The Resilience iCAP Team submitted the following recommendation to the iCAP Working Group on 4/7/22:

"iSEE should assign a staff person to meet with local governmental and community leaders to discuss how the University can plan to assist communities to address environmental justice challenges."

The Res003 Collecting Info About Environmental Justice Needs recommendation is attached. 

The Zero Waste iCAP Team submitted the following recommendation to the iCAP Working Group on 4/8/22:

"The Zero Waste team recommends a two-pronged approach to incentivizing an Adopt a Highway/Drain program:

• Adopt-a-Highway (Champaign) incentive program recommended to engage faculty, staff and administration at the Department or College entity level
• Adopt-a-Drain (Champaign) & Urbana Street incentives programs recommended to engage students involved such as RSOs, Greek houses, dorms and Living Learning Communities."

The ZW008 Adopt a Highway/Drain recommendation is attached. 

The Zero Waste iCAP Team submitted the following recommendation to the iWG on April 8, 2022: 

"The team recommends that a committee of campus and community stakeholders be created to share knowledge related to composting on campus and work together to further expand composting at a large scale. The committee will convene approximately once each month, and will consist of faculty members doing research tangential to food waste, student organizations interested in the cause, community groups activating composting, etc. (list of potential members amended to this recommendation)."

The full recommendation and list of suggested committee members is attached. 

Dr. Ehab Kamarah, Executive Director of F&S, responded to Dr. Jennifer Fraterrigo, iSEE Associate Director of Campus Sustainability, with the following email:

"This is to confirm that F&S team will form the EV Task Force with input from the Parking Advisory Committee."

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See submittal and Trans014 recommendation here.
See transmittal and iWG assessment of Trans014 Electric Vehicle Task Force Membership here. 

For future updates, see the Electric Vehicle (EV) Task Force project page. 

Ali Khan and Dhruv Gambhire are now on the F&S payroll as grad hourly employees, in the Sustainability Department.  Their funding is from the Student Sustainability Committee, in support of the SSC-funded project for HVAC and Air Quality Assessment.

The Engagement iCAP Team met on Friday, April 15 to discuss the Advertising Department Partnership Recommendation, iSEE Jobs Portal Recommendation, and next steps for final meetings of the semester. Meeting minutes are attached.

The Student Sustainability Committee will be managing the Reimagine Our Future Undergraduate Sustainability Competition.

If any subject-matter experts are interested in participating this year, we ask that you fill out this google form indicating your availability and your specialty before August 6th.

For more information, you can view the attached the PowerPoint describing this year’s competition or check out Reimagine's website.

Congratulations to the newest recipient of our Greener Campus Certification Programs!

Green Event: Office of the Chancellor-Special Events Chancellor's Medallion Ceremony, Certified April 2022

They ensured that the event will be held at a location convenient for public transportation, biking, or walking. They also chose locations with natural lighting whenever possible to minimize lighting needs, among other sustainable efforts. Keep up the great work!

Shallon Malfeo, intern at the Student Sustainable Farm and president of Students for Environmental Concerns, hosted the iSEE March TED Talk: Eco-Edition around the topic of sustainable agriculture on March 28th at 7pm. The presentation is attached.

The TED Talk: Eco-Edition series is designed to unite campus and community members for a passionate, respectful, and thought-provoking dialogue about a certain aspect of sustainability. We hope that everyone is as energized by this talk as we are, and ready to engage in another open conversation! Grab your favorite snack and get comfortable! Topics and hosts vary each month.

TED Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/ron_finley_a_guerrilla_gardener_in_south_centr...

Josh Jay James, marketing student and Chief Marketing Officer of Karma Trade, hosted the iSEE February TED Talk: Eco-Edition around the topic of fast fashion and sustainability in the fashion industry on February 22nd at 7pm. The presentation is attached.

The TED Talk: Eco-Edition series is designed to unite campus and community members for a passionate, respectful, and thought-provoking dialogue about a certain aspect of sustainability. We hope that everyone is as energized by this talk as we are, and ready to engage in another open conversation! Grab your favorite snack and get comfortable! Topics and hosts vary each month.

TED Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCSn2HKTg-U

The Zero Waste iCAP Team met on Thursday, April 14 to discuss revisions to the Campus Administration Manual's Waste Minimization Policy which the team intends to submit to the iWG. Meeting minutes and proposed revisions are attached.

At the April 8 Illini Lights Out event, 4,068 light bulbs were shut off, saving $590.15 in energy costs. This also prevented 4.96 metric tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere, which is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from the average car driving 12,344 miles. That's a big impact!

Illini Lights Out is a certified Green Event! Click this link to learn how to green-certify your own event.

The final Illini Lights Out of the semester is Friday, April 29th, at 5:30 pm, and you can sign up for that event using this link if you haven't done so already. Earth Week is also right around the corner! Browse upcoming sustainability events on this calendar.

All, Rainy and cold kept us slow last week. Made some headway on some builds and received some donations that were aside for our Build-a-Bike program. Interest in Build-a-Bikes seems high--or at least stands out when we don’t have any available.

On Friday, we were able to coordinate with Lael Elementary to donate most of the leftover kids bikes from last winter—15 bikes—despite the rainy weather. They were super appreciative and are interested in future donations of more kids bikes, which is great.

Most of my staff will be gone for the summer, so this week I’ll finalize availability and assess from there with an eye towards setting summer 1 hours.

The numbers:

Visitors: 26
Sales: $551.50

Bikes (refurb): 1 for $120
Memberships: 9 for $270
Tires/tubes: 7 for $46

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator