Meredith Moore and Tyler Swanson of iSEE met with Alicia Freter of the ACES Study Abroad office on August 31st to discuss options for developing a carbon offset program for students studying abroad in the college of ACES. 

Highlights from the conversation include beginning the program by having students volunteer for iSEE in lieu of purchasing carbon offsets. Providing students studying abroad with Eco-Ambassador training was also discussed, with the idea that trained Eco-Ambassadors could lead iSEE sponsored events. The most equitable way to offset carbon emissions is still being discussed.

All, The visitor numbers seem low for how busy it felt this past week. Had a few students step up, volunteer, and enjoy it enough to come back in the last few weeks. That’s always a good sign we’re doing something right.

I was out Thursday/Friday and my staff handled the Bike Center in my absence. No major issues, so I call that a success.

We’ve got BTWD and LTN this week, back-to-back days, on Wed then Thursday. Weather looks good (at this point).

This Friday is the last day for students to claim their abandoned bikes so my staff and I will count the remaining ones that we’ll be able to use. From there, I’ll coordinate with Working Bikes to pick up the rest—potentially as soon as next week. The influx of bikes will be a boon to for our programs as we look to build back stock.

The numbers:

Visitors: 49
Sales: $895
Memberships: 15 for $450
Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $50
Tires/tubes: 15 for $70

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator

Congratulations to the newest recipients of our Green Event Certification Program!

• University of Illinois Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration — Certified September 2022
• Chancellor’s Office for Special Events & Commencement University of Johannesburg Dinner — Certified September 2022
• Office of the Chancellor – Special Events/Commencement Seitu Jones/Washington Carver Project Dinner — Certified September 2022
• Office of the Chancellor for Special Events MSI Alliance Dinner — Certified September 2022
• Chancellor’s Office for Special Events Farewell Reception for Provost Cangellaris — Certified September 2022
• Office of the Provost Orientation for New Academic Leaders — Certified September 2022
• Office of the Provost Illinois New Faculty Orientation (INFO) — Certified September 2022
• Chancellor’s Office for Special Events Chancellor’s Distinguished Staff Awards — Certified September 2022
• Chancellor’s Office for Special Events Illinois vs. Wyoming Football Pregame Event — Certified September 2022
• Chancellor’s Office for Special Events Shield Appreciation Event — Certified September 2022
• Parkland College Cobra Carnival — Certified May 2022

Keep up the great work!

Folks, First, my apologies if this is a duplicate...we're just excited about our newest T Shirt and we want to exceed last year's record participation in Bike to Work Day!

The 2022 Champaign County Bike to Work Day is Wednesday September 14 (rain date of Friday, Sept. 16). Registration is now open at cuBikeMonth.org if you haven't already signed up. T Shirts and breakfast snacks while they last.

There are 16 Welcome Stations for Wednesday, 7:00-10:00am (in CU as well as Savoy, St. Joe, Mahomet, and Rantoul), as well as a "Bike to Market" option for next Saturday at the Urbana Farmers Market 8am-noon.

There are additional events planned for September as "Bike Month" including Light the Night, Thursday Sept 15, several local family rides Saturday Sept 17 and Sept 24, Walk and Roll to School Day (October 12) and the Illinois Bike Summit at the I Hotel October 12 (with NACTO training Oct 13). A full list of events is here or by checking the calendar at cuBikeMonth.org

We hope you'll join us this Wednesday for our 2022 event!
--
-Charlie Smyth
csmyth@sbcglobal.net
Chair, ChampaignCountyBikes.org

The Resilience iCAP Team had its first online meeting of the year on Friday, September 9th from 2:00 - 3:00 PM. The team reviewed the Resilience Charge Letter, talked about ground rules of the team, reviewed seven Resilience iCAP objectives, and shared updates on each objective. Meeting minutes and ground rules documents are attached. 

Meredith Moore presented the attached Drinking Water Survey draft to the iSEE Management Meeting on August 9, 2022. The survey will likely be distributed through a MassMail during October - Campus Sustainability Month. 

The following email was sent to the iCAP Teams:

Hello iCAP Teams,

Thank you again for serving on these important campus sustainability committees, and for your commitment to helping the university achieve the objectives in the Illinois Climate Action Plan.  As promised in the charge letters you received, we are attaching the Key Priorities Document here.  The attached document includes a section for each iCAP Team, with two parts in each section: Priority areas and in progress iCAP Portal projects.

1. Priority Areas

In order to help our campus move from STARS Gold to STARS Platinum, we have identified priority areas where our university can potentially improve. iSEE’s summer intern Tyler evaluated the latest UIUC STARS report and identified example case studies from STARS Platinum schools.  Tyler’s report is online at “Report on Improving UIUC STARS Score.” The priority areas also include topics for potential recommendations that have been brought up in previous discussions with the campus sustainability teams.  One example of this is the current efforts to reduce plastic waste on campus.

Many prior iCAP team members have expressed a desire for guidance on appropriate topics for recommendations, so we are providing this guidance to assist your team with focus areas for development of recommendations.  We encourage you to investigate these ideas with gusto; reach out to people at other schools to learn more about the ideas and contact people on our campus who would have a stake in the project (“stakeholders”) to understand how it could fit into our campus. You should also review the recommendation template to see the information that needs to be completed when you submit a recommendation to the iCAP Working Group. 

1. In progress iCAP Portal projects

The iCAP Portal has over 900 projects and contains information about our campus sustainability efforts, going back as far as 2003. The information is primarily entered by members of the iCAP Teams, the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC), and a few volunteers.  We are requesting your assistance to get updates on some of the projects that are listed as “In Progress.”  For each of the projects listed in the attached file, please answer the following questions:

• Who is the current contact person? The project records on the iCAP Portal may provide past contacts, and your team members may have relevant information.
• Is the project completed? If not, what is the current status of the effort?
• What changes are needed on the iCAP Portal project page content? Pictures would be particularly nice to be able to share on the Portal.

We are very excited about this coming year, and we want to support you in any way necessary.  Please reach out to any of us at any time.

Thank you,

Morgan, Jen, and Meredith

On September 6th, the Zero Waste iCAP team met to review the Zero Waste iCAP 2020 chapter and to discuss team-related goals for the upcoming year.

Meeting minutes are attached.

The Transportation iCAP team met on Friday, September 2nd from 4:00 - 5:00 P.M. to review the charge letter provided by iSEE and select a team Chairman and Vice-Chairman.

Meeting Minutes and slides are attached to this update, a link to a recording of the meeting is provided below:

https://mediaspace.illinois.edu/media/t/1_cvg9yq1q