The Unviersity purchased an additional 16 3-loop, 20 4-loop, and 50 5-loop rail-mounted bicycle racks from RJ Thomas Manufacturing Co. Inc. in FY17. These bike racks were received in Spring 2017.

On May 11, 2017, the Public Works Department of City of Urbana issued a letter to the residents informing them about the construction of new street lighting that is planned for Illinois Street, Gregory Street, and Oregon Street and is scheduled to start this spring. The project is expected to end in late October 2017. The new streetlights will resemble the streetlights currently on Goodwin Avenue adjacent to the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts except the lamp will be a LED lamp instead of a metal halide lamp as is installed on Goodwin Avenue.  

The proposed roadway lighting improvements are located along Oregon Street from Mathews Avenue to Lincoln Avenue, Gregory Street from Oregon Street to Illinois Street, and Illinois Street from Goodwin Avenue to Lincoln Avenue in the City of Urbana. The City of Urbana will oversee the construction of this project, which is presently being competitively bid.

The project is expected to run from June through October.  Work will commence on Gregory Street, then move to Illinois Street, and finish on Oregon Street.

F&S will offer monthly tours of the Solar Farm on the first Friday of each month from July to December 2017, from 2 to 4 p.m.  You can sign up to participate at https://illinois.edu/fb/sec/3893405. 

Attached are the presentations prepared by the students in ENVS 301. The course syllabus is also attached.

On the agenda at the ECBS SWATeam meeting:

1) Status of our recommendations to iWG;

2) Review of Illini Lights Out over the past year;

3) Any final thoughts, recommendations for Eco-Olympics;

4) Progress on building energy standards;

5) Updates on the revolving loan fund (RLF) projects;

6) Turning off computers.  Change in policy, at least at F&S.  Implications for Certified Green Office Program? 

7) Building level energy consumption report summary;

8) Good-byes and thanks to departing members.

The report is about behavior change messaging, which lets the occupants of each building see their consumption changes over time and it will motivate them to conserve energy. The goal of the report is to display “past-current-new” patterns of energy conservation change. The result will be a paper with recommendations how to motivate people to be more sustainable.

The data for FY08-FY2016 was used.  The scope of the project are 175 buildings at the UIUC campus. Then the pilot project was about the Lincoln Hall. After Lincoln Hall, the work was started with the Soybean National Laboratory and the Illini Union.

The Revolving Loan Fund selection committee has approved funding for all the viable RLF projects.  See attached image for list.

During seven Friday evening “Illini Lights Out” events in the 2016-17 academic year, teams of student volunteers switched off more than 11,000 fixtures and closed windows in campus buildings around the Main Quad at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. One bulb at a time, this small action taken by more than 200 students saved campus about $3,400 in energy costs — not to mention lengthened the lifespan of several thousand lightbulbs.

This prezi was shared by Rick Langlois, showing a short timeline for the bicycle advocacy that has grown in town over the last decade.

https://prezi.com/qszytau2k2j8/bronze-age-of-champaign-county-bikes/

New York Times article on electric vehicles (EVs):

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/04/automobiles/wheels/plug-in-electric-hybrid-automobiles.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FElectric%20and%20Hybrid%20Vehicles&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection.

The Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA) has accepted the Solar Urbana-Champaign Advisory Committee’s recommendation and contracted with New Prairie Construction to install solar arrays for the second round of our group buy program.  MREA and New Prairie Construction have agreed to an amended fee schedule whereby New Prairie will be providing a rebate which will be paid to program participants who sign a contract for services by August 31, 2017 according to the following schedule: $.03/watt if the program reaches 50-150 kW of total capacity; $.06/watt for 150-250 kW; $.09/watt for installed capacity in excess of 250 kW. 

Please keep an eye on solarurbanachampaign.com for more info.