The PWR SWATeam submitted a recommendation asking the following:

"PWR kindly requests the addition of a member from the Student Housing Department to the PWRSWATeam. Ideally, this person would be a director or associate director so that planning and initiatives will receive attention at the highest level and be disseminated effectively."

As a recommendation with minor impact, and because a switch for former ALUFS SWATeam member and Assistant Director of Dining Services Thurman Etchison to the new Zero Waste team was already planned, it was transmitted directly to iWG member and University Housing Director Alma Sealine. 

Morgan White wrote in the transmission:

"As you know, we are modifying the SWATeam structure this year and we have asked Thurman to shift from the previous Agriculture, Food, Land Use, and Sequestration (ALUFS) SWATeam to the Zero Waste SWATeam. He agrees with this change and said “Please count me in” per the attached email.

Please take a moment to reply and confirm that Housing is able to provide a Housing representative on the Zero Waste SWATeam this coming year."

See attached the SWATeam recommendation PWR017 Housing Representative complete with comments from PWR SWATeam members.

The PWR SWATeam submitted a recommendation asking the following:

"The PWR SWATeam kindly requests that the following four improvements be made in the iBUY shopping dashboard.
• Prioritize sustainable products (e.g. office paper, cleaning products) in the catalogue.
• Prioritize sustainable and smart electronics (e.g. computers, monitors, TV’s, etc), that are certified as energy-efficient (Energy Star and EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool), rated computers and electronics to reduce energy consumption).
• Develop a more logical search mechanism for the website so sustainable products are found quicker and prioritized.
• Simplify “punchout vendor” catalogs and make them emphasize sustainable products."

See attached the SWATeam recommendation PWR018 iBuy Modification complete with comments from PWR SWATeam members.

An iCAP Working Group assessment of the recommendation began on July 2, 2019. 

The PWR SWATeam submitted a recommendation asking the following:

"The PWR SWATeam kindly requests that all products that are purchased using university funds be in accordance with Section 44 of the Administrative Code, Procurement Rules for Institutes of Higher Education, Section 4.4520 “Recycled Supplies” and 4.4525 “Recyclable Supplies (Paper)”). Additional relevant sections of the Administrative Code, Procurement Rules are presented at the end of this Recommendation.

Currently these parts of the Administrative Code are difficult to enforce due to direct department access to University contracted iBuy vendor catalogs. In an attempt to gain process efficiencies, these transactions can be made without the oversight of the purchasing office. To increase compliance, the purchasing office should work with contracted vendors to modify iBuy catalogs to prioritize and promote the sale of sustainable supplies. See relevant sections of the Administrative Code, Procurement Rules shown at the end of this recommendation.

This could be facilitated by the Zero Waste Coordinator, who would work with Purchasing to monitor compliance with the code and to follow-up with campus units that are not in compliance with the code.

Additionally, the possibility of purchasing centralization should remain open for consideration in the
future to achieve compliance with Section 44 of Administrative Code."

See attached the SWATeam recommendation PWR019 Sustainable Procurement complete with comments from PWR SWATeam members.

An iCAP Working Group assessment of the recommendation began on July 2, 2019. 

The PWR SWATeam submitted a recommendation asking the following:

"The PWR SWATeam respectfully requests iSEE to fully support the eight (8) recommendations stipulated in the F&S Indoor Solid Waste and Recycling Collection Report."

See attached the SWATeam recommendation PWR020 F&S Waste Report Endorsement complete with comments from PWR SWATeam members.

An iCAP Working Group assessment of the recommendation began on July 2, 2019. 

RailSplitter Wind Farm provided the April 2019 Buyer's Share amounts by hour, totaling 2,842.1 Megawatt hours. See attached file.

Please see attached the flyer for the first ever Lock Your Bike Right event.

All, Big but also kind of micro news is that there’s been a noticeable uptick in donations here at the Bike Center. While I’d love to attribute that to our awesome Bike Abandonment Prevention program, it’s really just been local community members who’re cleaning out their garages--most prominently two white bearded men, not the graduating seniors that we’re hoping to attract.

But that’s a good segue into what our Bike Abandonment Prevention is trying to do: reduce and abate the number of abandoned bikes left by students leaving campus around this time of year. In turn we hope Parking will have to collect fewer bikes that’ll end up in our hands in the end anyway. We’ve got signage and a bike rack set up outside the Bike Center to allow students to donate their bikes and, to incentivize the donation,  in return they can get a water bottle (but the water bottles are only available during open hours). We’ll track how many students are donating and obviously won’t be turning away community donations. There’s already been a social media push and advertising done by Campus Rec to help promote and get the word out!
We’ve got our Fix-a-Flat class this Friday and of course Bike To Work Day on Wednesday. The weather isn’t looking great but we’ll get the dedicated folks come through, I’m sure. Jeff Yockey dropped off the BTWD shirt last week and we’ve been hanging it by the register to showcase the event. Over the upcoming weekend we’ve got our Bike Rodeo event which will also double as a drop-off spot for the Bike Abandonment Prevention program. May is looking busy but it is Bike Month!

Numbers:

Visitors: 73
Sales: $812.50
Memberships: 6 for $180
Bikes (refurb): 3 for $500

Thanks!

• Jake Benjamin
  Campus Bike Center Manager

This project aims to help meet iCAP energy conservation goals and provide a sustainable environment for student based activities. By replacing inefficient and broken single pane windows and non-insulated rusted out doors in the ABE farm offices and shop facility, this project will help achieve the iCAP goals and save funds that be used to promote other activities. The planned outcome is four new insulated walk through doors and seventeen new insulated windows that assist in achieving the goals and provide for a welcoming and efficient learning environment.

The row crops that dominate Midwestern agriculture, corn and soybeans, are productive but also have a number of negative environmental impacts, such as soil erosion, loss of soil carbon, nitrate leaching, and greenhouse gas production. In order to combat these impacts of traditional Midwestern agriculture, this team established an “Agroforestry for Food” trial to experiment with systems that use multiple, perennial crops to produce foods with better environmental benefits and ecosystem services. This 12-hectare experimental plot is located at the Energy Farm on South Race Street, where it can produce a large amount of food and critical insights into the development of stable, productive cropping systems. It is entering its fifth growing season, but due to insufficient irrigation in past seasons, development of the plants has been slowed. This funding will allow for the installation of irrigation to improve crop growth and development, earlier and more robust harvests, and speed up the progress of the trial.

As part of the construction of the new Hydrosystems Laboratory, it has become possible to integrate energy piles into the construction. This represents an emerging chance to take the next steps toward geothermal energy on campus by installing energy foundation piles in a large campus building. This project focuses on installation of geothermal heat exchangers within the foundation of the new Hydrosystems Laboratory. Approximately half of the pre-existing building was removed and a larger segment is being built to replace the demolished half. The new portion will be supported by eight drilled shafts. The goal is two use four of these shafts to install energy piles to provide the heating and cooling to the Geotechnical Instructional Laboratory. Data collected during operation of the piles will be used to investigate their heat transfer processes, and the results will be compared with the experimental data and the numerical model will be validated for further use to design new buildings on campus and in the surrounding areas.

The second and third floors of the Art & Design building house the most-used student workspaces. Currently, these hallways (which are heavily used for the display and critique of student artwork) have bare fluorescent bulbs and manual switches. This project will allow for the replacement of the ceiling with a suspended ceiling system and integrated edge-lit LED flat panel lights, with occupancy sensor light controls. Additional funds will be supplied by Art & Design and award funds from the Energy Conservation Incentive Program.

The importance of honey bees cannot be understated; they are responsible for pollinating 1/3 of the food supply in the USA, worthy $15B annually. Bees are experiencing steep population declines, and beekeepers nationwide fight against the 4 Ps: parasites, pesticides, pathogens, and poor nutrition to keep their colonies alive and healthy. The Bee Research Facility will use this funding to construct a Sustainable Auxiliary Building enabling expansion of a cutting-edge research system to study the 4 Ps in an unprecedented level of detail. Overwintering colonies indoors will increase colony survival and the sustainability of campus resources, and provide further research opportunities.