Enrollment in the Certified Green Office Program will be open throughout the Fall 2014 semester. Don’t get caught enrolling at the last minute, though. The deadline to complete the five required sustainability commitments is December 15, 2014. We recommend that you and your office get started as soon as possible to leave extra time for additional commitments (see more below!). Office leaders must identify a Sustainability Ambassador before enrolling in the program.

ENROLL HERE!

After enrolling for the program, you can use this application to track your progress and send the completed form by December 15, 2014 to sustainability@illinois.edu. Once you complete the required commitments and email us the application (Excel spreadsheet), the iSEE team will review the applications from March to April 2015 and notify the award winners by April 10, 2015. The certificates will be presented during Earth Week 2015. The participants will also be mentioned on the iSEE website and publicized through our social media outlets.

Nervous about getting things done? Don’t be! The iSEE team will be in regular communication with your office Sustainability Ambassador to answer questions and assist with implementation. We will regularly update our website with resources to help you implement sustainability commitments. In addition, we will hold four meetings throughout the semester to share best practices and discuss any challenges offices may face. Each meeting will center on a different commitment theme and give you ideas about how you can implement green practices:

• August 28, 2014 – Introduction: Completing the five basic commitments (University YMCA, Latzer Hall) — RSVP HERE!

• September 25, 2014 – Topic TBA (Illini Union, Room 210) — RSVP HERE!

• November 4, 2014 – Topic TBA (Illini Union, Room 314B) — RSVP HERE!

• December 4, 2014 – Topic TBA (Illini Union, Room 314B) — RSVP HERE!

All meetings will be held between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.

Can’t make these meetings? The presentations will be posted on the iSEE website.

Go the extra mile!

Offices are encouraged to make additional commitments and perform additional acts to become a Bronze-, Silver-, or Gold-level Certified Green Office. Offices can choose from 17 additional commitments. The implementation deadline for these additional action items is March 15, 2015. To become a:

• Bronze Certified Green Office – make 40% or more (at least 7) of the total additional commitments.

• Silver Certified Green Office – make 60% or more (at least 11) of the total additional commitments.

• Gold Certified Green Office – make 80% or more (at least 14) of the total additional commitments.

The additional commitments can be found here.

Resources

The Certified Green Office Program application

Promotional information and presentations coming soon!

If you have any further questions, please contact Nishant Makhijani, iSEE's Student Intern for Campus Sustainability.

iSEE leaders provided an introduction to the SSLC

Six Objectives: Facilitate communication, facilitate collaboration, provide a forum for student leaders to voice their opinions to iSEE and thereby to the campus administration, help identify students who can serve on iSEE working groups or advisory groups, help identify potential interns, encourage more awareness about sustainability among student body

Unofficial objective: Create political will/pressure to implement sustainability initiatives

Topics covered:

• 2010 iCAP progress toward 2015 objectives
• iSEE Congress
• Zero Waste Game Day
• SSLC organizational structure

The attached file is the final report for the Water Bottle filler retrofit program.

Registration open for major conference on campus

As water and land for agriculture decrease and our climate changes, how do we feed the estimated 9 billion people who will populate the Earth by 2050? From Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment will gather 22 leading world scholars on campus to explore the issues. Register today for iSEE Congress 2014 — "Feeding 9 Billion: A Path to Sustainable Agriculture."

Anthony D Mancuso • Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment

iSEE Certified Green Office Program

You are invited to reduce the environmental impact of your office by enrolling in iSEE's Certified Green Office Program. Participating offices will implement some of the best practices to conserve energy and resources. Although changes to each office will for the most part be small, the aggregate impact of many people’s actions will be large. Registration is now open.

Nishant Makhijani • Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment

The International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN) released a report on campus sustainability best practices.  It is attached here.

Prairieland Energy Inc (PEI) provided the attached schedule for the Request for Information (RFI) and the potential Request for Proposals (RFP) for a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).

On July 29, the iCAP Working Group (iWG) met for the first time. Read more about that first meeting in the attached minutes.

Kishore Rajagopalan recommended adding this to the water conservation opportunities for campus: http://www.ecobluecorp.com/testimonials.php.

Sandy Mason interviewed myself and Jessica Mondello this morning at the Florida—Orchard prairie.  I think it went well.  As usual there was an awkward moment or two as we groped for words.  It should air on the farm segments at 5:40 am tomorrow Aug 7, and another version next Tuesday.  It will likely also show up on Illinois Home page .net

All the paths now have a thin layer of wood chips to prevent erosion.

~John Marlin

A long-term energy savings plan has been developed for 18 buildings which will consist of multiple agreements with Energy Service Companies (ESCO). These efforts are focused primarily on research facilities which have large energy demands and high potential for savings. The first contract associated with the plan has been approved by the Board of Trustees for $1.4M and will evaluate Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, Engineering Sciences Building, Loomis Laboratory, Superconductivity Center, and Micro & Nanotechnology Laboratory. An added benefit to these contracts is the ability to invest in upgraded systems using energy saving revenue which can improve facility operations and reduce deferred maintenance as well.

Marques,

I discussed the project with Carl Wegel. I regret to inform you that F&S will not be able to continue it at this time.

Please let me know what actions we would need to take if any to close out this account.

Best,

Eliana

There are some environmental advocates who oppose using wood chips for energy. 

This YouTube video includes the following description: "Forests are also one of our best defenses against global warming, absorbing vast amounts of carbon pollution out of the air. But power companies are increasingly proposing to burn whole trees for energy. Trees are not a "carbon neutral" fuel source. Just like coal, when trees are burned in power plants, the carbon they have accumulated over long periods of time is released into the atmosphere. Unlike coal, however, trees will continue to absorb carbon if left alone. So burning forests for energy not only emits a lot of carbon, but also degrades our carbon sinks. This video shows what happens to the balance of carbon between and forest and the atmosphere when we burn forests to produce energy instead of leaving them standing to continue to absorb and store carbon. Burning forests for electricity is dirty and destructive!" 

It is shared by the Natural Resources Defence Council.

Housing has been piloting the glove recycling program for about four weeks now.  LAR, PRI, and MRL are all considering implementing the program.  Kimberly-Clarke Professionals (KCP) is interested in potentially supporting an intern to help expand the program.

If everyone on campus recycled their KCP gloves it would be about 20 tons of landfill reduced.

Joyce Mast is coordinating a Request for Purchase to buy and install the solar panels that will go on top of the ECE Building.  The building already has the structural supports for the panels, so the purchase will include the racks, PV panels, and inverters.  Joyce is working with ECE's administrative office, the Purchasing Department, and F&S Capital Programs to facilitate this RFP.

Dear Revolving Loan Fund Selection Committee,

For two reasons, we will be rescheduling the Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) project review meeting.  First, the funding available to allocate from the RLF has significantly increased with the roll-over to FY15.  We now have an additional million dollars to allocate, with a total of approximately $2.3M.  Therefore, additional potential projects need to be identified before the selection takes place.  Second, the AFMFA selection committee is being called this fall, for the first time in a few years.  The founding agreement for the RLF (attached for your reference) intended the project selection to occur with the AFMFA project selection process.  Therefore, this meeting will be arranged in conjunction with the fall AFMFA committee meeting. 

The AFMFA committee meeting will be arranged by Doris Reeser, and I will remain in contact to answer questions about the RLF.

Thank you,

Morgan

Al Stratman, Carl Wegel, Ryan Welch, and Morgan Johnston met to discuss the requirements for applying for Tree Campus USA recognition.  Al directed Morgan and Ryan to pursue the application for this fall.  Morgan will take the lead, with Ryan handling a lot of the needed writing effort.

There are five requirements to get recognized as a Tree Campus USA:

1. Establish a “Campus Tree Advisory Committee”
   
   1. Membership must include a student, a Grounds representative, a faculty member, and a community member.
   2. We are hopeful that the Arboretum would organize this committee, chair it, staff it, and we would just need to attend and participate.
   3. The required responsibilities are unclear in the Tree Campus program, but we would not need to give them any authority over us.
2. Campus Tree Care Plan
   
   1. must include
      
      1. Clearly stated purpose.
      2. Responsible authority/department - who enforces the Campus Tree Care Plan. – F&S
      3. Establishment of a Campus Tree Advisory Committee, terms of the representatives, and role committee plays. – see above
      4. Campus tree care policies for planting, landscaping, maintenance and removal including establishing and updating a list of recommended and prohibited species; managing for catastrophic events. – we would need to document the maintenance and removal policies
      5. Protection and Preservation policies and procedures - include process for implementing tree protection plan including step-by-step process that every project must follow including construction and trenching. – in the standards
      6. Goals and Targets - develop at least one goal and target for your Campus Tree Plan. These could include (but are not limited to) tree canopy target, development of a link between the Campus Tree Plan and other green initiatives on campus or in the community; completion of a campus-wide tree inventory, etc. Include how the goal will be measured. – the goal could be to update and maintain the tree inventory, currently at about 75% for tree locations
      7. Tree damage assessment - enforcement, penalties, and appeals. – we would need to complete and document this policy
      8. Prohibited practices. – in the standards
      9. Definitions of terminology related to campus trees.
      10. Communication strategy - how the campus tree care plan will be communicated to the college community and contractors to heighten awareness about policies and procedures as well as the goals of the institution. – in collaboration with Arboretum, CRC, and possibly iSEE
   2. F&S would take the lead on developing this plan.  The advisory committee could be the primary reviewers.  Morgan can help facilitate this.
3. Campus Tree Program with Dedicated Annual Expenditures
   
   1. Grounds has a dedicated budget for trees.  Ryan noted that right now we are at about $200K per year including replacements, 2 tree surgeons and 2 grounds workers
   2. Ryan would need to develop a regular process for summarizing this data to record as evidence of the funding.
   3. We could expand this effort to collect financial information from other units that handle trees on campus, such as the Arboretum
4. Arbor Day Observance
   
   1. The Arboretum is the natural lead for an Arbor Day Observance event each year.  They have indicated interest in helping with this program. 
   2. We would definitely be involved, but we would prefer they take the lead for developing and organizing the event.
   3. Certain items would need to be tracked: activity program, news coverage, pictures, and I recommend tracking participation rates.
5. Service Learning Project
   
   1. “This should provide an opportunity to engage the student population with projects related to trees and can be part of a campus of community initiative.”
   2. We agree that a student project could be to locate the campus trees and enter basic information (size?).
   3. The project must be completed within the course of the year the application is submitted.
   4. The Arboretum could help coordinate this effort.  We could get a professor to do it in a class.  Morgan can assist with the coordination of this project.

The application is due in December for the year completed, so we would need to complete this effort this fall in order to qualify for next year.