Morgan Johnston, Madhu Khanna, Andrew Levy, Scott Tess, and Jane Sullivan met to discuss the potential for a regional climate action plan.  The discussion focused on current efforts underway in the cities.  The unedited notes are attached here.

Evan:

We contacted UA. They're supposed to give us a RFP schedule next week. That should give us a better idea of the timeline.

-Al Stratman

From: Evan DeLucia [mailto:delucia@life.illinois.edu]
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2014 5:39 PM
To: McCall, Benjamin
Cc: Stratman, Allan
Subject: SWAT report on energy generation

Ben,

In the absence of a fully formulated SWAT process - iWG and the Sustainability Council have yet to be formed - I forwarded the May 2014 position paper from the 'energy generation' team directly to Al Stratman for consideration.

Under the SWAT process, the teams should be... "developing and recommending specific actions or initiatives the campus should under take to meet iCAP targets..." The energy generation SWAT did a nice job of recommending a specific action that would help meet our targets.

To paraphrase, Al responded...

• the concept of a PPA is meritorious and has potential
• F&S is evaluating this plan
• some of the issues that need to be considered include pricing options, length of agreement constraints, REC pricing alternatives
• F&S is working to obtain hard data on pricing and other details before moving forward

I've taken the liberty of copying Al to be sure I didn't misrepresent his response to me.

Al, do you have any idea of what might be a reasonable time frame would be for completing an analysis of the feasibility, costs, and benefits of purchasing wind power for campus?

Cheers,

Evan

see file

The attached Manual was developed with students and Amelia Neptune over the last few years.  The most helpful part of this document is the liability Q&A that Tina helped create.  I cleaned the file up a bit this morning to fix broken links and check for any glaring errors. 

To bring you and those copied here up to speed, I’ll share a few points that are happening with bike sharing now. 

• The successfully implemented bike sharing on campus is at Kinesiology and Community Health.  They have six bikes for employee use, and wrote a research report about the usage (attached).  They simply have the keys at a desk with a sign-out list, and they send the bikes for maintenance once a year.  The contact person is Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko at Kinesiology.
• This summer, the MTD is planning to start working with campus and the cities to investigate a public bike sharing system, and that conversation is just beginning.  The contact person is Rebecca Nathanson at MTD.
• AITS is planning to set up a departmental bike sharing program, in cooperation with the Campus Bike Center and iSEE.  The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District (CUPHD) is planning to contribute funds towards administrative support for maintaining the bikes.  It is likely that 10-20 bikes will be purchased from “On Bikes,” which comes with a locking and tracking system. 
• Grace Kyung has had numerous conversations with Zagster, which was formed by former staff at Zipcar.  Their system is an all-inclusive turn-key approach, where you pay a set-up fee, then pay a recurring monthly fee for maintenance and oversight.  The set up fee is around $2000 per bike and the monthly fee is about $100 per bike.  The bikes then continue to belong to Zagster.  I did not support the Zagster model for campus employee use, but it may be reasonable for Allerton’s intended use.  If you are interested, their CEO is visiting town on Thursday. 

Please let me know if there is anything I can help you with to get this set up.

Thanks,

Morgan

On May 23, 2014, at 4:07 PM, "McEllin, Tina D" wrote:

Hi Derek,

To start I’m going to refer you to Morgan Johnston, Assoc. Director of Sustainability.    I believe Morgan has a draft manual for depts. to use when setting up programs for employees.   I don’t know if it will address offering this service to the public so you may have to add language to that effect.     

Since you will have the public liability issue I would like to review your draft manual to make sure exposure to the University is controlled as much as possible.  Please feel free to call me with any questions. 

Thank you.

Tina McEllin,  Assoc. Dir.

University Office of Risk Management

247 Henry Admin. Bldg.   M-C 337

506 S. Wright St., Urbana IL 61801

PH 217-333-3113

FX 217-239-6744

Check out our website!   www.uirisk.uillinois.edu

Please note: Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), any written communication to or from University employees regarding University business is a public record and may be subject to public disclosure.

From: Peterson, Derek Eli
Sent: Friday, May 23, 2014 3:51 PM
To: Kale, PJ; McEllin, Tina D
Cc: Kevin Donovan
Subject: Allerton Park and Retreat Center

Good Afternoon PJ and Tina-

Joe Vitosky said the two of you might be a good start for me, I need some advice. Allerton Park is going to start a Bike Rental, or Bike Share program. I am interested to know if any other units, or if there is any standard documentation that might assist me through this process. We have researched other local entities that do bike share and rental and so we have some standard language, but we will be offering this to the public, so we need to make sure the University if legally covered. As I type I feel underprepared to ask this question, but I thought you might have some advice for me to help get me started.

Thank you for your time-

-- 

Derek Peterson

Associate Director

Allerton Park & Retreat Center

University of Illinois

515 Old Timber Road

Monticello, IL  61856

O 217.333.3287, ext. 203

M 217-778-9111

www.allerton.illinois.edu

Morgan Johnston and Nishant Makhijani met today to discuss entering campus buildings in the U-C Energy Star Challenge competition.  Each building entered into the system will take 30-60 minutes to enter the data.  We are going to start with Nishant entering the data for the following buildings:

1. Admissions and Records
2. David Kinley Hall
3. Turner Student Services
4. Wholers Hall
5. Engineering Hall
6. Illinois Sustainable Technology Center
7. Illini Union
8. Physical Plant Services Building
9. National Soybean Research Center
10. Natural Resources Building

The Green revolving loan fund is committed to provide $32,000 of funding for the TBH project.  Please add a supplemental account on to the work order to fund up to $32,000 of the bill for the lighting retrofit.  The revolving loan account is MY862-Revolving Loan Fund (1-303630-862004-862013.) 

Congratulations,

You now have access to the SSC funding that was granted to you for your Recycling on the Quad project. Attached is a copy of the SSC funding agreement that you signed along with other parties. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Best Wishes,

Marques Burris

SSC Program Advisor

I took some notes from my conversation with Jennifer Bechtel the Program Director from the Innovation and Sustainability LLC who wants to start a bike share.  Here are the notes as I took them.  I hope this will help you to understand what is going on.

• Wants to have 6 or so bikes for bike share 120 students 10-15 using and helping to repair.
• Wants to bring students over here to learn how to fix bikes 1 x per month or semester depending on maintenance rates and usage.
• Would like to explore a possible group membership for her resident hall or their bike share.
• The idea is there are so many students who don't know anything about bikes.  She wants to use it to help students get feet wet with bikes learn how useful they are and encourage private ownership.
• This would be a pilot program for this housing dept and may want to expand.
• Wants quality bikes that can be maintained on our model of teaching people how to fix them.
• Wants students to be involved in keeping bikes running.
• Jennifer wants to learn herself so she can be the consistent person for the bike share because of the turn over with the students and staff.
• They are installing a outdoor fix-it station outside their building.
• She would want to use us our facilities and model to have students fix the bikes.
• Wants students to end up buying a bike.
• Looking for a place to store the bikes in the winter if no one is willing to ride/maintain the bikes.

From the Campus Bike Center,
James Roedl
 

Here is the first recommendation from the Energy Generation SWATeam.

"We strongly endorse obtaining Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with one or more Wind Farms as soon as possible.  It is unlikely that a better opportunity to purchase renewable energy will present itself in the foreseeable future."

Jennifer from the Innovation and Sustainablility LLC came by to talk about a very small bike share pilot where the students learn to maintain bikes and are encouraged to become bike owning commuters.  We discussed the matter and she has a lot of great ideas and would like to meet with us to discuss them.  She has questions about maintenance, what bikes to get (she wants quality and ease of maintenance), how to maintain consistency with student turn over, a possible LLC membership or bike share membership with TBP, and many other things.  I took notes on our conversation and she is going to try to make an overview of her ideas we can discuss it and find something that can work in the long term.  This sounds like something we want to be a part of. 

From the Campus Bike Center,
James Roedl

Steam traps are not being included in this grant application.  Roger Bensyl said that the tracking of the part numbers and serial numbers for the steam traps is impractical to meet the requirements for this DCEO grant.  This was regarding steam traps completed in the past, but the discussion about potentially getting grant funding for steam traps in the future is still needed.

Paul has a spreadsheet of the pipe insulation work completed from the past, through sometime in FY14.  Brian Kattamay (sp?) said we can submit the efficiency savings information to him starting in June 2014.  Brian will do the calculations and let us know how this can be possibly funded through the FY15 grant program.  Paul will send that information to Brian on June 2.

Paul will also talk to Roger about integrating the tracking system for the grant money into the operational system.

Facilities & Services used funding from the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) in Spring 2014 t0 purchase incentives to increase bicycle usage. On Bikes on Campus Day, students were given free leg wraps, educational materials, bike maps, and pins if they stopped by the table. In addition, any bikes that were registered were given free bike lights or bike bell. There was also a raffle for those who brought a friend that normally does not bike to win either a free bike pump or bike lock.

Bicycles Ambassadors have decided to use "Hello, I'm a Bike Ambassador" spoke cards to be idenitfied on campus. These cards are being used as a point of reference for individuals to idenitify fellow bike ambassadors but to help those who may have bicycling questions. These cards represent those who believe in the power of bicycles and want to encourage others to use one as well. Look out for these cards around the CU area!

Hello SWATeam,

Can we talk about the GHG emissions from waste being sent to the landfill(s) please?  Take a look at this complicated emissions calculator.

The Input screen shows that the landfilled waste is going to a methane capture landfill (“Brickyard”).  The “ACUPCC Reporting” screen shows that emissions from solid waste is NEGATIVE 172 MT CO2e. 

I wonder.  How much of the methane is actually collected at that landfill?

Thanks,

Morgan

This file was created by the Energy Generation Purchasing and Distribution SWATeam.

Robby Bauer, Dave Green, and Morgan Johnston discussed the status of the real-time energy meeter installations, from the SSC funded project.  All of the Housing electrical meters have been installed, but the issue is about steam meters.  Robby talked with the Housing plumber about the steam load.  the water is a constant volume pump, and there is no control system available (other than opening and closing windows).  with a constant flow pump, and without controls in every room, there is no way for students to have control over it. 

If we choose to not put funds into real time steam meters in those buildings, where the students cannot influence the energy demand, we can get real-time electricity meters on all the buildings in the original prioritized list from the SSC. 

IDOT submitted an application for the Illinois Governor's Sustainability Award in 2014, for work completed in collaboration with the University of Illinois Crop Sciences department. 

This project involved collaboration and coordination between UIUC Department of Crop Sciences, the IDOT sustainability manager, and IDOT roadway maintenance field staff.  The Illinois Department of Transportation is interested in utilizing suitable areas of Right-of-Ways to produce cellulosic grasses for ethanol and biomass energy. The goal of this study is to investigate the use of Illinois highway right-of-ways for energy crop production to generate additional revenue to defray the cost of road maintenance and improve the environment.

     In March through May 2014, ten undergrads in NRES 285 chose to evaluate a variety of UIUC sustainability projects.  All of the projects selected were supported by financing from the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC).

1. Solar photovoltaic system on BIF
2. Solar thermal system on ARC
3. Solar photovoltaic system and electric vehicles at Sustainable Student Farm (SSF)
4. Wood-burning furnace at Allerton Park
5. LEDs at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
6. Green roof on Art & Design
7. Vermicomposting at SSF
8. Red Oak rain garden
9. Prairie garden at Vet Med
10. Bike shop

     The students were guided to ask questions about the effectiveness of the projects.  The objective was to develop evaluations of how well the projects achieved the relevant goals and what could be learned from these actions.

The photovoltaic panels on LEED Platinum certified Business Instructional Facility (BIF) rooftop harvests solar radiation as a clean renewable energy source for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign facility. The solar system has a combined maximum output of 40 kilowatt per hour (kWh), and has an annual production of 60,000 kWh. The system is expected to produce approximately eight percent of the building’s total electricity demand. However, solar panels require unobstructed access to solar radiation for most or all of the day to be effective

In this case study, an Outdoor Wood Burning appliance was installed in central Illinois as a biomass substitute for existing natural gas heating.  The location is owned by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is operated under the name Allerton Park.  Allerton Park is a 1,500 acre estate with numerous woodland, riparian, and prairie areas.   This location was selected by the University’s Student Sustainability Committee which disperses student fees allocated for sustainability improvements.  The visitor center and several workshops at Allerton Park used a 1960 boiler/heating unit that was expensive to run and produced excessive CO2 emissions.