ICAP Objective 8.4 Background Discussion between Stacy Gloss and Ximing Cai 9/28/2021

Related Tasks and Deliverables

• 8.4 [iSEE] Take leadership in addressing the most pressing sustainability challenges in our local communities through collaboration with local governments and related community groups, by forming an advisory panel for coordinating efforts across jurisdictional boundaries. By FY24, select at least three major local sustainability issues to address and identify lead agency and key stakeholders.
  • Coordinate an initial meeting with the new advisory panel to share current campus efforts and learn about local governmental efforts
    • Deliverable: meeting notes from advisory panel discussion posted on iCAP Portal, by 3/15/22

Meeting Notes

Planning for the objective (procedural):

1. Stacy should summarize identified major-issue topics and present to resilience committee 
2. The committee may discuss the topics and select 3 priorities aligned with objective 8.4.
3. In parallel, members of the committee should identify potential collaborators for the advisory panel on sustainability topics.  
4. The committee will write a recommendation for the iWG as part of committee work.  (Also note, is it possible for the panel to meet before the iCAP sustainability committee submits a recommendation to the iWG?)

Major Sustainability Topics in our conversaton were identified that bridge Campus, Champaign, Urbana, Savoy & County

Climate Change Adaptation

• Urban growth and development (city managers, county execs, economic development agency to be involved)
  • Smart growth / how do we grow questions: looking forward two – three decades – worsening climate change, coastal flooding likely means an influx of new residents into communities like C-U, especially if we are adding jobs along the lines of manufacturing, medtech, and agtech, not just part of the University and current large employers (like health care)
  • Addressing current environmental issues in communities: local neighborhood flooding, addressing existing pollution from past industries.
• More extreme heat days, heat waves, and heat risks (would need to include county emergency mgmt. agency & health department, social safety net programs like weatherization)
  • Cooling centers
  • Resources for low-income or under-resourced residents
  • Adapting to protect health
• Dealing with more and heavier rainfalls
  • Green infrastructure plans, water management, green roofs – shared resources & plans between campus and cities

 Renewable Energy & Resource Sustainability:

• Renewable Energy Development (climate change mitigation)
  • Develop case studies & share best practices:
    • Solar
    • Wind
    • Bioenergy (self note: set up a visit with the energy farm to learn more)
• Waste and Recycling:  reducing landfill waste, increasing recycling, saving energy and resources  (resource sustainability)
  • Industrial
    • E.g. hospitals, manufacturing plants
  • Commercial
    • Incorporate green office practices
  • Campus practices

Sustainable Agriculture (identify additional stakeholders, like Farm Bureau, Land Connection)

• Biodiversity
• Cover crops
• Addressing nutrient loss
• Water quality
• Bioenergy / perennial grasses like to renewable energy sources
• Food systems: from ag to production to distribution to consumption
• Ties to South Farms for best management practices related to ag, water, and air quality – as a lab
• Land use considerations (and regulations at federal, state, and local level

Green Infrastructure Initial Meeting 9/29/2021 9:00 am

Present: Brent Lewis, Betsy Liggett, Stacy Gloss

ABOUT

• 8.2 [F&S w/Extension] Coordinate rainwater management plans for the entire urbanized areas of Champaign, Urbana, Savoy, and the university. Starting in FY21, share the total number of green infrastructure locations on the iCAP Portal on an annual basis.
  • Initiate discussions about development of rainwater plan
  • Compile green infrastructure locations in Champaign, Urbana and Savoy.
    • Deliverable: iCAP Portal map of known green infrastructure locations by 3/15/22
  • Propose a process and scope for developing the coordinated rainwater plan
    • Deliverable: white paper describing process and scope

NOTES

Introductions: Betsy works for F&S in safety and compliance, manages stormwater permit MS4. Brent is campus Landscape Architect

Topics discussed: Campus MS4 water permit, EPA compliance. Sustainability items are built into MS4 permit now.  Compliance & Sustainability are coinciding.   Regarding Campus Green Infrastructure – challenges to adopting green projects, especially when they are viewed in terms of costs but not benefits

Existing resources: 

• University has mapped watersheds;
• A Landscape Master Plan in progress, will contain some elements of green infrastructure, but is not a utilities plan for Stormwater;
• Champaign County Stormwater Partnership for MS4 permit (includes leaders from the County, Urbana, Savoy, Champaign, Champaign Township, EPA, Soil & Water Conservation District, Prairie Rivers sometimes)
• Extension has been involved in previous discussions about rainwater plans, Eliana Brown and Lisa Merrifield
• Urbana is working on a Stormwater Master Plan (Tim Cowan, public works director is the contact)

Green Infrastructure Maps on Portal currently:

• https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project/green-roofs-campus
• https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project/rain-gardens-campus
• https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project/increase-pollinator-friendly-areas
• https://www.opengreenmap.org/greenmap/champaign-urbana-green-map

Next Steps

• Stacy attend Oct 20 green infrastructure & erosion control conference   
• Follow up with meeting Oct 25
• Garner support for Campus Stormwater Master Plan
• Contact Julie Cidell about GreenMap

iCAP 8.6 Vision Zero Meeting 9/29/2021 

Present: Sarthak Prasad, Stacey DeLorenzo, Stacy Gloss

Background: 8.6 [F&S] Support Vision Zero as a county-wide goal for safe and sustainable transportation.   Coordinate with Professor Benekohal, the City of Urbana Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission (BPAC), and F&S Transportation Demand Management to identify actions needed to support Vision Zero  Deliverable: white paper identifying key steps needed by 11/15/21

Sarthak and Stacey shared details about Key existing organizations:  Urbana BPAC, CUUATS, Campus Transportation Demand Management, and CTAC.

Off campus staff would participate on a Vision Zero taskforce if it forms, would provide input ona Vision Zero Action Plan, continue to represent campus at BPAC and at CUUATS.

Community contacts were identified.

Potential next steps:

• Sarthak set up meeting with Dr. Benekoha and Stacy Gloss for updates
• Set a meeting to discuss white paper discussing tasks for supporting Vision Zero
• Reach out to Vision Zero to discuss a Vision Zero Campus Designation – Can this be made real?

10/5/2021

Present: Stacy Gloss and Eric Green

Background:

8.5 [iSEE] By FY23, collaborate with colleges and community groups to inventory existing certification opportunities for green jobs and identify gaps.

• • Review findings from student research about green job opportunities
  • Assist iSEE staff to complete this inventory
    • Deliverable: provide inventory content to iSEE communications team by 1/31/22
    • Deliverable: update iCAP Portal inventory page with link to iSEE page by 3/15/22

Meeting Notes:

Stacy and Eric discussed a wide range of topics related to green jobs including the background and tasks related to iSEE 8.5.  Connection was made that Objective 8.5 is linked by category of “green jobs” to:

iCAP Objective 6.4 - “Develop a sustainability internship program through partnering with businesses, nonprofits, local government, and cultural institutions in Central Illinois. The total number of internships awarded will be reported each year.” The responsible campus unit for championing this objective is iSEE. Progress is tracked in the iCAP Portal project page for the Sustainability Internship Program

iCAP Objective 6.5 ““Partner with The Career Center and potentially other career offices in FY22 to help students explore and discover career opportunities that are connected to professional interests and goals related to sustainability. Incorporate a sustainability component at a minimum of two events beginning in FY22.” The responsible campus unit for championing this objective is Career Center with the support of iSEE. Progress is tracked in the iCAP Portal project page for Sustainability at Career Fairs.”

In Spring 2021, Carissa Mysliwiec was as ENVS 491: Campus Sustainability Intern who worked with instructor Eric Green to focus on designing a sustainability internship program as part of Objective 6.4.

In our discussion we talked about high-level barriers to internship programs:

• Interns need significant guidance
• Pay is an issue, who will pay $3,000 - $4,000 for a summer intern?
• Businesses don’t always identify sustainability needs 

We also discussed the challenges of identifying green jobs for the purposes of a creating a green-jobs fair or a sustainable jobs fair. What identifies green jobs? This topic should be explored further.  Talk to SECS, perhaps? How are students defining green jobs today?

During the conversation Stacy pitched an entry-level paid program (post-graduation internship?) to be staffed for 1-2 years by recent graduates to help organizations build capacity, set targets and meet goals. This would be full-time work in lower-level/entry-level positions that serve as a spring board to sustainability careers.

Stacy presented a Green Certifications Excel document she started working on.  Next steps would be to ask for campus & community input to answer questions such as:  Are these certifications offered here @UIUC or locally?  Who from campus is involved, can be a contact, or serve as a resource? What kind of jobs do people get with the certifications? Who hires locally? How do we prevent locally trained folks from leaving, what incentives are there to stay once advanced certifications are achieved?

Eric will see if there are any students that might want to do some of the legwork involved in bolstering the green certifications list.

We'll stay in touch and set up a meeting for about a month from now.

See the attached October newsletter for Students for Environmental ConcernS. There next general meeting will be Wednesday, October 6th from 6:30-7:30 at the Channing Murray Building. That building can be found at 1207 W Oregon Street. 

All, Starting to slow down a bit. This week’ll be absolutely perfect riding weather: cool but not cold. Still get folks asking for bikes every day—yet to get any 4’ 11” folks or 6’ 3” racing folks for the tall and small bikes we have, though. We’ve got 3 more that should be for sale this week sometime. Soon, we’ll be having the “it’s too cold to ride” conversation with people. No bad weather, just bad gear and so on.

Had a class come by on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to tour the Bike Center and I talked about our operations, history of CBC, and the like. Always nice to get people into our space who might not otherwise have reason to visit.

Last week I talked with Parking about the remainder of the bikes at the warehouse. I’ll make a trip out there this week to see if there’s anything worth our trouble.

A gentleman came in looking for a small pin for his vintage brake levers and was able to find a workable solution in our used parts bins. He generously donated $10 for his 10 minutes of digging while bemoaning that regular bike shops could only offer to replace the brake levers outright. A happy customer who understands and appreciates our value and services—always a good interaction!

This Thursday is the Green Quad Day event, from 10  - 4p. Will be good to get our name out there with other environmental/sustainability efforts on campus.

The numbers:

Visitors: 64
Sales: $1,052.60
Bikes (refurb): 2 for $440
Memberships: 8 for $240
Tires/tubes: 10 for $76

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator

iSEE invites you to a series of events throughout October to increase sustainability in our campus community. Take part in the Waste Reduction Challenge, join us for Green Quad Day (Oct. 7), or check out the first Student Sustainability Summit Research Symposium (Oct. 26)! And don’t miss the Campus Sustainability Celebration on Oct. 20. Find all the events on iSEE’s Sustainability Month Calendar!

October 1–31

Celebrate Campus Sustainability Month in October!

The second iSEE Waste Reduction Challenge starts on October 4! 

The average individual generates around 6 pounds of waste per day, and about 40% of all waste is in the form of food. Each person disposes of approximately a ton of waste per year. Yikes!

Thank you for taking the first step to be more conscious of your personal waste output. Your actions matter. You are helping to combat climate change and to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in our landfills. We have the power to make a change.

How to participate

Sign up today using this form >>>

By registering to participate, you will receive a weekly grid to fill out with the items that you throw in the garbage each day; for example, food, single-use disposable items, paper, and plastics. A point system will be used for you to keep track of your waste. The goal is to earn as few points as possible. There is also the opportunity to subtract points for positive actions. These actions will result in a subtraction from your weekly total.

At the end of each week, upload your grid and reflection to the weekly Google Form.

Click here for more information! 

On Friday, September 24th the Resilience iCAP Team had their first meeting of the semester. The team reviewed the Resilience Charge Letter, discussed updates on the Hazard Mitigation Plan, Biodiversity Plan, and the Assessment of Progress. Meeting minutes are attached.

Student Meeting: Design for America Team Meeting  10/1/2021

Present: Pooja Tetali, Ananya Barman, Kosh Raghavarapu, Anisha Narain, Meredith Moore, Eric Greene, Stacy Gloss

About DFA:

Design for America is national nonprofit and a campus RSO that meets on Sundays to talk about Design Thinking principals. This is one DFA Team out of 5 Teams part of the RSO.  There are 30-ish people w/ a 6 person exec board locally. Exec board helps keep track and teaches design thinking. Interviewing skills. Ideation.  One project was: Racism Un-taught, working with professor to interview RSOs about a standard/playbook/rule book to minimize racism within RSOs. Another was working with Illinois Department of Health App for breastfeeding people. Projects vary between technical and research.

This team meets once a week. They are happy to meet once a week or every 2 weeks. They have a couple hours to respond to emails and put together documents, so a few hours a week each. DFA projects typically last 1 year, academic year through May.

The topics they are interested in are environmental racism, campus/community relations, campus/university effect/impact on communities, environmental science, collection action & collaboration. Two members worked on transportation system mapping in US previously and had been connected to iCAP goals / campus transportation goals.

Potential Project Opportunities:

Initial Research for Environmental Justice Planning.

The initial research will help to inform the planning that goes into developing an Environmental Justice Plan. The project will eventually lead to a road map or planning document to guide the campus EJP.

1. Funding for EJPlans and Implementation
2. What Universities have Environmental Justice Plans?
3. What community EJP’s exist that would be a resource or model for a campus-lead EJP?
4. What Universities initiated Environmental Justice Plans in or for their communities? What are or were the barriers and opportunities for collaboration with their communities?

Green Infrastructure Mapping:

1. Green infrastructure mapping as part of the Green Infrastructure Resilience Goal

Tasks:

Schedule a follow-up meeting and communicate via email between meetings. Students will need to select the project they are interested in and report how they feel they can best contribute to the project(s).

On Friday, October 1 the Zero Waste iCAP Team had their first meeting of the semester! The team discussed progress on last year's recommendations, zero waste initiatives from F&S, and the iCAP Objective Assessment for Zero Waste. Meeting minutes are attached.