The e-cyclemania facebook event is online now.

Ball State U & Valencia College Partner with Chevrolet

(United States): As part of Chevrolet's new initiative to eliminate eight million metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the air over the next five years, the two schools were selected to use Chevy's new carbon-reduction performance methodology, which measures the "beyond-business-as-usual" carbon reductions. Chevy intends to then purchase these reductions as carbon credits. A geothermal system at Ball State University and four LEED buildings at Valencia College are eligible for the agreement.
See also: Ball State U Press Release

This draft report was prepared by Associate Director for Campus Sustainabilty Ben McCall at iSEE, and comments were provided by Morgan White from F&S.

The News-Gazette published information about the upcoming Game Day Challenge. 

Professor Lavey presented a seminar through the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) last week on governments' efforts to promote cleaner trucking services.  The focus was on tools beyond legislation and regulations, especially imposing  low-emissions conditions on access to properties and applying environmental preferences in government purchases.  Here is the short description:

Technologies to cut truck emissions are available and cost-effective, and should be encouraged by a range of government and private actions. In 2013, Chicago approved the expansion of a railroad terminal contingent on retrofitting dozens of trucks with clean diesel filters. Illinois agencies are reforming freight and package delivery purchasing programs to implement the Transportation Sustainability Procurement Program Act of 2013. Similarly, the U.S. General Services Administration is applying new environmental preferences in selecting transportation vendors and tracking their performance.

See the video on ISTC's website.

Just spoke with Mike DeLorenzo and you have the go ahead from the IAC to have discussions with the Sustainability Practitioners from Urbana and Champaign. As you might have guessed Mayor Prussing is strongly in favor of the idea. The Champaign city manager like the idea but wants to learn a little more before committing. Deb was not at the meeting, but you should be able to contact the RPC. Of course, given bill Volk’s history of commitment to environmental issues I suggest you also reach out to their people.

Next step is to develop the pros and cons of such an undertaking.

-Jack Dempsey

Zero waste

Recyclemania kicks off Feb. 26

A friendly recycling competition will take place during the Illinois-Nebraska basketball game Feb. 26 at State Farm Center. Fans can compete against other schools around the country by recycling with the goal of a “zero waste basketball game.”

During the game, the university will compete in Recyclemania, a friendly competition and assessment tool used to promote waste reduction activities in college communities. Recycling and landfill materials from the game will be weighed to calculate the event’s diversion rate; the more waste diverted from landfill, the better. The weights will then be entered into Recyclemania’s national database for future benchmarking and comparison. 

The university’s entrance into this national competition is a collaborative effort among the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics; Facilities and Services; State Farm Center; the Student Sustainability Committee; and the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment.  Volunteers from Students for Environmental Concerns and Teryl Brewster’s psychology class of “Social Justice Educators” will help direct the efforts at recycling locations during the event. 

Winning schools receive national recognition and an award made out of recyclable materials. Goals of the event include motivating the campus community to minimize waste and increase recycling efforts.

For more information and updates on the event, see https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project/recyclemania or email Bart Bartels at bbartel@illinois.edu.

--The above was quoted from Inside Illinois, Brief Notes.

All I need to know is the total number you have replaced and date completed.  The DCEO grant would reimburse $15/lamp.  I need the information by May 1 so we can submit our application.  If the project isn’t complete by then it will just have to be submitted on next year’s grant cycle.

-Eva Sweeney, P.E., LC

Attached are the specifics from our parking lot E-15.  We were reusing 27’ poles on approx. 90’ staggered spacing. The BetaLED occupancy sensors are operating right at their max distance, but seem to give good coverage for both cars and pedestrians.  We were targeting a low footcandle level, only about 1.0fc average.

Another LED fixture we have used with success is the Lithonia DSX2.  Due to taller poles (37’) on that project we did not use the occupancy sensors.  Lithonia has since indicated that their sensor may be able to adequately cover motion at that height, but we have not tried it.

University of Illinois is now considering bi-level LED lighting for almost all of our new outdoor installations, particularly parking lots that don’t get a lot of traffic late at night.  Between the energy savings and reduced maintenance, it’s working out very well so far.

Project advocates met with representatives of iSEE and F&S to discuss the SmartWay program.  Additional follow up information was shared from Professor Lavey.

• Link to EPA SmartWay program website:  www.epa.gov/smartway
• Link to Illinois Transportation Sustainability Procurement Program Act:  www.ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/fulltext.asp?Name=098-0348
• Link to Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council:  www.purchasingcouncil.org

Joel Steinfeldt in the Office of Public Affairs is the key contact for adding a bike rack to the campus map.  To add a bike parking area, you will need to provide Joel with the location for the map, a small description (eg. 15 U-loop racks at Building Name), and a picture of the bike parking area.  This information and photo can be emailed directly to Joel's attention, and he will add the information to the campus map.

The primary objective of this project-based learning course is to develop critical thinking and engineering problem solving skills by identifying and proposing solutions to current civil and/or environmental engineering problems facing the University of Illinois campus community. The class also includes several site visits to local engineering infrastructure facilities and multiple discussion driven case studies, which expose and deepen students understanding of current engineering facility operations and challenges. Additionally, students will understand more intimately what civil and environmental engineers do as well as the various fields of specialization and prepare them for opportunities for summer internships. Through working on a team project, reviewing other team projects, and receiving feedback from the course instructors, students will also develop necessary professional skills such as communication (written and oral) and project management. The course is primarily for sophomores and junior transfer students with a focus of engaging them into the broad spectra of challenges and contemporary issues in civil and environmental engineering, especially with regard to sustainability, design, and multi-disciplinary teamwork.

From: Foote, Gerard Paul
Sent: Friday, February 14, 2014 4:16 PM
To: Helmink, Karl J; Johnston, Morgan B
Subject: RE: Boiler tune up grant - proposal and Tom Coe conversation

Karl,

In response to the e-mail referencing Tom Coe and contacting the ERC, Brian Katamay

I had a phone conversation with Brian (Jan16th), indicating our desire to apply for approx. $180,000 In grant rebates and explained the 12’, 13’ and 14’ year totals and referenced Mr. Coe had suggested we talk with Mr. Katamay about applying for all of them and the best way to do so.

After discussing the numbers Brian said he first needs to see the breakdown of the numbers and his main concern was to see how it would fit into the ERP budget, he did not want to commit all of the funds to one place and was concerned about making sure it was split amongst multiple locations. I explained I could email the spreadsheet with the incentive totals, and he requested I complete the project costs column first then submit the spreadsheet to him for a review of the breakdown.

I forwarded the spreadsheet upon completion (2/13/2014), and awaited Brians' response. 

Today he responded and stated Ameren funds are no longer available and they are no longer taking aps for this year.

In turn I asked about the setting aside of funds ahead of time, referencing our first conversation? Brian replied the process for this is preapproval, something he had not required in the original phone call.

When asked what our options are now that weeks of work have been done, Brian said we have the technical work done and when the new year starts after May 31, 2014 we can visit the idea of including this work for 12’,13’and14’. 

_____________________________________________
From: Dempsey, John Garrett
Sent: Friday, February 14, 2014 11:01 AM
To: Roesler, Jeffery Raphael; Mestre, Jose; Johnston, Morgan B; Schideman, Lance Charles; Schmidt, Arthur R; Liu, Liang Y; Somaratna, Jeevaka I
Cc: Stratman, Allan; Andrechak, Michael J; Wise, Phyllis M; Adesida, Ilesanmi
Subject: RE: CEE398

I want to thank each of you for allowing me to be part of the first offering of CEE398. I have learned so much from each of you and developed an real appreciation for the work faculty do. I only wish I had made the connection between F&S and the academy earlier.

Jeff’s presentation yesterday about the second offering this fall and the discussion surrounding it demonstrated just how far he has brought the concept in such a short time. There is no doubt that with Liang’s leadership, Jeff’s hard work, Al’s support and Morgan’s involvement this CEE initiative will continue to blossom. In fact, during a conversation with Ben McCall yesterday, it appears that what you have done is directly translatable to a course being developed by Prof. Madhu Khanna for iSEE. I have asked Morgan to introduce her to the team when appropriate.

As my time here is short, I need to focus on some remaining projects so I will not be attending the bi-weekly course planning meeting, but leave you in Morgan’s capable hands.  Again, thanks for letting me be a part of this.

Revolving Loan Fund Selection Committee,

Thank you to all who participated in the special vote. We received a majority vote of four “yes” responses, so the project is accepted. Our Business Office will get the MOU written and we will move forward with the work very soon. The terms of the loan will be outlined in the MOU and will be in accordance with the signed agreement dated 12/03/2015.

Again, thank you to all who participated and we’ll be in contact with you very soon regarding the next selection meeting.

Josh Whitson

The University Libraries department of facilities is launching a small feasibility study to determine weather it would be cost effective to use bikes as a materials transportation medium. 

Alex Bragg, Distribution Clerk

• Energy
  
  • Currently, we are collaborating with the cities to encourage building managers to sign up for the U-C Energy Star Challenge to encourage energy conservation.  UI students volunteer to assist the building managers with data entry into the Energy Star Portfolio Manager, and SEDAC provides technical support to the program.
  • The City of Champaign includes data about the CO2-e emissions from Abbott Power Plant in their sustainability plan.
  • We all have renewable energy interests, so there may be a potential to collaborate to encourage the renewable energy adoption around this county.
• Land & Space
  
  • I am not sure if there is a project/collaboration already underway with this topic, except through UI Extension’s outreach to the 102 counties.
  • This is an area where we could potentially collaborate to facilitate in-fill development and additional greenspace.
• Procurement & Waste
  
  • The UI Waste Transfer Station was built after the Community Recycling Center was closed a few decades ago.  Now, however, both cities have recycling programs in place with more acceptable recyclable content that we accept on campus.  Perhaps the UI could increase the types of materials that we recycle through a collaboration with the cities. 
  • Also, the City of Urbana’s Landscape Recycling Center is piloting food composting, and we could potentially work together to compost materials from campus that are not recyclable.
• Transportation
  
  • Currently, we are collaborating on transportation planning through CUUATS.  This works very well and should continue to be supported.
  • To encourage alternative fuel vehicles, the UI is installing Electric Vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, and the cities may be interested in collaborating on a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) filling station.  If there were a CNG filling station available in this area, the UI Fleet could be converted to using CNG rather than traditional gasoline.
• Water
  
  • Currently, we are collaborating on stormwater management through the MS4 program.  This includes the Green Infrastructure conference and the Boneyard Community Clean-up Day.
• Education/Outreach/Promoting
  
  • Perhaps there could be a promotional effort to educate community members about general sustainability practices and encourage people to choose Champaign-Urbana as their permanent home.

Urbana is updating their existing Climate Action Plan, and Champaign has recently completed their Sustainability Plan.  With the proposed update efforts for the Illinois Climate Action Plan, this is good timing to start this discussion.

The draft Bike Code was sent to the Campus Administrative Manual (CAM) review committee for approval.  Additionally, the start date of the Bike Code was postponed to summer/fall 2014, from MArch 22, 2014.  This is so the data tracking system can be correctly set up.

see http://www.dailyillini.com/news/campus/article_81b2749a-92c2-11e3-a654-0017a43b2370.html

From: Dempsey, John Garrett
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 12:49 PM
To: Stratman, Allan; Delucia, Evan H; Andrechak, Michael J; DeLorenzo, Michael T
Cc: McCall, Benjamin; Johnston, Morgan B
Subject: FW: Accelerating Urban Sustainability Initiatives

One of the items that I agreed to work on during my last 9 months here is: “In coordination with the Chancellor’s Office work with representatives from Champaign, Urbana, Savoy, MTD, and the Regional Planning commission to evaluate the potential for a region-wide Climate Action Plan.” In the past the timing just wasn’t right to get everyone to agree to such an idea. However, with the recent completion of the Champaign Sustainability document and the current updating of the Urbana and University CAP’s the timing may be right.