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Projects Updates for Build Resilience with Our Local Community

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  1. Coordinated Rainwater Management Brainstorming Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Build Resilience with Our Local Community
    Rainwater Management Plans

    10/25/2021 11:00 am

    Present: Brent Lewis, Betsy Liggett, Lisa Merrifield, Stacy Gloss

    Updates from Stacy:

    • Resilience team identified a next step on the iCAP objective review slides: “Resilience team to recommend campus to initiate an engineered rainwater master plan”
    • NGICP training for 4 F&S staff submitted to SSC as step-1 application
    • Stacy attended the GI conference Oct 20

    Updates from Lisa and Betsy:

    • Extension receiving funds to create state-wide GI reporting platform, working with NCSA
    • Lisa is hiring an Academic Hourly intern to work through summer 2022 for the biodiversity plan - this work is complementary to coordinated rainwater management plans and so this staff person may be able to work on planning objectives for coordinated rainwater management plans.
    • Lisa is recruiting someone with planning / engineering background to work on GI or biodiversity this summer.

    Coordinated Rainwater Plan

    We discussed the fit for Extension to be involved in coordinating rainwater management plans for our urbanized areas and campus. We brainstormed ideas on how coordination can take place, who should be involved, and started thinking about special topics to address.

    Green Infrastructure Mapping

    Work together with Extension and NCSA on the GI platform for Illinois. This work is starting soon.

    Next Steps

    • Follow up and plan to meet in December or January.   
    • Define rainwater management plan 
    • Define objectives for a rainwater management plan
    • Describe process for achieving those objectives
    • Attend planning meetings with Extension on GI platform & mapping

     

  2. Resilience Work Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Build Resilience with Our Local Community

    Resilience Work Group Meeting 10/21/2021

    Present: Morgan White, Meredith Moore, Stacy Gloss

    Project Management:

    Stacy will start keeping track of resilience projects in an excel Gantt chart to be able to show high-level progress. Project progress will be tracked as “not begun, just starting, in progress, finishing up, done”

    Stacy showed changes she made to the Resilience box.com folder by adding Objective folders.

    Project Updates: 

    We discussed Vision Zero. Morgan asked Stacy to contact CCRPC, Champaign and Savoy planners for their perspectives on Vision Zero. Stacy presented draft recommendations for the next steps Vision Zero white paper. We discussed these early recommendations and path for sharing the white paper with the iCAP team and with Gina for editing.

    Stacy briefly shared progress on getting an understanding of how the 2010 and 2015 iCAPs intended to create a local offsets program.  

    We discussed an update to the DFA student project.  

     

  4. Weekly Resilience Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Build Resilience with Our Local Community
    Vision Zero
    Green Jobs
    Rainwater Management

    Resilience Meeting Notes 10/15/2021 for meeting between Stacy Gloss, Meredith Moore, and Morgan White

    1. We discussed ideas for the Design for America RSO project on Environmental Justice.  Stacy will set up a meeting with D for A RSO students to discuss potential project topics and request a 1/2 page - 1 page project idea back to us for approval/revisions. The project might cover an environmental justice topic and be worked on from now through May. We will request that the complete project be designed to be presented in the late Spring, and the results go beyond educational/informational and lead to an initiative of some kind.
    2. Stacy provided a progress update on Resilience iCAP objectives.
      1. Green Certifications Inventory. Stacy will present this for comment at the next resilience ICAP meeting
      2. NGICP exploration
        1. Stacy will submit SSC proposal to support a pilot program for F&S staff to receive NGICP training at Parkland. The project will evaluate the benefits and decide whether to adopt having more or all campus grounds workers take the training later.
        2. Stacy will request Heidi and Eliana present at a (future proposed) joint meeting of the land/water use and resilience committee about the NGICP program and benefits
      3. Coordinated rainwater planning
        1. Morgan said that she recently had a conversation with a director at Sanitary District who asked for campus to become more involved with watershed management through a watershed working group, which is different than MS4 compliance.  
        2. Morgan also requested that Stacy involve Eliana Brown more in coordinated rainwater planning for future meetings
        3. Stacy will attend the stormwater management organization’s conference on Oct. 20.
      4. Sustainability leadership topics – plan for Stacy to present these at next resilience ICAP meeting
      5. Vision Zero Discussion
        1. Stacy will submit a white paper on next steps for Vision Zero on Campus late next week.
        2. Stacy and Sarthak will meet with a professor who supports / advocates for Vision Zero next week. 
        3. We discussed who would need to be involved for approval and planning of a Traffic Garden, Stacy will report back to Sarthak on this subject.

  5. vision zero check-in meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Build Resilience with Our Local Community
    Vision Zero

    iCAP 8.6 Vision Zero Meeting

    10/13/2021

    Stacy Gloss and Sarthak Prasad met to discuss the Vision Zero objective. Sarthak will email Vision Zero for a meeting to ask questions about a campus designation. Sarthak will also follow up with the Housing Director about a request to develop a Safety Village / Traffic Garden project in partnership with Cynthia Hoyle at MTD for children to learn about bike and pedestrian safety.  The project site is proposed for the abandoned streets on the corner of Florida and Race, adjacent to Orchard Downs campus property.

     

  6. Background Discussion on Local Sustainability Issues

    Associated Project(s): 
    Build Resilience with Our Local Community
    Local Sustainability Issues

    ICAP Objective 8.4 Background Discussion between Stacy Gloss and Ximing Cai 9/28/2021

    Related Tasks and Deliverables

    • 8.4 [iSEE] Take leadership in addressing the most pressing sustainability challenges in our local communities through collaboration with local governments and related community groups, by forming an advisory panel for coordinating efforts across jurisdictional boundaries. By FY24, select at least three major local sustainability issues to address and identify lead agency and key stakeholders.
      • Coordinate an initial meeting with the new advisory panel to share current campus efforts and learn about local governmental efforts
        • Deliverable: meeting notes from advisory panel discussion posted on iCAP Portal, by 3/15/22

    Meeting Notes

    Planning for the objective (procedural):

    1. Stacy should summarize identified major-issue topics and present to resilience committee 
    2. The committee may discuss the topics and select 3 priorities aligned with objective 8.4.
    3. In parallel, members of the committee should identify potential collaborators for the advisory panel on sustainability topics.  
    4. The committee will write a recommendation for the iWG as part of committee work.  (Also note, is it possible for the panel to meet before the iCAP sustainability committee submits a recommendation to the iWG?)

    Major Sustainability Topics in our conversaton were identified that bridge Campus, Champaign, Urbana, Savoy & County

    Climate Change Adaptation

    • Urban growth and development (city managers, county execs, economic development agency to be involved)
      • Smart growth / how do we grow questions: looking forward two – three decades – worsening climate change, coastal flooding likely means an influx of new residents into communities like C-U, especially if we are adding jobs along the lines of manufacturing, medtech, and agtech, not just part of the University and current large employers (like health care)
      • Addressing current environmental issues in communities: local neighborhood flooding, addressing existing pollution from past industries.
    • More extreme heat days, heat waves, and heat risks (would need to include county emergency mgmt. agency & health department, social safety net programs like weatherization)
      • Cooling centers
      • Resources for low-income or under-resourced residents
      • Adapting to protect health
    • Dealing with more and heavier rainfalls
      • Green infrastructure plans, water management, green roofs – shared resources & plans between campus and cities

     Renewable Energy & Resource Sustainability:

    • Renewable Energy Development (climate change mitigation)
      • Develop case studies & share best practices:
        • Solar
        • Wind
        • Bioenergy (self note: set up a visit with the energy farm to learn more)
    • Waste and Recycling:  reducing landfill waste, increasing recycling, saving energy and resources  (resource sustainability)
      • Industrial
        • E.g. hospitals, manufacturing plants
      • Commercial
        • Incorporate green office practices
      • Campus practices

    Sustainable Agriculture (identify additional stakeholders, like Farm Bureau, Land Connection)

    • Biodiversity
    • Cover crops
    • Addressing nutrient loss
    • Water quality
    • Bioenergy / perennial grasses like to renewable energy sources
    • Food systems: from ag to production to distribution to consumption
    • Ties to South Farms for best management practices related to ag, water, and air quality – as a lab
    • Land use considerations (and regulations at federal, state, and local level

  7. Meeting on Coordinated Rainwater Management Plans

    Associated Project(s): 
    Build Resilience with Our Local Community
    Green Infrastructure

    Green Infrastructure Initial Meeting 9/29/2021 9:00 am

    Present: Brent Lewis, Betsy Liggett, Stacy Gloss

    ABOUT

    • 8.2 [F&S w/Extension] Coordinate rainwater management plans for the entire urbanized areas of Champaign, Urbana, Savoy, and the university. Starting in FY21, share the total number of green infrastructure locations on the iCAP Portal on an annual basis.
      • Initiate discussions about development of rainwater plan
      • Compile green infrastructure locations in Champaign, Urbana and Savoy.
        • Deliverable: iCAP Portal map of known green infrastructure locations by 3/15/22
      • Propose a process and scope for developing the coordinated rainwater plan
        • Deliverable: white paper describing process and scope

    NOTES

    Introductions: Betsy works for F&S in safety and compliance, manages stormwater permit MS4. Brent is campus Landscape Architect

    Topics discussed: Campus MS4 water permit, EPA compliance. Sustainability items are built into MS4 permit now.  Compliance & Sustainability are coinciding.   Regarding Campus Green Infrastructure – challenges to adopting green projects, especially when they are viewed in terms of costs but not benefits

    Existing resources: 

    • University has mapped watersheds;
    • A Landscape Master Plan in progress, will contain some elements of green infrastructure, but is not a utilities plan for Stormwater;
    • Champaign County Stormwater Partnership for MS4 permit (includes leaders from the County, Urbana, Savoy, Champaign, Champaign Township, EPA, Soil & Water Conservation District, Prairie Rivers sometimes)
    • Extension has been involved in previous discussions about rainwater plans, Eliana Brown and Lisa Merrifield
    • Urbana is working on a Stormwater Master Plan (Tim Cowan, public works director is the contact)

    Green Infrastructure Maps on Portal currently:

    Next Steps

    • Stacy attend Oct 20 green infrastructure & erosion control conference   
    • Follow up with meeting Oct 25
    • Garner support for Campus Stormwater Master Plan
    • Contact Julie Cidell about GreenMap

  8. Vision Zero Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Build Resilience with Our Local Community
    Vision Zero

    iCAP 8.6 Vision Zero Meeting 9/29/2021 

    Present: Sarthak Prasad, Stacey DeLorenzo, Stacy Gloss

    Background: 8.6 [F&S] Support Vision Zero as a county-wide goal for safe and sustainable transportation.   Coordinate with Professor Benekohal, the City of Urbana Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission (BPAC), and F&S Transportation Demand Management to identify actions needed to support Vision Zero  Deliverable: white paper identifying key steps needed by 11/15/21

    Sarthak and Stacey shared details about Key existing organizations:  Urbana BPAC, CUUATS, Campus Transportation Demand Management, and CTAC.

    Off campus staff would participate on a Vision Zero taskforce if it forms, would provide input ona Vision Zero Action Plan, continue to represent campus at BPAC and at CUUATS.

    Community contacts were identified.

    Potential next steps:

    • Sarthak set up meeting with Dr. Benekoha and Stacy Gloss for updates
    • Set a meeting to discuss white paper discussing tasks for supporting Vision Zero
    • Reach out to Vision Zero to discuss a Vision Zero Campus Designation – Can this be made real?

  10. Green Jobs Introduction and Background Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Build Resilience with Our Local Community
    Green Jobs

    10/5/2021

    Present: Stacy Gloss and Eric Green

    Background:

    8.5 [iSEE] By FY23, collaborate with colleges and community groups to inventory existing certification opportunities for green jobs and identify gaps.

      • Review findings from student research about green job opportunities
      • Assist iSEE staff to complete this inventory
        • Deliverable: provide inventory content to iSEE communications team by 1/31/22
        • Deliverable: update iCAP Portal inventory page with link to iSEE page by 3/15/22

    Meeting Notes:

    Stacy and Eric discussed a wide range of topics related to green jobs including the background and tasks related to iSEE 8.5.  Connection was made that Objective 8.5 is linked by category of “green jobs” to:

    iCAP Objective 6.4 - “Develop a sustainability internship program through partnering with businesses, nonprofits, local government, and cultural institutions in Central Illinois. The total number of internships awarded will be reported each year.” The responsible campus unit for championing this objective is iSEE. Progress is tracked in the iCAP Portal project page for the Sustainability Internship Program

    iCAP Objective 6.5 ““Partner with The Career Center and potentially other career offices in FY22 to help students explore and discover career opportunities that are connected to professional interests and goals related to sustainability. Incorporate a sustainability component at a minimum of two events beginning in FY22.” The responsible campus unit for championing this objective is Career Center with the support of iSEE. Progress is tracked in the iCAP Portal project page for Sustainability at Career Fairs.”

    In Spring 2021, Carissa Mysliwiec was as ENVS 491: Campus Sustainability Intern who worked with instructor Eric Green to focus on designing a sustainability internship program as part of Objective 6.4.

    In our discussion we talked about high-level barriers to internship programs:

    • Interns need significant guidance
    • Pay is an issue, who will pay $3,000 - $4,000 for a summer intern?
    • Businesses don’t always identify sustainability needs 

    We also discussed the challenges of identifying green jobs for the purposes of a creating a green-jobs fair or a sustainable jobs fair. What identifies green jobs? This topic should be explored further.  Talk to SECS, perhaps? How are students defining green jobs today?

    During the conversation Stacy pitched an entry-level paid program (post-graduation internship?) to be staffed for 1-2 years by recent graduates to help organizations build capacity, set targets and meet goals. This would be full-time work in lower-level/entry-level positions that serve as a spring board to sustainability careers.

    Stacy presented a Green Certifications Excel document she started working on.  Next steps would be to ask for campus & community input to answer questions such as:  Are these certifications offered here @UIUC or locally?  Who from campus is involved, can be a contact, or serve as a resource? What kind of jobs do people get with the certifications? Who hires locally? How do we prevent locally trained folks from leaving, what incentives are there to stay once advanced certifications are achieved?

    Eric will see if there are any students that might want to do some of the legwork involved in bolstering the green certifications list.

    We'll stay in touch and set up a meeting for about a month from now.

  11. Student Partner Meeting for EJ Plan

    Associated Project(s): 
    Build Resilience with Our Local Community
    Environmental Justice Plan

    Student Meeting: Design for America Team Meeting  10/1/2021

    Present: Pooja Tetali, Ananya Barman, Kosh Raghavarapu, Anisha Narain, Meredith Moore, Eric Greene, Stacy Gloss

    About DFA:

    Design for America is national nonprofit and a campus RSO that meets on Sundays to talk about Design Thinking principals. This is one DFA Team out of 5 Teams part of the RSO.  There are 30-ish people w/ a 6 person exec board locally. Exec board helps keep track and teaches design thinking. Interviewing skills. Ideation.  One project was: Racism Un-taught, working with professor to interview RSOs about a standard/playbook/rule book to minimize racism within RSOs. Another was working with Illinois Department of Health App for breastfeeding people. Projects vary between technical and research.

    This team meets once a week. They are happy to meet once a week or every 2 weeks. They have a couple hours to respond to emails and put together documents, so a few hours a week each. DFA projects typically last 1 year, academic year through May.

    The topics they are interested in are environmental racism, campus/community relations, campus/university effect/impact on communities, environmental science, collection action & collaboration. Two members worked on transportation system mapping in US previously and had been connected to iCAP goals / campus transportation goals.

    Potential Project Opportunities:

    Initial Research for Environmental Justice Planning.

    The initial research will help to inform the planning that goes into developing an Environmental Justice Plan. The project will eventually lead to a road map or planning document to guide the campus EJP.

    1. Funding for EJPlans and Implementation
    2. What Universities have Environmental Justice Plans?
    3. What community EJP’s exist that would be a resource or model for a campus-lead EJP?
    4. What Universities initiated Environmental Justice Plans in or for their communities? What are or were the barriers and opportunities for collaboration with their communities?

    Green Infrastructure Mapping:

    1. Green infrastructure mapping as part of the Green Infrastructure Resilience Goal

    Tasks:

    Schedule a follow-up meeting and communicate via email between meetings. Students will need to select the project they are interested in and report how they feel they can best contribute to the project(s).

  12. Weekly check-in resilience work

    Associated Project(s): 
    Build Resilience with Our Local Community

    Meredith Moore, Morgan White and Stacy Gloss met for the weekly check-in on resilience work.

    Agenda:

    • Review iCAP goals 8.5 & 8.7
    • Discuss iCAP objective assessment powerpoints
    • Schedule October meetings 

    Notes:

    • iCAP goal 8.5 – Stacy should reach out to Eric Green and Lana Holden about how students find out about green jobs; what green certifications are known.
    • iCAP goal 8.7 –Stacy should reach out to Eric Green to find out about student work on carbon off-sets. Ideas: Consider a white paper/literature review on “local” carbon offsets , or host round table/presentation / symposium with “experts” on local offsets
      • Stacy will read more on Second Nature off-sets / campus carbon calculations
      • 1 MW = 1 REC,  1 off set = 1 ton of CO2e reduced or kept out of atmosphere
      • Read status of the voluntary carbon markets 2021 pdf doc shared from Morgan
    • Stacy will post previous meeting notes from Resilience Objective meetings on Sustainability, Vision Zero, and Green Infrastructure
    • Cancel the 10/7/2021 meeting due to Green Quad Day, next weekly check-in on 10/14

  13. Weekly check-in resilience work

    Associated Project(s): 
    Build Resilience with Our Local Community
    Resilience iCAP Team

    Resilience Work Weekly Check-In

    09/23/2021, 2:00 PM

    Attendees: Morgan White, Meredith Moore, Stacy Gloss

    Updates

    Stacy provided an overview of her activities for the previous week including

    • reviewing the Resilience page and project histories
    • beginning work (by contacting key stakeholders and setting up meetings) on Vision Zero, Green Infrastructure, and Taking Leadership on Sustainability objectives.

    iCAP Portal

    In this meeting we discussed additional functionality, the strategy and rationale on Resilience web page organization. Morgan provided insights on using the iCAP portal such as accessing projects through a table by using the Project Page and searching Projects by Status.  Projects can be added to the iCAP portal by sending a proposal to add a project to Morgan and Meredith.  There is an iCAP Portal Content template that should be used.

    Community resilience and sustainability projects

    We reflected that there are many community projects and programs related to sustainability and resilience that do not appear anywhere in the iCAP such as MTD projects, Sanitary District work, Stormwater partnerships, Recycling projects and programs, certain solar projects.  We discussed that having a website or webpage dedicated to community partnerships, programs, and outreach about sustainability, environment, resilience, water, energy, land-use etc could be an excellent community resource. The idea bubbled to have a Community Supported Resilience Portal in parallel to the iCAP portal for tracking programs, resources, and projects. This could be a recommendation for meeting one or more of the iCAP objectives.  

  14. Community Solar Status Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Build Resilience with Our Local Community

    Community Solar

    "What is the status of the city of Urbana’s community solar array at the old city landfill known as Solar Star Urbana Landfill LLC affiliated with Nexamp? Will the subscription to the community solar project begin this year?"

    The project, which will generate approximately 5.2 MW of clean energy for the Ameren grid, is scheduled to be completed around the middle of next month, said Keith Hevenor, communications manager for Nexamp, a firm that has developed community solar energy projects in Illinois, Maine, New York, Maryland, Georgia and Massachusetts.

    "At that point, the final landscaping, which includes a native pollinator seed mix for vegetation, will be applied," said Hevenor. "As soon as final testing and utility interconnection are completed, subscribers will begin seeing the credits on their Ameren bills, likely before the end of the year.

    "The Solar Star Urbana Landfill project is part of the Illinois Solar for All program, so participation in the program is reserved for qualified low and moderate income (LMI) residents. In the program, there are no enrollment fees, no credit checks and no cancellation fees. We still have space available for the project and individuals can visit https://ilsfa.nexamp.com/ameren to learn more and see if they qualify."

  15. First Weekly Check-In for Resilience Work

    Associated Project(s): 
    Build Resilience with Our Local Community
    Resilience iCAP Team

    9/17/2021, 2:15 PM

    Attendees: Morgan White, Meredith Moore, Stacy Gloss

    Summary:

    Stacy, Meredith and Morgan met for the first time together since Stacy was appointed and started work on 9/16/2021. The purpose of the meeting is to provide the information and resources needed for Stacy to start working on resilience activities in the scope work. We reviewed Stacy’s job description regarding activities for the next 6 months and related deliverables. See attached job description.

    Agreements:  

    • Stacy will take the meeting notes from each of these Resilience Work Check-In meetings and put them on the portal for project tracking.
    • Stacy will provide updates at the Resilience iCAP team meetings.
    • We set up a recurring meeting time for Thursdays from  2 pm – 3 pm.

    To-Do’s:

    Stacy will re-read the objective in iCAP 2020 PDF about all resilience objectives. Review the resilience theme, scan the project list, and look at project history for specific objectives.

    8.1 Check in when needed w/ Lisa Merrifield

    8.2 Start with campus contacts. Email Betsy Liggett,  Brent Lewis, & Morgan White and set up a call with Betsy. Betsy is liaison to community green infrastructure.  The objectives are to find out who it is to talk to in Champaign-Urbana-Savoy for off-campus infrastructure locations. Eventually, ask resilience team what information should be included on the iCAP portal map. Note: There’s an Oct 20 conference about the Champaign County storm water partnership.  With this objective, we will ultimately work towards planning a coordinated rainwater mgmt. plan, and what it might look like.

    8.3. Review documentation that Kimmy provided as a report on the portal. 

    8.4.  Request a call with Ximing to explain the concept behind 8.4 and report back. Further steps may be taken to include whole iSEE management team in a conversation.

    8.5.  Review 8.5 Discuss at meeting 2 weeks from now.

    8.6.  Morgan will connect Stacy with Sarthak Prasad. Review Vision zero website soon and request a meeting with Sarthak.

    8.7.  Review 8.7 Discuss at meeting 2 weeks from now.  Review Current State of the Market, and review files in the box folder that students created about local off sets.

    Attached Files: 

  16. Some Coal Plants in Illinois to be shut down

    Associated Project(s): 
    Build Resilience with Our Local Community
    Students for Environmental Concerns (SECS)

    From: https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/electric-...

    The company also announced its next phase of coal plant closures in Illinois and Ohio with a combined capacity of more than 6.8 GW, by 2027. The plan has the following timeline:

    • End of 2022: Edwards Power plant, Bartonville, Illinois, 585 MW, in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator.
    • End of 2025: Baldwin Power Plant, Baldwin, Illinois, 1,185 MW; Joppa Power Plant, Joppa, Illinois, 1,002 MW (plus 239 MW of gas turbines), both in MISO.
    • End of 2027: Newton Power Plant, Newton, Illinois, 615 MW, in MISO; and Kincaid Power plant, Kincaid, Illinois, 1,108 MW, Miami Fort Power Plant, North Bend, Ohio, 1,020 MW, and Zimmer Power Plant, Moscow, Ohio, 1,300 MW, all three in the PJM Interconnection.

    "These plants, especially those operating in the irreparably dysfunctional MISO market, remain economically challenged," Vistra said in a Sept. 29 statement. "Today's retirement announcements are also prompted by upcoming Environmental Protection Agency filing deadlines, which require either significant capital expenditures for compliance or retirement declarations."

  17. eweek announcement

    Associated Project(s): 
    Achieve Zero Waste
    Water Conservation
    Build Resilience with Our Local Community

    Eric T. Freyfogle, "Water, Community, and the Culture of Owning"

    Professor Freyfogle is the author or editor of a dozen books dealing with issues of humans and nature, some focused on legal aspects, others reaching to larger cultural and social issues. In this talk he will explore why American legal and cultural systems of water use and ownership make it so difficult to face climate change and other environmental challenges.

    October 14, 12–1 pm • zoom

    Maria Dorofeeva • Center for Global Studies

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