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- Associated Project(s):Attached Files:
Meeting notes from 01/18/2024
Associated Project(s):Please see attached
Attached Files:iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - January 19, 2024
Associated Project(s):Agenda
- Clarification of future meeting schedule and topics
- Update: Miriam Keep, Codie Sterner, and Michael McKelvey met to continue the discussion about embedding SSC project information in the SSC website: Discussion about SSC projects in iCAP Portal - January 16, 2024
- Recommendation to make Christina's iCAP Portal Header Page Layout #4: Tabbed Navigation (Figma) the default layout for all projects
- For context, see final takeaway of previously mentioned SSC meeting
- Would need to figure out a new way to make Project Header pages stand out
Discussion/Decisions:
- Agreed to move meetings to once per month; Quinn will take care of that
- Agreed to make the tabbed navigation layout the default layout for projects; Christina will consider possible alternate designs for the Project Header layout
- Decided to only show the SSC tab for projects which have SSC funding; hide it for all others
- Discussion of representing SSC and other student-initiated fees
- If we start adding information about other fees (e.g. bike fee), should we group all the student-initated fees in a single tab (SSC, bike fee, etc.) or have separate tabs for each?
- Single tab would group together logically related info, avoids tab overload
- Multiple tabs would allow SSC to retain prominence on project pages, not dilute its impact and prestige
- Decided to do a single SSC tab now and revisit if we add information about other student-initiated fees in the future
SLLC moving to Illinois Street Residence (ISR) Hall
Associated Project(s):Sustainability LLC on the Move! The Sustainability Living Learning Community (LLC) is moving from Lincoln Avenue Residence Halls to Illinois Street Residence Halls in fall 2024! Residents in the SLLC can explore their interest in sustainable living academically, organically, and experientially with students of diverse backgrounds. Information >>>
iSEE newsletter - biomass boiler
Associated Project(s):Sustainability in Action: Biomass Boiler
The 5-year-old biomass boiler at the Illinois Energy Farm is truly a sustainable option. Miscanthus from the fields is dried and used to fuel the boiler, which heats a large greenhouse growing new plants. The ashes are applied back onto Energy Farm fields to create a carbon sink, adding to the closed loop. In our new video, you can see how it works and hear Energy Farm Director of Operations Tim Mies describe the system!Discussion about SSC projects in iCAP Portal - January 16, 2024
Associated Project(s):Miriam Keep, Codie Sterner, and Michael McKelvey met to continue the discussion about embedding SSC project information in the SSC website. Discussion topics included:
- Rough draft of SSC project embed filtering - still in development phase; need to add additional filters, map, only allow one Category to be selected, and several additional fields (e.g. file uploads)
- Discussed how to represent the SSC view of a project - e.g. custom project embed on SSC website, separate SSC-specific project page on iCAP Portal
Takeaways:
- SSC project embed filtering is looking promising - aesthetics need work and additional filters need to be implemented
- Christina's new Header Project layout would work well as the default layout for all projects - then SSC could just have its own tab! Would need to figure out how to make Header Projects stand out. Will bring this idea up at the larger group meeting on Friday.
ZipCar usage data for December 2023.
Associated Project(s):Please find attached PDF containing performance metrics for ZipCar usage on campus for December 2023.
iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - January 5, 2024
Associated Project(s):Done:
- Print layout updated (see Objectives page)
- Rough draft of SSC project embed filtering
- Rough draft of Christina's tab-based layout (Dev site; requires VPN or on-campus connection)
[Based on Christina's iCAP Portal Header Page Layout designs (Figma)]
Discussion:
- 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:
- Print styles:
- ✅ Objectives page:
- ✅ Do not bold metric titles
- ✅ Put "(not shown)" on own line
- Footer:
- ✅ Replace old iSEE logo with current iSEE wordmark
- ✅ Hide social media icons
- ✅ Show F&S and iSEE logos side-by-side
- ✅ Objectives page:
- 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?
- (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
- 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.
- SSC project integration discussion on 11/30/2023:
- New projects need to be approved and located appropriately in portal hierarchy
- Codie considers an SSC project worth adding once it has a CFOAP
- Projects can be updated w/SSC info by SSC students/employees once they exist in portal
- How to show projects with multiple funding allocations over time? (e.g. $100K in spring 2020, $100K in fall 2020)
- Is it the same project over time? Sometimes it is, but sometimes the leaders change and the direction changes significantly
- Discussed dusting off the Project Funding feature we'd deprecated several years ago. It looks promising for showing SSC's funding of projects!
- Michael and Codie will meet next week to discuss specifics about what SSC needs the iCAP Portal to be able to do in order to use the iCAP Portal for the SSC website's project listing.
1 Slim Bin placed at the Waste Transfer Station
Associated Project(s):P10H08575 placed in Waste Transfer Station break room
1 Slim Bin placed at Materials Research Laboratory
Associated Project(s):P10H08574 placed in the Materials Research Laboratory
3 Slim Bins placed at Siebel Center for Design
Associated Project(s):P10H08580 placed on the first floor- East
P10H08581 placed on the first floor- West
P10H08585 placed on basement level
3 Slim Bins placed at Micro & Nanotechnology lab
Associated Project(s):P1H08584 placed on first floor
P10H08583 placed on second floor
P10H08582 placed on third floor
Green Power Partnership’s 2022 Year in Review
Associated Project(s):The EPA GPP has realeased a 2022 year in review graphic and data. Please see the attached graphic.
- EPA Partners reported more than 3,000 green power purchases and projects, up 13 percent over the previous year.
- EPA Partners increasingly engaged directly with new projects through project-specific supply options like PPAs, surpassing retail supply options for the first time in program history.
- Nearly half of all 687 EPA Partners procured enough green power to meet 100 percent of their total annual domestic electricity demand.
Attached Files:UIUC works with Ecolab to transition to soap concentrate
Associated Project(s):Soap waste is especially prevalent on large campuses and facilities that experience high day-to-day foot traffic. Through North American, UIUC's custodial product vendor, the university is transitioning to Ecolab's soap concentrate. This allows soap dispensers to be refilled rather than tossed and replaced with a single-use dispenser. This choice was made in an effort to address waste reduction practices in the Building Services division of F&S.
***************************************************************************
From: Dean, Sean <Sean.Dean@ecolab.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 4, 2024 10:43 AM
To: Varney, Pete <pvarney@illinois.edu>
Cc: Walter, Christopher <Christopher.Walter@ecolab.com>; zhansen@na.com
Subject: Thank you from EcolabHello Pete,
Was a pleasure to meet you yesterday, thank you for the time, especially unannounced! Look forward to scheduling a formal review once installations are done and your teams have had a chance to acclimate to the concentrated program. Sending a recent link highlighting a topic from our discussion, environmental responsibility is key guiding principle for all Ecolab businesses. It’s nice to be recognized for it and perhaps there’s more opportunities for North American, Ecolab, and the University to partner on sustainable initiatives in the future.
Thanks again,
Ecolab Honored for Sustainability Initiatives (cleanlink.com)
Sean Dean
Regional AVP Facility CareECOLAB T 336 207 2732 E sean.dean@ecolab.com
December 2023 Buyer's Share Report
Associated Project(s):RailSplitter Wind Farm provided the December 2023 Buyer's Share amounts by the hour, totaling 2,116.9 Megawatt hours.
The December 2023 Buyer's Share Report is attached below.
Attached Files:Wymer Hall Geothermal
Associated Project(s):Attached are photos from geothermal drilling which will help power the new Wymer hall.
Winners of the 2023 Reimagine our Future competition + Thank you!
Associated Project(s):Below is an email sent by Leon Liebenberg thanking the participants of the 2023 ReImagine Our Future competition:
Dear Participant, Specialist Advisor, Judge, and Organizing Team in the 2023 Reimagine our Future Competition,
I would like to thank you for your participation in the 2023 Reimagine our Future Sustainability Competition for Undergraduates! Thank you for your participation in the 2023 Reimagine our Future Sustainability Competition for Undergraduates! You can read about this year’s winners here and view the winning fact sheets on the competition webpage.
I appreciate the invaluable support of our volunteer advisors and judges! A special word of thanks to this year’s student assistants, Erin Kelley and Allie Garlin, who did a phenomenal job with countless administrative tasks. Allie Cruz, Shreyas Venkatarathinam, and Wondrous Jenkins provided additional support, with thanks.
I am indebted to the competition co-founders, Professors Robert McKim and Warren Lavey, for providing superb direction and seemingly endless support. Our organizing committee was very fortunate to also benefit from the enthusiastic support of Codie Sterner, Coordinator of Student Sustainability and Advisor to the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC), and Claire Keating, the dynamic chairperson of the SSC. Professor Mike Yao (College of Media; Gies College of Business) agreed to mentor the top-three teams to help take their ideas further. The Office of the Associate Chancellor and Vice Provost for Global Affairs & Strategies (Prof. Reitu Mabokela), and the Center of Global Studies (Prof. Donna Tonini) again supported this year’s competition, as did the Siebel Center for Design (Rachel Switzky and Dr. Saad Shehab). Thank you to one and all!I look forward to your continued support in future competitions. In the meantime, I wish you and yours the very best over this festive period.
Kind regards,
LeonDecember 2023 Prairie Photos
Associated Project(s):December 2023 photos of the Florida Orchard Prairie have been added to the box folder.
EV discussion with Curb Electric
Associated Project(s):Hello all,
See attached the notes from our meeting. Happy holidays and happy new year! Thank you,
Sarthak
EV charging
Associated Project(s):Some of the comments from parking seem to imply a LOT of external vendor “input” on corded Level 2 chargers. I sense a reluctance about outlet-based charging, even though it can get to extreme scale. I am not sure the folks have thought much about the energy costs and effective costs of moving a car. We still have the experience of minimal use because of high cost and inconvenience of moving cars with the commercial units in place.
The Curbside technology certainly makes sense along a street with two-hour parking spaces, and my sense is that we are headed there. In the lots, I just do not see a fundamental problem with installing several dozen outlets and not worrying about the all-day aspect. Of course, today’s discussion was about Curbside and it makes sense in context.
Philip T. Krein, Ph.D., P.E.