Held pre-proposal meeting and site visit for the Solar Farm RFP.  Also, submitted the EcoCAT review request regarding that space.  Responded to over 30 questions from potential proposers for the Solar Farm RFP.

Feasibility Study for an Anaerobic Digester at the Beef and Sheep facility on South Farms has funding approved and will move forward with A/E selection.

Completed the Revolving Loan Fund survey for the Sustainable Endowments Institute.

Engineering News Record is doing a story on the University of Illinois about green buildings/LEED certification.

Daily Illini article about campus sustainability progress.

Staff created flowcharts for sustainability themes, as preliminary step to filling in the content on the Sustainability Portal website.  Staff provided field definitions and sample data for the database tables that will be available through the portal.  Also, we met with staff from MSTE and drafted the page layouts for the website, which will be shared at the iCAP Forum in April. 

We participated in meeting with representatives from Columbia, Missouri about their transit goals.  Articles were written about the visit: http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2012/mar/13/gold-standard/, http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2012/03/13/final-bus-trip/, and http://wjf.im/xkmY5f.

We also provided information to Arizona State University about our bike registration system and intentions.

Urban Planning masters student, Marcus Ricci, will complete a capstone project about a methodology for prioritizing iCAP projects.

Submitted SSC proposal for steam reduction projects at the Main Library, and were awarded funding.

Tim Hoss was approved as a Recycling Assistant academic hourly position to oversee the implementation of the Food Waste Composting Facility and assist with other iCAP waste management projects.

Spoke with Jeff Weaver at Property Accounting about developing an online system where departments can post furniture and equipment they intend to relinquish, and other departments can choose to get that item directly from the current location, rather than send the item to Surplus and get it picked up from Surplus.

As part of the Lighting Retrofit #5, 2,711 T-12 fixtures in the Natural Resources Building were replaced with more energy-efficient T-8 fixtures. This switch will incur an Annual kWh Savings of 424,466 hours. The simple payback for this project is 2.2 years.

F&S met with representatives from the Center for Neighborhood Sustainability to continue discussion of potentially building a biogasification power plant off campus for production of biogas as an alternative fuel for power generation for campus.

This portion of the LED Campus Initiatives exit sign AFMFA funded project is complete 522 fixtures were installed.

IDNR staff will review the project because the Franklin's Ground Squirrel may reside there. They state they will require thirty days of review. The Franklin’s Ground Squirrel resides in culverts and areas with low shrubs and prairie grasses and not in cultivated farm areas. Most of the Solar Farm area has been farmed for years.

The Office of Sustainability collaborated with Public Affairs to develop and create a Climate Leadership Video.  The video included Chancellor Phyllis Wise, Professor Madhu Viswanathan, F&S Waste Management Coordinator Tracy Osby, and Student Sustainability Committee member Emily Cross.  This video highlights some of the key campus achievements related to sustainability.

The SSC developed a new process for facilitating detailed discussions by the committee.  They formed groups to cover standing topics, ad hoc topics, and project topics.  The groups are: Executive, Finance, Bylaws, Marketing, Funding Guidelines, Strategic Plan, Ethics/Code of conduct, F&S/SSC Process, Energy, Food/Waste, Water, Land, Education, and Transportation.  OS staff are represented on eight of these subgroups.

From: Jack Dempsey Subject: Solar Farm letter ready to go In the interest of keeping an open dialogue with our neighbors, I would like to inform you that the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is pursuing the development of a 28.5-acre solar farm on the campus’s South Farms. The attached fact sheet describes the details of the project, including specifics of the proposal, expected timeline, and frequently asked questions about solar farms. This information will be sent to the residents on First Street near the proposed site, with the attached letter. I’m also including the full RFP here in case you are interested. This is expected to go live tomorrow. If you have any questions or suggestions as we move forward with this project, please contact Morgan Johnston, our Sustainability Coordinator copied here. Thanks, Jack RFP and subsequent amendments are online at http://www.procure.stateuniv.state.il.us/dsp_notice.cfm?Uni=UIUC&PN=1KSP....

Battery Recycling program containers were ordered in late February. The official launch of this program will be mid-spring.

Staff answered questions from DCEO about the FSCRAP grant, in cooperation with University Grants and Contracts.  Additionally, staff provided detailed responses to inquiries from students about the status of the project.

Staff met with representatives from the Red Bison registered student organization about the prairie at the corner of Florida Avenue and Orchard Street.  Red Bison has taken on responsibility for that prairie, and is looking into naming options, signage, and enhanced plantings.

F&S Planning is working on formalization of the “no-new space” policy as recommended in the iCAP.