On January 25, UIUC sustainability representatives met with Coca-Cola and discussed the following:

Attendance: Jake Slager, Jen Fraterrigo, Thurman Etchison, Steve Breitwieser, Bryan Johnson, Sarah Carten, Shawn Patterson, Dominika Szal, Daphne Hulse

Agenda:

1. Zero Waste men’s basketball game Thursday, March 2 at 6pm (vs. Michigan).

   1. This is a Coca-Cola partnership game, so Jake will be there.

   2. Continue integrations with the DIA as we move forward, rather than pushing to be at the center of attention.

   3. F&S Zero Waste Team to plan and execute.

      1. Work out the logistics with State Farm Center recycling.

   4. iSEE will connect to volunteer base to pull 75-100 volunteers.

   5. Coca-Cola:

      1. Digital signage.

         1. Advertise across campus ahead of the event.

         2. Signage we can create that will be printed for use? Student volunteers said the Fighting Illini, Fighting Waste signage they were holding didn't make it clear to attendees what was going on.

      2. T-shirts: volunteer and giveaway.

2. Recycling Value Assessment audit details:

   1. Afternoon of February 16.

   2. Jake, Daphne, and Shawn will discuss in more detail.

3. Campaign updates:

   1. Don’t Waste Wednesdays.

4. Coca-Cola video from the 11/14 game.

The small 15 kW solar array at the Building Research Council will be decommissioned when that facility is razed in the coming year.  The solar panels will be delivered to agrivoltaic researchers working with iSEE and Crop Sciences, at the Energy Farm.

Education iCAP Team had its first virtual meeting of the semester on Friday, January 20th, at 3 PM. The team has a new student member: Sydney Wei. Eric Green gave updates on his meeting with the BUS 101 course instructor Aimee Barbeau about implementing sustainability in Business classes. Afterward, after briefly explaining the iWG approved Sustainability in Study Abroad Recommendation to Sydney, the team discussed its goals and recommendation ideas for Spring 2023. 

For this semester, the new chair of the team will be Eric Green and the vice chair will be Sydney Wei. 

Meeting minutes are attached.

On 1/24/23 Daphne Hulse sent F&S FIRS inventory information for McKinley and University Housing (attached), and requested the unit to update the existing map with this new information. Additionally, the new map will ideally differentiate between fancy and simple bottle fillers through symbols or colors.

On January 24, Daphne Hulse met with Kasey Umland, Director of the Women's Resources Center, formerly the Associate Director at University YMCA, to discuss the following:

1. What is the history of UIUC-YMCA Dump and Run events?

   1. Started with private certified housing, religious affiliated groups around 2012. 3 semi-trailers worth of stuff from campus and from the community. A lot of staff time went into the program.

   2. Previously had 2 boxes on every floor of Illini tower, which was a huge source of items. 26 boxes in this one building. Change in Illini tower management meant YMCA couldn’t do collections here anymore. It was great to have the materials, but hard to get everything out in time. the same year, University Housing came to YMCA about their Housing salvage drive (the person who ran it left). This was the first year YMCA collaborated with UIUC.

      1. Started doing some university housing dorms, but not all.

      2. Realized they couldn’t keep up with the overflow of materials.

      3. Big shift in kinds of items they received. Went from servicing mini apartments/suites (Illini Tower) versus university dormitories. 10x the amount of stuff as before with the Illini tower. 3/4 was clothing and bedding.

   3. Talked to Housing and needing more resources. It was too hard for YMCA to keep up. Majority of volunteers who did collections were students, but it was finals. Had a close relationship with them, but students would need to go right when things were picking up near the end of the move out week.

2. Based off a quick survey of other schools move-out programs, it seems most common for schools to work with local nonprofit(s) to immediately donate items following the move out program. As opposed to storing items over the summer and preparing for a fall move-in sale. Thoughts about these two different ways of operating?

   1. Donating most items straight away seems like it may be the only way it can work for the university, since there’s an immense quantity of items to deal with.

   2. Suggest talking with intended recipients of non-profits beforehand, to see if they can accept it all immediately, or if it will be too much.

   3. Even when YMCA was running it, their excess was too much for some places.

   4. Salt and light had capacity.

   5. Goodwill said to stop (no more clothes).

   6. Most places would say they would want at least some items.

   7. The value of selling these items in a sale near move in is that there are items unique the college experience: XL twin sheets, for example.

3. What are some best practices for event coordination?

   1. If you are dealing with multiple sites - think in advance about plotting out how to do collections.

   2. Thinking about when things will come in from certain places. Which were high donation spots? Some will only need checked every so often, some places needed checked 2 or 3 times a day.

   3. Capacity - Kasey always wanted something better than just putting items in a cardboard box.

      1. It is easier if items are placed directly into a bag. Otherwise, volunteers have to do this work.

   4. Try to be really clear about what people can and cannot donate. In a perfect world, check the boxes in the evening, that’s when students move out.

4. We will have to rely on the help of volunteers, but students will have their finals during this time, and be moving out. We want to strengthen town and gown relations through this program. Any suggestions for local groups/organizations who would be good to reach out to who you think would have an interest in volunteering?

   1. Rotary Clubs

   2. Church or high school youth groups

   3. If the university would consider half day leave, that could be an incentive

   4. during business hours means it increases the privilege needed to participate

   5. Honors societies

   6. Sierra Club

   7. Junior League

   8. Humane Society

   9. Court Diversion

Sarthak Prasad, Morgan White, and Stacey DeLorenzo met with Jack Reicherts and Lucy Nifong from Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) to discuss a possible increase in the Bike Fee from $1 per semester per student to $3 per semester per student.

SSC will lead the referenda and seek approval for this increase from the Student Fee Advisory Committee (SFAC). Sarthak Prasad has shared the Bike Fee proposals from FY17 to FY24 that were approved by the SFAC as supporting document. Sarthak will also share a possible proposal for FY25 and FY26 with the budget of nearly $250,000 per year.

Sarthak Prasad and Alec McKay met to discuss Alec helping Sarthak with the 2023 BFU Application. Sarthak provided some guidelines on getting up to date with the current status of the Bike Plan goals and objectives.

A document containing notes Alec took is attached below.

Please see attached the ridership overview for the month of August - December 2022

On January 9, UIUC sustainability representatives met and discussed the following:

Attendance: Marty Kaufmann, Thurman Etchison, Dominika Szal, Jen Fraterrigo, Pete Varney, Shawn Patterson, Tony Mancuso, Steve Breitwieser, Travis Tate, Bryan Johnson, Julie Wurth, Daphne Hulse

Agenda:

1. Meeting Cadence

   1. Reduced to every other week, based on a conversation Daphne Hulse and Jen Fraterrigo had. They would like to hold strategic meetings for initiatives that extend beyond recycling (focus on waste reduction).

2. External Meeting with Coca-Cola (Jake Slager)

   1. First of the semester: Wednesday, January 25 (1-1:30pm).

   2. Once per month.

   3. Agenda: discuss upcoming basketball game, Don’t Waste Wednesdays campaign, Coca-Cola video from the 11/14 men’s basketball game.

3. DIA Sustainability Initiatives

   1. Zero Waste Big Ten Men’s Basketball Game

      1. F&S Zero Waste leading the effort, with support from iSEE, DIA, Coca-Cola.

      2. Tentatively Thursday, March 2 6pm (versus University of Michigan).

      3. More operational than forward-facing.

      4. 75-100 volunteers working in shifts. Emphasis on after-game stand pick up.

         1. Tom Divan - contact to confirm the logistics of the after-game stand pick up.

         2. Next steps:

            1. Logistics

               1. Address tunnel situation under the State Farm Center (include Shawn Patterson in this discussion).

            2. Volunteers

               1. Use iSEE’s volunteer network.

               2. Provide Marty with the names of student volunteers.

               3. Volunteers can still check-in at main west entrance, though we cannot use the Orange Krush area again.

            3. Messaging - bringing reusable bottles?

               1. Seek a sponsorship for this initiative.

               2. Giveaway versus selling?

               3. Consider DIA messaging a topic for a smaller, strategic meeting.

      5. Measuring the efficacy of the recycling effort

         1. Marty reached out to concessionaire - will follow up. Data from the concessionaire helps us understand how many items actually end up recycled.

         2. F&S measures these weights separate from the rest of campus waste.

   2. State Farm Center permanent recycling bins

      1. F&S Zero Waste working with the facility to perform an audit, create a cost breakdown, and justification for recycling infrastructure.

      2. Submit an iCAP recommendation by the end of the semester.

   3. Fall 2023 Tailgate Recycling

      1. F&S Zero Waste + iCAP Zero Waste working with Tim Knox on developing a plan for comprehensive tailgate recycling.

      2. Document is in progress…

      3. Loop in Coca-Cola when plan is more formalized.

   4. Student Involvement

      1. Students from the iCAP Zero Waste team are interfacing with the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (a committee made up of student-athletes assembled to provide insight on the student-athlete experience) to determine how best students can approach sustainability initiatives within Athletics.

      2. Combine our top-down staff/faculty approaches with a bottom-up student approach.

4. Don’t Waste Wednesdays Campaign

   1. First post: iSEE on Wednesday, January 25.

   2. iSEE working on social media backgrounds.

On January 19, Daphne Hulse met with Marc Alexander, Director of Development and Membership at University YMCA, to discuss the following:

1. What is the history of UIUC-YMCA Dump and Run events?

   1. Started to 20ish years ago as a garage sale (2001) in front of the YMCA. Clearing stuff outside of the building. Grew to a community collection, private residential collection, Housing was doing some salvage operation, approached the Y about helping do a program. Through 2019, The YMCA would collect from Housing every May.

   2. 2019 Y started doing renovation in the building and streets so the YMCA couldn’t use the building for collections.

   3. Started conversations about the YMCA pulling back, and then COVID hit.

   4. Last year YMCA and UIUC had a very long conversation and decided YMCA couldn’t do any of the May period.

   5. Mostly was the YMCA running it, was done by the one coordinator. Staff from the YMCA helped here and there. Volunteers assisted. UIUC helped with getting access to the building.

      1. 2019 Housing and F&S each provided a truck to help load and haul stuff. F&S provided two workers to collect things and load them and sort them. More partnership that year.

      2. Piece in August is the sale itself. F&S provided supplies, tables, dumpsters, F&S and Housing put out advertisements about the sale to students. Used UIUC networks.

2. Based off a quick survey of other schools move-out programs, it seems most common for schools to work with local nonprofit(s) to immediately donate items following the move out program. As opposed to storing items over the summer and preparing for a fall move-in sale. Thoughts about these two different ways of operating?

   1. Biggest lift was sorting and storing it. It could take a very long time. Stuck it in semis. Sifting out what is useful and what is not, was the hard part.

   2. If there is a way to get the stuff out in May and then repurpose it, that is most ideal. But this can be challenging.

   3. Michigan State established their own ReStore, and do this year around.

   4. Salt and Light, Habitat for Humanity, could be helpful with collection.

   5. If there way a way to sort and pull things for Y in August sale, is also possible.

3. What are some best practices for event coordination?

   1. Breakdown of varying roles to pull this off.

   2. In general, need to coordinate volunteer and staff schedules for the workload.

   3. Have to set up a defined schedule for each dorm, how often you’ll be there. 24 lobbies they would have to collect from (couple times a day). If you fall behind, what’s the contingencies?

   4. Tuesday - Monday and Tuesday following Move-Out Saturday. Heavy time period, make sure you have volunteers.

   5. Takes a very detail-oriented person to manage this and schedule it out for attack.

4. What are some best practices for volunteer coordination?

   1. Each volunteer is doing it for a different reason:

      1. Some love it, some they have to do community service, different levels of commitment, one person will not show up. Be aware of these motivations. Everyone’s physical capabilities, developmentally challenged (has to have certain tasks). Shift may never go the way you want it to. Be flexible at all times, have Plan B and Plan C at all time.

5. What were some of your biggest obstacles with this event? Things to watch out for?

   1. It’s not all usable items. Despite all of your communication efforts, it will happen. Maybe 1/6 or 1/5 of things will be unusable.

6. We will have to rely on the help of volunteers, but students will have their finals during this time, and be moving out. We want to strengthen town and gown relations through this program. Any suggestions for local groups/organizations who would be good to reach out to who you think would have an interest in volunteering?

   1. F&S ideas so far:

      1. Faith in Place

      2. Champaign County Environmental Stewards

   2. YMCA’s suggestions

      1. Rotary Clubs often do volunteer work

      2. Chambana Moms (not really volunteer base, but they could advertise the need for volunteers)

      3. Will ask staff for more suggestions

7. There was another YMCA member who helped with Dump and Run, Kasey Umland? Would she be good to reach out to? Would I be able to get her contact information?

   1. Director of Womens Resource Center.

   2. Was associate dir of the YMCA. Some years she supervised Dump and Run, some she ran it. Played a key role. Started in 2012.

Daphne will meet with Kasey Umland 1/24/23.

All, Surprisingly busy start to the semester! On Friday afternoon we even had a wait on stand time, which is unheard of for January. Unfortunately, that was partially due to allowing First Visit Free repairs, which left a couple due-paying members waiting. They didn’t mind but still. For how busy we’ve been I’m already wondering if we should be open 5 days a week. However, it has been a mild winter thus far; the real test will be how many folks show up after the projected snow on Wednesday. We also had one person select and start a B-a-B.

This week I’ll schedule our staff meeting, some interviews, as well as receive a “vanload” of bikes from Champaign Cycle. They generally give us good quality stuff that we can put to use quickly, so fingers crossed. Additionally, we still have 100+ bikes to move out of the warehouse.

The numbers:

Visitors: 37
Sales: $961
Bikes (refurb): 3 for $565
Memberships: 7 or $210
Tires/tubes: 7 for $39

Thanks!

Jacob Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Coordinator

By mutual consent, the capstone project was terminated with Aparna Padmakumar for her help with the Bicycle Friendly University application. 

Hi Bumsoo, I had a call with Marc yesterday, and he mentioned that the MUP program can work on this project in the fall and spring semesters as a group project. I am still trying to figure out all that needs to be done for this project, and I think getting the help from your student might be beneficial.

How many hours can your student set aside for this project? In this semester, your student could help identify the stakeholders to reach out for the Campus Bike Plan update. He can help with determining a timeline and the planning process for next academic year. (If time permits) I will also ask the student to present some preliminary suggestions for the 2024 Bike Plan update at the end of this semester.

The first thing for your student would be to read the current 2014 Campus Bicycle Master Plan (https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/files/project/37/2014%20Campus%20Bicycle%20Plan.pdf). I have published two progress reports in the past few years. I am currently working on our progress report from the past year, which should be published in the next few weeks. Here is the 2022 report: Campus Bike Plan progress report FY22. Here is the 2019 report: 2019 Report for 2014 Campus Bicycle Plan

I would like to have weekly meetings with student. In the next 2-3 weeks, I would schedule a meeting with Morgan and Stacey to present what we think we should accomplish at the end of this semester. At the end of the semester, he will present the findings to F&S, SPO, Transportation iCAP Team, and possibly to the Campus Transportation Advisory Committee (CTAC).

Please let me know if this sounds good to you. I would be very happy to meet your student and get started on this project. Thank you,
Sarthak