Waste Transfer Station tours
Student Sustainability Committee held a Waste Transfer Station Tour workshop (5 students) on September 21, 2023
Student Sustainability Committee held a Waste Transfer Station Tour workshop (5 students) on September 21, 2023
Hi Jen,
I was at the freezer challenge awards today and Julie Nguyen, a lab manager in vet med, asked about recycling plastic pipette tips. I wanted to put it on your radar for the Green Research discussions. She said that she had talked with Daphne about this also.
Fisher will accept them but for $70 a box. They are #5 plastic so can be recycled in C-U but not on campus. She said that she has been taking them to recycling herself. Her comments reinforce the lack of our ability to recycle lab waste on campus and also that there are motivated people taking the responsibility to do it themselves.
She could be a good candidate to bring into your Green Research discussion since Vet Med would deal with a lot of spooky stuff in their labs.
-Elizabeth
Hello Everyone,
Thank you for joining us and celebrating the terrific work accomplished during this year’s Freezer Challenge event!
I have attached an itinerary to familiarize yourself with todays activities.
Reminder:
If rain is present after 130 we will move 2 buildings to the west inside the Stock Pavilion for this event.
If NOT raining meet outside IBRL 1300 west Pennsylvania Ave. Urbana
If rain is imminent meet at Stock Pavilion 1402 west Pennsylvania Ave. Urbana
See you all there!
Best
Paul Foote
Hello Everyone,
As you may have read in last night’s email, you made a huge impact and helped UIUC on its way to the 2023 “Winning Streak Award” very nice work, thank you for all you do!
As a benefit the winners will be highlighted in a digital Lab Manager article which will come out in November.
Thursday Sept. 21st at 2pm we are recognizing the top performing labs from UIUC and taking a group photo in front of Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory (IBRL) at 2pm sharp.
Dr. Melanie Loots, Chief of Staff, Senior Executive Associate Vice Chancellor for Research & Innovation will be handing out these awards.
You are all encouraged to join us and cheer on your fellow researchers as they receive their awards and join in the photo.
Thank you
Paul Foote
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Hi everyone,
The radar shows rain has stopped for the majority of the work day, with some showers popping up randomly.
If rain is present after 130 we will move 2 buildings to the west inside the Stock Pavilion for this event.
If NOT raining meet outside IBRL 1300 west Pennsylvania Ave. Urbana
If rain is imminent meet at Stock Pavilion 1402 west Pennsylvania Ave. Urbana
See you all there!
Best
Paul Foote
September 20, 2023 Green Research Committee Meeting 4
Present: Stephanie Hess, Tim Mies, Jennifer Fraterrigo, Paul Foote, Jeremy Neighbors, Shari Effert-Fanta, Lisa Moore, Morgan White, Chad Stevens, Sabrina Summers, Maisie Kingren, Daphne Hulse
Absent: Mitchell Bryant
High-level overview (Jeremy leads)
Please watch the meeting recording here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mKdaJuEeMkBe2PO_POXyvQ-zUkLi7RdU/view?u...
Please see the included link to a F&S Newsletter on the 2023 Freezer Challenge
Hello my name is Saif Malik and I am a graduate student in the Energy Systems program. Some classmates and I are working with the Student Sustainability Committee on proposing 2 pairs of solar compactors to be set up by the main union.
I understand that in the past there was a compactor that broke down/ caused issues. I was hoping to get any information on this so we can look into if this is still viable or what improvements would be needed from what you encountered.
Thank you for your time!
Saif Malik
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Morgan, would you be able to assist with the below?
Jerry Dinnin
All, I was out sick all last week with some combination of flu/cold/sinus infection. My staff handled operations in my absence. However, there were some issues tracking visit numbers, unfortunately.
Last Thursday was Bike To Work Day. Some very awesome people stepped up and filled in for me. Sounds like it was a banner year! Congrats to all involved.
Tomorrow evening is Light The Night. We’ll be hosting at a different location this year. Should be a better spot for folks to get their lights.
We were inundated with donations last week. I’ll bring in staff off-hours to help scrap the junk bikes and reorganize this week. Hopefully we’ll have our space in better shape by our open hours on Wednesday.
The numbers:
Visitors: 8*
Sales: $1,242.50
Bikes (refurb): 2 for $215
Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $40
Memberships: 17 for $510
Tires/tubes: 9 for $55
*See above issue with visit numbers.
Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator
Since we were talking about RECs last week, I came across this presentation that was made at ETH Chicago last week.
Regenerative Finance, Leveraging Blockchain to Digitize the Renewable Energy Marketplace
https://pretalx.com/ethchi-2023/talk/XSHZBM/
Also, in regard to energy conservation, Maryland provides RECs for installing geothermal systems. Could we have the Illinois Portfolio Standard do the same?
https://www.psc.state.md.us/electricity/description-documents-maryland-renewable-energy-portfolio-standard-program/geothermal-rec-frequently-asked-questions/. This would be very helpful for institutions wanting to become carbon neutral.
Best,
Andy
Hello Everyone,
I am rushing to put together the mass-mail announcement for the campus research community, as My Green Labs re-finalized our results last night. This will go out by the end of this week.
It will include action item totals, recognition and a couple of new achievements reached by UIUC.
Everyone on this email has earned an award this year, we will be awarding the top 14 performing labs.
Sorry the celebration date is so close, we need to send the photo to the My Green Labs and the Lab Manager Journal by Sept. 29th in order make the deadline.
Thank you
Paul Foote
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Thanks to everyone that has already responded!
If you have not yet had the chance, Please do so by Friday the 15th?
So far we are looking at 2pm Thursday afternoon, I hope all can make it!
Best
Paul Foote
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Hello Everyone,
The most popular date and time is Thursday the 21st at 2 pm, we will be in front of IBRL (1300 W Pennsylvania Ave, Urbana, IL 61801)
IBRL-Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory
See you all then!
P.S. I am still tabulating the results, the mass email will go out to the research community Monday evening.
Best
Paul Foote
Jen and Morgan met with the iCAP team clerks today to plan for the semester.
Hi Jim & Kelly Jo,
My intentions were to send this out last Friday after seeing the DKC email, I just didn’t get back to it before the end of the day. I just wanted to share the latest version 4.1 of LEED which shows the new requirements for fundamental & Enhanced Cx.
Both have increased in documentation, material and tasks needed to achieve them. Above are just a few of the items that Brian and I track and report for Fundamental Cx.
Looks like they are going for Platinum, the highest level. I wonder if they have looked into green cleaning or alternative energy. We may want to verify this. Keep in mind, that all the actual commissioning is covered under the required fundamental portion. Enhanced includes extra tasks needed to be performed by the contractors and possibly a 3rd party entity. Something to think about as well is overall cost of the project, this could drive the cost of the project up. So, that’s another thing we need to bring to their attention is adding the appropriate language in the specifications. Enhanced does have a possibility of gaining 6 points but there are options.
I’ll be back in the office tomorrow; I have time tomorrow afternoon or Friday to discuss the options and path’s if we so choose to accept this route. We should also discuss UGL, they are also wanting to pursue enhanced, not sure which avenue yet, I believe they talked about option 1, path 1.
Thanks,
Jake
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Just an fyi with some information that Brian and I provide to USGBC for UIUC Cx activities. The material attached above is just some of what we provide for the fundamental side of commissioning. I would like to speak to you about the enhanced side when you have a few minutes.
Please let me know if you have a few minutes this afternoon or tomorrow.
Thank you,
Jake
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Hi Jake:
Rather than discussing this with me along with Morgan, I’m going to invite you to the 50% Design Review to discuss it with the PSC. Copying KJH so she sees the email string. I’m not sure where Bailey Edward is going with this other than trying to get a higher LEED score. I’m not passionate about pursuing enhanced CX but Bailey Edward wanted to discuss as a part of the rating process. Right now, I have the LEED/Enhanced CX scheduled for 11:50-12:30 on Tuesday, September 19. I know it’s part of a lunch, apologies for that. I’m attempting to get through all of the DR comments in less than 16 hours of time and this would be the last meeting of the day.
Sending the schedule out shortly.
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Just an fyi…I reached out to Todd with Baily Edwards the other day. I have attached the email regarding that conversation.
Basically, as long as they enter the appropriate language in the specifications, we could revisit this later in the project and see how the points are achievable and what’s actually needed to get them to the appropriate certification level.
Cynthia Hoyle create a new registration link for the Learn How to Ride class: https://shorturl.at/gyBQX
Morgan:
I spoke with Dave Dowler and he gave me your name as a person to speak with in regards to opportunities to work together for increased ability to do projects in the sustainable energy sector.
Glesco is a local female owned business in Urbana and we have had the opportunity to complete numerous projects at the UIUC campus. I have recently had the opportunity to work with developers that have been funding capital P3 projects on campus and thought perhaps an opportunity existed to do things in the sustainable energy area.
Would you have time to discuss this? From my previous discussions at the University of Illinois, there was a “plan” in place prior to COVID that had both short-term and long-term goals in making UI more energy efficient.
I believe we met at the diversity and inclusion conference this past year, however, I hadn’t fully developed the idea of how we could perhaps work together to meet these goals.
I would appreciate the opportunity to meet with you if you are interested. If you think this conversation is better suited for someone other than yourself, would you be so kind as to point me in the right direction?
Thank you.
Laurda Grenda
President of Glesco Electric Inc.
Morgan,
I was looking at the green research committee stuff just now. It had me thinking about charge #3 and how difficult that is. Curious what your thoughts are about it. There are parts of it we can definitely offer recommendations for. We have buildings that aren’t too far out of code/compliance and could be upgraded slowly (as budget allows) to put them in a better and more green standing. My opinion is we push for that. We also have buildings that seem to be too far gone and are in the “must rebuild” category to even inch our way towards “green.”
Shutting sashes, recycling, researchers making better decisions is a small piece of the problem that we can solve with a green research coordinator. I think to some, that is the easy part to address (with proper funding for that person) but won’t really get us to where we need to be to call our campus #1 for green research.
In your position with a lot of experience in sustainability and F&S, I’m curious your thoughts on this one. How do we even talk about sustainability to the buildings that are just trying to stay functional each day, where they are on the edge of even being able to do research in their facilities?
Sorry for the random email. Just scratching my head on this one after really thinking about how different each research building is on this campus. Happy to chat briefly via phone before we meet next week if you want.
Stephanie Hess
On September 11, 2023, Bike at Illinois reached out to 29 users, who had won the Bike Registration Raffle. Eight winners were from May 2023 to August 2023, and the remaining were from the previous periods for which the original winners had relinquished their prizes.
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Attached are correspondence sent on behalf of Chancellor Robert Jones.
Hi Dave,
What effort and rough costs would it take to clean off the hard water stains on filler station spouts across campus?
Thanks,
Morgan
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Pete,
What do you think about this? I will see if we have a list.
Dave
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We do have a list…I’ll have to find it and get it to you.
Thank you,
Pete
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Is this the BSW team to do this work?
Dave
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Yeah, we remove water stains from sinks and faucets. If the Plumbing shop doesn’t mind we can add it to our “to do” list.
Thank you,
Pete
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Pete,
We view this as BSW work not the Plumbing shop.
Thanks,
Dave
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Hi Dave and Pete,
Pete – were you able to get some of these water bottle fillers cleaned, per the email below?
Dave and Pete – who would be responsible for resetting the filter status indicator light on the water hydration stations? I believe the filters would be replaced through BMG, but is the indicator light something that would be reset when the filter gets replaced? And I think there could be some hydration stations out there with no filter, but that still have a filter status indicator light…
Thanks,
Morgan
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Given our staffing shortages, we have not started working on this. It should be something we can get to over the winter break if hiring continues at the current pace.
Thank you,
Pete