The Zero Waste iCAP team met on 11/6/2023 to discuss the STARS report, potential volunteer programs for zero waste events, and our findings from the hydration station meeting with Mike Stilger (also on 11/6/23). 

All,

Was great to catch up with so many old and new friends at AASHE!  Thank you for keeping Texas in your hearts and in your top 4 CFP rankings ...

I can’t recall if this group has discussed innovative storm water management.  All of our capital projects have very tight site boundaries so our opportunities for on-site management are few and costly. We’re investigating fee-in-lieu and stormwater credit funding models, but I’m wondering if anyone else has an established off-site stormwater management financing program in place ...

Thanks!

Jim

----------------------------------

Jim,

We've done some work on different approaches to managing stormwater. I'll send a separate email to introduce you to one of my colleagues who leads our efforts in this area.

Shane 

 At Friday's Illini Lights Out event, over 250 volunteers turned off 4,832 light bulbs that otherwise would have been left on all weekend, saving $735.16 in energy costs. This also prevented 5.9 metric tons of CO2 equivalent from entering the atmosphere, which is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from 665 gallons of gasoline being consumed. 

The iCAP Resilience Team met on October 20th to discuss charge letter priorities and current recommendations. Meeting minutes are attached.

The Land & Water iCAP team met on Teams from 1-2 PM on Friday, November 3rd. The team discussed permeable pavers at State Farm Center, the meadow at Orchard Downs, cover crops on the South Farm, and the iCAP 2025 rewrite of the Land & Water chapter. Meeting minutes are attached.

The iCAP Engagement Team met today (11/2) to discuss upcoming recommendations that adhere to the 2023-24 iCAP charge letter. Meeting minutes are attached.

The Education iCAP team met on Teams from 1-2 PM on Thursday, November 2nd. The team discussed the Green Career Fair, Sustainability in Study Abroad, Gies College of Business Sustainability content, and the Sustainability Internship Coordinator report. Meeting minutes are attached.

Hi Pete,

Please see attached for the draft we discussed today.

Thank you,
Daphne

---------------------

Hi Daphne,

Can you give me an update on this YMCA MOU?

Thanks,

Morgan

---------------------

Hi Pete,

Throwing this question up to you 😊 Have you had a chance to send the MOU over to Ehab?

Thank you,
Daphne

------------------------

I meet with Ehab this afternoon and can discuss with him at that time. However, are you working on an MOU with Housing as well? I’d rather give him both at the same time if possible.

Thank you,

Pete

---------------------

Hi Pete,

Yes, I have a working draft of the Housing MOU, too. I’ve attached it here for review.

Thank you,
Daphne

Hi Lisa,

As discussed during the SSC F&S feasibility meeting, I wanted to send over to you the product that we are requesting funding for. https://www.bendpak.com/shop-equipment/oil-filter-crushers/rp-50fc/ Based on this, are there any concerns?

Thank you,

Daphne

----------------------

Hi Daphne,

Thank you for sending me the cut sheet for the oil filter crusher.

I don’t see any code requirements above and beyond what is already being done at the garage for oil filter disposal.  I have no concerns, and neither does Mike Brown in Code Compliance and Fire Safety.

It is my opinion that this project is feasible, no changes needed.

Thank you,

Lisa

------------------------

Thank you, Lisa! We appreciate you taking the time to thoroughly review this piece of equipment.

---------------------

In a seperate email thread Daphne sent the message below and the attached file:

-----------------------

Hi Lisa & Morgan,

Shawn & I are submitting a SSC funding request for a piece of equipment at the garage that would allow us to crush and recycle metal oil filters. We go through about 1500 oil filters a year, and they are currently landfilled.

Thank you,

Daphne

Dear Team,

Kindly verify the attached document from Ryan to ensure it meets the requirements for a bid posting. We've initiated an inquiry about a potential sole source option, and we're awaiting a response.

Regarding the meeting scheduled to discuss CO and AZ designs for the rebid, it remains on track. We will also plan another meeting for next week.

Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

Basia

----------------------

Please see latest proposed layout for 100kw system for discussion.

Best,
Tim

Hi Mike,

I hope this message finds you well! I am Daphne, and I work under Pete Varney in TBS as the campus zero waste coordinator. I currently serve as the iCAP Zero Waste Team chair, and this year the team has been given a charge to develop a new facility standard for major reconstruction and new construction projects to include bottle-style hydration stations for new or replacement water fountains. A picture of an example hydration station has been attached.

I wanted to reach out and see if it would be possible to meet and discuss what the existing information is regarding facility standards for hydration stations?

Thank you!

Daphne

-------------------------

Lisa,

Would you be able to discuss this with Daphne, I can set it up if so?

Looks like the FS calls for a bottle filler as part of a water cooler.  Daphne’s picture looks like an independent unit.

I doubt BMG (formerly OMA) will want to maintain another unit.

Mjs

--------------------------

Mike,

Here’s a cut sheet of a typical high-low water cooler with bottle filler.

Lisa

---------------------------

Daphne,

Below is a snipit of our Facilities Standards concerning the electric water fountain which includes a bottle filler, and attached is a cut of a unit.

If you would still like to chat, let me know, and I will set it up for next week.

We are also wondering, are you contemplating installing the hydration station in lieu of a standard water fountain, or in addition to the  other units?

Thanks,

mjs

-------------------------

Hi Morgan & Jen,

Looping you in here for input before meeting with Mike. We are intending to make the standard for water fountains to include the bottle filler piece in all circumstances, is that correct? From what Mike is sharing here, it appears that the bottle filler piece is already included in the standard.

Thank you,

Daphne

--------------------------

Hi Daphne,

I would like to see bottle fillers (*without a filter indicator light*) included with all new water fountain installations.

Regarding Mike’s question: “We are also wondering, are you contemplating installing the hydration station in lieu of a standard water fountain, or in addition to the  other units?” 

If I understand correctly, this is a moot point because the unit we want is already the campus standard. Am I missing something?

Thanks,

Jen

We will be setting up a few meetings starting after Labor Day to meet our upcoming deadlines, with our final report due by November 15. Please review the attached Word file and supplemental attachments ahead of the meetings. Please feel free to post comments/thoughts to our Teams site.

Thanks

Jeremy

----------------------

Good morning, everyone,

I have put the files Jeremy sent on Aug 18th into teams. They are under “files” in the “General” channel. You probably saw the invitation to meet virtually on Sept 20th. Hard to get a busy group together. This is a long time from now and we were hoping to meet sooner. Since we can’t meet sooner, we ask that you review these new documents in the next couple weeks. Add comments to the documents, track changes, or put comments in the file called “COMMENTS Aug-Sept.” We need to spend more time working on this outside of the meetings.

We will use our Sept 20th meeting to make some semi-final decisions on the recommendations from the committee to leadership. October can be used to fine tune.  

I will send reminders up until Sept 20th to makes sure no one forgets to dig into these.  Please don’t wait until the final day. Your comments could help others produce ideas/additional thoughts. Also, please check back on those documents to see what others are saying as well.

Here is a screenshot of the highlighted documents I’m referencing. If you look at some of the other documents and have thoughts on those, it might be good to put them in the “Comments” doc too. Please let me know if this doesn’t make sense.

Best,

Stephanie

---------------------------

Good morning all,

An updated version of the report based on your feedback has been added to Teams, titled GR Committee Report 10.13.2023, for one final round of comments. With the third charge being so different from the first two we think it is best to provide two separate reports. Both reports are included in the same file for ease of review.

We are working to get our preliminary meeting scheduled with Susan, Ehab, and Madhu. We hope we can present to them in the next few weeks so please take a few minutes in the next week or two to review.

Thanks

Jeremy

--------------------------------

Good afternoon

Steph and I are scheduled to present the committee’s recommendations next Tuesday afternoon. We would like to send the final version of our recommendations to leadership no later than Friday so they have a few days to review in advance. If you have any final comments please add them to the document in Teams by noon tomorrow.

Thanks

Jeremy

Good Afternoon all. I would like to continue the conversation about repurposing campus and community trees for Mill Shop projects. This has been brought up from time to time, but now that we are repurposing the beech tree at the Presidents house, it is a reality. Moving forward, it would be great to have a plan in place for when the Arborists are removing a tree that would have substantial size. Tomorrow, for instance, there will be a large oak tree removed near the Main Library. There is no question we could use it. If grounds were to agree, once cut into 10 to 12 foot sections, we could stage it at Grounds South Lincoln facility, or possibility the Illini Experimental Forest on the South-West corner of Race and Windsor. We are using Brian Knox from CU Woodshop for the Milling and Kiln drying of the beech tree and we could most likely work something out with him for future trees. However, there is the possibility of milling ourselves. A portable saw mill such as a Wood-Mizer https://woodmizer.com/us/Portable-Sawmills could be set up to mill the lumber, and then air dry it, ideally out of the elements. Rule of thumb is for every inch of thickness, one year of drying time is required. There used to be a Wood-Mizer portable saw mill at the Illini Experimental Forrest, but unfortunately it was retired years ago. If we wanted to take it a step further, we could also purchase our own kiln https://woodmizer.com/us/Wood-Kilns to speed up the process. We would save the time and cost of outsourcing all the work. The Student Sustainability Committee could help with the financing, I would think. There might also be the possibility of working with the School of Art and Design to share resources and facilities. This is pretty exciting for me to think about, please respond with your thoughts. Enjoy the day, Andy

Andy Burnett

------------------------

Hi Andy,

I believe Lowell already has a mill. Please check with him about this effort.

Also, let’s tell the story through CRC, please.

Thanks!!

Morgan

---------------

Hi Andy,

Thanks for restarting this discussion. The City of Urbana probably removes at least a dozen trees per year that are urban lumber worthy. We would be happy to have someone take these logs off our hands as we remove the tree and we’re willing to coordinate that with some person as the opportunity arises. Depending on the circumstances, it’s possible we could deliver the log. One would want to coordinate with City Arborist Kevin Sanderson ktsanderson@urbanaillinois.us (217) 384-2339.

You may also consider connecting with https://illinoisurbanwood.org/. They are working on the entire value chain. It seems to me that we have plenty logs, sawmills, and woodworkers. The limitation, I think, is switching folks from conventional store-bought products to local urban wood products.

Thanks!

Scott

--------------

Thanks for the response Scott. I am confident we will have a routine for milling these local trees soon. Once we have the resources, other local woodworks will get involved. Partnering with CU Woodshop would be an excellent way to get the lumber to the local woodworkers. They already have a good customer base and they advertise. Hopefully pricing of our locally grown hardwoods would be more affordable than the production mills. Again, thank you for reaching out and I will keep Kevin Anderson in the conversations. Know that I am willing to meet with anyone with ideas or that can help in any way. Everyone have a great night, Andy

---------------------

Good Afternoon all. I wanted to offer a quick update. Lowell and I met last week and had some great conversation about woodworking and different ways the Architecture program and the Mill Shop could work together. Not only partnering in the milling of the local trees, but also creating opportunities for his students to learn woodworking techniques and processes from the guys in the Mill. As far as repurposing the community trees, Lowell is set up with a Lucas Mill which is kind of like a horizontal chain saw. In talking, we decided a large model Wood-Mizer, which is more like a large band saw, would be best to cut the logs into slabs. Lowell said there is a kiln on campus in the Wood Engineering Laboratory, next to the Arch Annex, but believes it will need some attention before it could be used. We talked about applying for grants and the possibilities of campus funding to help get everything set up and running. Any ideas you might have would be greatly appreciated! Thanks and have a great weekend! Andy

-----------------------

Hi Andrew,

This sounds like it could be something that the Student Sustainability Committee could help fund in the fall. Ultimately, it would be up to the student board to decide. Lowell is familiar with the SSC funding process through the Root to Roof project that was done a couple years ago. If your proposal can provide similar value at the intersection of sustainability and student engagement, it probably will have a decent shot of getting at least partially funded.

Here's a link to SSC funding guidelines. Let me know if you have any additional questions!

Best,

Sammy Yoo

-----------------------

Good Morning Morgan. Grounds has cut down a couple trees that I think we can mill and use for projects. Does F and S have any funding for sustainability projects? We will need a work order to get the logs separated from the limbs and branches and then potentially transported from the South Lincoln grounds facility to Arch Annex. When we meet to cut up the slabs, there will be that time to charge as well. Just need to come up with a way to cover that time. Lowell and I are still going to work together on applying for SSC funding for a Wood-Mizer and to get the kiln running. I thought I would reach out to you first before going to Dave and Mark for Maintenance funds. Also, do you know if Ehab knows we are starting this venture? Thanks Morgan and enjoy the day! Andy

---------------------------

Hi Andy!

So cool! I don’t already have funds to help with this, but do you have an approximate dollar amount for it? Dave and I can ask Ehab if the Ex. Director wants to support it directly.

Any direct sustainability funding generally comes from either a six month funding request to the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC), or from a collaboration with the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) to use Carbon credit funds. That’s another reasonable option for supporting this. I’ll need to know an approximate cost to be able to ask.

Thanks,

Morgan

------------------------------

I love your enthusiasm Morgan! If we were to buy the Wood-Mizer, the cost would be from $12090 to be able to cut a 28”diameter log, to $21795 for 36” diameter, plus delivery. I don’t know how involved getting the kiln at Wood Engineering Lab fixed is going to be, but I do know it was used just a few years ago. Labor is a little bit of a guessing game. After the logs are initially brought to South Lincoln, they would need to be separated from the pile, so I’ll guess 2 to 3 hours each time. If we have to transport the logs to be cut, as apposed to cutting there, I am going to add 2 hours for Transportation. Milling would probably take 2 guys a day to go through 8 to 10 logs. I would say to produce about 1250 board feet of lumber it would be roughly $1500. Depending on the species, that is either a really good deal or a great deal. Thanks for being an advocate for this Morgan, Andy

-------------------------------

Hi Andy,

I’m introducing you here to NRES Professor Kevin McSweeney. He is the chair of our Tree Campus committee, and the director of the Arboretum. He has been talking with Lowell Miller about campus urban lumber, so I wanted to connect you with him.

Thanks,

Morgan

-----------------------------

Hey Morgan and good morning to you.  I met an intern that works with you at the Employee Expo and we were talking about revisiting the urban lumber conversation.  She seemed pretty excited about sustainability and the possibility of repurposing campus and community trees to make furniture.  I would gladly welcome someone to help look into funding options through the Student Sustainability Committee, the School of Art and Design or from a collaboration with the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment as you mentioned below.  Would you forward this on to her (unfortunately I do not remember her name) and she can get ahold of me if she would like to.  Thanks and enjoy the day!  Andy  

----------------------------

Hi Quinn,

Was this you?  Please see below.

Thanks,

Morgan

--------------------------

Yes! I asked him about how much of campus furniture they produce, and we started talking about sustainability efforts and using reclaimed trees.

I totally forgot to set up a meeting with him so we could talk about the Mill shop operations.

Thanks,

Quinn M. Connolly

October 2023 photos of the Florida Orchard Prairie have been added to the box folder.

I'm doing some work with the USFWS on an urban pollinator habitat project and have a couple questions I'm hoping F&S can help me with (or send me in the right direction.)

1. Do we have an accurate map or GIS layer of current UIUC landholdings (including properties connected to the south farms, etc). I've been able to locate some very low-quality, generalized maps but nothing that is either current or very detailed.
2. Is there a way for me to find out where on campus there will be construction/renovation projects that will occur in the next 2-3 years?

Thanks,

BRODIE DUNN

---------------------------

Beth, are you able to assist with item 1 in the below email from Brodie regarding obtaining a map or GIS file of UIUC properties?

Morgan, are you able to assist with item 2 in the below email from Brodie regarding upcoming capital projects?

Thanks,

James Scherer

------------------------------

Helo Brodie,

I’m connecting you with the University Landscape Architect, Brent Lewis.  He can assist with your inquiry about upcoming construction projects, and it is important to include him in any plans you want to pursue regarding additional plantings on university land.

Thanks,

Morgan

-------------------------

Morgan and Brent,

Rest assured I haven't made any promises regarding plantings on campus (and would reach out to you both before doing so.) 

The primary program partner is the City of Champaign, which I am currently in discussions with. If the project does go through, it'll target underserved neighborhoods with pollinator conservation measures meant to protect/conserve the Rusty Patch Bumble Bee, an endangered species. It is a great opportunity and beside doing the coordination for the project with municipal partners, i'm doing my best to ensure we've got the option to physically participate in the program even if the lands we might have available are outside the model's ideal range.

Brent - If we have any construction projects happening in the next two years that include major changes in landscaping, especially on the north side of campus, it would be good to hear about those. Participating in the program might end up being as simple as swapping out a few species on the planting list and doing so might give us the opportunity to be a part of a very innovative Endangered Species recovery plan.

Thanks,

BRODIE DUNN

Done:

• Fixed: embedded maps now open links in new tab (previously links tried to open in the iframe, which was both unhelpful and also our site denies all pages except map embeds from opening in iframes)
• Fixed: project pages display well on mobile devices again
• Fixed: Metrics pages display well on mobile devices again
• Fixed: Objectives page displays well on mobile devices again

Discussion:

• Christina shared some mockups for improving the All Metrics page.
  • Group agreed they liked Idea #2 with Grid View the best
  • Morgan doesn't want to lose power user functionality. Discussed options for also showing the metrics in a listing (like the table of All metrics) - perhaps add an option to switch back and forth between list/grid views, or perhaps simply a link on the page to view the table listing.
  • Morgan asked Christina to look at Header Project Layout (e.g. LEED Certification project) and make recommendations for improving the layout and presentation of information. In particular, Morgan finds the paginated card-based Sub-projects listing with 6 projects per "page" makes it difficult to look through sub-projects and find individual projects.
• Question about a TODO: "Collections page: Add image upload option". At a previous meeting we had this TODO, but what was the context? Was it to have a thumbnail for each Collection? Or a banner image? Or an image gallery?
• Should we link to "Take Action" project from homepage?
  • Replace map link in Highlights?
  • Need to finish Take Action page content
• Continue discussion of Fancy Page Layout (see the 4 mockups in the October 21, 2022 meeting notes)
• Continue discussion of improving site's aesthetics
• Archiving projects
  • Add "Archived" checkbox?
  • Add "Archived" to Visibility options?
  • Add "Archived" to Project Status options? (probably not - this mixes the status of the project itself with whether we still want it to show up on the site)
  • Remove from nested listings, still publicly available?

TODO:

• Suggestions page - extra padding on right in mobile view
• Main map:
  • See CSU's campus map (Sustainability section) for inspiration
  • Campus boundary, like ArcGIS Bicycle Map
  • Improve mobile filter?
  • Use heatmap when zoomed out, switch to markers when zoomed in?
• SSC project embedding: add category filtering options
• (long term goal) look into importing information from another source, e.g. SSC students without iCAP Portal access can put together info in a structured format for automatic import into iCAP Portal
• Look into Collection embedding again, à la Drawdown Solutions Library Sammy had found ("Filter by sector or area of action" section)
• Metric search/display:
  • Theme (via connected Project, i.e. Theme -> Project -> Metric)
  • Most recent updates as of: (list of years) -> can we query Tracking data?
  • (Internal only) Last updated before (list of years) -> can we query Tracking data?
• (Low Priority) Make column headers click-sortable on Projects by Project Status page
• Fancy project layout mockups - keep tweaking #3 to improve contrast
• Discuss metrics
  • Metrics with lots of data
  • Consider how to handle old metrics that no longer track new data. Archive somehow?
  • Fun with math (e.g. combining multiple metrics)
  • Calculated Metrics on Dev site

Ideations:

• Map brainstorming:
  • What if we had a separate Campus Sustainability Tour expandable section, alongside Collections and Themes? Perhaps with a specific order to the locations and information about each location in the infowindow popup? We might have to hand-craft it rather than using Collections, but it might be worth it if we want an interface more like the CSU sustainability map. This could also work for any other bespoke sections we might want to include in the future.
  • Are there other things we'd like to highlight on the map beyond Themes and Collections? If we can think of them, Michael can try to figure out how to make it happen.
  • Michael is working on trying to make the map queries work asynchronously so each filter doesn't require a new pageload. This would make interactions with the map much snappier.
  • Would we like to provide the ability to view individual projects for each section in the sidebar, à la CSU's map?
  • Are there other categories we would like to include, either in addition to or instead of Collections and Themes? Is that information already in the iCAP Portal? If so, perhaps there's a way we can use it... If not, perhaps a new tagging system specifically for the map might help us achieve it?
  • Sarthak: would like to create a Biking Tour
  • Reed: highlight things students can see/experience
• SSC projects
  • May want to use this Archive of Funded Projects on old SSC site (2019) as a reference for showing SSC project info
  • Discussed using iCAP Portal projects for SSC projects page vs. maintaining own project pages directly on SSC website.
  • One possible challenge - SSC sometimes funds part of a project or provides funding for a period of time (e.g. 1 year) for a longer-term project, so only the project updates for that period of time are relevant, not all updates in perpetuity. How do we handle that?
  • Decided to start with map embed from Student Sustainability Committee Funded Projects collection, then look at adding card-based project embed as well.

Please see attached the iWG meeting notes from the meeting held on October 27, 2023. During this meeting, the iWG discussed:

• the charge letter sent to iCAP teams
• an overview of developments in Energy