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

RailSplitter Wind Farm provided the January 2021 Buyer's Share amounts by hour, totaling 1889.0 Megawatt hours. See attached file.

The dollars spent from TEM for faculty/staff air travel from FY20 is attached.

Congratulations to International Student & Scholar Services (ISSS) for achieving Gold certification in December 2020! 

Green Office Portal

Congratulations to Zeta Beta Tau for achieving gold certification (November 2020) and Triangle Fraternity for achieving silver certification (November 2020)! 

Green Chapter Portal

SSC received semester report for Fall 2021 for Let It Flow (Control the Flow) project on 1/20/2022. Please see attached.

Hello Education and Resilience teams,

It was great to see many of you at the “Sustainability team open house”. We will plan another event next month so we can continue to connect and get to know each other! I am reaching out to revisit a recommendation submitted last spring by the Education team: Edu002 Internship Coordinator. When the iWG deliberated the next steps of this recommendation, it was discussed that there could be value in collaboratively discussing this idea to hear the perspectives from both the Education and Resilience teams.  

I am writing to ask if you are interested in joining this discussion, please complete this Doodle Poll by 2/2. A summary of the recommendation is below and the full recommendation template is linked on the iCAP Portal:

The Education team recommends developing a sustainable communities paid internship program in partnership with local businesses, non-profits, local government agencies, community-based agencies and cultural institutions in Central Illinois. 

The internship program will be designed to build organizational capacity in the Champaign-Urbana / Central Illinois with regard to sustainability and resilience efforts to advance sustainable development and/or climate action goals. This program aims to allow students the flexibility to devise an internship experience that aligns with their specific interests within sustainability. Collaborations between the University and Champaign-Urbana community can be taken advantage of as projects where internships can be generated.

The student interns will be involved in sustainability and community resilience efforts with directed emphasis toward sustainable development goals. Interns will gain real-world, project-based, and pre-professional experience in a workplace setting anywhere from 3 months (summer intern) to 1 year. 

The intern program will also be tasked to provide leadership training as a foundation for real-world, project-based, and pre-professional experiences. Existing campus resources such as leadership development training modules available through Student Union programming should be utilized.

I hope many of you are interested and willing to join the discussion! Thank you and please let me know if you have any questions.

Meredith

Good afternoon and Happy New Year!

We will be having a virtual open house for all Sustainability Working Advisory Team members on Thursday, January 28 from 3-4pm. This is a great chance to kick off the new semester, say hello and meet the other sustainability team members, hear about what each team is working on, ask questions, provide feedback or words of wisdom, etc.! We hope you can attend.

Have a great week and talk to you soon!
Meredith, Morgan, and Ximing

The Resilience Team met on Wednesday, Jan. 27th for their first meeting of the Spring semester. Our clerk, Kimmy, proposed changes to our iCAP portal theme page and received comments from all team members. The Biodiversity Plan recommendation is in the final steps of gathering approval from every team member and will likely be submitted to the iWG this month. Lastly, the team had a brainstorming session for how to identify existing green jobs infrastructure and how to coordinate our environmental justice efforts with the community -- specifically the Sustainability Advisory Commission for the City of Urbana. 

Agenda, meeting minutes, and chat log are attached.

Mohamed Attalla, the Executive Director of Facilities and Services, has officially signed the charge letter outlining goals for the 2021 Tree Campus Advisory Committee. These goals, along with the expectations of the committee can be found in the attached pdf.

Congratulations to the following two events for achieving green certification in December 2020!

ISTC'S Sustainability Seminar Series 
ECEC21 (Emerging Contaminants in the Environment Conference) 

Green Event Portal

iSEE hosted our first “Certified Greener Campus Program Workshop” to guide U of I organizations in certifying as “green,” even while unusual conditions add complexity to campus’s daily operations. The online workshop included a program overview, steps to certification, FAQs, and an open discussion about overcoming common barriers to sustainability.

If you were unable to attend Thursday’s workshop, you can still take steps to advocate for sustainable practices in your unit! I invite you to:

• View and download the PowerPoint slides presented during the workshop.
• Watch the workshop recording on YouTube.
• Visit the Greener Campus Portal for more information about Certified Green Events, Offices, RSOs, and Greek chapters.
• Contact a Greener Campus team member at iseegreenoffice@gmail.com.

Check out the 2021 iSEE New Years Resolution Sustainability Guide, full of actions to consider and resources to help! Stay mindful of the environment when setting goals in 2021. 

The following resources were shared at the January 20, 2021 brainstorming meeting. Meeting notes are attached below.

Champaign-Urbana Urbanized Area Map
Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool
Champaign County Climate Resilience Task Force
Champaign County Regional Environmental Framework
Salud America Health Equity Report Card
Resources for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice
Champaign County Board Environment and Land Use Committee
Box Folder - for ongoing updates

iSEE is offering funding to integrate elements of sustainability into an existing course ($1,000 award) or develop a new course with a sustainability focus ($2,000 award) through the 2021 Levenick iSEE Teaching Sustainability Fellowship. Applications are due January 31.