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Project Updates

  1. Next set Approved

    Associated Project(s): 
    Water Fountain Retrofit
    Reduce Single-Use Plastics

    Morgan talked with Amy and David today about this project.  They approve moving forward with the other buildings. They just want us to use good common sense when selecting water fountains worthy of the retrofits.  That is, if you think the fountain should be replaced at some time in the next few years, then don't put a glass filler on it.     We also discussed the issue of potentially changing the project scope to fund some Tap That marketing needs.  Also discussed doing additional fountains in the buildings around the main quad.

  2. Campus funding allocated for LED exit signs

    Associated Project(s): 
    LED Exit Signs

    The LED Campus commitment includes having all the interior wayfinding signs converted to LED by 2025.  This is primarily LED Exit Signs.   We had hoped to use the Revolving Loan Fund to implement another phase of the LED Exit Sign project.  However, that funding is only applicable if there is a reasonable payback through utility savings.  LED Exit Signs have a good payback, but not through Utilities.  The savings come from reduced maintenance, which also provides a reasonable payback.   Given the shortfall in maintenance funding and the Chancellor’s commitment to becoming an LED campus, Mike Andrechak agreed to provide $100,000 per year for two years toward LED Exit Signs.  This funding could be continued in future years, subject to funding approval.

  4. Campus Conservation Nationals (CCN) competition with peers

    Associated Project(s): 
    Big Ten & Friends Sustainability

    From: Shane Stennes <stennes@umn.edu> Date: November 6, 2013 at 11:37:26 AM CST To: "Johnston, Morgan B" <mbjohnst@illinois.edu>, Lydia Vandenbergh <lydia@psu.edu>, Matan Gill <matan.gill@unl.edu>, Jennifer Battle <Jennifer@msu.edu>, Tamm Hoggatt <tjhoggatt@purdue.edu> Cc: Chris Kelleher <kelle847@umn.edu>, Stacey White <whit0691@umn.edu>, Elizabeth Spotts <ehspotts@umn.edu>, Emily Kossila <kossi002@umn.edu> Subject: Re: Campus Conservation Nationals   I'm glad to hear that there is interest. We've corresponded with the folks at CCN a bit about how to facilitate this and it sounds like they have a process that we can start working through in the next few weeks. Have any of you conducted an inter-university competition through CCN (or other means) before? If yes, any insights on how that went or what you'd recommend to make it successful would be appreciated.   As a starting point, I thought it might be helpful for all of us to identify the scope of our campus competitions and that might inform what we do for a competition among our schools. Here's what we are planning right now at the U of Minnesota: 11 residence halls participating, possibly 12 if we can figure out how to get their data into the system (leased property). We are currently planning to report electricity data only. Dates of competition will be February 17 - March 17. Baseline data would be gathered two weeks prior to competition. This may change a bit in the coming weeks, but it shouldn't shift much. What are all of you planning on your campuses?   Thanks,   Shane   Shane Stennes Interim Chief Administrative Officer, Facilities Management Sustainability Coordinator, University Services University of Minnesota   300 Donhowe Building 319 15th Avenue SE Minneapolis, MN 55455 (612) 626-2588   http://www.facm.umn.edu/ http://italladdsup.umn.edu/     On Thu, Oct 31, 2013 at 11:43 AM, Johnston, Morgan B <mbjohnst@illinois.edu> wrote: I agree.    Sent from my mobile device   On Oct 31, 2013, at 11:18 AM, "Matan Gill" <matan.gill@unl.edu> wrote:   Absolutely! UNL is already working with MSU's USGBC Student Chapter to arrange a competition. I think having all Big 10 schools compete is a great idea.     How do we move forward?    From: Shane Stennes <stennes@umn.edu> Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2013 11:13 AM To: Matan Gill; Lydia Vandenbergh; Jennifer Battle; Tamm Hoggatt; Morgan Johnston Cc: Chris Kelleher; Stacey White Subject: Campus Conservation Nationals   I see that all of our schools are registered for CCN. Any interest in having a little friendly competition among the Big 10 schools participating? Or maybe some head to head match ups?    Shane Stennes Interim Chief Administrative Officer, Facilities Management Sustainability Coordinator, University Services University of Minnesota   300 Donhowe Building 319 15th Avenue SE Minneapolis, MN 55455 (612) 626-2588   http://italladdsup.umn.edu/  

  6. Working Group recommendations

    Associated Project(s): 
    Krannert Art Museum LEDs
    Highlights Possible Issues Overall Working Group Recommendation WG Recommendation #2 (if applicable) 
    The Krannert Art Museum employs an average of 3-5 graduate students throughout the year in the Exhibits Department and they will help with the project.  Student switching lights may be an issue.  Approve  The could possibly seek outside incentives due to the small scale of the project, they may be able to cover upfront costs. 

     

  7. EPA Indoor Air and Climate Change funding

    Associated Project(s): 
    Seek External Grant Funding for Implementation

    Funding Opportunity: Indoor Air Quality and Climate Change at EPA
    Lewis-Burke Associates LLC – October 29, 2013
    The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a new solicitation focused on indoor air quality and climate change, with relatively large award sizes. The solicitation comes from EPA’s Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, which is the most consistent program at EPA that offers extramural funding opportunities. STAR Requests for Applications (RFAs) are posted throughout the year, but they generally are infrequent and targeted. Funding topics usually are identified through EPA’s Office of Research and Development’s planning activities and are linked to EPA’s strategic plan (available at http://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi?Dockey=P1008YOS.PDF). This solicitation addresses EPA’s Strategic Goal 1: Taking Action on Climate Change and Improving Air Quality; Objective 1.1: Address Climate Change; and Objective 1.2: Improve Air Quality.1
    Through this solicitation, EPA is seeking proposals that will improve the understanding of the “effects of climate change on indoor air quality and the resulting health effects […] directly through a variety of mechanisms, and indirectly through adaptations in building use and design.” The solicitation notes that of priority is “the evaluation of existing guidelines for building system design or for weatherization to adapt buildings to a changing climate, against evidence of health effects related to ventilation, or at least against ventilation models and findings […] intentional and unintended changes to the indoor environment, with emphasis on actionable thresholds, that affect biocontaminants or emissions from building materials are especially of interest, if they can be related to changes in exposure or health of occupants.”
    This is one of the few solicitations EPA’s STAR program has released this year; many of the planned solicitations have been withdrawn, likely due to funding uncertainty. EPA generally offers webinars for its STAR solicitations, though one has not yet been announced for this solicitation.
    Letters of Intent: Not applicable.
    Due Dates: Proposals are due January 23, 2014.
    Total Funding and Award Size: EPA anticipates making three regular awards and three early-career awards. It will award approximately $4.5 million total, with regular awards receiving up to $1 million and early-career awards receiving up to $500,000, both over the course of three years.
    Eligibility and Limitations: Non-profit academic institutions of higher education are eligible to apply.
    Sources and Additional Background:
    • The complete solicitation is available at http://www.epa.gov/ncer/rfa/2014/2014_star_indoor_air.html#Award.
    1 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (Sept. 30, 2010). FY 2011-2015: EPA Strategic Plan—Achieving Our Vision, p. 7-9. Retrieved from http://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi?Dockey=P1008YOS.PDF.

    Attached Files: 

  8. Energy Star Challenge email sent out

    Associated Project(s): 
    Urbana-Champaign Energy Star Challenge [ARCHIVED]

    Take the U-C ENERGY STAR Challenge!

    View this email in your browser
     

    Header_Announcement_Lincoln.png
     
    Take the U-C Energy STAR CHALLENGE!

    Benchmark.  Track. Improve.
     

    The Urbana-Champaign Energy Star Challenge invites building owners and managers to benchmark their 2013 energy use, then track and improve energy use throughout 2014, all with US EPA’s free online tool, ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager.

     

    DataTrends_Savings_20121002_Savings.jpg
     

     

    Energy savings are cost savings!  You can’t manage what you don’t measure!  Sign up today and start tracking and improving your building’s energy performance!

     

    To learn more, contact:

    Scott R. Tess

    P: 217-384-2381
    srtess@urbanaillinois.us

    Buildings will compete against one another to see who can achieve the greatest energy use reduction in 2014 with awards following in early 2015.

     

    DataTrends_Energy_20121002_Market.jpg
     

     

    Participants can access free in-person assistance using the Energy Star Portfolio Manager program to manage their building’s energy use.  Additionally, participants will be connected with financial incentives to move their projects forward and technical support to help pinpoint building energy savings.
     
     
     

     

  9. Notice to selected buildings

    Associated Project(s): 
    Waste Stream Characterization Study Phase 1

    From: "Rients, Seth M" <rients@illinois.edu> Date: November 4, 2013 at 2:13:15 PM  Cc: "Johnston, Morgan B" <mbjohnst@illinois.edu>, "Osby, Tracy L" <tosby@illinois.edu>, "Jacobson, Debra F" <djacobso@illinois.edu> Subject: Building Waste Stream Characterization                   I am pleased to announce that your building has been selected by Facilities and Services to be one of the four buildings in a pilot waste stream characterization study for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This study is designed in support of the campus wide Zero Waste policy which aims to increase the waste diversion rate to 75% by the year 2020. Facilities and Services has partnered with the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC), a unit of the Prairie Research Institute at U of I, to perform this waste stream characterization study.                   ISTC will begin examining solid waste outflows from your building during the week of November 11th, for a period of one week. During this time all discarded materials from your building will be collected, sorted, weighed, and documented in an effort to create a baseline measurement for waste diversion activities. The first step in this process is to have a kickoff meeting at your facility so we can discuss in person any thoughts, cares, concerns, or questions that you may have. We would like to schedule a meeting for this Thursday, November 7th at 2 pm. This meeting shouldn’t last more than 30 minutes. Attached to this sheet you will find some questions and answers that have been previously asked of ISTC.   Thank you for your time,   Seth Rients, PSM Project Manager for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign waste characterization study Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (217) – 300 – 4494  

  10. F&S electronics shutdown policy

    Associated Project(s): 
    Update and Enforce Campus Computer Policy
    • Electronic Devices Shutdown Policy – Effective Immediately

    As an energy conservation method, F&S is implementing a policy for all individuals to turn off any electronic devices in your office before leaving for the day.  This includes desktop computers, printers, monitors, etc.  Be advised that when you reboot your computer and a patch or update is waiting, it will load and may request a system reboot.  This policy does not include mission critical systems.

  11. FY13 ECIP Award Winners Announced

    Associated Project(s): 
    Energy Conservation Incentive Program (ECIP)

    Energy Advancement Category

    1. Atmospheric Sciences Building            53.3%
    2. Spurlock Museum                                      44.5%
    3. Main Library                                                 43.1%
    4. Grainger Engineering Libra                    41.3%

    Occupant Action Category

    1. Undergraduate Library                            35.2%
    2. Law Building                                                  35.1%
    3. Christopher Hall                                          30.6%
    4. Henry Administration Building             28.4%

  12. Water fountain retrofits completed in first set of buildings

    Associated Project(s): 
    Water Fountain Retrofit
    Reduce Single-Use Plastics

    Morgan,    We are done with the following- Aces Library Main Library Undergraduate Library Grainger Library Loomis   I have the parts for the following off the original list and would like to start them with your ok. Armory Natural Resources Buillding   I would also like to try and install one on the fountain at Wholers and Sibel to see if we can make them work in those buildings.   Thanks,   Mark Warner Plumbing Foreman

  14. Approval to hire Zero Waste Coordinator

    Associated Project(s): 
    Establish a Net Zero Waste Plan and Policy

    The Executive Director of Facilities and Services approved hiring a Zero Waste Coordinator today.  This will be a half-time academic hourly position, working with Tracy Osby at the Waste Transfer Station and Morgan Johnston in Sustainability.  The candidate has been selected, and the job description is attached here.

    Attached Files: 

  15. Funding assistance from ISS

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    From: M Connor Schickel [schicke1@illinois.edu] Sent: Sunday, October 27, 2013 11:24 PM To: thebikeproject@gmail.com Subject: Funding   Hello,   My name is Connor Schickel. I am a Illinois Student Senator and had heard that the Campus Bike Shop is in need of funding. I was interested in meeting with you guys some time and perhaps talking about what you do, so that I can persuade members of our organization to allocate some of our funds towards the Campus Bike Shop.    Look forward to hearing back from you.   Best,   M. Connor E. Schickel  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign College of Engineering Illinois Student Senate *Senator* Sub-Committee on Campus Safety and Student Rights *Chairman* Committee on Campus Affairs Committee on Honorary Degrees

  16. Explanation of calculations

    Associated Project(s): 
    Energy Conservation Incentive Program (ECIP)

    We take total energy usage by building (electricity, Steam, Nat Gas and Chilled Water) convert all of those to one common unit, MMBTU (million British Thermal Units) and after adjusting for the weather differences between years, compare each building's annual usage with the year before.  We then convert the change into a percentage and then rank all eligible buildings by percentage saved.  The top four in each category win first through fourth.     Having won in FY13 does not disqualify you from winning in the future.  The goal is to encourage individual contributions to saving energy.   Mike Marquissee

  17. Notes about program concept

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability Fellows Research Program [ARCHIVED]

    To bridge gap

    Academic and operations Sought proposals through CSE  Solar. Largest location study out of town Madhu Viswanathan. Dashboard. Technology is there. Bridge gap from technology to inform students and employees to impact energy use Brian Allen. As we make changes in storm water treatment. At risk of undoing a lot of good work with vector borne diseases. Impacts of green infrastructure on the disease.   

  18. Agriculture Bioprocess Lab

    Associated Project(s): 
    Lighting Retrofit #5 [ARCHIVED]

    As part of the Lighting Retrofit #5, 436 T-12 fixtures in the Agriculture Bioprocess Lab were replaced with more energy-efficient T-8 fixtures. This switch will incur an Annual kWh Savings of 68,289 hours. The simple payback for this project is 3.62 years.

  19. EV club meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Install Public Use Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Stations

    Greetings,        This is a reminder notice that our next meeting of the Illinois EV Club will be this Wednesday, 10-16-2013, at the University YMCA at 6 pm.  (Neither Matt Childress, Cara Day nor I were able to host a meeting last Wednesday because of other committments, so we decided to delay our meeting by a week, until this Wednesday.)   Our format for the meeting will be the usual "Open Discussion" format we've used for recent meetings.  During the meeting, there should be plenty of time for any general-purpose questions and discussion among ourselves about anything having to do with the past, present or future of energy-efficient vehicles, so be sure to bring along with you any questions you may have and /or any ideas you may have come up with for additional projects the club could get involved in.  (Club member Richard told me last week that he hopes to bring along a book on EVs that we should find quite interesting.)               -  David Noreen   -----------------------------------   New members and guests are always welcomed and encouraged to attend our meetings! Please help spread the word about our club by forwarding this message to anyone you know who might be interested in high-mileage-per-gallon (or equivalent) vehicles, whether the vehicles be electrics, hybrids, or whatever, and regardless of how many wheels they may or may not have. Also, please encourage them to check out our “Illinois EV Club” page on Facebook, by simply typing “Illinois EV Club” in Facebook’s search box.   https://www.facebook.com/groups/illinoisev/   ------------------------------------   Note: Free parking is available (after 5 pm) in the UI lot that's 1 block due west of the YMCA, on the SW corner of Chalmers and Sixth, so that's another option that's available in addition to the on-street, metered parking near the Y. (As long as you don't mind walking that short block on Chalmers after you've parked in the UI lot.) ------------------------------------   More information about the UI’s “Illinois EV Club”:   1.Please feel free to contact Club President Matt Childress [childrss "at the domain" illinois.edu] for further information and / or to be added to our regular mailing list, if you're not already on it.     2. The club has been mentioned in several area newspaper articles that are listed here:   http://web.archive.org/web/20100708200544/http:/sugarrides.com/index.php...   3. On Google Groups, we have an Illinois EV Discussion Group that has its Archive page here:   http://groups.google.com/group/illinoisEV   so you can check out our past activities and some of the interests of our members.    If you'd like to join this discussion group, email our Club President Matt, and he can add you as a member. (See Item #1 above.)   4. If you like, you can also view the following online videos, which feature members of the club:   (i). Here are 2 videos of Club President Matt Childress and his Twike:   http://www.youtube.com/champaigncountynet#p/u/3/dPlNJLkKleA   http://communitymediaworkshop.org/npcommunicator/?tag=matt-childress   (ii). Here’s more information on Matt’s Twike:   http://web.mac.com/mattchildress/Twike/About_Me.html   (iii). Here’s a video featuring Randy Reisinger discussing the Sugar Rides EV (built by members of the club):   http://www.youtube.com/champaigncountynet#p/u/5/0vfCsMShrGg     --  You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Illinois EV Club" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to illinoisEV+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to illinoisEV@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/illinoisEV. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.  

  20. Every Bike Counts!

    Associated Project(s): 
    Bicycle Counts

    The University of Illinois is partnering with Champaign County Bikes to host the first-ever campus-wide bicycle census during Sustainability Week 2013. Volunteers will be dispatched across campus to help count parked bicycles during a one-hour period at 10am on October 23. The findings of the count will help inform future decisions around bicycle infrastructure, parking, and programming on campus. Sign up to volunteer or to learn more at http://go.illinois.edu/BikeCount2013. RSVP on Facebook to help spread the word!

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