iWG Meeting Notes from 05/23/2023
Please see attached the iWG meeting notes from the meeting held on May 23, 2023. During this meeting, the following recommendations were discussed:
Please see attached the iWG meeting notes from the meeting held on May 23, 2023. During this meeting, the following recommendations were discussed:
On May 5, 2023, the Tranportation iCAP Team submitted the Trans015 Fleet Replacement recommendation. See below a preview of the recommendation:
The objective of this recommendation is to establish a framework for accomplishing iCAP 2020 Objective 3.1, which states, “Establish written replacement plans for at least 80% of campus fleets by FY24 to improve university-owned vehicle efficiency.” By
- Enumerating a definition for a “fleet” as it applies to vehicles on campus, and
- Requiring campus units with a fleet more than 5 vehicles to establish a “Fleet Administrator” tasked with communicating with the F&S Fleet Operations team and creating a written replacement plan for the fleet, and
- Requiring all Fleet Administrators to have a minimum of once-a-year meeting with the F&S Fleet Operations team.
DEFINITIONS
Campus Fleet
- The total number of vehicles owned and operated by the various units of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus.
Unit Fleet
- A total of 5 or more vehicles operated by an individual unit on campus.
This recommendation calls on each campus unit with 5 or more vehicles to appoint an employee as a “Fleet Administrator”. The Fleet Administrator will be tasked with the following responsibilities:
- Establishing a sustainable fleet plan capable of achieving certification with the National Association of Fleet Administrators (NAFA).
- Establishing a written, comprehensive strategy for replacing the fleet’s existing vehicles with more environmentally sustainable models.
- Communicating with the Fleet Operations team at the Transportation & Building Services department at Facilities & Services regarding development of the sustainable fleet plan or fleet replacement plan.
- Communicating with other Fleet Administrators regarding development of the sustainable fleet plan or fleet replacement plan.
- Attending annual meeting(s) with all Fleet Administrators, the Fleet Operations team at Facilities & Services, members of iSEE, and the Parking Department to discuss progress in development and implementation of fleet replacement plans and identify best practices moving forward.
Strategies for creating a sustainable fleet plan or fleet replacement plan may include the following:
- Consulting with Fleet Operations team at the Transportation & Building Services department at Facilities & Services regarding the replacement of their fleet vehicles
- Plans for transitioning to newer vehicle models with higher fuel efficiency or alternative fuel sources such as electricity or hydrogen.
- Plans for “right-sizing” the fleet that assesses the extent university vehicles are being used:
- To complete necessary tasks.
- By designated personnel.
- In a fuel and cost-efficient manner.
- Limiting the idling of vehicles
- Educational training for their drivers
- Reporting of vehicle and fuel usage as well as setting a target reduction for following years
Suggested unit/department to address implementation: All campus units with more than 5 vehicles.
Dr. Ehab Kamarah, Executive Director of F&S, responded to Dr. Jennifer Fraterrigo, iSEE Associate Director of Campus Sustainability, with the following email:
"This is to confirm that F&S team will form the EV Task Force with input from the Parking Advisory Committee."
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See submittal and Trans014 recommendation here.
See transmittal and iWG assessment of Trans014 Electric Vehicle Task Force Membership here.
For future updates, see the Electric Vehicle (EV) Task Force project page.
Following the completion of iWG assessment for Trans014 Electric Vehicle Task Force Membership, the recommendation was transmitted to Dr. Ehab Kamarah on 3/29/22.
See iWG assessment of Trans014 Electric Vehicle Task Force Membership attached.
See submittal of Trans014 EV Task Force here.
The iWG met on 2-25-22 and discussed the Energy008 and Energy009 recommendations, Trans014, and plastic reduction initiatives. Andy Stumpf and Bill Rose, the Energy iCAP Team chairs, joined the meeting to discuss the two Energy recommendations. The meeting minutes are attached.
The Transportation iCAP team submitted the following Electric Vehicle Task Force Membership recommendation on 12/20/21:
"We recommend a list of potential members to be considered to participate in the EV Task Force. We suggest Parking to review the list that the Transportation iCAP Team compiled and recommend members as they see fit."
Morgan White and Ximing Cai, the iWG co-chairs, returned the Trans012 Carpool Survey recommendation on February 2, 2021 with the following email.
Hello Transportation iCAP Team,
The iCAP Working Group is continuing to work through the several SWATeam recommendations that were submitted in April 2020. Ximing and I appreciate your patience with this process, which took some additional time due to the iCAP 2020 completion work (and the pandemic).
The Carpool Survey recommendation, Trans012, was initially submitted as a recommendation to conduct a survey, develop a plan, and implement a pilot program. With the Campus as a Living Lab (CALL) project, Student Mobility on and around the Illinois campus, funded in Fall 2019, Ximing reached out to Dr. Ouyang this summer. He shared this update, “Originally we were hoping to conduct not only the survey but also do an initial design of the service system (service model, business plan, resource assessment, economic analysis).” and “We were planning to send out the survey (as major task of the $9K seed project) in Spring 2020, but the topic (carpool service) was inappropriate under the COVID-19 environment -- the results would likely be heavily biased under the unusual circumstance.”
Because there is work underway through the CALL project, and while this work is on-hold for the pandemic, Ximing and I have decided to formally “return” this recommendation to your team. We are very supportive of this project moving forward, once we are in the post-pandemic world. Please consider this particular recommendation (Trans012) as closed. When the CALL efforts are further along, we would be happy to see a new SWATeam Recommendation for the next steps.
Thank you for all your excellent work! We look forward to additional recommendations from your team.
Sincerely,
Morgan and Ximing
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See the Trans012 Carpool Survey submittal.
Dr. Mohamed Attalla, Executive Director of Facilities and Services, responded to Dr. Ximing Cai, iWG co-chair, with the following email:
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Hello Ximing
Thank you for the SWATeam recommendation, Transp013, about a UI Ride Survey. F&S will contact the Transportation SWATeam when the UI Ride program is back up and running, and at that time we can discuss the specifics of the survey questions and distribution method.
Many thanks
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See transmittal of Trans013 UI Ride Survey to F&S here.
See iWG assessment of Trans013 UI Ride Survey here.
See SWATeam recommendation and submittal of Trans013 UI Ride Survey here.
For future updates, see the UI Ride project page.
Following the completion of iWG assessment for Trans013 UI Ride Survey, the recommendation was transmitted to Mohamed Attalla, Executive Director of Facilities and Services, on June 3, 2020.
See the iWG assessment Trans013 UI Ride Survey attached.
See the SWATeam recommendation Trans013 UI Ride Survey.
The Transportation SWATeam made the following recommendation on 4/3/2020:
When UI Ride resumes, F&S will hand out a survey that has already been developed by SWAT team member Julie Cidell regarding riders' motivations for taking UI Ride. Surveys are electronic and will not need to be physically collected; members of the SWAT team will carry out the analysis of the results.
Attached is the SWATeam recommendation Trans013 UI Ride Survey with comments from Transportation SWATeam members.
The Transportation SWATeam made the following recommendation on 4/3/2020:
The Transportation goal on “reducing single-occupancy vehicle usage” is promising in terms of addressing a number of sustainability objectives such as reducing traffic, congestion, energy consumption, and pollution. One of the possible avenues toward this goal is a campus faculty/staff ride-sharing program for those with steady work hours who are looking for a cost-effective way to commute. This recommendation will
Attached is the SWATeam recommendation Trans012 Carpool Survey with comments from Transportation SWATeam members.
The Transportation SWATeam made the recommendation below, which was transmitted to iSEE and approved at an iSEE Management Meeting. Meredith Moore is in communication with Julie Cidell regarding moving forward with this initiative.
"The Transportation SWATeam kindly requests the creation of a survey which would question faculty and staff who travel out of town for conferences or other university-sponsored activities on their decided mode of transportation. This survey would be voluntary and facilitated by the Transportation SWATeam. An example of a question would be something like: 'In the past year, what has been the main reason for the travel you selected?'"
See the submittal of Trans010 Mode Switch Survey here.
See the recommendation for the Trans010 Mode Switch Survey here.
For future updates, see the Reduce Driving on Campus project here.
The Trans011 Carbon Credit Fund recommendation was returned to the Transportation SWATeam on 2/21/2020.
Dr. Ximing Cai writes, "For a recommendation submitted by your team last spring, iWG discussed it in the summer of 2019. Attached below please find the main points regarding the recommendation.
a. Continue looking into incentives and NOT punishments
b. Make a suggestion for how this could work with TEM
c. Find more data on who this would affect and how it would affect them
d. Find out how we would calculate the incentive for travelers and get an estimate on total cost per year
e. Maybe set the incentive for trips outside of a 3-5 hour driving radius
If you have any questions about these suggestions, please feel free to let us know. After addressing these points, you’re welcome to re-submit the recommendation for further iWG discussion."
See the submittal of Trans011 Carbon Credit Fund and the original recommendation here.
The Transportation SWATeam made the following recommendation:
"The Transportation SWATeam kindly requests the creation of a survey which would question faculty and staff who travel out of town for conferences or other university-sponsored activities on their decided mode of transportation. This survey would be voluntary and facilitated by the Transportation SWATeam. An example of a question would be something like: 'In the past year, what has been the main reason for the travel you selected?'"
See attached the SWATeam recommendation Trans010 Mode Share Survey with comments from Transportation SWATeam members.
The Transportation SWATeam made the following recommendation:
"The Transportation SWATeam kindly requests that the university incentivize the switch of mode of transport for faculty through the something of the order of university carbon credit sales fund. This could be done by both penalizing those who choose to travel via air (a tax) and rewarding those who choose lower-emitting modes of transport (telecommunication, train, car, etc.) through a subsidy.
As a SWATeam member mentioned, this program would work with reducing emissions from long-distance travel."
See attached the SWATeam recommendation Trans010 Mode Share Survey with comments from Transportation SWATeam members.
An iCAP Working Group Assessment of this recommendation began on July 2, 2019.
Director of Parking at the University of Illinois, Marty Paulins, responded over email to Ximing Cai (iSEE Associate Director for Campus Sustainability) in support of the recommendation:
"Parking supports the recommendation to have the Chair of the Transportation SWATeam serve as a voting member of the Parking Advisory Committee. The current chair is listed as Yanfeng Ouyang – if this is correct please let me know and an invitation will be sent to for the initial October meeting."
See the iWG Assessment of Trans009 PAC here.
See the SWATeam recommendation Trans009 PAC here.
The Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment has agreed to administer a mode-share survey helmed by Micah Kenfield, Sustainability Programs Coordinator.
See iWG assessment Trans008 Mode Share Survey here.
See SWATeam recommendation Trans008 Mode Share Survey here.
For future updates, please refer to Reduce Cars (Vehicle Miles Traveled) on Campus.
The recommendation to include a SWATeam representative on the Parking Advisory Committee (PAC) was transmitted to the Associate Vice-Chancellor to Student Affairs and Auxiliaries, Lowa Mwilambwe. Lowa forwarded it to the new Parking Director, Marty Paulins, for a response.
See attached iCAP Working Group Assessment.
See SWATeam recommendation Trans009 PAC here.
This recommendation has been transmitted to Evan DeLucia at the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment.
See attached assessment file here.
See SWATeam recommendation Trans008 Mode Share Survey here.
The iCAP Working Group (iWG) met on May 10, 2018, to discuss and start the assessment of the SWATeam recommendation, Trans008 Mode Share Survery. The iWG's draft comment on the recommendation was:
"iSEE should create and administer a mode-share survey, with recurring on a regular basis. For example, every other year or as often as the Big 10 averages."