Hello,

 

I'm the Carbon Offset Fellow with Second Nature. I would like to check in with someone from UIUC about your participation in the C2P2 program. We are preparing to contract with an accredited third-party verifier to seek verification of all credits between July 1 2020 and Dec 31, 2022, and for the revalidation of UIUC's project crediting period. The cost for this for UIUC is significant and will require site visits by the third-party verifier.  I need confirmation from someone on your team that you do want us to contract these services on your behalf. 

 

My cell phone number is 828 582 5039. Email is also a good way to reach me. 

 

Thank you for your attention to this. I look forward to your reply!

Meredith

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

Hi Morgan,

 

Is this something you would like me to assist with?

 

Thanks,

Jen

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Hello,

During this election, I have been working to include referenda supporting the renewal and increase of the bike fee on the ballot for Facilities and Services. F&S has administered this fee since the student who initiated it graduated, so I haven't been directly involved with the fee itself outside of my interactions with SSC. I understand that Brian Farber has submitted the renewal referendum, but I'm still unsure about what's required to include the increase. Alex Sune suggested that I could get it added directly to the ballot by emailing you all because of the nature of the referendum question and that it might not be necessary to pass a resolution or collect signatures. I wasn't able to attend the ISG meeting where the resolution was supposed to be passed, and there may have been more contention than expected. I'm unsure whether the resolution passed, but we're in a difficult situation with the deadline approaching. Please let me know if we can do anything to make this happen or if you need more information.

Best regards,
Jack Reicherts

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

Hi Jack,

 

Thank you for looping me into this communication.

 

Ben, for context, Jack approached ISG to submit a referendum question relative to the current Bike Fee renewal question. I shared with him that it might be helpful to reach out and ask if it is possible to add a second question about increasing the fee, given the primary renewal question is already on the ballot. If this were a non-renewal year, I would suggest he follow the process of collecting signatures or soliciting ISG to place the question on the referendum.

 

With Illini Pride,

 

Alex

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

Hi all!

 

Thank you for reaching out! Based on the Election Code and the procedures we followed last year for the renewal and increase of the SSC Fees, only renewals are eligible for automatic placement on the ballot. Last year, the CET and SCEF fees were up for renewal, at that time, SSC also wanted to increase those fees. While the renewal questions were automatically placed on the ballot, the questions regarding increasing the fees were passed by ISG and then placed on the ballot. Since this is the same renewal year scenario with the Bike Fee, I would say that in order for an increase to be placed on the ballot, it does need to be petitioned for or passed by ISG. I know this is unfortunate given the slim timeline, but given the similarity to the increases and renewals last year, the same rules apply.

 

Let me know your thoughts and if you have any additional questions or concerns.

 

Benjamin Sell

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

Hi there,

 

This might be a better question for SFAC, but do you know if it will be possible to pursue an increase during a non-renewal year? Unfortunately, it sounds like ISG had some concerns about putting the fee increase on the ballot, but I think it’s worth pursuing in the long run even if it’s not possible this year. I recognize that we probably can’t get the petition going this semester, but I do think we’ll have more success next year if we start now!  If you don’t know, I’ll reach out to folks at SFAC and see what they say! In any case, I appreciate you clarifying!

 

Thanks,

Jack

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

Hi Jack,

 

I believe a fee increase can be pursued any year, including non-renewal years. However, Alex or Gina may have a better idea than me on that.

 

Best,

 

Benjamin Sell

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

 

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Done:

• Removed RSS Feeds from listings (e.g. Project Updates for collection: Geothermal Projects)
  • As a side-benefit, these Feeds seem to have been the cause of some informational warnings about missing db joins at the top of certain listings, which are now fixed:
    • Project Updates by Key Objective listing page (see, e.g. Projects Updates for key objective: 1.0 iCAP 2020 Illinois Climate Action Plan)
    • Project Updates by Place (see, e.g. Projects Updates for place: Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC))
• Q: Can we limit access to menu selection for Projects to only certain users - e.g. iCAP Admins?
  • A: Yes! it turns out we'd already done that :-) iCAP Admins and iCAP Moderators can update the menu system, but iCAP Advocates cannot.
• Implemented new search indexing algorithm to make search less rigid:
  • Will now find different versions of equivalent words (e.g. plurals and singular treated as the same word)
  • Omitting an apostrophe when searching will find versions of that word which include an apostrophe
  • Note: doesn't seem to understand that "bikes" and "bicycles" are equivalent, though - I can look into whether I can add in certain equivalent words. Are there others we'd like to see?

Discussion:

• Discussion item from Stacy:

  • I would like to add to the agenda a brainstorm for ways we might be able to make a Project Page for Sustainability Experiential Learning projects.

     

    This idea is the basis of the Resilience Team economic analysis recommendation that  iWG passed. Members of the iCAP Education team are working with me.

     

    The project is basically like this:

     

    1. A needed project is identified by a community organization (e.g. life cycle analysis of a green technology for a new building),
    2. A Capstone class is identified (Eric Green’s Captstone) interested in experiential learning projects.
    3. A faculty mentor is named (Eric Green or other expert)
    4. Student teams form to work on the experiential learning project during their capstone class.
    5. Students work on the project, learn from it, deliver value to the “community client”

  • Anna Mehl from the Education iCAP Team and I are currently information gathering and brainstorming ways to create a page where we can provide information about future sustainability experiential learning projects.

     

    Some programs that are similar include:

     

    1. https://healthinstitute.illinois.edu/community-impact/community-academic-partnerships/community-academic-scholars
       
    2. https://sustainability.uic.edu/student-experience/sustainability-internship-programs/

  • Those websites are not set up the same way as the iCAP portal. What can we do? What can’t we do? Is the iCAP portal appropriate for this project – should we look for a different home?

  • Outcomes/Decisions:
    1. Has been discussed before, there are challenges to implementing it
    2. Not proceeding with this on iCAP Portal at this time, maybe later?
    3. See Independent Student Projects for an example of a similar attempt on iCAP Portal - see Project Background and associated Project Updates
• Should we show a "last updated" date on the projects?
  • Automatically show last time Project was updated?
  • Add field that is updated intentionally when a project's information has been reviewed & by whom?
  • Add a disclaimer about information being correct at the time it was entered?
• Question about a TODO: "Collections page: Add image upload option". At a previous meeting we had this TODO, but what was the context? Was it to have a thumbnail for each Collection? Or a banner image?
• Should we link to "Take Action" project from homepage?
• Archiving projects
  • Add "Archived" checkbox?
  • Add "Archived" to Visibility options?
  • Add "Archived" to Project Status options? (probably not - this mixes the status of the project itself with whether we still want it to show up on the site)
  • Remove from nested listings, still publicly available?

TODO:

• Projects pages metrics 2-∞ have no labels on Y-axis (e.g. Pedestrian and Bicycle Counts)
• Permissions:
  • Metric Tracking:
    • Add/update: iCAP Admins, iCAP Moderators, iCAP Advocates
    • Delete: iCAP Admins, iCAP Moderators, NOT iCAP Advocates
  • Metric Targets:
    • Add/update: iCAP Admins, iCAP Moderators, NOT iCAP Advocates
    • Delete: iCAP Admins, iCAP Moderators, NOT iCAP Advocates
• Change iCAP Advocates to iCAP Clerks
• Fancy project layout mockups - keep tweaking #3 to improve contrast
• Discuss metrics
  • Metrics with lots of data
  • Consider how to handle old metrics that no longer track new data. Archive somehow?
  • Fun with math (e.g. combining multiple metrics)
  • Calculated Metrics on Dev site

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Hi Jen & Morgan,

 

I’ll be putting additional notes I took onto the shared OneNote, but wanted to put it on your radar that I met with a school that has successfully eliminated almost all its single-use plastic, Vanderbilt, and they shared the overview and insights into this process:

• Implemented fall 2019. Products are now sold in aluminum, boxes (e.g “Boxed Water”), or glass.
• This was an initiative that Dining led (with great vigor, it sounds like).
• Dining had the infrastructure and support to do it:
  
  • Reusable aluminum bottles are provided to new students each year with information about plastic reduction efforts on campus.
  • The school has many water bottle filler stations.
  • Unanimous support from the rest of the school (students, faculty, staff, admin).
• It was not an easy transition:
  
  • Originally the school had Coca-Cola as the beverage partner. Coca-Cola was not on board with supplying only aluminum long-term, so when the contract ended, the school switched to Pepsi.
• And the transition is attempting to be expanded…
  
  • Plastic bottles are still served to athletes at Athletics’  “nutrition centers” where the athletes eat: Gatorade bottles and sports drinks are their biggest consumption habits here. Sustainability is working on convincing their Athletics unit to get on board with this elimination. It is the student athletes who consume more single-use plastic than the fans who attend the events.
• Dining is a huge advocate of sustainability efforts in general:
  
  • They’ve implemented a compost program for kitchen scraps and leftover student food at the dining halls.
  • They have a reusable to-go program.
  • At markets you can fill your own reusable bottle with bulk drinks: sparkling water, cold brew, nitro coffee.
  • They very recently piloted a bulk foods program for one of their markets (picture attached).
• Anecdotally, the sustainability and recycling contacts I talked with think single-use water sales are down in the non-plastic materials.

 

Not to chase a pipe dream here with eliminating plastic on our campus, but the zero waste coordinator should be an instigator, right? 😊

 

Thank you,

Daphne

 

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A representative from the News-Gazette reached out to Steve Breitwieser with questions regarding Abbot Power Plant:

Please also see the attached spreadsheet with data on steam supplied buildings.

Hi Kathy,

 

Abbott Power Plant generates all district heating and almost 275,000

megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity each year using a high-efficiency

cogeneration process, which simultaneously produces both steam and

electricity. When the campus load for heat is highest during the

winter months, the plant, along with the two utility-scale solar

farms, provides almost all the electricity that the campus needs,

with the remainder coming from wind energy that is imported onto the

campus grid. Throughout the year, Abbott's sustainable cogeneration

process supplies approximately

85 percent of the total energy demand (steam and electricity) for the

Urbana campus, which includes almost 50 percent of the overall electricity usage. The electricity not generated at Abbott, from

 on-site solar arrays, or acquired through a wind power purchase

agreement is purchased through Prairieland Energy, a corporation

solely owned by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. More

information about utilities production is available at https://fs.illinois.edu/services/utilities-energy/production.

 

 Happy Holidays!

 Steve B.

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

Hi, Steve. As I'm assembling this week's column, I have several

 follow-up

 questions:

 

 Can you clarify what's meant by "district heating"?

 

 Does most of the steam generated by the cogeneration process end up

 heating some of the older buildings on campus? (I spent 20+ years in

 Mumford Hall and remember the sounds the pipes made at certain times of year.)

 

Any idea of approximately what percentage of the campus' interior spaces are still heated with ssssssteam heat?

 

I took a look at the website you mentioned, and have a couple of questions

 about that: What does  UES stand for?   And the website says, "During low

campus demand for both heat and air conditioning, Abbott typically

 burns natural gas. During the winter months, when the campus heat load

 is highest, a combination of both coal and natural gas is necessary."

Is that information still accurate? (I thought the coal scrubbers were

no longer in use on campus...?)

 

 

If it's not possible to get answers to me this week, that's OK; I can hold the item for next week.

 

Thank you,

KR

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

 Hi Kathy,

 

 I'll follow up on these in greater detail when everyone returns next week.

 

 UES is the acronym for the Utilities & Energy Services division that is within Facilities & Services. District heating is referencing the process used to distribute steam from Abbott to campus facilities through underground pipes.

 

Steve B.

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

Mike/Dave,

 

There were a couple of follow of questions to this media inquiry from the NG before the break.  Can you help clarify the highlighted sections by Wednesday with any additional information? For the interior spaces question, let me know if you can explain that more precisely – on our website we say “More than 250 campus buildings use the steam produced at Abbott for their heating.” The UMP also indicates: From discussions with U of I staff, approximately 85% of the campus condensate is returned to APP (if that would be something to note from a process standpoint along with an explanation like below).

 

Abbott uses gas turbines, natural gas-fired boilers, and coal fired boilers, recovering reject heat from electric generation to help produce steam. The plant pipes steam underground across campus to provide buildings with space heating, domestic hot water, sterilization, and more. Once used, the steam condenses into water and returns to the plant where it is recycled and reused.

 

 

I could respond to the fuel item with what we have said previously…

 

When the campus load for heat is highest during the winter months, natural gas and coal are utilized to meet the significant energy demand. The coal-fired

boilers are also a part of research efforts, primarily related to carbon capture technology. Additionally, maintaining fuel flexibility provides the university operational reliability and the ability to respond to market factors for purchased utilities.

 

Thanks for helping out with some more detail on this one.

Steve B.

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

Mark/Dave,

 

Do you guys or maybe steam distribution know approximately what percentage of campus buildings are still on steam heat?

 

Thanks

David Hardin

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

I have not seen a list. We will ask Steam.

 

When time allows maybe we could add a column to note the steam yes or no. Hmmmmm Elizabeth stated Keith Erickson had a list and she recalls some sort of building database that listed utilities per building such as steam,  electricity from Abbot or Ameren, gas etc. It would be nice to find this.

 

Dave

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

Mike/Frank,

 

Are you guys aware of the list/database Dave referenced below and if so where it is located?

 

Thanks

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

David,

 

I would think that EBS would provide a list of building that are served with steam, based on the meters in EBS.

 

Tony and/or Kate,

 

Can you clarify/confirm how many buildings on campus are served with steam from EBS?  The email string below indicates that the Util. Master Plant said over 250 buildings are served by steam from Abbott. Is that still the case?

 

Mike Larson

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

According to EBS, there are 175 active steam meters. Some buildings have multiple meters so there would be fewer buildings than that.

 

Thanks,

 

Kate Brewster

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

Anthony should be able to run a query that will give us an exact number from our last billing cycle.

 

Regards,

 

Tony

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

As of our last EBS billing the count is 147.  I have attached the file that supports this number for your reference.

 

Regards,

 

Tony

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

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Below is an email exchange between Jim Sims and Tom Keller:

Mike or Tom,

 

The EMT is discussing the advantages of converting building heating systems from steam to hot water with steam distribution. Would one of you be able to clarify this benefit?

 

Thanks,

 

Jim

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

Jim,

 

Hot water is more efficient than steam because it is easier to control. This also adds comfort to the occupants. Steam can be easier to leak and it is hotter, so there are some small safety concerns. Steam tends to be a bit noisier than hot water. Hot water can be easier to maintain than steam.

 

There are quite a few other reasons. This is why hot water heating systems have become the industry standard.

 

Thanks,

 

Tom

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

 

EMT,

 

I asked Tom Keller and Mike Halm to provide some feedback regarding the advantages of hot water versus steam within buildings. Please see Tom Keller’s response below for our information. Please let me know if we would like for Tom would like to further explain “quite a few other reasons” or his primary benefits listed below.

 

Thanks,

 

Jim

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From: Kim, Hannah <hannahk9@illinois.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, March 7, 2023 9:17 PM
To: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
Subject: Re: Advisor Request

 

Dear Daphne, 

 

Thank you so much for your willingness to help us out yet again:) We would absolutely love to have you as our advisor. Thank you! 

We are currently focusing on finishing the application for the funding as it is due 3/24. We can definitely meet to discuss the details as there is quite a lot that we need to cover. I can send you the basic rundown of the progress we have made so far and the application we are working on later this week. You can look through them and we can meet after spring break! Please let us know what time and day works for you the best. We are so pumped about this as well as we are learning new things every single day throughout our process. Can't wait to talk to you again:) 

 

Thank you, 

Hannah Kim

From: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, March 7, 2023 4:09 PM
To: Vaya, Sakshi <svaya2@illinois.edu>; Kim, Hannah <hannahk9@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: Advisor Request

 

Hi Sakshi & Hannah,

 

Great to reconnect with you! Jen and Morgan both pointed you in my direction, and I am happy to help assist/advise with this project. I understand that as a part of this project you are interested in pursuing SSC funding, which I am happy to help with as well. As needed, I can bring in other subject matter experts as the project progresses.

 

As a start, would you both like to meet to discuss this project a little more in depth, and what exactly you will be asking for in the SSC application? I can provide some history/context into waste management on campus, and some of the challenges we currently face with contamination and implementing composting in this region of Illinois.

 

Do you have a specific timeframe you are working within? I would suggest that we set a time to meet the week after spring break (3/20). Let me know how that sounds! I’m very excited about this project 😊

 

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.

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