iSEE Director Evan DeLucia and Associate Director Madhu Khanna met with student representatives from the iMatterNow organization.  iSEE connected these students with on-campus student groups, including the Student Sustainability Leadership Council and the Students for Environmental Concerns.  The original email inquiry is below:

"Hello, Dr. DeLucia.

My name is Rebecca Laurent, and I am a sophomore studying NRES and Political Science. I wanted to talk with you about an initiative that I am working on.

I currently serve as the Regional Organizer for the Central US for an organization called iMatter, which was founded by a 13 year-old with the vision of giving young people a voice on the climate crisis. We recently kicked off a campaign, called iMatterNow, that is focused on achieving progress at the city-level. At the core of the campaign is a "Report Card" that assesses how well a city is doing in reducing emissions to the level needed to prevent the worst effects of climate change (based on a report by Jim Hansen that we must reduce emissions by 6% annually). Students complete the report card with municipal data in categories such as waste, carbon removal, and GHG emissions.

Eventually, the students present the results of the report card along with petition signatures they have collected in their school and community and ask that they pass a resolution or ordinance. The ultimate aim of the campaign is to have cities adopt a more aggressive Climate Action Plan in the context of achieving a higher grade on the "Report Card".

Students are doing the iMatterNow campaign in various cities across the US and in Toronto. I am working with high school students at Champaign Central and Urbana High School to bring this campaign to Champaign-Urbana. I hope to get UIUC students involved in this effort in the community as well as on campus. Recently, we have discussed making adjustments to the Report Card to evaluate universities as opposed to cities. 

If you are interested and available, I would love to speak with you or someone else at the ISEE about the local iMatterNow campaign and your thoughts on the report card and introducing the campaign to college campuses. Please let me know if this is a possibility! I will be on campus all summer, and I'm pretty flexible.

Thank you,

Rebecca Laurent

Students can participate with campus sustainability projects related to infrastructure in the following ways:

• Provide concepts and ideas that then go through the formal design and implementation
• Observe installations, if appropriate for that task
• Monitor results, if installed in appropriately ADA accessible areas
• Work with the dept. to provide input to design teams, if allowed by the departmental project leader
• Propose projects to departments

Helen Coleman and Evan De Lucia approved an increase in the PO to $55,799 to pay Second Nature in exchange for their services with the transaction of Carbon Credits with BPTN.

An email of approval is attached below.

Housing provided the following information: "The cost is generally considered to be manageable but not neutral- the Family Housing Council contributes renter fees towards the cost of water usage but they do not pay the cost of plowing, clean-up, or general maintenance. That is absorbed into the yearly work of maintaining the land in that area. In regards to education, we (Family and Graduate Housing and Housing Facilities) built a nice shed/work space that allows for gardening sessions tips and discussions to happen. A majority of our gardeners are International and many of them have gardened in extreme weather and land situations that are far more challenging than the rich soil here in Central Illinois.  So oftentimes we allow our International residents to share how they have developed irrigation systems or they discuss how to use various material to create trellis like structures. We have through a collaborative in housing worked with Housing Dining to allow gardeners access to coffee grinds that can be mixed into the soil. In regards to liability, this is a garden at your own risk program. So far we have assisted residents who lost everything in some of our flooding incidents in the past with new seeds or tools but not much in the way of accepting liability for flooding, stealing, or damaging events."

The attached article includes the following from the Bay Area:

1. Describe several resilience indicators projects underway in the Bay Area and beyond;

2. Provide recommendations about how to undertake indicator development; and

3. Identify preliminary indicators for measuring both community and region-wide resilience to climate change.

Campus Bike Center Manager, James Roedl, was recognized after the C-U Bike Month for his contributions, leadership, and service to the Champaign Urbana cycling community.

Stephanie Lage at iSEE set up a work order for the Speech and Hearing Roofotp Solar PV project: 1-303692-508000-508038.

Phoenix Solar’s maintenance contractor, Bay Four, has hired Rubilia, LLC to perform the vegetation control, starting June 8, 2016.

A group of seniors completed the attached report for the Art and Design Building, for rooftop solar.  They recommended a flexible solar material, with micro-inverters.  The Art and Design department is interested in working with a student in the fall to seek funding for the rooftop solar from the Student Sustainability Committee.