A re-launch event ("Meet and Greet") of SSLC was held on 2-8-21. See the recording here.

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Hello! 

We are writing to invite you, on behalf of your environmental group, to attend a virtual “Meet and Greet” event on Monday, February 8, from 4-5 p.m. The purpose is to come together to discuss the function, structure, and purpose of the Student Sustainability Leadership Council (SSLC) and relaunch the group. This organization is designed to provide an opportunity for sharing, collaboration, and centralized communication to streamline campus sustainability outreach and programs between student environmental groups and iSEE (Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment). SSLC can also function as a way for RSOs to receive help and support for projects and outreach.

Key topics that will be discussed: 

• What is the purpose of the SSLC? 
• How can the SSLC benefit student groups and what is the benefit of participation?
• Who should be a member of the SSLC?
• How should the SSLC be structured and led?

Your input and participation are essential to the success of this group and anyone is welcome to attend. We hope to see you at this discussion on February 8. Let us know if you have any questions, comments, or feedback in the meantime. See you soon!

All, Slow week, of course. Housekeeping abounded: student staff meeting, an interview, safety checks.

This week we have our Basic Maintenance 101 class on Wednesday evening. Other than that, it’s business as usual. The extreme cold will likely keep people away but this week also marks a relaxing of COVID restrictions, so we’ll see how those two balance each other out.

The numbers:

Visitors: 10
Sales: $105
Misc: $60

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Manager

Join CCNet for a special event this Monday, as we co-host a Geo Power Hour with the Geothermal Urbana-Champaign team.

Pre-registration is required:

02/08/21 Monday 6:30-7:30PM Geo Power Hour on Zoom (click to register) Co-host: Champaign County Sustainability Network (CCNet)

The Resilience team made the following recommendation on 2/3/2021: 

Lisa Merrifield at U of I Extension should coordinate the development of an urban biodiversity master plan for the local urbanized area of Urbana, Champaign, and Savoy, with broad stakeholder input and direct faculty/researcher involvement.

Attached is the Res002 Biodiversity Plan recommendation. 

Morgan White and Ximing Cai, the iWG co-chairs, returned the Trans012 Carpool Survey recommendation on February 2, 2021 with the following email. 

Hello Transportation iCAP Team,

The iCAP Working Group is continuing to work through the several SWATeam recommendations that were submitted in April 2020.  Ximing and I appreciate your patience with this process, which took some additional time due to the iCAP 2020 completion work (and the pandemic).

The Carpool Survey recommendation, Trans012, was initially submitted as a recommendation to conduct a survey, develop a plan, and implement a pilot program.  With the Campus as a Living Lab (CALL) project, Student Mobility on and around the Illinois campus, funded in Fall 2019, Ximing reached out to Dr. Ouyang this summer.  He shared this update, “Originally we were hoping to conduct not only the survey but also do an initial design of the service system (service model, business plan, resource assessment, economic analysis).” and “We were planning to send out the survey (as major task of the $9K seed project) in Spring 2020, but the topic (carpool service) was inappropriate under the COVID-19 environment -- the results would likely be heavily biased under the unusual circumstance.”

Because there is work underway through the CALL project, and while this work is on-hold for the pandemic, Ximing and I have decided to formally “return” this recommendation to your team.  We are very supportive of this project moving forward, once we are in the post-pandemic world.  Please consider this particular recommendation (Trans012) as closed.  When the CALL efforts are further along, we would be happy to see a new SWATeam Recommendation for the next steps. 

Thank you for all your excellent work!  We look forward to additional recommendations from your team.

Sincerely,

Morgan and Ximing

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See the Trans012 Carpool Survey submittal.

CCNet hosted several local solar panelists in January 2021. This Zoom meeting was also shared via Facebook Live:

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=429039901765435&ref=watch_permalink

• Scott Tess for Solar Urbana-Champaign (https://www.growsolar.org/solar-urbana-champaign/)
• Lauren Barchi, with Nexamp, for community solar (https://www.nexamp.com/community-solar)
• Jim Bustard, with Parkland College (https://www.parkland.edu)
• Morgan White University of Illinois solar projects (https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/.../solar-energy...)
• Sushanth Girini for University of Illinois Solar Farm 2.0: https://fs.illinois.edu/.../utilit.../production/solar-farms

Join the CCNet mailing list to gain access to the Zoom and stay connected. http://eepurl.com/g8IM

(video link corrected on 2-2-2021)

       Try out citizen science in your own backyard! Melody Arnold, President of the Macon Co. chapter of the Audubon Society, will describe the annual Great Backyard Bird Count, happening February 12-15 this year.  She will talk about a few of the birds that we are most likely to see in this area and how we can participate. This program is brought to you by East Central Illinois Master Naturalists. 

February 1, 12 PM

Amanda Christenson • Cooperative Extension Service

Join us on Feb.1 at 6pm for an exciting workshop highlighting the collaborative relationship between Illinois and Kyushu University faculty on the development of global CO2 recycling technology towards “beyond-zero” emission. This effort is within the framework of the Moonshot Program in I2CNER at Kyushu funded by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) of Japan. 

Global Relations • Global Relations

 This opportunity is available online

Saskia Sassen, "When Corona Virus Meets the City"

Climate migrations are often characterized as moving people from low to higher income countries, or from rural to urban areas (particularly into slums or low-income neighborhoods).  However, climate change will endanger cities across the globe.  Is this a realistic concern and what impact could it have on migratory flows? What role will cities play in climate migrations (for good or for bad)? 

February 9, 12 PM • Zoom Registration Link

Maria Dorofeeva • Center for Global Studies

All, Things were uncharacteristically busy at the tail end of last week, highlighted by two prospective student employees coming in. They were both really excited by what we do here at the Bike Center. Always good to see enthusiasm and it was a nice glimpse of hopefully where we’ll be post-pandemic: fostering enjoyment, excitement and knowledge about bikes!

Got a student staff meeting, interview, and bikes to build this week.

The numbers:

Visitors: 14
Sales: $371.50

Memberships: 1 for $30
Bike (refurb): 1 for $200
Misc: $18

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Manager