The 2023-24 charge letter identified the Commuter Program as a priority area for the Transportation iCAP team.

The pilot commuter program ran in Spring 2023 and celebrated those already choosing active modes of transportation but struggled to incentivize people to relinquish their parking passes. The Transportation Team will begin to brainstorm ways to incentivize and encourage people to relinquish their parking passes. The team also wants to establish an emergency ride-home program. This program would be made available to those who do not have a parking pass and need to return home in case of an emergency. 

The Transportation iCAP Team met on 10/6/2023 to discuss the 2023-24 charge letter and priories for the year. The team will focus on the EV Task Force Report, the 2024 Campus Bike Plan, the commuter program, and Transportation015- sustainable fleet replacement plan recommendation. 

At Friday's Illini Lights Out event, 6,059 light bulbs were shut off that otherwise would have been left on all weekend, saving $921.85 in energy costs. This also prevented 7.434 metric tons of CO2 equivalent from entering the atmosphere, which is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from 833 gallons of gasoline being consumed. That's a huge impact!

The next Illini Lights Out event is on Friday, October 13th, and you can sign up using this link. Stay up to date with other sustainability-related events and news by signing up for the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) newsletter here!

Illini Lights Out addresses objectives 2.2 and 2.2.2 of the iCAP, or Illinois Climate Action Plan, to increase energy efficiency and reduce building-level energy. Find out about other iCAP objectives here and read the entire iCAP here.

Illini Lights Out is a certified Green Event! Click this link to learn how to green-certify your own event.

The Zero Waste iCAP Team met on October 9, 2024, to discuss AY 2023-24 action items, iCAP objectives, and charge priorities. The team will be focusing on conducting green tailgating events alongside university athletics, increasing waste reduction and diversion within residence halls, and addressing updates to current facility hydration station standards. 

Hello Morgan & Jennifer.

Matt Rundquist (CCed) and I are looking at developing real-time energy dashboards for campus transparency at the request of the VCAS.

Can you share if/how that project is going at UIUC?  I googled around a bit but most of the content seems a bit outdated…

Energy Dashboard Project (Ongoing) | iCAP Portal | University of Illinois

Any thing you can share is helpful and happy to jump on a call if that’s faster.

Thanks for your help.

Andy Mitchell

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

Rob,

Colleagues at UIC are interested in UIUC’s Energy Dashboard Project. However, the information on the dashboard stops at FY14 and the links to the building-level information are broken. I see a lot of value in this project for campus. Is there any way to reinvigorate the project and update the content?

Let me know if there is something iSEE can do to help.

Thank you,

Jennifer

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

Hello Jennifer,

Thanks for reaching out to UES on this topic. I am glad to hear that people have an interest in the UIUC energy dashboards. Our team has done a great job on this initiative, and we are leading the efforts amongst our peers. In fact, UIUC and vendor staff  will be presenting this topic at the International District Energy Association Campus Energy Conference this February. We am quite proud of the success we have achieved in this area.

In reference to the UIC system, I actually had worked on developing energy dashboards at UIC when I was the Director of UES there. We had some success, but the product was a bit difficult to maintain. I believe that support for those UIC dashboards has ended.

After receiving your email, I reached out to the Engineering/Consultant firm that I worked with to develop dashboards for both UIC and UIUC. Aaron Mason from Hawkeye Energy Solutions (Shorewood, IL) informed me that the platform that they are using at UIUC is a “much better, lightweight, and responsive” then the solution that was originally used at UIC. The underlying data streams at both campuses are similar, so the development of dashboards for UIC should be relatively easy.

Regarding the link that was provided for the UIUC dashboards; that link is actually an old link that is no longer supported. Please use this link to view the new dashboards at UIUC: http://uesdash.fs.illinois.edu/ . This system does not require a login, and is easy to navigate. We currently have 70 of the first 80 building dashboards completed, which represents 92% of the University energy consumption. Many of the dashboards are visible at building video displays for all building occupants to view. We continue to vet the data streams and will add more dashboards as we continue our efforts into the future.

To help you and Andy resolve any questions, I am including the following people on the cc so that you can reach out to them directly if it helps you in your efforts.

• Cedric Everett – Assistant Director of Utilities and Energy Services at UIC (Can help you navigate the energy data at UIC, as well as contracting with Hawkeye Energy Solutions).
• Aaron Mason – Director of Operations, Hawkeye Energy Solutions (Can assist with the technical background of a dashboard solution).
• Robbie Bauer – Management Engineer Utilities Distribution UIUC (Is the lead engineer at UIUC for development and implementation of energy dashboards).

Hopefully this answers your questions. If not, please don’t hesitate to contact me for more information. We welcome the opportunity to work together.

Thanks,
Rob

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

Hi Rob,

Thanks so much for this information and for reaching out to your colleague at Hawkeye Energy Solutions. I’m pleased to see that this project is going strong!

If it’s ok with you, I would like to update the iCAP portal with this information, especially the URL for the new dashboards.

Andy, if there is anything else we can help with, please let use know.

Jennifer

The iCAP Engagement held their first meeting of the Fall Semester on October 5th. Meeting minutes and recordings are attached.

https://uofi.box.com/s/j3udgb9obcdyugbgfy2jio5m53me7t85

The Land & Water iCAP team met on Teams from 1-2 PM on Friday, October 6th. The team reviewed the iCAP Land & Water objectives, discussed area/projects of focus for the year, and brainstormed next steps in relation to projects that are underway. Meeting minutes are attached.

Tour with 1 student on October 6, 2023. 

Hey Dave,

Can I get a copy of the route for our sustainability tour?  I’m going to touch base with Morgan and pick up on some talking points.  You had said you would send that route over, but I am not finding it yet.

Thanks!

Brent.

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

Brent,

Here is the draft as it stands. The second page is my start at partially populating some talking points, but change whatever you see fit.

FYI, we have an hour of float built into our schedule after the tour, so we can potentially stop by Red Oak on the way back to the Union.

Dave

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

Hi Morgan,

Looks like this is the list of things we will drive past.  I know we are stopping at Solar Farm 1, plus the Solar Decathlon house, and Gable House & Biomass Generator, with a potential stop at the red oak rain garden.  I know a little about a lot of these, but I would appreciate some time to chat about some talking points here.  I know you can do this off the top of your head.  This should be interesting for me.  I just talked to Dave and he said someone is going to meet us at the 3 stops.  That’s great.  I just need to fill in the other points along the tour.  I do feel better about that, but would still love a short chat.

😊

The best time for me to talk is probably sometime late Saturday afternoon.  I hope to ride a 100 miles or so tomorrow am.  Then I should be free Sunday afternoon as well.   Gayle is taking the kids up north as her sister is in town.  I hope to catch up on some stuff then. 

Thanks!

Brent.

Hi Morgan and Lisa,

This fall I have submitted two SSC step-1 applications:

1. Shipping containers for bicycle storage - $85,000
2. Purchase and Installation of bike shelter - $250,000

See attached the application. Thank you,
Sarthak

The Education iCAP team met on Teams from 1-2 PM on Thursday, October 5th. The team reviewed the iCAP Education objectives, discussed area/projects of focus for the year, and brainstormed next steps in relation to projects that are underway. Meeting minutes are attached.

Hi Daphne,

My name is Miriam Keep, and I am the new Sustainability Programs Coordinator with iSEE. I’m working with the iSEE team to complete the annual reporting of GHG emissions for campus, and we need to report landfill tonnage for FY22 and FY 23. Could you provide these numbers? Please let me know if you have any questions, and thank you!

Best,

Miriam

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

Hi Daphne,

I hope you are doing well. I wanted to follow up and see if you could provide the landfill tonnage data. If you have any questions about this request I would be happy to try to find more information about what is needed.

Thanks,

Miriam

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

Hi Miriam,

Thanks for your follow up on this, my apologies for the delay! Please see the data below:

• FY22: 5,024.25 tons
• FY23: 5,846.83 tons

I am curious what was written in for FY21 and FY20 – do you have those numbers?

Thank you,

Daphne

The following is an email sent by Betsy Ligget Richardson:

Hello everyone, hope you are doing well!

I am writing to share information regarding an upcoming stormwater conference on October 24th at the iHotel to see if you are interested in attending and if you could share the attached flyer with your staff and colleagues. The Illinois Green Infrastructure & Erosion Control Conference is hosted by the Champaign County Stormwater Partnership which the University, Facilities & Services, Safety & Compliance is a member.

The conference presenters this year are from the University of Illinois, the University of Illinois Extension Office, Penn State and the City of Peoria. We will also have a tour at Crystal Lake Park in Urbana following the presentations (MTD transportation available). 5 PDHs will be provided, along with breakfast and lunch!

We do not currently have a high registration count and hope to get more attendees registered this week to support our presenters. We have promoted a soft close registration date on October 10th . Registration will still be open after that, but we are asking attendees to register by Tuesday for the food order and table set up information needed.

Please sign up and share. Thanks in advance!

https://www.ccstormwater.org/2023-conference.html

Betsy

9 individuals from the Fab Lab on October 4, 2023.

MSE 489 class tour with Professor Daniel Shoemaker on October 3, 2023:

Hi, Steve. A News-Gazette Mailbag question for you:

"The University of Illinois has 2 large solar farms near Savoy.  How are they doing compared to expectations?  What percentage of the UofI power do they provide?  Are there any plans for more? If so ... where and when will they be built?"

(I rooted around a bit on the F&S energy/utility pages, and found a lot of info. Figured I'd best ask you, though, for the most current data.)

Thank you,

KR

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

Hi Morgan/Mike/Tony,

Do we have updated FY23 data that can be shared to answer the question about current output of both arrays as it relates to expected performance and the percentage of electrical demand?

A similar question was answered in March 22', please see attached. I have addressed the second part with the below statement previously (let me know if there is any update is needed there as well or if that can be used again).

The university is evaluating the potential procurement of additional clean energy through an off-campus virtual power purchase agreement to meet Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) goals.

I would like to finalize the information and reply by Wednesday, October 4. Thanks for your help with this.

Steve B.

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

Steve,

Here is the information being requested.  I would like Rob to have a chance to comment on the last sentence before you respond.

Both Solar Farms are performing as expected.  Solar Farm 2.0 produced 99% of the vendor’s guaranteed production in the first two years of operation.  Solar Farm 1.0 produced 96% of estimated production over a two year period.  In FY23 the solar production was 6.6% of the campus electricity demand.  The University is considering another solar project, but the location and timing have not been determined yet.

Best,

Tony

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

I would suggest that the final sentence state something such as: “While there are no immediate plans to add further solar capacity to the system, the University continues to evaluate and consider a multitude of carbon neutral energy solutions that would provide benefit to the Universities energy portfolio, including additional solar array capacity.”

Rob Roman