Project name changed from "HVAC and Air Quality Assessment Pilot Project" to "Energy-Efficient HVAC Infection Control".

From: Stumpf, Andrew J 
Sent: Wednesday, March 01, 2023 7:37 PM
To: Rubin, Joshua ; Mies, Tim ; Lamb, Jeremy ; Klein, Bradley Dean 
Cc: Lin, Yu-Feng ; Weckle, Amy Lorraine; White, Morgan 
Subject: UTB at the Energy Farm

Hi folks,

Here is an update. Dom and Todd worked to get half of the hole grouted today and now wait until tomorrow morning to see if the battery floats, or not. Theoretically it should not, but we will see. They will start up again at 8 am if anyone is over that way. Xiaobing and Tony have gone back to Tennessee.

Best,

Andy

Following is Pete Varney's response to the question from Morgan, "In addition to the Ford Lightning EVs, could we potentially get EV versions of the turtle-top 15-person vans?  Also, is there any discussion about getting Hybrid buses for UI Ride?"

When discussing EV we have to look at manufacturer availability and operational needs. Car Pool vehicles, 15-pass vans, need to be able to operate both locally and on extended trips ruling out EV due to range restrictions.

We won’t be looking to replace the first UI Ride bus until FY24/25. We can explore hybrid, but this class of vehicle is different from MTD hybrid buses. Electric may be an option. When the time comes, we’ll discuss with the System office as they put the $$ into UI Ride.

Thank you,

Pete

Jen asked Brent on March 1 about the status of LW004 Monarchs Need Milkweed and ALUFS006 Increased Agroforestry. Brent responded on March 1 with the following message:

Hi Jennifer,

On this one, Morgan has our response.  We want to do the work with F&S Grounds, but would like to have the SSC pay for seeds.  I think I have a cost of $2200, which would allow for us to seed a fairly large amount of the low mow spaces on campus.  F&S wouldn’t charge for our time as we would be broadcasting, which isn’t difficult.  The benefit of having us do the seeding is that we would know where it was.  We would also focus on the higher visibility areas to greatest impact.

If we can get funding soon, we can get the seeds ordered for this year. 

Thanks!

Hi Jennifer,

So on this one, Allen Parrish and I didn’t see eye to eye on this and came to an impasse.  In suggesting more trees, he was concerned about the turning movements of the tractors and having trees eventually growing into the swale area.  I didn’t agree as the aerials looked like there was plenty of room for the tractors to maneuver and still be able to plant.  The swale issue too seemed thin.  Ownership and maintenance of the plantings also didn’t seem like something he wanted to take on.  Like I said, we just came to an impasse and I dropped it.  With Allen being gone, we might have a different conversation with ACES.   I will look talk to Doug Wolters and see if he and I can’t sit down and discuss this again.

Thank you,

Brent.  

From: Fraterrigo, Jennifer M
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2023 4:22 PM
To: Lewis, Brent
Cc: White, Morgan
Subject: ALUFS006 update?

Hi Brent,

Hope you are doing well.

It came to my attention recently that the ALUFS006 recommendation to increase agroforestry was approved and transmitted, but there is no further information about implementation. I would appreciate a progress update. Thanks much!

Jen

Read more about the ALUFS006 Increased Agroforestry recommendation here.

RailSplitter Wind Farm provided the February 2023 Buyer's Share amounts by hour, totaling 2,675.4 Megawatt hours.

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

Sarthak & I met for an hour on 2/27/2023 to discuss the 2023 BFU application. I checked some answers with him. We determined who we need to ask for some questions and answered other questions.

The current version of the 2023 BFU Application Log is attached below.

On Feb 27, 2023 Jackson Liong sent an email to Morgan White stating that the Living Wall was installed at the MEB.

Attached are images of the greenery wall.

Michigan Sate University shared some lessons learned from implementing solar car ports on their campus. 

• make sure your carport roof covers the fll parking space, because they had icicles form on the edge and fall onto a vehicle, which damaged the vehicle
• snow removal equipment may hit the roof and damage the structure
• one time an RV hit the structure during tailgating

I was contact by some colleagues withy Future Earth – Taipei (https://futureearth.org/about/who-we-are/international-offices/taipei-global-hub/) for a potential webinar series.  I suggested them to think about campus sustainability actions as a living laboratory and they are very intrigued by this idea.  They asked me to suggest speakers and I am thinking about Jack, Morgan and Andy.  So, I would like to ask if you are interested.  Some of their previous talk can be found at https://www.facebook.com/futureearth.org/.  All the communications and activities will be between 6pm-11pm CST due to time difference.  I am happy to have more discussion if you are interested.

Presenters:

Ms. Morgan White, https://fs.illinois.edu/resources/newsroom/2021/10/14/white-named-acting-director-of-the-f-s-capital-programs-division

Mr. Jack Reicherts, https://studentengagement.illinois.edu/student-sustainability/ssc/team/reicherts/

Dr. Andrew Stumpf, https://directory.illinois.edu/detail?userId=astumpf@illinois.edu&widgetId=15

Dr. Ping-Yu Change, https://scholars.ncu.edu.tw/en/persons/ping-yu-chang

Dr. Jui-Pin (Rubin) Tsai, https://www.bse.ntu.edu.tw/member?teacher_id=48&page=1

Dr. Yu-Feng Forrrest Lin, https://directory.illinois.edu/detail?userId=yflin@illinois.edu&widgetId=15

Cheers,

Yu-Feng F. Lin

Director

    Illinois Water Resources Center

Principal Research Hydrogeologist

    Illinois State Geological Survey

Clinical Professor

    Civil and Environmental Engineering

Research Professor

    Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

I was contact by some colleagues withy Future Earth – Taipei (https://futureearth.org/about/who-we-are/international-offices/taipei-global-hub/) for a potential webinar series.  I suggested them to think about campus sustainability actions as a living laboratory and they are very intrigued by this idea.  They asked me to suggest speakers and I am thinking about Jack, Morgan and Andy.  So, I would like to ask if you are interested.  Some of their previous talk can be found at https://www.facebook.com/futureearth.org/.  All the communications and activities will be between 6pm-11pm CST due to time difference.  I am happy to have more discussion if you are interested.

Presenters:

Ms. Morgan White, https://fs.illinois.edu/resources/newsroom/2021/10/14/white-named-acting-director-of-the-f-s-capital-programs-division

Mr. Jack Reicherts, https://studentengagement.illinois.edu/student-sustainability/ssc/team/reicherts/

Dr. Andrew Stumpf, https://directory.illinois.edu/detail?userId=astumpf@illinois.edu&widgetId=15

Dr. Ping-Yu Change, https://scholars.ncu.edu.tw/en/persons/ping-yu-chang

Dr. Jui-Pin (Rubin) Tsai, https://www.bse.ntu.edu.tw/member?teacher_id=48&page=1

Dr. Yu-Feng Forrrest Lin, https://directory.illinois.edu/detail?userId=yflin@illinois.edu&widgetId=15

Cheers,

Yu-Feng F. Lin

Director

    Illinois Water Resources Center

Principal Research Hydrogeologist

    Illinois State Geological Survey

Clinical Professor

    Civil and Environmental Engineering

Research Professor

    Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Greetings, Colleagues,

I hope the start of 2023 is going well. I’m reaching out today to send you iSEE Quarterly update for Winter 2022 from the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment.

For more up-to-date news from iSEE, please sign up for our E-newsletter at https://illinois.edu/fb/sec/5031776.

IN RESEARCH

• iSEE received a $1M gift from a class-action lawsuit settlement; it is being used for  iSEE-funded $300k low-carbon transportation solutions research.
• A new cover crop project called iCOVER received a $5M grant from USDA and was featured in The News-Gazette.
• From the Agroecosystem Sustainability Center and SMARTFARM project: 
  
  • ASC team members co-authored paper led by Stanford on cover crops’ effect on yields; also, papers on soil carbon budgets and increased adoption of cover crops
  • ASC was featured in a video for American Geophysical Union meeting, and team members also were part of an Illinois Farm Bureau video.

• From the Illinois Regenerative Agriculture Initiative: 
  
  • The Riggs Brewery “Field to Beer” video was immensely popular, receiving more than 11,000 interactions on Twitter.
  • IRAI was also featured in Illinois Farmer Today.

• From the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation:
  
  • CABBI authored a multi-institutional study that explored the first known use of CRISPR/Cas9 editing of miscanthus. Another team published a paper on 3-D phenotyping tools for miscanthus.
  • Articles have featured new Sustainability Theme Leader Wendy Yang, new Feedstock Production partner and PI Ernst Cebert of Alabama A&M, and new Conversion PI Heng Ji.
  • Six CABBI researchers (including Lisa Ainsworth, Kaiyu Guan, and Don Ort) were named to Clarivate’s highly cited list; and CABBI researchers have earned two EMSL awards for continued studies of sorghum stems.

• From the I-FARM “Farm of the Future” project:
  
  • View a new overview video.
  • Check out the FAQ article.
  • The project has received FarmWeekNow and WAND-TV coverage — and was featured on the Big Ten Network during Illini basketball games!
  • Robotics in the field media coverage in The News-Gazette.

• From the Energy-Enhancing FEWS project:
  
  • Team members are part of new $2.5M USDA grant to convert biowaste to pavement.

• Members of the Illinois Geothermal Coalition have successfully demonstrated efficient use of an abandoned oil well in the Illinois Basin as a geothermal “battery.”
• An iSEE biobased chemicals and inks project was featured for its work on printable electronics.
• Former iSEE Associate Director Gillen D’Arcy Wood recently published a new website on ocean data from 19th century voyage.

 IN EDUCATION & OUTREACH

• Registration is open for iSEE Congress 2023 — “Addressing Crises of a Planetary Scale: Lessons from Pandemics and Climate Change.”
• The Fall 2023 Critical Conversation is expected to bring together stakeholders to discuss climate-smart commodities.
• iSEE’s Environmental Leadership Program for Spring 2023 is already more than past the midway point; check out our student blog for some perspective on the immersive learning experience.
• Read a Certificate in Environmental Writing (CEW) success story in former Q author and CEW recipient Zack Fishman.

IN CAMPUS SUSTAINABILITY

• Our Grind2Energy video explored how dining hall food waste produces energy and fertilizer; its release spurred coverage by The News-Gazette and WCIA-TV.
• iSEE’s new, more comprehensive Student Action webpage offers listings for iSEE jobs, volunteering, and student organizations to join.
• Illini Lights Out fall semester featured RECORD totals: more than 640 volunteers turned off 20,303 bulbs, saving the campus as much as 35,000 kWH, $3,090, and nearly 25 tons of GHG. Spring dates: Jan. 27 (130+ volunteers, 5,043 bulbs, 8,700 kWH, $760, 6.2 tons of GHG), Feb. 10 and 24, March 24, and April 21.
• At the November Zero Waste basketball game (see video) more than 280 pounds of beverage containers and other recyclables were diverted from the landfill. The next Zero Waste basketball game March 2 seeks 100 volunteers. iSEE partnering with F&S, Housing, Athletics, and Union for a #don’twasteWednesdays twitter campaign all spring. FALL PLAN: a ZW football tailgate.
• A new Waste Transfer Station video shows the great work by Facilities & Services — but also the need for all campus community members to pre-sort their recyclables to prevent them from becoming landfill waste.
• Greener Campus certifications in the new year: One new office (Visit Champaign County!), one new chapter (Sigma Lambda Gamma sorority), and nine new events (including Illini Lights Out) certified in January.
• Read our article about the sustainable features of Campus Recreation and our feature about the new beekeeping club on campus.

Thanks for reading, and best wishes for the remainder of the spring semester!

Best,

Madhu Khanna

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

1301, W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801