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.

SSC received semester report for Spring 2021 for Greener Campus Programs on 10/1/2021. Please see attached. 

SSC received semester report for Spring 2021 for Preventing Window Strike Bird Fatalities with Energy Efficient Window Decals on 9/9/2021. Please see attached. 

SSC received semester report for Spring 2021 for Diversion of Non-Recyclable Plastic using Pyrolysis Process to Produce Fuels for Camps project on 9/3/2021. Please see attached. 

SSC received semester report for Spring 2021 for Valorizing Archived Soild and Long Term Carbon Budgets project on 9/12/2021. Please see attached. 

Meredith Moore, Morgan White and Stacy Gloss met for the weekly check-in on resilience work.

Agenda:

• Review iCAP goals 8.5 & 8.7
• Discuss iCAP objective assessment powerpoints
• Schedule October meetings 

Notes:

• iCAP goal 8.5 – Stacy should reach out to Eric Green and Lana Holden about how students find out about green jobs; what green certifications are known.
• iCAP goal 8.7 –Stacy should reach out to Eric Green to find out about student work on carbon off-sets. Ideas: Consider a white paper/literature review on “local” carbon offsets , or host round table/presentation / symposium with “experts” on local offsets
  • Stacy will read more on Second Nature off-sets / campus carbon calculations
  • 1 MW = 1 REC,  1 off set = 1 ton of CO2e reduced or kept out of atmosphere
  • Read status of the voluntary carbon markets 2021 pdf doc shared from Morgan
• Stacy will post previous meeting notes from Resilience Objective meetings on Sustainability, Vision Zero, and Green Infrastructure
• Cancel the 10/7/2021 meeting due to Green Quad Day, next weekly check-in on 10/14

SSC received final report for Spring 2021 for Local Grains and Locally Processed Foods for Dining Services project on 09/27/2021. Please see attached. 

The Transportation iCAP team met via zoom from 9:00 A.M.-10:30 A.M. on Wednesday, September 29th. This meeting featured an update on proposed telecommuting policies from Doctor James Gallaher, discussions on the iCAP Objectives Assessment and iCAP celebration, and a general review of the goals and projects of the committee.

The following email was sent as a Massmail to U of I students:

======================

Hello students,

The Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) is a student-led organization that funds student, staff, and faculty project proposals via two student fees—the Cleaner Energy Technologies Fee and the Sustainable Campus Environment Fee—which together make up the Illinois Green Fund. Projects selected for funding are those which provide the greatest benefit to sustainability on campus, while providing engaging, educational opportunities for students to learn more about sustainability. The SSC is accepting project applications now! 

Additionally, the SSC is introducing a new program to guide students from a broad interest in sustainability to a fully-fledged project application. By supporting applicants step-by-step through our process, we hope to engage students on a larger scale, ultimately resulting in the strongest applications possible. This new Project Funding Workshop Series will span five sessions, which can be found on the SSC calendar. Our first meeting will be held this Wednesday, September 29th, from 4-5 pm CT, in Lincoln Hall, Room 1065. We will discuss issues related to sustainability on campus that could be addressed with an SSC-funded project. In subsequent sessions, we will develop solutions to these challenges, create project proposals, and help participants write funding applications.

For anyone who is passionate about sustainability and the environment, this is a great opportunity to turn your passion into a tangible, positive change for the campus community! Presently, we are not offering this event online. If you are unable to attend in-person, but still would like to get involved with the SSC, you can stay up-to-date by signing up for our mailing list. If you are interested in becoming a General Member, or other aspects of the committee, please visit our website. Every student at the University pays approximately $14 a semester to the Illinois Green Fund, so please join us to help allocate these student dollars!

October is Campus Sustainability Month! We encourage you to attend UIUC’s inaugural Student Sustainability Summit this October, co-hosted with the Student Sustainability Leadership Council (SSLC). This month-long program includes University- and community-led sustainability efforts through events such as Green Quad Day, a Sustainability Research Symposium, teach-ins, tours of campus facilities, a movie night, and much more! To learn about the full breadth of the summit and stay updated on other sustainability-related RSOs, add the SSLC’s calendar. You can also connect with our social media accounts @ssc_uiuc and @uiuc_sslc on both Twitter and Instagram! Finally, for more information on campus sustainability efforts and events, check out the iCAP (Illinois Climate Action Plan) Portal and iSEE (Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment) Calendar.

We hope to see you at the Project Funding Workshop Series, Student Sustainability Summit, and more events throughout Campus Sustainability Month and beyond!

Best,

Jack Reicherts

SSC Chair

The Engagement iCAP Team met on Wednesday, September 29 for the first time this fall semester. During the meeting, members discussed the team mission, updates on all 6 iCAP 2020 objectives, and the iCAP 2021 Objective Assessment. Meeting minutes are attached below.