receive a tag for their bike with a personal ID number. With the data collected about their individual biking habits, students and faculty will be able to track how often they bike and earn rewards through an online interface and incentive system. The interface will show the number of times biked, the rewards an individual can earn, and offer the ability to submit reports since bikers often see needed improvements before planners and engineers. This system is being developed entirely in-house by a team of women engineers. This proposal directly funds: 1) Supplies for creating the system 2) Two interns to assist with logistics 3) Mounting equipment and RFID tags.

  13. EV Car Charging Pilot Study Agreement

    Campus currently has a scarcity of EV Charging Stations on campus, with only eight public and nine permit-required charging stations on campus utilizing level 1 chargers, and only two level 2 chargers on the far east side of campus. Level 1 chargers take significantly longer to charge than Level 2, and there is distinct room for campus to grow in this regard. This project will expand the number of level 2 chargers on campus to promote the utilization of more electric vehicles. Initially, 1-2 stations will be installed, with metering equipment included in order to track utilization and demand. This proposal directly funds: 1) Up to two Electric Vehicle chargers 2) Installation costs from Facilities and Services.

  14. Brewing the Best Bankable Biodiesel Agreement

    The Illinois Biodiesel Initiative (IBI) converts waste vegetable oil from campus dining halls into biodiesel (intended for campus vehicles) and biosoap (intended for pre-washing in the dining halls), and aims to do so in a financially and environmentally sustainable manner. Currently, Garage and Car Pool, IBI’s largest customer, requires that biodiesel meets the ASTM D6751 standard. This requires frequent quality control testing that would be cost prohibitive for a project of this scale to send to on off-site firm. The equipment funded by SSC through this award will allow students, under faculty guidance, to conduct their own quality control testing at a more economical cost. In addition to the hands-on experience students will gain, this also gives IBI all the tools to be fully financially self-supporting. This proposal directly funds: 1) Equipment for conducting tests 2) Initial reagents and other supplies for the first round of testing.

  15. 2016 Game Day Recycling Challenge Funding Agreement

    Implemented in October 2014 at the Homecoming football game, the Game Day Recycling Challenge at UIUC brought together hundreds of volunteers from all over the Urbana-Champaign community to assist the thousands of spectators at the game in reducing waste – from the money spent sending materials to landfill to the volume of materials that impact our water, air, and soil. This event was part of a national competition divided up by conference and division, and at the end of the day a waste diversion rate of 60% was achieved.

    After a hiatus in 2015, the Game Day Recycling Challenge hopes to return to even greater success. In addition to reducing the waste products from a single football game, this project will work to change fans’ habits and permanently alter the waste stream of Division of Intercollegiate Athletics events from landfilling all waste to a more sustainable multi-stream system

  16. Urban Farmers - Funding Agreement

    This project provides Illini Urban Farmers with a hydroponics systems for our club to learn more about urban farming and grow student effort on campus. Once an understanding is developed on how the system functions, efforts can be expanded for use within campus dining halls, dorms, or other buildings. The university will benefit from having this system because it will provide a feasibility study of using these systems on a college campus for year round sustainable food production.

  17. Aquaponics Funding Letter

    This project creates an aquaponics system that will work as a demonstrative unit on campus to spread sustainability awareness and illustrate the effectiveness of aquaponics in a small area. The goal of aquaponics is to create a closed ecosystem in which both plants and fish benefit and grow. Aquaponics has the potential to produce large quantities of both vegetables and fish with minimal inputs and nearly no negative outputs. The project teams’s desire is to establish a base system from which the possibility to expand exists. This project is student led and contain an educational element on aquaponics. This proposal is linked with the student sustainability course GCL 127.

  18. FLB Green Lighting Funding Agreement

    Hallways in the Foreign Language Building, especially on the upper floors, may go long periods with no traffic. However, the overhead lighting is always on, which is extremely energy inefficient. This project aims to replace some of the overhead lighting with more energy efficient options and install occupancy sensors to automatically dim the lights when people are not present.

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