IDOT submitted an application for the Illinois Governor's Sustainability Award in 2014, for work completed in collaboration with the University of Illinois Crop Sciences department. 

This project involved collaboration and coordination between UIUC Department of Crop Sciences, the IDOT sustainability manager, and IDOT roadway maintenance field staff.  The Illinois Department of Transportation is interested in utilizing suitable areas of Right-of-Ways to produce cellulosic grasses for ethanol and biomass energy. The goal of this study is to investigate the use of Illinois highway right-of-ways for energy crop production to generate additional revenue to defray the cost of road maintenance and improve the environment.

     In March through May 2014, ten undergrads in NRES 285 chose to evaluate a variety of UIUC sustainability projects.  All of the projects selected were supported by financing from the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC).

1. Solar photovoltaic system on BIF
2. Solar thermal system on ARC
3. Solar photovoltaic system and electric vehicles at Sustainable Student Farm (SSF)
4. Wood-burning furnace at Allerton Park
5. LEDs at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
6. Green roof on Art & Design
7. Vermicomposting at SSF
8. Red Oak rain garden
9. Prairie garden at Vet Med
10. Bike shop

     The students were guided to ask questions about the effectiveness of the projects.  The objective was to develop evaluations of how well the projects achieved the relevant goals and what could be learned from these actions.

The photovoltaic panels on LEED Platinum certified Business Instructional Facility (BIF) rooftop harvests solar radiation as a clean renewable energy source for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign facility. The solar system has a combined maximum output of 40 kilowatt per hour (kWh), and has an annual production of 60,000 kWh. The system is expected to produce approximately eight percent of the building’s total electricity demand. However, solar panels require unobstructed access to solar radiation for most or all of the day to be effective

In this case study, an Outdoor Wood Burning appliance was installed in central Illinois as a biomass substitute for existing natural gas heating.  The location is owned by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is operated under the name Allerton Park.  Allerton Park is a 1,500 acre estate with numerous woodland, riparian, and prairie areas.   This location was selected by the University’s Student Sustainability Committee which disperses student fees allocated for sustainability improvements.  The visitor center and several workshops at Allerton Park used a 1960 boiler/heating unit that was expensive to run and produced excessive CO2 emissions.

The Campus Bike Center opened for business in May 2010, funded by The Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign, a grant from the Student Sustainability Committee, the Center for a Sustainable Environment, and supplementary funding from the Facilities and Services Department at UIUC[1]. The Center offers a hands-on, educational space in which students and community members can have access to knowledge and experience in maintaining and fixing bicycles, as well as all of the necessary tools and products to do so. The Center’s outlined mission is to teach bicycle maintenance, providing access to affordable equipment, support overall safety education, and participate in campus bicycle community outreach2. The Center also has described goals for sustainability; to contribute towards the ICAP goal to reduce transportation emissions by 50% in 2025, support those who use bicycles for transportation, to make bikes a more feasible alternative to motor vehicles on this campus, and to expand these efforts even more through increased outreach and publicity efforts, increased staff capacity, more events outside of the shop to reach new audiences, more refurbished bikes to sell to students, and more courses, workshops, and demonstrations to educate the campus about bikes2.

[1] Neptune, Amelia. Bike Shop Student Sustainability Committee Application. UIUC ICAP Portal. http://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project-updates/102. 11 Nov 2012. Accessed 8 May 2014.

The University of Illinois is an educational institution that strives for excellence in sustainability. Under this new goal, many projects have been funded such as the green roof over the Link Gallery. The Link Gallery is a space used to exhibit student work and is wedged between the Art and Design Building and the Krannert Art Museum. The project, titled GreenLink, was proposed by Nan Goggins, the Director of the School of Art and Design, and David Akins, the Director of Art and Design Facilities in 2008[1]. The goal of this project was to make visible the concerns and interests of Fine and Applied Arts students and faculty in working collaboratively on “greening the art campus”. They also had the goals of lowering the heating and cooling costs for the Link space, as well as collecting and storing rainwater to water the gardens on either side of the Link Gallery.

[1] The original GreenLink Proposal can be found via the iCAP portal.

In the words of Valerie Oliveiro, Assistant to the Senior Associate Director of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, KCPA is “dedicated to the advancement of the education, research, and public engagement mission of the University of Illinois through the pursuit of excellence and innovation in the performing arts.”[1] These words exemplify the importance of KCPA to the campus community. A hub of social interaction and innovation, Krannert has a unique role as a leader and innovator in sustainability initiatives at the University of Illinois. This unique importance is what drove KCPA to the idea of implementing LED lighting in its lobby. After more than two years of research and experimentation, consideration to the developing goals of the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) and joint funding from the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) and the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation, KCPA finally decided to pull the trigger on The University’s largest LED lighting project.

[1] Oliveiro, Valerie. ICECF Funding Proposal for the KCPA LED Lobby Lighting Retrofit Project. Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, University of Illinois, September 17th, 2009

The major goal of this report is to quantify and qualify the impacts of Campus Red Oak Rain Garden project from University of Illinois on various metrics, including environmental, economic and educational contexts and to make suggestions for plan implementations of future projects. However, due to limited quantitative information, suggested impacts analysis is primarily based on literature reviews.

For the Spring 2014 semester, I am enrolled in NRES 285 – a field course entitled Performance Metrics and Assessment Techniques for Sustainability Projects. This course utilizes experiential learning in order to gain hands-on experience with sustainability projects on the UIUC campus. In order to assess these initiatives it is necessary to evaluate effectiveness of the project, means of improvement, methods of communicating results, and suggestions for the future. In particular, a project I found particularly appealing is the solar thermal system at the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC) used to heat the indoor and outdoor pools.

The Vermicomposting project (also known as I-Compost) in Sustainable Student Farm (SSF) began as part of the Transplant and Vermi-Composting Multiuse Greenhouse project. It is a pilot project to close the loop between the student farm and the university dining hall. The Transplant and Vermi-Composting Multiuse Greenhouse project received $65,222 grant from Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) on April 24, 2013. It also received $8,565 grant from the Office of Public Engagement on November 28, 2012 and $1,000 grant from Ernst & Young on March 21, 2012. The constructions of greenhouse and vermicomposting unit are completed on Fall 2013.

The goal of this project was to assess the success of the electric vehicles and solar panels on the Student Sustainable Farm (SSF). In 2010, through Engineering 298, the farm received a 1960 Allis-Challmers G Cultivating tractor that has been retrofitted to contain an electric powered motor. The following year, the same course began a new project to install 8 PV cell solar panels and charging station to service the SSF’s tractor. In 2012, a new course, Engineering 315, proposed and developed a project that would give the farm a delivery truck powered by an electric motor and a set of 24 PV solar panels and charging station to supply enough electricity for the truck’s daily use. As of now, all projects have been installed and are currently being used on the SSF except for the delivery truck, which has taken longer to construct than previously thought. The goal for all three projects is to offset the farm’s fuel costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While these projects have been funded and constructed with the intent they will make significant reductions to the farms energy cost and reduce emissions, they have not been appropriately assessed after implementation to measure if these goals have truly been achieved. With the help of Zack Grant, the SSF manager, the expertise of my professors, and extensive research, I have developed measures reflecting the performance of these projects and the impact they’ve had. I’ve measured water savings, carbon savings, and cost savings in order to express how the Student Sustainability Committee’s (SSC) money has been spent. With this information, I hope to provide honest feedback to the SSC so they can maximize their investments and provide our campus with projects producing the greatest energy savings for the cost. My intent for this paper is to teach people what sustainable really is, not to suggest that this or any other SSC funded projects are bad. I truly believe the work of the SSC is essential to our campus for guiding our students to become stewards of sustainability.

In 1820, Illinois contained 22 million acres of prairie, but due to modern intensive agricultural practices, only a few thousand remain today. Of high quality, remnant prairie, there are only 2,300 acres which mostly persist along railroads, in cemeteries, and in ground that is not fit for farming (DNR, 2014). Prairies are part of the history and culture of Illinois. The rich soils that grow so much food for people all over the country were formed under prairie landscapes. These grassland habitats have a lot of potential to continue providing ecosystem services for the citizens of Illinois, but first we have to recognize those ecosystem services and realize the value of the sustainability of prairie landscapes. Faculty at the University of Illinois Veterinary School and at the Illinois Natural History Survey have aimed to do just that through a prairie restoration project on the Veterinary Medicine campus.

From: Sweeney, Eva Maria
Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2014 3:41 PM
To: Chasco, David; Hall, Gaines B; Johnston, Morgan B; Tousignant, Teresa Marie Giardina
Cc: Rubin, Joshua
Subject: RE: Temple Buell - lighting controls upgrade

Dir. Chasco,

Thanks for your reply.  I’ll notify the project coordinator to proceed without the dimming controls.

Regards,

-Eva

From: Chasco, David
Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2014 2:05 PM
To: Hall, Gaines B; Sweeney, Eva Maria; Johnston, Morgan B; Tousignant, Teresa Marie Giardina
Cc: Rubin, Joshua
Subject: RE: Temple Buell - lighting controls upgrade

See below.

From: Hall, Gaines B
Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2014 12:27 PM
To: Sweeney, Eva Maria; Johnston, Morgan B; Tousignant, Teresa Marie Giardina; Chasco, David
Cc: Rubin, Joshua
Subject: RE: Temple Buell - lighting controls upgrade

I will defer to Director Chasco for this answer.

Gaines

From: Sweeney, Eva Maria
Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2014 11:24 AM
To: Johnston, Morgan B; Tousignant, Teresa Marie Giardina; Hall, Gaines B; Chasco, David
Cc: Rubin, Joshua
Subject: FW: Temple Buell - lighting controls upgrade

All,

Please see below.  Per our discussions at the 95% review, I added in continuous dimming

to the 2nd and 3rd floor studios daylighting controls.  I had hoped we could afford this within the

project budget, but the bid has come in too high.

Would it be acceptable to the department to remove the dimming function, and have the

daylighting operate in on/off mode only?  This will save a huge amount and put us back on budget. Yes, that is ok if it helps the budget.

Please let me know your thoughts ASAP so I can have the contractor revise their bid.

David

Thanks,

-Eva

From: Rubin, Joshua
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2014 4:44 PM
To: Sweeney, Eva Maria
Subject: Temple Buell

Eva

As discussed, the fixed cost JOC scope of work for the TBH Lighting upgrades is ~$119,580.  This does not include any F&S system integrity support (this would be time and material support for things like smoke outage support, electrical outage support, ballast disposal) which would be minor on this project.

The emergency exit light replacement cost is approx. $9,500.00

Removal of the dimming requirement for the studio/lab areas would save somewhere in the range of $33,300 - $50,000

Please let me know if you and the customer (Gaines Hall?) would like a more exact proposal for any of the options above and how you would like to proceed with this project.

Thanks,

Josh Rubin

JOC Project Specialist

Facilities & Services

University of Illinois

1501 S Oak St.

Champaign, IL 61820

Office:   (217) 300-2469

Cell:        (217) 377-5493

A look at the presentations from the May 8 retreat on energy hosted by the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (the underlined PowerPoint presentations can be viewed):

• Welcome by Professor Ben McCall, iSEE Associate Director for Campus Sustainability.
• Introduction by Professor Scott Willenbrock, Chairnan of the iSEE Sustainability Working Advisory Team for Energy Generation, Purchasing, and Distribution.
• "Energy Planning and Procurement at the University," presented by Dan Mortland, Assistant Vice President of Enterprise Services at University of Illinois.
• "Geothermal," videoconference presentation by Jim Lowe, Ball State University Director of Engineering and Construction Operations.
• "Solar," presented by Xinlei Wang, Associate Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at U of I.
• "Biomass," presented by Eric Rund, Owner of Rund Farms in Pesotum.
• "Capturing and Converting CO2 into Useful Chemicals," presented by Paul Kenis, Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at U of I.
• "Replacing Petroleum through Carbon-neutral Biofuels from Next-generation Integrated Infrastructure Systems," presented by Yuanhui Zhang, Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at U of I.
• "Energy Efficiency and Energy Sources," presented by Cliff Singer, Professor of Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering at U of I.
• "Retrofitting," presented by Paul Francisco, coordinator of the Indoor Climate & Research Training Program at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center.
• "Think Globally, Act Locally: What are the Implications?" presented by Cliff Singer, Professor of Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering at U of I.

Hey Bike Team,

Found this awesome thing online today: http://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#6/-120.90000/38.36000/blue/bike

It takes GPS data from Strava (an app people use to log bike and running mileage and share it with friends) and lays it over google maps. Kind of neat to see where people are biking on campus.

Hope you're all enjoying the weather.

Andy

Ken,

Let’s do this, and let Randy Whitman know we appreciate his suggestions – both about the LEDs and the attachment method.

Thanks.

Carl

From: Sweeney, Eva Maria
Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2014 2:29 PM
To: Buenting, Kenneth C; Wegel, Carl Victor
Cc: Johnston, Morgan B
Subject: FW: Energy Savings proposal

Ken & Carl,

Please see below for Randy Whitman’s suggestion of LEDs in the step lights at Lincoln Hall. I concur 100% that they would save energy and maintenance effort.

The cost would be in the ballpark of $1000-1500 including labor install.  Could this be done under maintenance, or should we look for other funding from RLF or SSC?

-Eva

From: Whitman, Randy E
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2014 11:09 AM
To: Sweeney, Eva Maria
Cc: Moen, Gregory A; Eckstein, Timothy J; Henry, Mark A; Ball, Sharon L
Subject: Energy Savings proposal

Eva,         

                I read somewhere recently that the University is transitioning to the use of LED lights as an energy savings measure.  I have a small proposal that would be a step in that direction.  In Lincoln Hall Theater there are numerous (at least 45) un-switched, un-dimmed, aisle/step lights that are on 24 hours a day to provide safe egress from the theater.  Currently they are lamped with 9 watt CFLs that cost approximately $5.00 with a life expectancy of 8,000 hours.  I have talked to Terry Gustafson from Englewood and he could get us a 3.5 watt LED lamp for $11.70 with a life expectancy of 25,000 hours.  The LED will provide adequate illumination for egress purposes.  So, for a little more than twice the cost we could get 3 times the lamp life and consume 60% less energy as well.  The #1 electric shop is already stocking that 3.5 watt LED lamp for candelabra fixtures in the foyer of the theater.  So, I was wondering if replacing the CFL lamps with LED lamps could be submitted to someone as a cost/energy savings measure?

               If this idea does not fall within your scope of work could you please tell me who I should submit this proposal to?  

On another  note for those aisle fixtures, I believe we need to modify the attachment of the fixtures to the floor box  adding washers to the attachment screws.  These fixtures are being kicked and become so loose that the wires feeding the fixtures become exposed creating a safety hazard for occupants of the theater.  I believe that the warranty for these fixtures has expired so they could be modified with better attachment means at the same time they are being re-lamped if a work order were to be generated to do this needed upgrade.

  Thanks for your time and attention.

Randy Whitman  rewhitma@illinois.edu

There are currently four League Certified Instructors in Champaign County: Valerie Sivicek, Cynthia Hoyle, Tim Marty, and Sue Jones.

Dear Mike,

The Student Sustainability Committee recently decided to fund a project entitled "Energy Shade Curtains - Phase III" for the Plant Care Facility in the amount of $71,000.  The project aims to install and program new shade curtains to decrease unnecessary overuse of energy to heat, cool, and power greenhouse rooms.  An earlier phase of this project included detailed metering, which demonstrated a 50% reduction in heat inputs and a 32% reduction in electricity consumption.

The SSC, and iSEE, would like to ask whether the energy savings resulting from this project can be "paid back" into the Revolving Loan Fund in order to help facilitate future energy-saving projects.  Obviously we would have to quantify exactly what the savings are, before moving forward.

Sincerely,

Marika Nell (Outgoing Chair, SSC)
Amy Liu (Incoming Chair, SSC)
Ben McCall (Associate Director for Campus Sustainability, iSEE)