You are here

All Project Updates

Search

Search tips:
  • This form will search for words in the title OR the description. If you would like to search for the same term(s) across both the title and description, enter the same search term(s) in both fields.
  • This form will search for any of the words you enter in a field, not the exact phrase you enter. If you would like to search for an exact phrase, put double quotes (") around the phrase. For example, if you search for Bike Path you will get results containing either the word Bike OR the word Path, but if you search for "Bike Path" you will get results containing the exact phrase Bike Path.


Pages

  1. Bicycle Census 2017

    Associated Project(s): 

    Hello all!

    Tomorrow morning is the bike census and it is going to be a blast! The weather looks great and the campus will be very seasonally fall like.

    Tomorrow’s event starts at 10 AM and ends at 11 AM. You can finish early! But please finish your whole block or let me know! Training for the event is crucial, because as you start you might start asking some questions about what counts and other questions. Attached is the instructions we will be going over in training tomorrow. Event training starts at 9 AM-9:05-ish. I will have print maps for notes or problems.

     

    REMEMBER TO CHARGE YOUR PHONE TONIGHT!

    Download the app Collector by ESRI sometime today from your respective app store. It is free. There is a log in to the bike census. It is here:

    Username: BikeCensus

    Password: bikecensus2017

     

    Timeline for Tomorrow:

    9 AM to 9:45 AM will be training and answering all questions at the Illini Union, South Patio

    10 AM to 11 AM will be counting.

    11 AM – 11:45 AM if you can, please drop off paper maps for any racks that were not on the map and need to be hand entered. If you can’t, just scan or take a picture and email it to lwilco2@illinois.edu or jvwhit@illinois.edu

     

    Map Block Assignment

    Map link is here: http://goo.gl/Cbq9Fj

    1

    Greg Briggs

    2

    Aki Akhauri

    3

    Aaron Hoyle-Katz

    4

    Audrey

    5

    Rand Hartsell

    6

    Jeff Yockey

    7

    Lily Wilcock

    8

    Tom McGreary

    9

    Marcus Ricci

    10

    Kevin Garcia

    11

    Ari Wolfe

    12

    Daniel Dodinval

    13

    Yazen Kashlan

    14

    Colleen Williams

    15

    Jake Benjamin

    16

    Hila Kelly

    17

    Lily Wilcock

    21

    Lily Wilcock

    24

    Saniya Rattan

     

    Honestly, I cannot thank all of you volunteers enough. Personally, I love technology and I love it when we can use it to make our communities better. Thank you for your hard work and James Whitacre at the Scholarly Commons and I will be typing away to process this information and get it in your hands and the hands of campus planners, engineers, architects, and administration.

    With all this being said, tomorrow have a good sense of humor, walk and bike quickly, and have fun counting every bike we can!

    Thank you,

     

    Lily Wilcock and James Whitacre

     

    Visiting Active Transportation Coordinator

    Facilities and Services

    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

     

    Give to the Campus Bike Plan Fund at http://go.illinois.edu/bikefund

  2. SWATeam expectations 2017-18

  3. ECBS SWATeam Meeting Minutes

    The Division of Intercollegiate Athletics (DIA) is looking to become more involved with the SWATeams and sustainability on campus. ECBS proposed ideas such as decreasing refrigerator usage, making a climate action plan specifically for DIA, and promoting recycling at tailgates. Illini Lights Out had their first event on September 29, and it was a success. 284 light switches were turned off in 13 different buildings. The Green Labs Coordinator position is slowly making progress, but there is a concern with funding. Updates on the ECIP were made, and there is a push being made for mid-year checkpoints in the future. ECBS also discussed if AFMFA projects could be redefined in order to do more maintenance-based projects. 

    Attached Files: 
  4. Weekly Update for Zero Waste

    Associated Project(s): 

    Hi Tracy—
    Here are the zero-waste activities from the past week: 

    • I updated the battery recycling location information on the iCAP portal and sent updated content to Steve Breitweiser for the F&S page.
    • I moved content for glove recycling promotional materials forward for Anna to work on.
    • I contacted Morgan about a request from a vendor of biodegradable gloves to discuss his product. The VWR representative I spoke with a couple of weeks ago had put him in touch with me. 

    Best regards,

    Marya Ryan
    Zero Waste Coordinator

  5. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 

    All, the major news of last week was the Light The Night event. We installed roughly 870 light sets this year! We completely sold out, which is a first for me in the 4 or so years in which I’ve been involved with this event. With it still being warm out, I hope we can get some valuable feedback from people who’re using the lights in regards to which ones they like, how they’re performing, etc.

    Last week was also the Members’ Meeting for the Bike Project wherein it was decided that used tubes will henceforth be free of charge for in-shop repairs. While this will cut into profits, it is a better choice as we do not have the ability to maintain proper quality control with our used tube selection. If a person wants to buy a tube for later use, however, they must still pay for it.

    Late Friday I got a message from Working Bikes in regards to coordinating for emptying the Bike Warehouse. They would like to do the event next Monday (October 9th). I will discuss with the Bike Project and decide if this is doable.

    The numbers:

    Sales (overall): $867.95
    Memberships: 12 for $360

    Bikes (refurbished): 0
    Bikes (Build-a-Bike): 0
    Tires/Tubes: 26 for $180

    Sincerely,

    • Jake Benjamin
      Campus Bike Center Manager
  6. PWR SWATeam Meeting

    The Purchasing, Waste, and Recycling SWATeam kicked off the semester with a discussion of their past and continuing efforts and proposals, their progress in achieving iCAP objectives, and goals for the upcoming year. They also gave recommendations on the creation of a Division of Intercollegiate Athletics (DIA) Climate Action Plan.

    Attached Files: 
  7. Meeting 2 October 2017

    In the second meeting of the semester, ALUFS discussed whom to contact to for data on nitrates and what campus could potentially do to encourage local food processing, as well as the challenges to increase the university's local food consumption.

  8. ISTC policies for IT

    At ISTC computers are required to be at least EPEAT Bronze rated.

    There is mention of EPEAT Bronze in the legislation at the State level—see http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=041501500K65. Note that the phrasing in this is a little odd because some of the products mentioned (e.g. mice, VCRs, etc. ) aren’t part of the EPEAT registry. But since a wide variety of people (i.e. people who are not campus procurement personnel) may purchase equipment, office supplies, etc., and not be aware of what EPEAT is, let alone that the state has expectations related to it, it’s perfectly possible that there are researchers or IT professionals who are buying items for University use with little thought about EPEAT.

    Procurement would have to confirm whether or not non-EPEAT related computers, laptops or tablets were available from vendors in UI punchouts in iBuy.

  9. Weekly Update for Zero Waste

    Hi Tracy—
    This past week was a slow one, with various emails to follow up on ac3vi3es from previous weeks. I will press harder on the loose ends this coming week so that we can move forward on the glove and glass recycling efforts and get website informa3on about battery recycling fully up to date. 

    I will also con3nue efforts with regard to Styrecylce. The densifier has been moved from Midwest Fiber to ISTC. Micah is working on seting up a mee3ng to figure out the next steps. 

    I put Amanda Soskin, a volunteer from the community, in touch with Morgan. Amanda is interested in reducing waste at tailgates. Morgan put her and Gopal Pareek in touch with each other so that they can lay out plans. 

    Best regards,

    Marya Ryan
    Zero Waste Coordinator

  10. Transportation SWATeam Meeting

    The Transportation SWATeam had it's first meeting of the year. They discussed progress on the Transportation iCAP objectives, the status of related projects and proposals, and their priorities for the year. The team identified the following three areas on which they plan to focus in the coming meetings: 

    1. Exploring options for offsetting air travel emissions

    2. Pursuing a comprehensive intermodal transit survey (one for students and one for faculty)

    3. Assessing the feasibility of various options to reduce emissions from the campus fleet

    The next meeting is on October 12th.

    Attached Files: 
  11. Meeting 27 September

    Topics of discussion included the planned water audit and parking lots that could be used for studies related to stormwater runoff. A student in the Sustainability minor planned to work with Rabin Bhattarai on the audit. The EPA Rainworks Project would have potential to redesign Parking Lot F4 because Burnsides Laboratory will be torn down.

  12. Dibbs students meet with sustainability staff

    Ximing Cai and Morgan White met with students Sohinee Oswal and Devaki Belwalkar about their food waste reduction app "Dibbs."  We discussed the possibility of connecting their efforts with iCAP objectives.  They are focused primarily on grocery stores, so the best option for working together is for Dibbs to connect with Dining Services and their convenience stores (Chomps, 57 North, and Penn Station).

  13. Recycled-content paper purchasing

    Hi SWATeam,

    I’m working with two interns, Kate Gardiner and Hursh Hazari, to address the recycled content paper habits on campus.  Hursh did an analysis of the paper purchases by college from FY15, and we are seeking updated data from OBFS.  That is attached in excel here.

    Kate is working on putting the policy in the CAM format, and the first stab of that is attached here.

    We just got off the phone with one of the F&S folks who orders paper, and she always orders from Office Max in iBuy.  She showed us (shared her screen) how she places the order in office max and got the current pricing for us.  Then she went into iStores from F&s and got the price for 30% recycled content paper.  She said she doesn’t usually go into F&S stores (“iStores”), and it isn’t a punchout in iBuy.  I had thought it was, but we couldn’t find it on the screen (see attached photo).  She couldn’t find the virgin paper pricing in F&S Stores, so we got off the phone and I logged into iStores to get that price. Here are the prices per ream:

     

    Office Max – virgin paper $3.10

    Office Max – 30% rec. content $3.55, which is 15% higher

     

    iStores – virgin paper $2.97

    iStores – 30% recycled content $3.03, which is 2% higher

     

    Comparing Office Max virgin paper to iStores 30%recycled content paper, users could save 7 cents per ream by switching.  Also, Office Max pricing is based on buying at least 10 reams (or one case), and iStores has that pricing for any quantity, even just one ream.

    HOWEVER, it is apparently pretty difficult to use iStores.  Can one of the staff or faculty on your team try to login to iStores and see if you need to get special permission to access it?  I already had access, but that could have been from sometime in my past 20 years on campus.  The logon is at https://my.fs.illinois.edu/fsportal/portal/.

    Any and all feedback on the other documents is of course welcome.

     

    Thanks!

    Morgan

  14. Transportation iCAP efforts in progress

    Hello Transportation SWATeam members,

    Thank you again for your willingness to help our campus achieve the Climate Leadership Commitments.  There is great value provided by the bi-weekly meetings of student, faculty, and staff representatives evaluating our progress and recommending additional actions campus units could take.

    The following is a list of current activities I am aware of, and suggestions I have about useful next steps.  I am happy to follow up with you on any of these, as needed.

    Thank you very much,

    ~Morgan

    Transportation

    1. EV analysis for department’s assigned vehicles – Hursh Hazari worked with Pete Varney’s data to evaluate the possibility of replacing some fleet vehicles with EVs.  https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project/use-electric-vehicles-ev-campus
    2. Pete Varney has established the F&S fleet as a certified green fleet.  Pete, do you create an annual report for the status of that which you can share?  If not, can you provide an update to the SWATeam and to me? 
    3. Last year the SWATeam discussed encouraging additional campus units to get certified as green fleets.  Your team could submit a recommendation for another unit (or more than one) to pursue that certification. 
    4. New EV Chargers – Scott Willenbrock is working on one at the Illini Union + Phil Krein is interested in getting more Type 1 chargers for the North Campus Parking Deck.
    5. Potential EV Study – At the Oct. 11 Workshop for the Living Lab research connections to iCAP, there will be seed funding offered and the study for transitioning to EVs could collect and use data on campus vehicle use.  Pete has example data, which could be used to support the request for seed funding, which could then possibly fund data collection for the study.
    6. We do not yet have new air travel emission data.  iSEE is working on creating a virtual storeroom to offer carbon offsets to campus units to voluntarily buy air travel offsets.  The storeroom has funding for the first 10,000 offsets, but I understand there was a hurdle on selecting appropriate offsets with additionality.  I recommend asking Ben McCall and Scott Willenbrock about it.
    7. A new Mode split survey is needed as soon as possible.  Lily Wilcock intends to bring this as an item for discussion.  We would appreciate it if you would help define the survey questions, and then iSEE can help distribute the survey to get updated figures. 
    8. Bike Plan – I suggest you ask Stacey DeLorenzo to join one of your meetings to give an overview of the status of the Bike Plan infrastructure upgrades.
    9. Lily has funding for a Bike at Illinois website, which Creative Services will develop in the winter and spring months this fiscal year. 
    10. Lily has worked with MTD to offer bus tours to show campus staff how to use the MTD.  We teach all our new student how to ride, but none of the new employees get the personal introduction.  These tours are very successful, when they are organized with a specific department or location. 
    11. Bike Parking – there is a significant capacity issue, which is noticeable just by looking around campus, especially during class hours in the core area.  Lily has a new website that she can show you, and there is an upcoming Bike Census, which your team members should help with.
    12. Bike Sharing – a handful of dockless bike sharing companies are wanting to come to town/campus.  To manage their impacts (imagine bikes in the boneyard) they will be required to obtain city permits.  Lily is asking the SSC to use the funds they allocated to bike sharing for additional bike parking areas in the heart of campus.
    13. MCORE – this project has several impacts on multi-modal transportation.  You can learn more at http://www.mcoreproject.com/project-construction-updates.

Pages