To combat the issue of food waste, U of I Housing collaborated with F&S Utilities & Energy Services, Operations, Maintenance & Alterations, and environmental compliance. The committee researched various food waste options, including composting, pulpers, and grinder systems used for anaerobic digestion -- including Grind2Energy systems.

These operate similarly to an industrial garbage disposal. However, it uses significantly less water than the digester system, up to 90-95 percent less. Additionally, it does not send the waste directly to the sanitary sewer. The food waste is pumped into a 5000-6000 gallon tank located on the outside of the building it serves. A tanker truck empties the waste and takes it to the local sanitary district. The industrial-strength waste is processed in an anaerobic digester, where it undergoes treatment without oxygen. The methane produced is collected and used to generate electricity at the treatment plant.

Read more about Grind2Energy use on campus through the F&S Website or the PDF in the attached files!

Did you know Illinois has the highest percentage of Pre-World War II academic facilities in the Big Ten? This, of course, provides students, faculty, and staff with a sense of history, place, and uncommon beauty while considering the campus.

On the other hand, older buildings require more and detailed maintenance in order to satisfy up-to-date code compliance and hit notable programmatic needs for students, faculty, and staff.

Additionally, design that fits with the pre-war era of the building’s birth is important to maintain a cohesive architectural look for the campus. Assets are managed through different funding sources, including the Academic Facilities Maintenance Fund Assessment (AFMFA), an ongoing fee assessed each semester to students, and the Deferred Maintenance Program. The F&S Asset Management Plan 2021-2025 “illustrate[s] the number of aging facilities… provide[s] definition of the Facility Condition Index, review[s] how deferred maintenance has been tracked historically, and illustrate[s] current funding strategies for addressing asset management at Illinois for the next 5 years,” it reads.

The university plans to renew aging infrastructure through programs like the Academic Facilities Maintenance Fund Assessment, means to ensure building renovations are done to deferred maintenance projects.

The F&S Space Management Plan 2021 – 2030 documents how space is used on campus. F&S works with the Office of the Provost and other campus units and committees to manage and improve the use of space on campus, which occupies over 23 million gross square feet of facilities in more than 750 owned and leased buildings.

Properly managing the space is essential, as more than 57,000 people enrolled or employed by the university live and learn on campus. Additionally, the plan notes that “people enrolled or employed on campus has been steadily increasing since 2000, growing by over 4% from 2017 to 2018 alone.”

Over the past decade, balancing campus growth and sustainability goals of the Net Zero Space Growth policy, part of the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP), has required an innovative approach to analyzing campus density and opportunities for greater square footage efficiency. In-depth planning and procedures have included renovating existing space, improving utilization of existing space, and increasing the ability to share space and resources between units and across campus. The modest change to the campus footprint in recent years, despite additional enrollment, demonstrates the value of these actions.

“With enormous capital investments required to build, operate, and maintain our campus infrastructure, space is a critical asset that must be managed effectively to ensure the continued success of our university,” the plan reads. Net Zero Space Growth is essential to the university achieving strategic goals and is a crucial challenge of the ongoing project planning efforts in F&S Capital Programs.

The F&S Energy Management Plan addresses the most important customer need of production-scale energy supply and demand: reliability.

When a researcher turns on high-energy tools; or a staffer flips a light switch on; or a student charges their smartphone, the user needs to be sure their energy needs will be met. Heating, cooling, and electricity all need to be ubiquitous, with no worries for downtime. The utilities service delivery reaches the entire campus community, with annual campus energy usage at approximately 3 trillion BTUs.

Abbott Power Plant’s capabilities shine, in terms of the breadth and depth of energy services offered to campus. First, Abbott is a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system, offers fuel flexibility thanks to a diverse collection, including coal, fuel oil, and gas. It provides all of the heat and half of the electricity to campus. Off-site solar energy, chilled water plants, and new geothermal systems all contribute, too. With Abbott’s capabilities joining an underground distribution system, the U of I campus is able to weather any tangible or economic change. Clean energy production now supports approximately 12 percent of Illinois’ annual electricity demand.

By operating as a “micro-grid” or in “Island Mode,” the UI campus would be in a good position to provide critical life and safety resources if ever a major outage occurred at the Regional Power Grid.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, according to the U of I Master Plan, measures more than a whopping 8,000 acres of land in the Master Plan Area. F&S helps count and maintain all 16,534 trees on U of I grounds. That includes more than one “State Champion” tree – meaning it is the largest of its species in Illinois.

Read more about U of I's champion trees on campus on the F&S Website or the PDF in the attached files!

On July 12, 2021, Adam Dolezal, May Berenbaum, Layne Knoche, Eliana Brown, Morgan White, and Avery Maloto met over Zoom to discuss pollinator efforts on campus. The conversation included topics such as: Bloom Calendar, Red Oak Rain Garden, Dorner Drive Retention Pond, Setting up a BioBlitz, and more.

See the attached file to view the minute notes. 

The Midwest Regional manager of Veo, Ben Thomas, informed Sarthak that there is a new updated Veo dashboard for UIUC. This new dashboard can be found in Veo's Tablaeu environment.

From: Lewis, Brent C

To Trimble, Sydney M; White, Morgan

Recipients: sydneyt2 at illinois.edu; mbwhite at illinois.edu

Hi Sydney and Morgan,

Last Friday I said I would send you some info on Altgeld.  Here is a good one on the stained glass dome:

Piecing together a colorful mystery | College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Illinois

Trust-Respect-Accountability-Integrity-Teamwork-Safety-Perseverance

BRENT C. LEWIS, PLA, CA

Capital Programs, University Landscape Architect

1501 South Oak Street

Champaign, IL 61820

Phone: 217.300.3164

Email: bcl at illinois.edu

http://www.fs.illinois.edu/

"Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), any written communication to or from University

employees regarding University business is a public record and may be subject to public disclosure."

This project will improve the waste process around the outdoor campus areas and increase recycling participation. It will do this by increasing recycling bin visibility with improved bins and signage, co-locating waste and recycling bins, and improving the overall layout of waste and recycling bins on campus. There are currently 372 concrete trash bins on campus and an additional 60 made of other materials. Facilities & Services initially proposed to remove all 432 of the bins and to replace them with a total of 133 dual bins. Marya Ryan, an Academic Hourly at F&S working on Zero Waste projects, mapped the existing bins for the full University District and turned her maps over to the Purchasing, Waste, and Recycling (PWR) SWATeam for their recommendations on locations for dual bins. PWR SWATeam student member Fangxing Liu wrote an initial draft recommendation for the consolidation of dual bins outside. Additionally, one sample dual bin was installed by F&S Grounds at Altgeld Hall near Wright Street to test durability. In the fall of 2018, CEE students assessed additional bin locations throughout all areas of campus.

During fall 2018, CEE students Junren Wang and Wen-Chi Chen worked on a project to clarify locations and review estimated costs. They mapped the future dual bin locations for the campus, with a total of 161 bins to install. The cost of the first pilot dual bin was about $4,000, so the initial estimate for all of them is about $625,000. The students recommended installing ten dual bins in various locations spread around campus. The student report was submitted with the Fall 2018 Semesterly Report to SSC.

Morgan White and Brent Lewis met with F&S Grounds leadership, Superintendent Ryan Welch and Foreperson Isaac Williams, to initiate the installation. On June 18, 2019, Grounds ordered 30 bins for 15 dual bin locations, using the SSC funding. The material and shipping cost for the bins is $18,523.56. Installation materials and labor will be additional costs. Grounds will confirm the ten locations identified by the CEE students and select an additional five locations. Also, MCORE is installing dual bins at the new bus stops on Green Street with University funding. Additional bins are being installed outdoors during summer 2021 with the first being at the Northwest corner of E-14 and the North side of the Main Quad. Waste Management Intern Sydney Trimble will assist in the systemic updating and organization of the campus-wide rollout to take place this 2021 summer into the fall semester.

The MCORE project requires the CUUATS partners to monitor the pedestrian and bicycle counts following the completion of the project. This requirement is to understand the increased waking and bicycling activities at the twelve predetermined corridors. CCRPC collected pedestian and cycling counts at these locations before the MCORE project. These twelve corridors are listed in this project update.

The University has identified other locations on campus to add pedestrian/bicycle counters as well, other than these twelve MCORE corridors. In March 2020, the first Eco-Counter pedestrian/bicycle counter was installed at the Illini Union location on Green Street. The University is also working with Obama Energy to get IntelliStreet light poles for pedestrian/bicycle count collection.

Previous Title: Aquaponics System Demonstration Unit

New Title: Bevier Café’s - Aquaponics System Demonstration Unit

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' desire is to establish a base system from which the possibility to expand exists. This project is student-led and contains an educational element on aquaponics. This proposal is linked to the student sustainability course GCL 127.

Old project name: ADA Transition Plan

New Project name: ADA Transition Plan and 2017 Supplement

The American with Disabilities Act (ADA) identifies facility requirements to meet the needs of persons with disabilities.  This University has a very strong history of support for persons with disabilities, and that is reflected in many of the campus facilities.  One example is the new Tim Nugent residence hall with the Beckwith program in Ikenberry Commons.  Sidewalks, traffic signals, construction zones, and buildings are designed to meet ADA code requirements.  In 2012, the City of Urbana published an ADA Transition Plan to survey and upgrade all curb ramps in that city's jurisdiction.  A similar survey and plan needs to be developed for campus walkways.  The vast majority of sidewalks on campus are already ADA code compliant, so this will identify the locations lacking proper facilities and prioritize those locations for correction.

Illinois Enactus’s mission is to contribute to sustainable development goals by developing collaborative business ventures that work towards social, economic, and environmental equality in all communities. Illinois Enactus is an official chapter of the worldwide non-profit organization, Enactus. Enactus exists in more than 39 countries and has more than 1,600 teams across the globe. Being a member of Enactus means that you are a part of the largest and most prestigious business network on the planet. Our Enactus team partners with large corporations, local businesses, student organizations, non-profits, public schools, and entrepreneurs to execute our projects. Every project we implement requires us to consider the relevant economic, social and environmental factors to effectively empower people in need by applying business and economic concepts in an entrepreneurial approach to improve their quality of life and standard of living. In other words, instead of just doing philanthropy or service events, we create sustainable solutions to everyday problems so that people have the power to help themselves. Enactus projects apply the skills we learn in the classroom and have proven to be extremely relevant in prepare for a future career. Our team consists of students from a wide variety of backgrounds, so no matter what you are studying in school, you will be able to apply your knowledge and gain valuable experience. These skills are so valuable that numerous companies across the country only recruit Enactus students for internships and full-time careers.

The iCAP 2020 objective 6.3 is to "Launch an undergraduate Environmental Leadership Program (ELP) that includes two week-long residential intensives, pre-professional workshops, visiting speakers, and field trips to Springfield and Washington, D.C." The responsible campus unit for championing this objective is iSEE.

iSEE is developing an Undergraduate Environmental Leadership Program.  

• Professional skills
• Nexus between research, policy, advocacy, and government
• Networking opportunities with leaders in the environmental field
• Pilot workshops in Spring 2021

Be interactive and engaging for participants; Have a balance between the pre-professional component of the program (practical career skills and networking), as well as its environmental leadership/knowledge component

The main objectives of the Environmental Policy Workshop are to help participants communicate better environmental issues that they care about and to increase their awareness of ways to advocate for such issues. As such, this workshop would include sessions that would target environmental communication and policy advocacy skills.

The Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District (MTD), City of Champaign, City of Urbana, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are partnering to improve mobility in our communities core through a federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant. The $35M MCORE Project is unprecedented in our community’s history and will have a transformative impact.

MCORE Project construction is anticipated to start in September of 2016 and continue into 2019, covering five separate project areas to improve key urban transportation corridors.

Enhances Mobility Choices

The goal of MCORE is to provide a balance between all modes of transportation. Transportation choices address pedestrian access routes, bicycle lanes, transit efficiency and vehicle flow; and reduce potential conflict areas.

Improves Infrastructure

MCORE will improve the condition of the existing pavement and bring the streets of these core transit corridors into a state of good repair while redesigning them into complete streets to accommodate all users.

Promotes Sustainability

MCORE will encourage sustainable development that is located and designed to be compact and contiguous to existing development and have limited environmental impact; provide streetscape improvements for an enriched built environment, sense of place, and quality of life; emphasize all modes of transportation while decreasing the use of single occupancy vehicles, thereby reducing congestion, traffic hazards, and carbon emissions.

Improves Critical Linkages

The completion of the MCORE Project will provide better connections between the downtown centers of Champaign and Urbana, the university, the area’s major employers, health, and social service organizations.

Between August 4, 2011 and March 9, 2016, there were 373 bicycle thefts reported to the University of Illinois Police Department (UIPD).  This number is beleived to be a low estimate, due to under-reporting, and because some bike thefts on campus may have been reported to the local Champaign or Urbana city Police Departments. 

That is an average of 82 reported bicycle thefts a year!

A map of these theft locations can be found here:

Source: UIPD 9/17/13