Response to Brian Bundren's request for a time estimate for new ACES ESCO projects.

From: Roman, Robert Raymond

To: Bundren, Brian

Good Morning Brian,

We are gathering data on recommended scope and deferred maintenance opportunities in the buildings so we can assemble a presentation for review and discussion with your office. We would seek preliminary consent to continue in the ESCO process at that time from the Provost Office. It is my understanding that Dr. Kamarah’s office is working to put together a meeting with the parties involved. Hopefully, we will be meeting within the next two to three weeks. If we gain approval, I expect that we will begin in-depth scope development to provide to the system office for bid preparations.

Hopefully, this addresses your inquiry. If not, please feel free to contact me.

Best Regards,
Rob

Robert Roman
DIRECTOR UTILITY & ENERGY SERVICES
 
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Utilities & Energy Services (UES)
Facilities and Services Office
1501 S. Oak Street
Champaign, IL 61820
217.300.5810 | roman at illinois.edu
fs.illinois.edu/services/utilities-energy
 

A document containing the notes from this interview is attached below.

Summary of the Clean Energy Transition Plan Interview:

Caleb Brooks - NPRE Professor, UIUC Micro-Nuclear Involvement

On 3/31/22 the team spoke with Dr. Caleb Brook, who is a professor in the nuclear engineering department here at the University. The team spoke to him about the feasibility of using micro-nuclear reactors as a power source for the campus. Dr. Brooks is about to start research to determine these exact questions. In his opinion, campuses will be using micro nuclear reactors to power themselves, but it is going to take eight to ten years to get to that point. The research done with micro nuclear reactors has been more theoretical and not applicable at this time. The team still feels that the university should start saving money now to purchase a nuclear reactor once they are commercially available.

RailSplitter Wind Farm provided the March 2022 Buyer's Share amounts by hour, totaling 1890.9 Megawatt hours.

The March 2022 Buyer's Share Report is attached below.

Landscape Recycling Center sells the product described below:

Stable-To-Soil Enhancer
 (Formerly Mushroom Compost)
Up to 35-Gallon Bags/Containers: $7.25 | Bulk: $36/cubic yd

Light brown and very fine textured material that can retain manure odor for several weeks

Made from: Hardwood bark, straw material and horse manure from local stables that is composted into a high-quality finished product.

Applications: Natural fertilizer for non-food crop landscapes. Excellent source of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). In addition, manure returns organic matter and other nutrients such as calcium, magnesium and sulfur to the soil, building soil fertility and quality.
 

A document containing the notes from this interview is attached below.

Summary of the Clean Energy Transition Plan Interview:

Cynthia Klein-Banai - Director of Sustainability at UIC

On 3/28/22, the team corresponded through email with Dr. Cynthia Klein-Banai, who is the Director of Sustainability at UIC. We inquired about the plans for the energy transition at UIC and she provided us with valuable insight on the University’s current initiatives. While the energy situations at UIUC and UIC are different, there is crossover between many aspects.

Hello 2022 Campus Race to Zero Waste participants,

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Thank you for participating in the 2022 Campus Race to Zero Waste; the competition ended this past Saturday, March 26. And the Review Period has begun!

The Review Period is two weeks and will end on Monday, April 11 (end of day).

Please take this two-week period to review your ReTRAC data, update your placeholder data, and make any necessary changes by the April 11 deadline.

IF YOU NEED TO MAKE ANY CHANGES PLEASE EMAIL CR2ZW@NWF.ORG (or simply respond to this email) AND REQUEST THAT YOUR REPORTS BE RETURNED TO DRAFT.

Once the review period closes, the CR2ZW team will being vetting the top-ranking campuses for each category. If your campus is among the top ranked for a category, please be ready to share your data documentation. The unofficial category reports will be posted online by April 15 (in time for Earth Day), and final announcements will be made by April 28, celebrating the winners, all competition participants, and the overall impact of the competition in waste reduction. Communication of the final results of the competition will include: national press release, blog, template press release for schools to use, email blasts, and social media.

Please reach out with any questions.

Thanks, take care,

Kristy

Jennifer Fraterrigo reached out to Alexa Smith and Aaron Finder asking to have "pouring operations" defined in preparation for her presentation about plastics at the Sustainability Sub-council. Aaron Finder replied explaining that "pouring operations encompass everything outside of the campus vending machine program. This includes but is not limited to Athletics, Housing's dining, catering, and retail locations, Illini Union''s retail locations, and the conference center at the i-Hotel. 

Damien Guironnet is part of a team that is working to "develop plastic that can be recycled perpetually, reducing waste and pollution from single-use plastics." The public-private partnership is one of seven DOE-funded projects to combat plastic waste.