Kelly Allsup, University of Illinois Extension Horticulture Educator, is hosting a Swallowtail Butterflies Webinar on June 14, 2021, from 12-1 pm.

During this presentation, Kelly will tell you what plants need to be put in your garden to help 6 species of swallowtail butterfly caterpillars! Make sure to tune in via Zoom to learn more.

The final stage of the Solar Farm 2.0 project is wrapping up this month with the planting of a native pollinator habitat. The farm will serve as a major demonstration and research site for pollinator-friendly solar arrays, with more than 6.5 million flowering plants and native grasses around the 54 acres of panels creating a natural habitat for birds and beneficial insects. With this second solar farm, the campus has achieved clean energy goals outlined in the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) nearly four years ahead of schedule. Clean energy production will now support roughly 12 percent of annual campus electricity demand. Congratulations to Facilities & Services for all of the hard work on this important project; iSEE and its SWATeam members were proud to provide key support for Solar Farm 2.0 by pushing for an increased renewable portfolio in the iCAP. Students in iSEE's sustainability minor also helped assess the new array's carbon footprint!

Jessica Nicholson, one of the authors of ISG Sustainability Gen-Ed Requirement Resolution, sent the following updates on 5/12/21:

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

Good Morning,

I hope you all are well. Thank you all for expressing interest in the resolution to create a Sustainability Gen-Ed requirement. Towards the beginning of the semester, I shared this resolution with each of you and most of you let me know that you would like to stay updated on the status of the resolution. Many of you have endorsed this resolution as faculty members, sponsored as members of ISG or UC senate, or provided additional support and guidance. That being said, I appreciate all of your support and involvement.

I have a few updates on the progress of our resolution and I want to invite you all to participate in a working group that will draft a formal proposal based on our original resolution. The purpose of this proposal is explained below, so please read through and fill out the attached form if you are interested in being involved. Feel free to share this message and this form with anyone else who you think may be interested as well.

Sustainability Gen-Ed Proposal Working Group Interest Form: https://forms.gle/dfKfTKwaocMpKovi8 

We have added some supporting materials to the appendix of our original Sustainability Gen-Ed Requirement resolution, so the updated resolution is attached below for your reference. I also recently gave a brief informational presentation to the UC senate about our initiative. This presentation contains some valuable information about our next steps and plan to write a proposal, so I have attached the slides for your reference if you want to take a look.

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rMDHj0NpwaJR8TSPg7o9WsONWnnXDGEoEvWIFHwvXK4/edit?usp=sharing

ISG Senators Dana, Creen, Tyeese and I have consulted with iSEE, the Gen-Ed Board, and the Educational Policy and Senate Executive Committees of the UC Senate to determine how best to bring our Sustainability Gen-Ed resolution to the UC senate floor as a binding piece of legislation. Based on input from all of these groups, we have decided to draft a formal proposal that adds critical information to our original resolution.

Unlike our original resolution, this proposal will contain sections that detail steps the University must take to implement the Sustainability Gen-Ed requirement. Our proposal will include logistical considerations such as resource reallocation to courses that fulfill the requirement and the needs of each academic unit. These additional sections should minimize confusion and concerns over the implementability of our Sustainability Gen-Ed requirement. In order to write these sections into our full proposal, we need to meet with each academic unit to understand their specific needs and determine how this requirement should be implemented within their unit. We also need to determine factors such as current capacity, estimated seat demand, and additional seats needed among courses that fulfill the Sustainability Gen-Ed requirement.

These considerations are critical for a new Gen-Ed requirement, so they will be the main focus of our working group when we write the proposal. We welcome you all to join our working group, and we particularly value any experience you can share regarding course logistics to help with the considerations above. Please fill out the form above if you want to get involved in our working group or are interested. Let me know if you have any questions or comments, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you!

Jessica

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Jessica J Nicholson

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Class of 2022

College of Engineering | Mechanical Engineering

Illinois Student Government | Engineering Senator, Chair of Internal Affairs

Illini Rotaract Service Organization | District Rotaract Representative

This year, we awarded 38 green certifications on our campus! Congratulations to all! This includes 28 events (including iSEE Congress and the “TED Talk: Eco Edition” series) seven Greek chapters (including gold-level awards for Delta Delta Delta, Pi Beta Phi, Delta Gamma, Kappa Delta, and Zeta Beta Tau), and three offices: International Student & Scholar Services, Department of Communication, and Department of Chemistry Administrative Office. Learn more about all of iSEE’s Certified Greener Campus programs.

Greek Chapter Gold Certifications:

• Pi Beta Phi — March 2021
• Delta Delta Delta — March 2021
• Delta Gamma — March 2021
• Kappa Delta — February 2021
• Zeta Beta Tau — November 2020

Greek Chapter Silver Certifications:

• Triangle Fraternity — November 2020 (Read more!)

Greek Chapter Bronze Certifications:

• Phi Sigma Sigma — February 2021 (Read more!)

Event Certifications:

• SECS iCAP Teach-In — Certified April 2021
• SECS Trivia and Happy Hour — Certified April 2021
• SECS Plant Parenthood Fundraiser — Certified April 2021
• SECS Roundtable with La Colectiva — Certified April 2021
• SECS Earth Day Climate Strike — Certified April 2021
• SECS Stargazing — Certified April 2021
• SECS Teach-In — Certified April 2021
• SECS Ecosociology Lecture & Discussion — Certified April 2021
• SECS Virtual Sustainable Cooking — Certified April 2021
• SECS Volunteering with Red Bison — Certified April 2021
• SECS “Plogging” 5k Fun Run — Certified April 2021
• SECS Painting Climate Strike Signs — Certified April 2021
• Illinois Solar Decathlon ADAPTHAUS Inauguration Event — Certified April 2021
• Campus Recreation Food Assistance & Well-Being Program Digital Food Drive — Certified April 2021
• iSEE Congress 2021: The Future of Water — Certified March 2021
• Champaign Park District/UIUC Bunny Brunch — Certified March 2021
• iSEE TED Talk: Eco-Edition Series — Certified March 2021
• Environmental Leadership Program (ELP) Environmental Policy Workshop — Certified March 2021
• ELP Corporate Sustainability Workshop — Certified March 2021
• SSC Coffee Hours — Certified March 2021
• RST/Don Moyer Boys and Girls Club Young Olympians Program — Certified March 2021
• One Winter Night Anniversary Plaza Donation Drive — Certified March 2021
• One Winter Night — Certified February 2021
• Parkland College Trivia Night, 3/24/2021 — Certified February 2021
• Illinois Extension Everyday Environment Webinar Series — Certified February 2021
• American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) general meeting series — Certified February 2021
• Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) Sustainability Seminar Series — Certified December 2020
• ECEC21 (Emerging Contaminants in the Environment Conference 2021) — Certified December 2020

The City of Urbana is now partnering with Nexamp to bring solar savings opportunities to the community. This program is available to low and moderate income residents, including renters who do not own local property. The program provides solar power, through the existing electrical distribution network using solar panels that are being installed at the closed Urbana landfill.

Nexamp is holding two information sessions for Illinois residents to learn how they can enroll in a community solar program. These events will be held on:

• Thursday, December 10 at 7pm CT - visit nexa.mp/UrbanaDec10
• Tuesday, December 15 at 7pm CT - visit nexa.mp/UrbanaDec15

The flyer for these events can be found in the attached files below.

The 350 square-foot pollinator garden at the National Soybean Research Center is planted! The weather was beautiful and we had a fun time hearing plant stories and learning about our very own native species from Layne Knoche. Check out our Facebook post here. 

Huge thank you to Layne Knoche, Eliana Brown, and the whole Red Oak Rain Garden team, Eric Green, Michael Dzianott and the Red Bison team, Joey Kreiling, Blake Cedergren, and the From the Ground Up team, and all friends who helped out with the planting. 

Stay tuned for more fun! 

The Spring 2021 iSEE Quarterly Update (iQ) highlighted a diverse array of campus initiatives that made this year's Earth Month one to remember. Ranging from hosted events to sustainable energy, the article discusses the launch of the "TED Talk: Eco Edition" series, Solar Farm 2.0, community trash pickup, and more!

Read the article in the attached files below. 

The Spring 2021 iSEE Quarterly Update (iQ) was released with the following message from Madhu Khanna, the Interim Director of iSEE:

Dear Colleagues,

Attached, please find the Spring 2021 “iQ” – the quarterly update from the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE).

It has remained a busy time here on our campus, as we bolstered our outstanding Congress and Critical Conversation events with the addition of two experts — activist Catherine Coleman Flowers and nuclear expert Denia Djokić — who are serving as Levenick iSEE virtual resident scholars.

Thanks to the support of experts Eban Goodstein, Tami Craig Schilling, and Harriet Hentges, our new Environmental Leadership Program workshops for undergraduates were a rousing success.

And we were so pleased to have a mix of virtual and in-person Earth Month events to engage students, faculty, and staff from across our campus!

Please take a quick look at those updates and more in this six-page “iQ.” For more regular news, please sign up for our E-newsletter at https://illinois.edu/fb/sec/5031776.

Best wishes for the summer,

Madhu

Brent Lewis provided the following update to the Land and Water iCAP Team:

One of the iCAP objectives under Land and Water (4.2.1) involves a service learning project to better understand our historic and current tree canopy percentages.  I just wanted to reach out and say that I’ve worked it out with our NRES faculty member, Jennifer Fraterrigo that she will work with her students in the fall to prepare this analysis.  As our last 2 tree surveys were generally on 2008 and 2018, they will take a look at those years and put together an analysis.  Over this time, I believe we lost between 10-12% of our tree inventory on campus.  It is my thought that this loss in older trees would have meant a much larger loss in actual tree canopy.  This would generally equate to a loss of habitat, increase in ambient temperatures and increase in rainwater that would otherwise have been used by the trees.  I have been wanting to get a handle on the loss as I push for resources to replace what we had, as well as enhance what we will have for the future.

Halie Collins is the officially the next President of the Illinois Solar Decathlon (ISD) team! In her new position, she will be leading the efforts to form the next Build Team and Design Team. 

The outgoing president, Shashikiran Duraisamy, shared this note of thanks with Morgan White at F&S: "The Illinois Solar Decathlon team is extremely grateful for all the support that you have provided in the last two years. Your support was extremely valuable for our success and to support and contribute towards University’s sustainability initiatives. We are so much grateful for the Facilities and Services’ decision to allow ISD to store our construction materials in the Physical Plant Services Building and the constant support that the Receiving team (Dave Boehm & Jim McGuire) provided us to access the materials with ease. This was a lifesaver for our project. I look forward to the continued relationship between Illinois Solar Decathlon and Facilities & Services."

Today we discussed the next steps of finalizing a design for the signs and narrowing down on locations. I was tasked with prioritizing the locations. The dorms would get first priority, the other big locations got second priority (like the Union), and third priority was any other location. After we complete these two, we can get confirmation from the Architectural Review Committee.

Below, I have added the link for the map with all the locations, and a list of the location in priority order.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=17eGVN3C3A9AcW4kga0atpH0pt9NsfkyT&usp=sharing

First Priority:

• Snyder Hall
• Weston Hall
• Scott Hall
• Hopkins Hall
• Wassaja Hall
• Nugent Hall
• Barton and Lundgren
• Taft Van Doren
• FAR
• PAR
• Busey/Evans
• Allen Hall
• LAR
• ISR

Second Priority:

• Illini Union
• Grainger Library
• South Quad
• Transit Plaza

Third Priority:

• Krannert Center
• CRCE
• ARC
• Armory
• Memorial Stadium
• Bardeen Quad
• ECEB
• Neutral Cycle

All, Our first week of summer hours was successful! We were steadily busy and able to sell some bikes, accept some donations, and only had one person bemoan our new hours. Yoshi, who volunteered a couple weeks back was able to come lend a hand, which was super helpful.

This week I’m hiring a new employee who’ll start ASAP. They have loads of experience and will be able to hit the ground running, which will be great. Since the E-week/newsletter blast that Sarthak sent out, we’ve received 12 donations here, so we’re working our way through that stock of bikes; we’ll continue that for this week if it’s slow.

The numbers:

Visitors: 44 (?)
Sales: $918
Bikes (refurb): 3 for $455
Memberships: 1 for $30
U locks: 4 for $84
Tire/tube: 16 for $73

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Manager, Campus Bike Center

Chancellor Jones highlighted the Solar Farm 2.0 "Noteworthy at Illinois" Newsletter. In its final stage, this project makes the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign the third-largest producer of onsite clean power among U.S. universities.

Read the Chancellor's chosen story about Solar Farm 2.0.