University Dining purchased 10,000 reusable containers for use this upcoming fall!

On July 15, 2021, Lisa Merrifield, Meredith Moore, Morgan White, and Avery Maloto met to discuss the Urban Biodiversity Master Plan.

See the attached files to read the meeting notes!

In January 2019, the Chez Family Foundation Center for Wounded Veterans in Higher Education achieved Gold LEED Certification status.

Wounded Veterans in Higher Education: LEED Gold

The Red Oak Rain Garden (RORG) was established in 2006. The current renovation is to improve both aesthetics and functionality. The RORG Team, led by Eliana Brown, Water Quality Specialist with Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant and Illinois Extension, is managing the design and build of the project, which just completed phases I and II as of October 2019. Read our blog for the latest construction updates.

Back in 2006, Prof. Tony Endress' Restoration Ecology classes designed and installed the rain garden with assistance from Facilities & Services and the City of Urbana and in cooperation with Housing Services.  For additional visual interest, art student Jennifer Astwood designed the “Prairie Fire” sculpures under the guidance of Prof. Alex Fekete.

The Red Oak Rain Garden is a BLUE Illinois Faculty/StudentProject funded by Facilities & Services in conjunction with the Environmental Council, with additional funding support from University Housing.

The Red Oak Rain Garden is a public rain garden that soaks up rainwater, enhances the campus and community aesthetic and educational experience, and promotes well-being for everyone who visits.

As the first rain garden on campus, this garden is beautiful and smart. It addresses flooding in an innovative way – by planting an attractive landscape feature that captures and filters stormwater.

Located between Allen Hall and McKinley Health Center, RORG provides flood protection, improves water quality, and serves as a model for ecologically healthy landscapes. Prior to the garden, rainstorms limited sidewalk use and impaired the red oak. The updated design enhances the garden’s ability to absorb rainwater in a beautiful, educational way. The garden plants, which are native to Illinois, have extensive root systems that are excellent at soaking up water and improving its quality. 

From: Vandenbergh, Lydia Bodman <lbv10@psu.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2021 9:16 AM
To: Vandenbergh, Lydia Bodman
Cc: Wendy Olmstead
Subject: July 21st AASHE Webinar on Green Office Programs

Upcoming Webinar:

Webinar: Creating or Improving Green Office and Lab Certification Programs: Best Practices

July 21 @ 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm EDT

Free

If your institution is considering creating a Green Office Certification Program (GOCP) or improving an existing one, you have company. In 2019, several universities and colleges were in the same situation, and created a focus group to explore best practices, under the auspices of the Big Ten and Friends Sustainability Network. The group’s size blossomed over the following year to representing about twenty-five institutions, offering a breadth of experience to tap.

The group found that program models vary by assessment process; staffing; metrics; alignment with the global Sustainable Development Goals; adaptability for remote workers; target audience; recognition approach; and participation incentives. After an initial benchmarking process, they honed in on four programmatical areas to explore improvements: metrics; addressing social actions; alignment with professional development goals; and remote work adaptability. In this AASHE session, participants will learn about various program models and the best practices from three leaders involved in the analysis effort: Lydia Vandenbergh from Penn State University; Tony Gillund of Ohio State University; and Wendy Olmstead from California State University, Stanislaus.

This presentation will provide valuable tips and models to consider for those looking to launch or evolve their own programs that make sustainability the norm in work and lab spaces. Although this session is focused on examples from the higher ed community, the information could be applied to non-profits and other organizations.

Register here.

Lydia Vandenbergh
Associate Director of Employee Engagement and Education
Sustainability Institute

Penn State University
814-863-4893 (o)
814-880-3058 (c)

"When historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century, let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression and war. So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide." John Lewis, July 2020

Check out our programs:
sustainability.psu.edu/greenteams
sustainability.psu.edu/greenpaws

From: McKelvey, Michael L
Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2021 10:10 AM
To: White, Morgan
Subject: ECE building energy dashboards

Hi Morgan,

You may already be aware of this, but I wanted to let you know that, after corresponding with Aaron Mason and Ian Bonadeo at Hawkeye Energy Solutions since you put us in contact back in April, the ECE building’s energy dashboards are now available without requiring a login and via domain name rather than IP address! Here are the dashboards:

ECE Building – Energy Dashboard

ECE Building – Net Zero Energy Dashboard

You can view the listing of dashboards currently available at the U of I Building Energy Dashboard Home Page.

They’re now ready to be linked from the appropriate iCAP Portal entries!

     --Michael--

============== Michael McKelvey ===============

Office for Mathematics, Science, & Technology Education

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

https://mste.illinois.edu

(217) 244-7148

============ mmckelve at illinois.edu ============

In connection with the Resilient Landscape Strategy and the Illinois Climate Action Plan, this project is aimed at enhancing one of the few water features on campus—the Dorner Drive Retention Pond.  This rainwater collection site is also a destination for several students who like to picnic on the side of the pond, and it is immediately adjacent to the Red Oak Rain Garden (RORG). This project is to renew the Dorner Drive pond and incorporate native plants throughout the surrounding area, to enhance the sustainability and usability of the site. 

Morgan White reviewed the following Entomology courses with Professors May Berenbaum and Adam Dolezal:

• IB 105: Environmental Biology
• IB 335: Systematics of Plants
• IB 329: Animal Behavior
• IB 444: Insect ecology
• IB 451: Conservation Biology
• IB 468*: Insect Classification and Evolution – being held this fall
• IB 526: Seminar in Entomology

*During the review, Professor Berenbaum and Professor Dolezal added IB 468 to the pre-existing list of the other courses.

This is a Student Sustainability Committee supported project.

This project is a significant expansion of the current local food partnership existing between the Student Sustainable Farm (SSF), Multifunctional Woody Perennial Polyculture (MWP), FSHN Pilot Processing Plant (PPP), and UIUC Dining.  Presently the Sustainable Agriculture Food System grows, processes, and serves on campus a variety of tomato sauces (pizza sauce is served across campus) and hot sauce.  Soon, the Sustainable Agriculture Food System will add a whole wheat flour milling line.  It have a very successful and growing program to provide quality, sustainable, and local food products and education to the UIUC students.

This particular project will focus on the addition of a fresh juice processing line that will be able to handle a wide array of fruits and vegetables, packaged into an array of containers from single serving to bulk.  As with the other projects, this partnership has no funding for large capital equipment expenditures, and relies on grants to increase our capacity.  Dining Services is a strong partner in our project and has agreed to provide a grant to help with the purchase of items needed to produce fresh juice products including a harvester for fruit from the MWP site.

The goal of the Sustainable Agricultural Food System is to further collaboration between the production activities of the Sustainable Student Farm; the teaching, research, and outreach activities at the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition (FSHN); and Dining Services' goal of increasing procurement of locally grown foods. The specific action the project would take in order to support this goal would be purchasing tomato processing equipment.

By weight, tomatoes are the farm's main crop. The Student Sustainable Farm sells most of its tomatoes to Dining Services raw, where they are either used fresh or processed and made into sauce. There are several issues with this system, however. Firstly, the Dining Services prefers to buy ready-to-eat sauces, as opposed to having to make the sauces in-house. Furthermore, only 60 to 70 percent of the possible tomato crop is harvested due to the seasonality of locally grown tomatoes not coinciding with the needs of Dining Services.

Tomato processing could allow FSHN students to process tomatoes from the Student Sustainable Farm and produce shelf-stable products to be used by Dining Services. This would alleviate both of the current issues with the process, along with incorporating FSHN students into the sustainable agricultural efforts of the University. FSHN students and faculty would be able to use the equipment to research sustainable processing practices and establish processing protocols for small-scale production lines that could support local farmers.

Student involvement would be a significant part of this project. The Student Sustainable Farm already introduces 200-300 student volunteers to sustainable agriculture each year. The project would add to this number by incorporating FSHN students, who would be involved as part of their coursework at the University.

To combat the issue of food waste, U of I Housing collaborated with F&S Utilities & Energy Services, Operations, Maintenance & Alterations, and environmental compliance. The committee researched various food waste options, including composting, pulpers, and grinder systems used for anaerobic digestion -- including Grind2Energy systems.

These operate similarly to an industrial garbage disposal. However, it uses significantly less water than the digester system, up to 90-95 percent less. Additionally, it does not send the waste directly to the sanitary sewer. The food waste is pumped into a 5000-6000 gallon tank located on the outside of the building it serves. A tanker truck empties the waste and takes it to the local sanitary district. The industrial-strength waste is processed in an anaerobic digester, where it undergoes treatment without oxygen. The methane produced is collected and used to generate electricity at the treatment plant.

Read more about Grind2Energy use on campus through the F&S Website or the PDF in the attached files!

Did you know Illinois has the highest percentage of Pre-World War II academic facilities in the Big Ten? This, of course, provides students, faculty, and staff with a sense of history, place, and uncommon beauty while considering the campus.

On the other hand, older buildings require more and detailed maintenance in order to satisfy up-to-date code compliance and hit notable programmatic needs for students, faculty, and staff.

Additionally, design that fits with the pre-war era of the building’s birth is important to maintain a cohesive architectural look for the campus. Assets are managed through different funding sources, including the Academic Facilities Maintenance Fund Assessment (AFMFA), an ongoing fee assessed each semester to students, and the Deferred Maintenance Program. The F&S Asset Management Plan 2021-2025 “illustrate[s] the number of aging facilities… provide[s] definition of the Facility Condition Index, review[s] how deferred maintenance has been tracked historically, and illustrate[s] current funding strategies for addressing asset management at Illinois for the next 5 years,” it reads.

The university plans to renew aging infrastructure through programs like the Academic Facilities Maintenance Fund Assessment, means to ensure building renovations are done to deferred maintenance projects.

The F&S Space Management Plan 2021 – 2030 documents how space is used on campus. F&S works with the Office of the Provost and other campus units and committees to manage and improve the use of space on campus, which occupies over 23 million gross square feet of facilities in more than 750 owned and leased buildings.

Properly managing the space is essential, as more than 57,000 people enrolled or employed by the university live and learn on campus. Additionally, the plan notes that “people enrolled or employed on campus has been steadily increasing since 2000, growing by over 4% from 2017 to 2018 alone.”

Over the past decade, balancing campus growth and sustainability goals of the Net Zero Space Growth policy, part of the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP), has required an innovative approach to analyzing campus density and opportunities for greater square footage efficiency. In-depth planning and procedures have included renovating existing space, improving utilization of existing space, and increasing the ability to share space and resources between units and across campus. The modest change to the campus footprint in recent years, despite additional enrollment, demonstrates the value of these actions.

“With enormous capital investments required to build, operate, and maintain our campus infrastructure, space is a critical asset that must be managed effectively to ensure the continued success of our university,” the plan reads. Net Zero Space Growth is essential to the university achieving strategic goals and is a crucial challenge of the ongoing project planning efforts in F&S Capital Programs.

The F&S Energy Management Plan addresses the most important customer need of production-scale energy supply and demand: reliability.

When a researcher turns on high-energy tools; or a staffer flips a light switch on; or a student charges their smartphone, the user needs to be sure their energy needs will be met. Heating, cooling, and electricity all need to be ubiquitous, with no worries for downtime. The utilities service delivery reaches the entire campus community, with annual campus energy usage at approximately 3 trillion BTUs.

Abbott Power Plant’s capabilities shine, in terms of the breadth and depth of energy services offered to campus. First, Abbott is a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system, offers fuel flexibility thanks to a diverse collection, including coal, fuel oil, and gas. It provides all of the heat and half of the electricity to campus. Off-site solar energy, chilled water plants, and new geothermal systems all contribute, too. With Abbott’s capabilities joining an underground distribution system, the U of I campus is able to weather any tangible or economic change. Clean energy production now supports approximately 12 percent of Illinois’ annual electricity demand.

By operating as a “micro-grid” or in “Island Mode,” the UI campus would be in a good position to provide critical life and safety resources if ever a major outage occurred at the Regional Power Grid.