Thurman Etchison and Kelly Boeger with University Housing and Dining presented the attached slides on Sustainability in Dining at the NRES 285 class on February 25, 2021. 

Ashlynn Stillwell (CEE) and Eliana Brown (University of Illinois Extension) presented these slides on "water in buildings" and "stormwater at Illinois" respectively to the NRES 285 class on February 18, 2021. 

The waste data for Week 6 (March 7 - March 13, 2021) is as follows: 

Bottles/Cans: 1,910

Paper: 8,562

Cardboard: 18,120

Food Organics: 10,800

Trash: 146,140

Check out how many schools are participating: https://recyclesearch.com/profile/recyclemania/map/8 

Go Illini!

All, We’re definitely getting busier as we creep closer to “Everyone Rides” weather.
Highlight of the week was a dad and daughter coming in with the daughter’s bike. Bad freewheel so we took it apart and cleaned/re-greased it. That kid was into it! She was eager as all get-out, loved every step of the process, refused dad’s help on multiple occasions, and wanted to know all the names of all the bike parts. A model visitor. Dad loved our education/recycling mission and shared a disheartening story about government-mandated lawnmower obsolescence.

Elsewhere, I got some IT things sorted out that will help the bike center run more smoothly, picked up some bikes from the warehouse, and hired a new employee to help in advance of the warm/busy times.
This week I’ll have the aforementioned employee start, host a staff meeting on Wednesday evening, and sit in on the SSC Coffee Hour for Transportation & Infrastructure on Thursday.

The numbers:

Visitors: 16
Sales: $511
Memberships: 5 for $150
Bikes (refurb): 1 for $180
Misc: $88

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Manager, Campus Bike Center

Happy second day of spring, We would have loved to see an Illini win this afternoon, but what a great year for the Illinois men’s basketball team! Welcome to the final week of the Plastic Free Challenge! We cannot believe how quickly March is flying by and we are so grateful for your dedication to the process of tracking and reducing your plastic waste. You have one week left to push yourself outside of your comfort zone and try something new to decrease your waste! If you find that you have managed to either recycle or reuse items in your daily life, why not try something new by helping someone else or sharing a few tips with us! If you have not already, please submit your Week 3 Google Form by Monday, March 22.

This Thursday, we will send the final tip of the challenge: how to go forward and live sustainably, even when the Plastic Free Challenge ends. You did not do all of this hard work to revert back to using disposable items or for “points”; now, it is time to use what you have learned and help others in their own path to waste minimalism. We encourage you to start thinking about what tips you will incorporate in your daily lives, what you still plan to work on and work toward, and everything you have learned this past month. Until then, enjoy your final week. As a group, let’s try to generate the least amount of points this week compared to the rest of the month!

Here is the Week 4 Form. Please submit the form and grid by Monday, March 29. We look forward to checking in on Thursday with information about the end of the challenge, including the prize raffle. As you will see on the Week 3 and Week 4 Google forms, we are encouraging each of you to please send a photo or short video of a new sustainable action, story, or image that encompasses "plastic-free living" for you. For example, you can show off your bulk purchases or containers, recycling or composting in action, or even a reusable item that you regularly use instead of a disposable/single-use product. Don't worry about producing a high-quality video - this is supposed to be fun and not stressful! Feel free to upload this to the form or email us.

Remember to reach out with questions, comments, or stories about your challenge experience. Do you have any feedback for us? Is there anything you particularly enjoyed or would like to see changed? We would love to hear!

Have a great week and finish strong! 

Meredith Moore, iSEE Sustainable Programs Coordinator
Emily Dickett, iSEE Sustainability Intern

SSC is now accepting applications for Student-Led Projects Under $10,000 for its first funding cycle of the semester. The deadline for this initial round of funding is March 31. Join one of the virtual working group meetings on 3/22/2021 or 3/24/2021 for help with applying!

March 18–31

Samuel Yoo • Student Success and Engagement

Applications for SSC Student-Led Projects Under $10,000

Good morning! How do you feel about this rain we are having in central Illinois? It is Thursday and you know what that means...time for our plastic-free check-in! We have a few extra resources and tips to share with you today. You are almost done with Week 3 of the Plastic Free Challenge. There is just over one week left until the end of the challenge. We are sad to realize this, too. We love communicating with you and building our community of sustainability enthusiasts. How have you improved since Week 1? What more do you have to learn?

We are extremely proud of you all for submitting your grids, emailing about what you are learning, sending details about helpful resources you have utilized, and setting some great goals throughout the challenge thus far. The goal of this challenge, other than reducing plastic waste of course, is to become more conscious of our waste overall and to find tips and tools to aid the journey toward a plastic-free lifestyle (and help others do the same). We are excited to see what more we can accomplish as a group in the next week!

This week, let's focus on avoiding plastics in the kitchen, including purchasing groceries, cooking, storing food, cleaning, and more. Have you realized how heavily food products are packaged? This is an important component to target as you reflect on your daily waste habits and plan ahead. The attached tip guide includes ways to avoid plastic shopping bags, heavily packaged food products, plastic cleaning supplies, and more. We provided tips on how to store food without plastic, how to cook and serve food sustainably - all ideas that we hope you discuss with friends, roommates, and family members, too. Also, don’t forget to purchase in bulk: the Harvest Market in Champaign and Urbana Co-Op are two options close to campus. No matter where you are located, plan ahead and call your local grocery stores or co-ops to ask about their bulk purchasing options.

Please remember to submit your Week 3 Google Form by Monday, March 22. Feel free to reach out with any questions, comments, or concerns at any time. We truly enjoy hearing from you all. As a reminder, at any time throughout the challenge (especially if you have recently joined!), you can revisit any of our emails or resources that have been distributed to the group in this Box folder. This folder can also be found by scrolling down to "More Information" on the iSEE Plastic Free Challenge webpage. 

Enjoy the rest of your week and we will talk to you again on Sunday. Go Illini basketball!!

Meredith Moore, iSEE Sustainable Programs Coordinator
Emily Dickett, iSEE Sustainability Intern

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! In an effort to be more “green” today and every day, we now have a compost tumbler on the west side of the National Soybean Research Center, thanks to SSC funding. This is the first publicly-accessible compost drop-off on campus!

Please feel free to take advantage of this opportunity to sustainably dispose of your fruit/vegetable scraps (without stickers), tea bags, coffee grounds/filters, eggshells, shredded paper etc. While this 60-gallon compost tumbler is housed at the NSRC building, this drop-off opportunity is available to all. Simply unscrew either end of the tumbler and drop your items inside. Attached are several photos of the location and setup, as well as a list of the acceptable/unacceptable items. 

The end-product will ultimately be used to fertilize a pollinator garden at NSRC. More details to come. 

Discussed current land management practices and the potential creation of an off-campus land management committee.

All, Monday of last week we were as busy as we’ve been since March 2020—if not longer. Warm and sunny tends to do that. I’m sure our new signage isn’t hurting things! Friday picked up as well. We even had someone waiting in the lobby for an open repair stand. It’ll be nice when we can space the stands a little closer and fit a few more in the workshop.
Last week I interviewed for a potential new hire and a different new hire started last week. He hit the ground running, which was really great, and needed.
We got TBP some keys to help handle the scrap parts, so that will keep things cleaner around here. On Friday maintenance guys installed garage hook racks from which to hang wheels. I’ve already hung a bunch of wheels up which both makes the wheels more accessible and keeps the space looking cleaner/safer (no one can trip on wheels if they’re not on the ground)!

This week we’ve got a couple drop-off repairs to handle, some bikes to grab from the warehouse, and some training to do with staff to prep them for busier times.

The numbers:

Visitors: 29
Sales: $311
Bike (refurb): 1 for $200
Membership: 1 for $30
Misc: $46

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Manager

The Red Oak Rain Garden Team announces Mulch Madness plant competition

Mulch Madness is a fun way to learn more about native plants found at the Red Oak Rain Garden. To enter, send completed brackets to redoakraingarden@gmail.com by 11 am Tue, Mar 16. Games begin that same day at noon on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Brackets, rules, and more details are at the link above. The winning bracket receives a $20 gift certificate to the local business of their choice.

Eliana Brown • University of Illinois Extension/Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant

 This opportunity is available online

The data for week 5 (February 28 - March 6, 2021) is as follows:

Bottles/Cans: 0

Paper: 7,135

Cardboard: 13,590

Food Organics: 10,400

Trash: 215,100

Interested in careers in sustainability? Join us to hear a panel discussion from industry professionals and learn how the field is changing and how to pursue sustainable careers.

Panelists will include representatives from:

Eco Logic
Prairie Rivers Network
Urbana Park District
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Please register at:
https://go.illinois.edu/SustainabilityCareersPanel

Good afternoon! Did you remember to change your clocks this morning? Hopefully you are ready for another great week of challenging yourself to track and reduce your plastic waste! You are officially halfway through the Plastic Free Challenge! How does it feel? Meticulously tracking your plastic use for two weeks now is a lot to celebrate. Now is a great time to reflect on what you have learned so far, what resources and new lifestyle changes you have learned, and what you still want to work on in the next two weeks. Please remember to submit your Week 2 Google Form with an uploaded grin (attached) as soon as possible - though no later than Monday, March 15. As a group, we have already decreased our waste significantly -- let’s keep it up!

This week, in addition to refusing, repurposing, and recycling plastic, we encourage each of you to dedicate time to challenge yourself to commit to a new, environmentally-conscious action. Whether it be having a discussion with a roommate about consumerism, watching a documentary on plastic, or picking up litter, "negative point" opportunities are a great way to help the environment even further and spread awareness of the detrimental effects of plastic (while, of course, helping lower your point total for the week, too).

Have you been committing to environmental actions that we don’t have on our point list yet? Share it with us - we’d love to hear! We are also interested in knowing why you all are participating!

Here is the Week 3 form; please submit this with your weekly grid by Monday, March 22. We will check in with you again on Thursday with more tips on how to reduce your plastic waste! As a reminder, at any time throughout the challenge (especially if you have recently joined!), you can revisit any of our emails or resources that have been distributed to the group at this Box folder. This folder can also be found by scrolling down to "More Information" on the iSEE Plastic Free Challenge webpage.

Have a fantastic week!

Meredith Moore, iSEE Sustainable Programs Coordinator 

Emily Dickett, iSEE Sustainability Intern

Hello! You are almost halfway through the Plastic Free Challenge - wow! With over 130 of us participating, in just two weeks we have already created positive change in our community and world. Think of all the plastic waste we have avoided and the waste we will continue to reduce over the next two weeks! 

We loved hearing about your experiences during the first week, and we are very impressed with your insightful comments and creative ideas, such as switching to dryer balls instead of single-use dryer sheets and creating your own self-care products instead of buying plastic containers (even though they may be recyclable!). Many of you have great goals for this week, such as going one whole day without generating any waste (and not compensating by throwing away more the day before or after) and going on a walk to pick up litter every day. Keep it up!

This week, let’s continue trying to target plastic waste with purchasing power and when you are out and about. Avoiding single-use plastics is tough, especially during this COVID-19 period when some stores are not allowing customers to bring reusable coffee cups or bags. We urge you to ask, or write to, the stores you shop at to revisit their reusable items policy, as many stores have recently lifted their ban on reusable items. Communication is key, and it shows that people want to do the right thing. Not sure how to start buying in bulk? Here is a great step-by-step guide. Check out the attached "Week 2 Tip Guide" for more details and ideas on how to earn "negative" points for the week.

Please remember to submit the Week 2 Google Form and upload your grid by Monday, March 15. We have reattached the grid and point system if needed. As always, please reach out to us with any questions, comments, or feedback. If you recently signed up for the challenge, or if you wish to revisit our previous emails/resources, check out this Box folder.

We look forward to checking in with you again on Sunday. And remember,

"Plan ahead . . . bring reusables instead!"

Craving more resources? Check out UPSTREAM and this great list: 

• National Caucus of Environmental Legislators
• Beyond Plastics 
• UPSTREAM’s Reuse Learning Hub
• Reuse Acceleration Policies
• More information on the National Reuse Network and the Government Reuse Forum
• Covid Safety Resources
• BFFPPA summary 
• Plastic-Free President 
• Federal Stimulus & Other Funding Report
• Course (open to all): Beyond Plastic Pollution with Judith Enck 
• A Story of Plastic Virtual Film Screening & Panel Discussion 

Thank you!

Meredith Moore, iSEE Sustainability Programs Coordinator 

Emily Dickett, iSEE Sustainability Intern

The Telecommuting & Commuter Program intern met with supervisor Sarthak Prasad on Friday, March 12th, 2021 to discuss updates on the program and goals for the upcoming week. They both attended the Transportation SWATeam meeting on Wednesday, March 10, 2021 and introduced the new role to the group. Moreover, they decided to focus on the telecommuting policy since it is currently more time-sensitive than the commuter incentive program. During the next week, the intern will research telecommuting policies at other Big 10 universities and report them in an updated excel sheet. Once this research has been completed, they will begin conducting interviews with the universities that have telecommuting policies to receive better input. 

Meeting minutes are attached!

Beginning in 2011 Alice Berkson began taking photos at the Florida – Orchard prairie on campus next to the President’s House.  The photos were taken each month from the same locations beginning in 2013.  The two years prior to that all 12 months are not represented.  A few photos are missing including all of October 2015.   A few extra shots are occasionally included of unusual situations or plants.   

See https://uofi.box.com/s/cfmmscpv2335f57g7nzngx4g8nf4cqgj to view or download the images.

The photos are in yearly folders.  Individual photos are labeled with the date first YYYY-MM-DD so that they will sort in order.   

Photos were taken at the four corners.  At the North corners along Florida Avenue shots were taken east to west and west to east as well as diagonally from NE looking SW, and from NW looking SE.  At the southern corners, only the diagonal photos were taken.   

The resolution on the photos is high so that small sections can be enlarged to identify plants and other features.   

As of this writing the series is complete from 2011 through 2020.  

John C. Marlin  January, 2021