Hi Geri and Anita,

 

At the Sustainability Council, you said there are University-owned lands that could potentially support our Solar Farm 3.0 goals.  I think you said there is one possibility near UIS.  Is there another location, as well?

 

I’d appreciate a description of the potential sites and locations, so we can talk with the energy consultant about those sites.

 

Thanks,

Morgan

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

 

The UIS farmland adjacent to that campus could be considered for a solar project.  Decisions pertaining to the development of a solar project at UIS would be done through that campus.  Our UIS contact is Chuck Coderko, Associate Vice Chancellor, Facilities and Services. There are approximately 256 total acres of which 235 are tillable acres (in crop production) managed by Ag Property Services   UIF has approximately 75 acres near the UIS campus as well.  UIF farmland is managed by Heartland Bank. 

From my email exchange with Chuck, “several discussions with Springfield’s City Water Light & Power (CWLP), the sole provider of UIS’s electricity, who owns the lines/power grid. They are investing in solar in other areas of Illinois, and after several meetings, proposed ideas, etc., it appears they are not interested in what UIS would offer, and we would be on our own. But the city’s leadership changed a couple of months ago, and future opportunities may exist. Without CWLP or another partner, we would be generating electricity for the campus. We would also like to include other potential entities we could provide power to (Lincoln Land Community College, etc.), but we haven’t gotten that far.  We are looking for opportunities. As we currently stand, working through a P3 or Energy Service Company would be our most likely scenario, but much feasibility research will need to be done. UIS can’t bank a solar farm alone, and I am leery of levying a multi-million dollar debt on the university.”

 

Ag Property Services manages farmland for the College of Engineering:

Reifsteck Farm is located in Champaign County.  There are approximately 247 total acres of which 210 are tillable.  There are research projects on a portion the non-tillable areas. 

VRO Farm is located in Vermilion County.  There are approximately 320 total acres of which 95 are tillable.  The farmland borders timber/woodland on two sides.  The Illinois Natural History Survey may be conducting research in the timber/woodland. 

 

If you have additional questions, please let us know.

 

Thank you,

Anita Million

On June 7, 2023 Morgan White and Brent Lewis approved 8 more outdoor bin locations, 1 pending approval from City of Champaign. The 8 locations will be passed along to the iron workers.

P10G96445 on first floor near Pennsylvania Ave entrance.

Madhu,

     I have attached a study that I did in 2020 for an on-campus Solar Farm 3, in case it is of use to you or anyone else.  The numbers have changed since 2020, of course, but it is likely that the conclusions of the study remain the same.  This study supports the comments I made to you about an on-campus Solar Farm 3 when we spoke last week.

 

                Scott

June 6, 2023 Green Research Committee Meeting 3

Present: Shari Effert-Fanta, Paul Foote, Jennifer Fraterrigo, Stephanie Hess, Daphne Hulse, Tim Mies, Lisa Moore, Jeremy Neighbors, Chad Stevens, Sabrina Summers

Absent: Mitchell Bryant, Maisie Kingren, Morgan White

Charge 1

• Consolidated information document, provided by Jeremy
  
  • Walkthrough the document
  • We should be aiming to staff a Green Research Director
    
    • And then staff underneath the director
      
      • Could be student workers or full-time employees
  • Short term goals
  • Long term goals
• Chemical inventory - Stephanie
  
  • Central inventory funded by campus
  • Stuck out to Susan Martinis as an opportunity worth exploring
• Engagement role out - Jen
  
  • Integrate it with the annual lab meetings with DRS staff to ensure safety compliance
    
    • A great point in time to evaluate opportunities with sustainability each year
    • Allows opportunity for face time with green research. Especially considering how busy PIs are
  • Lab audits - Stephanie
    
    • Are already quite long - DRS has a year-long timeline to get these done
    • Can sprinkle in sustainability opportunities here and can combine safety and sustainability (shut the sash)
  • Lunch & Learns are great in theory but maybe are not going to show strong attendance in practice
• Where does this green research live? What does it tie into? - Jeremy
  
  • OVCRI, iSEE?
  • October timeline is best according to Susan, Madhu, and Ehab because spring is when budgeting takes place. Allows them to go and ask for funding
  • Extension is possible but the timeline for budgeting is improved if we can get it in by October
  • Chem inventory is digestible as we can save a lot of money if chemicals are better managed
    
    • Burden would be on the researchers to manage what comes in and out
    • Could argue for a person to do this, but Stephanie thinks it is more wise to ask campus to pursue purchasing a software and then researchers input the information
    • DRS does not have staffing or funds currently to do such a program
• Funding Inventory software - Stephanie shared document

Charge 2

• Comprehensive certification program - Paul
  
  • My Green Lab already has an existing certification program
    
    • Flat rate for certifying a bulk number of labs (at Vancouver University, 50 labs certified for $10,000).
    • 160-170 topics that are over viewed
    • On a sliding scale (3 tiers)
    • Do a first round assessment and then come back in 6-12 months to reassess
    • Right now it does not extend beyond labs - not fieldwork or farms
      
      • Could still apply a lot of the stuff but we may need to do our own version of it for our labs
    • Need to be careful of the line between green labs and green research
      
      • Some labs are disadvantaged by the building itself
      • Want to be careful of not handcuffing researchers to achieve sustainability; they are doing important work
      • Think about behavior-based (recycling) rather than mechanical-based opportunities
    • Rewarding labs based on safety, too
      
      • Some only work with ethanol
      • Some work with 8,000 chemicals
      • May not be able to be audit-based for this reason
  • Could create our own that is more robust and custom to what we do at the university
  • Chad thinks the chemical inventory could tie into this portion well. Forcing the labs to take a look at what chemicals they have before purchasing more (if they are above the fire safety limit)
  • In Paul’s observations, PIs that are not included in the creation/design process mean very few labs will actually sign up
  • Opportunities to reward many:
    
    • Most occupant engaged building
    • Most improved building
    • Most energy saved building

Charge 3

• Really a facilities question, Tim is thinking.
• Not on the researcher to be responsible for that
• Funds are already strapped
• Charge 3 is about how we prioritize funding for these.
• Where do transportation costs fall?
  
  • Behavior-based changes like with carpooling
  • Cutting down airfare (zoom meetings)
  • Transportation of presenting research
    
    • Incentivize behaviors)
  • Electric vehicles
    
    • F&S sustainable transportation is tackling this topic currently - electric vehicles within the university fleet
    • Increasing charging infrastructure on campus
    • Figuring out how labs fit into this

Homework

• Leave comments and suggestions on the two documents presented today

 

Stephanie Hess, Jeremy Neighbors, and Paul Foote collated document outlining the green research committee’s brainstorming efforts

Good afternoon Site Selection Committee.  I have received some comments and have incorporated them into the draft report and it is attached here.

Also attached is a site evaluation form for you to fill out along with a quick guide on how to complete the evaluation. Please provide your scoring no later than 3:00pm on Thursday May 11, 2023.  After that, I will compile the final version with the scoring.

 

Please let me know if you have any questions.  

 

Thank you,

 

Mark Roessler

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

Good afternoon everyone.  Dennis pointed out to me that there is a better scorecard document to use rather than the pdf that I previously sent.  Please use the attached excel spreadsheet instead of the pdf.

 

And just a reminder to try to have your scores into me by 3pm on Thursday 5/11/2023.

 

Thank you and have a great weekend.

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

Good afternoon, Mark.

 

Please find attached, UOCP’s site selection review to locate a new CHW tank.

 

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Thank you,

Sandy

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

Good morning Sandy.  How’s it going today? 

 

I think you mentioned you/UOCP would have more comments on the draft of the final report for the TES tank selection so I am checking in to see if there are any?

Thanks.

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

 

Mark, thank you for requesting UOCP’s input.  UOCP has reviewed the draft Site Evaluation Report for locating the new Thermal Energy Storage tank.  Please accept UOCP’s review comments for consideration before UOCP accepts the final report.

 

Thank you,

Sandy

Morgan White, Daphne Hulse, & Sinead Soltis met to review the completed outdoor bin survey, which maps out the bins currently installed on campus and can be found in an ArcGIS online format. Over the next two weeks, the sites with a proposed bin installation will be finalized to resume installation. A follow-up meeting will be held Wednesday, June 7th, to better understand what is needed to get work order started. As a note, about 40 bins have been installed out of the 74 ordered.

Update from Daphne Hulse 6/9/23: 43 dual bins were counted as installed on campus currently. A visit to storage showed that there are currently 80 dual bins still palletized (128 individual bins (64 pairs) located in PPSB shed and 32 individual bins (16 pairs) located outside near shed) and waiting for installation. According to the attached outdoor bin memo, 130 bins were originally purchased. We have 123 bins total accounted for (installed and palletized). 7 bins are unaccounted for. They may have been damaged/replaced.

1. Adding subtitle like Waste, water, environment, economy will help us understand the relation between these components, while analysis the data. (eg:- University of Michigan draft) https://reports.aashe.org/institutions/university-of-michigan-mi/report/...

2. Adding Agree/Disagree questions in relation to community awareness and participation, will allow participant be more responsible and make conscious choices in day to day life. (eg:- University of Texas Austin draft) https://reports.aashe.org/institutions/university-of-texas-at-austin-tx/...

Hi Daphne,

 

Thank you for contacting us. The pandemic did interrupt a lot of projects.

 

I have added Larry Santi, the owner of Loadman, and Richard Boyovich, the VP of Sales, on the CC line. They are the best people to help with putting you in contact with your dealer for repairs and parts. I am a software developer and I can help you with software issues like creating accounts to log onto Load Manager and fetching your data. I also do all of the web-based software support and training.

 

Thanks again for contacting us,

John Cramer

Software Developer

Creative Microsystems, Inc

425-235-4335

 

 

Hi John,

 

 

I work as the zero waste coordinator at the University of Illinois, and I wanted to reach out regarding the Loadman service that we previously used. We had just begun this initiative under Shantanu Pai (who has since left) and as I understand it, things fizzled out after the pandemic hit. We’re very interested in restarting this initiative!

 

 

Currently, we have two frontload trucks that have the Loadman equipment. There were parts that had broken, so parts were ordered to replace the broken ones. However, we have not yet installed these pieces. We are thinking that a site visit from Loadman might be helpful in getting everything back up and running again.

 

 

Wanted to reach out to you, introduce myself, and see what next steps would be best to take.

 

 

Thank you!

Daphne

 

DAPHNE HULSE (she/her)

Zero Waste Coordinator

Facilities & Services | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

+1 (217) 333-7550 | dlhulse2@illinois.edu
 

Please consider the environment before printing an email. Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act any written communication to or from university employees regarding university business is a public record and may be subject to public disclosure.

 

 

Green Research Committee,

 

Jeremy and I met with Susan, Ehab, and Madhu last week to give them an update on our progress over the past few weeks. I have attached the topics discussed. Here is a brief summary of that meeting and how we propose to move forward.

 

• The October deadline can be extended. However, if there are requests for campus funding, it is a good deadline since all the budget meetings with the Provost happen in the Spring. As long as we continue making progress, we will update them in October with what we have done by then.
• When we write recommendations, we should consider the financial impact. Cost to implement and money saved following implementation.
• Jeremy is going to put together a single document that includes the information Paul shared on Teams and more details for the topics discussed in the meeting. That will be shared with the committee.
• Next meeting, we will discuss that document. Please read it before the meeting and write comments.

 

I will try to get something on the calendar soon.

 

Thanks,

Stephanie

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

Hi Morgan,

I am helping Jeremy write the combined document and am looking for your perspectives on 4 main items in this list, do you have 30 minutes to chat about these between now and the end of the week?

 

Thank you 

Paul Foote

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

Hi Morgan,

My edits for the Research committee working documents and included and in green font.

Jeremy is going to combine these documents for our next meeting on Tuesday.

In addition to reviewing my edits in the brainstorming document would you please also comment on the greater campus collaboration sections in the draft document?

• Robust and equitable scoring system for prioritized building/space renovation funding list

Many stakeholders already use siloed versions of this across campus, i.e. Provost’s Office, individual Colleges and Departments, Capital Planning, Deferred Maintenance and F&S Utilities and Energy Services along with others.  A committee or team could pull all of these perspectives together and coordinate an overall metric system to accommodate the many priorities that each stakeholder values.

 

• Plan for equipment cooling during construction/renovation to avoid one-pass water cooling.

Core program to work with F&S, Department heads and PI’s to develop design criteria for closed loop cooling applications possibly utilizing the chilled water loop when feasible for process cooling etc…

 

• Establish and begin transitioning to a space utilization strategy to create flexible spaces and support the growth of interdisciplinary work. Sustainable lab design incorporates flexible spaces an effort that involves the PI’s, Deans, capital planning and other stakeholders to coordinate these types of designs. The Core Program can help advocate for these flexible spaces, identify and start conversations for flexible opportunities, break down barriers to communication and operating in silos.

 

Along with this from the Brainstorming document

Employ green lab director, industry standard range $65k to $85k and up depending experience level, or could hire an existing staff/faculty with a dual role position and similar qualifications with parallel work goals, outcomes or responsibilities and shared leadership and wage responsibility.

An example of a shared position would be their current wage plus an additional wage for the Green Research Position/Role and shared leadership for their reporting line. Many units have this on campus already.

 

Which answers this question at the bottom of the draft document

• Should we recommend where a Green Research program should reside organizationally?  Possibly all 3 departments OVCRI, ISEE and F&S.  

 

 

Thank you 

Paul Foote

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

Hi Jeremy,

I sent this to Morgan for feedback if she has time.

 

Please find my edits in the documents attached for the Green Research Committee.

 

Best

Paul Foote

On June 1, 2023 UIUC representatives and Coca-Cola met to discuss the following:

Attendance: Naveen Baarla, Jen Fraterrigo, Jake Slager, Marty Kaufmann, Shreya Mahajan, Sarah Carten, Travis Tate

• Recycling Value Assessment - Tour

  • UIUC recognized as a best in class MRF

• Upcoming events:

  • Welcome Week Lunch

    • Friday, August 18 Lot 31

    • After State Farm Center convocation

  • Move in week

  • Tailgate recycling (near memorial stadium)

• Rvat

  • Bottles and cans collector

  • 4’ tall flag pole

  • 48w x 40d x 41h

  • Don’t Waste messaging

  • Could work well with lunch and tailgate recycling (near the collection sites, not near memorial stadium)

  • Tested at Kentucky Derby, test sites at retail stores

    • Jake has a follow up with the Derby tomorrow and will see how the vat use was received

  • Aluminum and steel, chloroplast material. can put a weight down to ensure that it doesn’t blow away

  • On a pallet

• Competitive bin options

  • Could be near the memorial stadium entrances

  • Could brand it with DIA sports, football

Sarthak Prasad and Daphne Hulse attended an in-person TEACH AD workshop at the Healthy Lifestyle Hub in Chicago to learn about the anaerobic digesters installed at Green Era Campus in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood.

RailSplitter Wind Farm provided the May 2023 Buyer's Share amounts by the hour, totaling 1,518.5 Megawatt hours.

The May 2023 Buyer's Share Report is attached below.

RE: Campus Sustainability - Redwood Materials

 

 

Great – thank you all for your thoughts and connections.  I’m moving Madhu and Bob to bcc and can loop them back in as needed.

 

Jennifer, Morgan and Daphne, can you please share your interest in joining a call along with your availability for the last 2 weeks in June?  I’ll get a call scheduled with Seema so that we can explore a possible collaboration.

 

Best,

Amy

 

Amy Fruehling, MBA

Senior Director of Corporate & Foundation Relations

College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences

1301 W. Gregory Dr.

Urbana, IL  61801

 

217.265.4045

afruehli@illinois.edu

 

From: Fraterrigo, Jennifer M <jmf@illinois.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2023 12:06 PM
To: Schooley, Robert Lee <schooley@illinois.edu>; Khanna, Madhu <khanna1@illinois.edu>; Fruehling, Amy <afruehli@illinois.edu>
Cc: White, Morgan <mbwhite@illinois.edu>; Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: Campus Sustainability - Redwood Materials

 

Amy,

 

Bob is correct that campus no longer has a battery recycling program. I would be interested in following up about how we might restart the program. Colleagues in Facilities & Services, including Morgan White and Daphne Hulse, Zero Waste Coordinator, might also be interested in joining a call.

 

On a related note, the alum may be interested in an initiative to recycle components of EV batteries (among other types) for reuse in Europe that leverages a partnership between industry and academia.

https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news-archive/2019/new-project-launches-focusing-on-the-sustainable-reprocessing-of-rare-earth-magnets

 

Best,

Jen

 

Jennifer Fraterrigo (she/her)

iSEE Associate Director for Campus Sustainability and
Professor of Landscape and Ecosystem Ecology
Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences

University of Illinois

W-423 Turner Hall, 1102 S. Goodwin Ave.

Urbana, IL 61801

jmf@illinois.edu
ph 217-333-9428

https://fraterrigolab.nres.illinois.edu/

 

 

From: Schooley, Robert Lee <schooley@illinois.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2023 9:27 AM
To: Khanna, Madhu <khanna1@illinois.edu>; Fruehling, Amy <afruehli@illinois.edu>
Cc: Fraterrigo, Jennifer M <jmf@illinois.edu>; White, Morgan <mbwhite@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: Campus Sustainability - Redwood Materials

 

Hi Amy,

 

Campus had a battery recycling program but it was discontinued in 2015 due to lack of funding.  It is now left to units to fund recycling programs if they want.

https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project/battery-recycling

 

I also thought of Jen Fraterrigo for discussing potential partnerships on campus.

 

Thanks,

 

Bob

 

Robert L. Schooley
Professor and Head
 
Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences

College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
W-503 Turner Hall | M/C 047
Urbana, IL 61801
217.244.2729 | schooley@illinois.edu
nres.illinois.edu
 

 

 

 

From: Khanna, Madhu <khanna1@illinois.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2023 5:24 PM
To: Fruehling, Amy <afruehli@illinois.edu>; Schooley, Robert Lee <schooley@illinois.edu>
Cc: Fraterrigo, Jennifer M <jmf@illinois.edu>; White, Morgan <mbwhite@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: Campus Sustainability - Redwood Materials

 

Hi Amy

 

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. This sounds interesting.  Would you know what kind of batteries she is interested in building a recycling program for?

I am ccing Jen Fraterrigo and Morgan White to let us know if we have any current program for this and get their thoughts on potential opportunities for battery recycling on our campus.  

 

Best

Madhu

 

 

Madhu Khanna

Pronouns: she, her

Alvin H. Baum Family Chair & Director, Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Environment

ACES Distinguished Professor in Environmental Economics

Co-Director, Center for Economics of Sustainability

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

 

Office: 1101 W. Peabody, Suite 336, M/C  635

Urbana IL 61801

 

email: khanna1@illinois.edu; phone: 217-333-5176; fax: 217-333-5538

 

http://ace.illinois.edu/directory/madhu-khanna

https://ceos.illinois.edu/bio-khanna

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LPH4gbUAAAAJ&hl=en

 

https://illinois.zoom.us/j/2173335176?pwd=Ri8rTzQ0S1RxZHpiY2tEWVdaSlhtZz09

 

 

From: Fruehling, Amy <afruehli@illinois.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2023 5:13 PM
To: Khanna, Madhu <khanna1@illinois.edu>; Schooley, Robert Lee <schooley@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: Campus Sustainability - Redwood Materials

 

Madhu and Bob,

Checking in to bring this request to the top of your email again.  I’d like to get back to our alum contact at Redwood Materials this week. Did you have any thoughts on her request below, or are there others you’d suggest that I reach out to?

 

Thanks!

Amy

 

From: Bollero, German A <gbollero@illinois.edu>
Sent: Friday, May 26, 2023 3:18 PM
To: Fruehling, Amy <afruehli@illinois.edu>
Subject: Re: Campus Sustainability - Redwood Materials

 

I will let Madhu and Bob to respond to this.

Thanks

GB

 

From: "Fruehling, Amy" <afruehli@illinois.edu>
Date: Monday, May 22, 2023 at 2:54 PM
To: German Bollero <gbollero@illinois.edu>, "Khanna, Madhu" <khanna1@illinois.edu>, "Schooley, Robert Lee" <schooley@illinois.edu>
Subject: Campus Sustainability - Redwood Materials

 

Hi Bob, German and Madhu,

 

Redwood Materials, founded by Tesla co-founder, JB Straubel, is a renewable energy company that focuses on making batteries sustainable and affordable by localizing the battery supply chain and producing components in the US from recycled batteries. A fantastic Gies alumni and former student that I worked with, reached out and is interested in creating a battery collection program at Illinois.  She referenced the campus-wide recycling program with Coca Cola.  While I think this could fit nicely into the Campus Sustainability program, I think that we could discuss possible research, project or funding collaborations that would enhance a program of this nature and support an academic partnership.

 

I am reaching out to you given your roles in the college and campus sustainability initiatives.  Are there any programs within iSEE, NRES or that campus is working on that might align well?  Are there others within your units that you recommend that I pose this question to?  I’d like to have a follow up call with the alum, Seema Nilakhe, to share some options, and then can bring others into the conversation to hopefully begin talking about how to move forward.

 

Thank you for your thoughts,

Amy

 

Amy Fruehling, MBA

Sr. Director of Corporate Relations

217.265.4045

 

Good morning friend of the Reimagine Our Future competition,

 

We were wondering if you would like to continue to be a part of the competition for this upcoming school year. 

 

If so, can you please fill out this google form?

 

We appreciate your support and hope you will join us for another year of this amazing competition inspiring undergrads to come up with sustainable solutions.

 

Thank you so much,

Allie Garlin

Reimagine Our Future Student Assistant