Volunteer for Illini Lights Out on Feb. 10 in Main Quad buildings

Do you love saving energy as much as we do? Volunteers are needed for the first spring semester round of Illini Lights Out from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10. Meeting place will be announced soon; full details in link above. Bring a friend and take a behind-the-scenes tour of buildings on the Main Quad as you count and turn off lights left on in classrooms, back hallways, labs and lounges.

Tony Mancuso . Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE)

At the PWR SWATeam meeting on Feb. 3, the team reviewed the status of the Illini Gadget Garage.  It is going very well, and they have hired students to help promote and market the open hours. The team also discussed the proposed recycled-content paper policy.  This policy was not approved at the System level, and UI at Chicago is working to implement their own policy for their campus.  UIUC can do the same, through an update to the existing policy.  Morgan will bring the policy to the next SWATeam meeting for discussion.  Morgan also asked about the SWATeam recommendation process and invited team members to send her comments and suggestions.  The Chair was selected as Fanxing Liu, with plenty of help from iSEE and the SWATeam Clerk, Meghan Killinger, because Fanxing just joined the team.

The EGEN SWATeam a meeting for the Spring 2017 semester. Topics covered include:

• Determining Team Chair
• Final Review of rooftop solar recommendation and Petascale offsets recommendation.
• What constitutes clean energy usage? (REC count vs. RECs don't count)

Olivia Webb and Morgan Johnston met with Meghan Killinger and Stephanie Cash to provide an introduction to the SWATeam clerk responsibilities.

Review of pending recommendations: BIF Greywater, Increase Cooling Tower COC, Design Center Greywater Piping. Discussion on possible edits to the SWAT/iWG process. Student members will submit proposal to Student Sustainability Commision for apermanent meter to measure BIF greywater use. The Water SWATeam will meet every other week and will have a joint meeting with the Agriculture, Land Use, Food, and Sequestration (ALUFS) SWATeam this semester. 

The Wind PPA vendor has provided the January 2017 Buyer's Share report to Prairieland Energy Inc. (PEI).  This represents the actual wind power purchased, received, and used on the Urbana campus through the agreement with EDP Renewables (EDPR).

iSEE has launched the latest edition of the Certified Green Office Program, an initiative to help implement sustainable practices into the campus workplace. Your actions can reduce your office's environmental footprint, and help the campus save money and meet Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) objectives. The newest program offers more elective actions - and certification in just five easy steps.

Tony Mancuso . Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE)

Hello! This past week we had 74 visitors. We grossed 1,068.50. We sold 4 bikes for $630, one build-a-bike for $40, and 8 memberships to the tune of $240.

As the numbers bear out, bike sales are ticking up, which has been a pleasant surprise. I figured it would be real quiet here until March or April but there has been a steady stream of visitors and people interested in the space. This past week a TBP volunteer debuted a new spreadsheet  that already vastly improved the efficiency of processing shipping and receiving here at CBC, as well as clears up the vagaries surrounding POS transactions on unmarked merchandise—all very good things! It will be even nicer as the shop gets busier and busier.

This week Leah starts staffing and the rest of the new hires are coming along with their hiring process. This week I plan to build an extra wheel storage rack and reconfigure the cone wrench station to make it safer and easier to use. I will continue to build bikes, organize, and prioritize accessible inventory and parts based on their usage and demand.

Sincerely,

• Jake Benjamin
  Campus Bike Center Manager

On the agenda at the ECBS SWATeam meeting:

1) Associate Director for Campus Sustainability at iSEE replacement;

2) Status of recommendation for Green Lab Coordinator;

3) Discussion: How the SWATeam recommendation process working for us;

4) FYI: Discussions are ongoing on campus about higher expectations for building standards;

5) Illini Light Out” will transition to iSEE and dates for the rest of the year;

6) Certified Green Office Program. How ECBS SWATeam can promote this;

7) Status updates: 2017 Freezer Challenge and Eco-Olympics Planning.

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Madhu Khanna discussed iSEE educational goals and approaches and provided information about the iSEE undergraduate minor.

Hello, we had 65 visitors last week. We grossed $1,135, sold 8 memberships for $240 and 3 bikes for $475. We had a steady number of volunteers. I think we are a destination for those seeking community-service hours on campus, which has the positive effect of a sustained  volunteer—a week or sometimes more—and in turn less training is required, and more work is done more efficiently. It’s a win-win.

Last week I interviewed 5 student workers, installed new signage on two of the three new fix-it stations, updated iCAP numbers (thanks, Lily!), and built bikes/organized.

This week I will continue to build bikes, talk to the Bike Project about funding some projects that will increase the efficacy, functionality and safety of the Campus Bike Center. I will also finalize the hiring of student workers for this semester. And of course, build more bikes for the spring.

Sincerely,

• Jake Benjamin
  Campus Bike Center Manager

The EGEN SWATeam held their first meeting for the Spring 2017 semester. Topics covered include:

• Review draft recommendations for 1) on-campus solar and 2) petascale offsets
• An update from Morgan Johnston on the Associate Director of Campus Sustainability position
• Updating iCAP portal project pages for EGEN objectives
• Clean Energy PPA
• Potential for future solar farm
• Asking for feedback from EGEN team members regarding recommendation proces

All, surprise! When the semester nears, students return! We had 26 visitors in last week. Grossed $388.75. Sold one membership ($30) and one bike ($225). One member was achingly close to finishing his Build-a-Bike but alas, it was not meant to be.

This past week I interviewed a student for staff help here at CBC. I also spoke with another student and set up an interview for him this week. On Tuesday and Wednesday a TBP volunteer came by and we reconstructed the tire rack storage shelf to accommodate more tires as well as make them more accessible. It will greatly help the effectiveness and ease by which members can utilize the space—especially once it gets hectic and busy.

This week I will be interviewing more potential student staffers, ironing out the schedule for the staff semester, prepping for the incumbent staffers to return, and of course the general clean, organize, and building of bikes.

• Jake Benjamin
  Campus Bike Center Manager

The Solar Farm system capacity is 4.68 MWac and 5.87 MWdc. Original materials produced before 2017 generally referred to the capacity as 5.87 MW, which does not match the industry standard of using the AC generation capacity.  The correct figure to use is 4.68 MW, when sharing information about the Solar Farm on the UIUC South Farms.