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Project Updates

  1. January 27, 2023

    Associated Project(s): 
    Illini Lights Out

    At last Friday's Illini Lights Out event, 5,043 light bulbs were shut off that otherwise would have been left on all weekend, saving $767.27 in energy costs. This also prevented 6.17 metric tons of CO2 equivalent from entering the atmosphere, which is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from 694 gallons of gasoline being consumed. That's a huge impact!

    The next Illini Lights Out event is on Friday, February 10th, and you can sign up using this link. Stay up to date with other sustainability-related events and news by signing up for the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) newsletter here!

    Illini Lights Out addresses objectives 2.2 and 2.2.2 of the iCAP, or Illinois Climate Action Plan, to increase energy efficiency and reduce building-level energy. Find out about other iCAP objectives here and read the entire iCAP here.

    Illini Lights Out is a certified Green Event! Click this link to learn how to green-certify your own event.

  5. BTAF Waste Affinity Group asks schools to input their answers into a spreadsheet

    Associated Project(s): 
    Big Ten & Friends Sustainability
    Achieve Zero Waste

    Good morning BTAF,

     Hope everyone’s year is off to a good start!

    At the last BTAF Waste Affinity group meeting in October, the group members shared many exciting initiatives and programs related to recycling and waste diversion. Over the past few months, a working group has developed a comprehensive benchmarking survey to facilitate knowledge sharing and to organize program information. So, now we need your participation in the Waste Survey [redacted].

     At the suggestion of Nicole Berg, a google spreadsheet format was chosen for ease of use, as well as the ability to update the survey each year. In the link, you’ll find two tabs on the survey:

    1. Waste Survey: Broad swath of questions related to Zero Waste and Recycling, including strategic planning, outreach, waste management operational processes, waste metric tracking, procurement, athletics, organics, medicine/research labs, and surplus. This an “everything and the kitchen sink” approach to enable comparative analysis.  
    2. Diversion Rate Methodology: One question that continues to bubble up from time to time is, “What do you include in your diversion rate?” This survey tab requests that you mark a “x” next to each category that is included as diversion in your annual diversion rate report.   

     Three schools have already filled out the survey, so our hope is that it’s intuitive to follow along and to input your school’s information. If you have any clarifying questions, feel free to shoot me an email. We ask that each school completes the survey by Friday, February 13th.

     Once the data is collected, an intern will compile the data, and we will share the results in another BTAF Waste Affinity Group meeting at a date TBD—probably in March.

     Shout out to the team, including Tony Gillund (Purdue), Patrick Brown (Purdue), Daphne Hulse (Illinois), Dominika Szal (Illinois-intern), Nicole Berg (Michigan), and Alison Richardson (Michigan).

    Mary

     

    Mary Leciejewski
    Zero Waste Manager

    Pronouns: She/Her/Hers 

    Facilities Operations and Development, Sustainability & Strategic Services
    1130 Service Building Annex | 2578 Kenny Road, Columbus, OH 43210
    (O) 614.292.3637
    fod.osu.edu/sustainability

  6. Matt Fancher planning to make alterations to the format and layout

    Associated Project(s): 
    Recyclopedia

    From: Fancher, Matthew David <mfancher@illinois.edu>
    Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2023 7:26 AM
    To: Varney, Pete <pvarney@illinois.edu>; Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
    Subject: Re: Recyclopedia Changes

     

    Hi Pete,

     

    Of the requested changes we can resolve 3 of them.

     

      *   Add pages and have 20 items on each page – NOT POSSIBLE
      *   Create a "featured" portion at the top of the page - POSSIBLE
      *   Have information on an object show when clicking the picture (right now it just enlarges the picture) - POSSIBLE
      *   Make pictures centered - POSSIBLE

     

    I put some time in last Friday, and will hopefully be able to resolve these this coming Friday with a bit more time.

     

    Thanks,

     

    MATT FANCHER
    Associate Software Developer 
     
    IT Services | Facilities and Services
    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

    Mfancher@illinois.edu
    www.fs.illinois.edu

     

  9. Energy iCAP Meeting 1/30/2023

    Associated Project(s): 
    Clean Energy Plan
    Energy iCAP Team
    Building-Level Energy Efficiency
    Improve Space Utilization

    The Energy iCAP Team met on January 30th, 2023 to discuss recommendations on building energy efficiency and revitalizing the energy scholars council at UIUC.

    Link to meeting recording https://mediaspace.illinois.edu/media/t/1_2dwlpz7l

    Attached Files: 

  10. Zero Waste iCAP Meeting 1/30/2023

    Associated Project(s): 
    Tailgate Recycling
    Project4less
    Zero Waste iCAP Team

    On January 30th, the Zero Waste iCAP team met to discuss the details of the suggested tailgate recycling program and ended the meeting with a plan going forward. The team also discussed the outcome of the ZW009 review during the iWG meeting that took place the same morning. 

    Meeting minutes are attached. 

    Attached Files: 

  12. January 2023 SmartWay posts

    Associated Project(s): 
    EPA SmartWay Affiliate

    Make 2023 your year for fuel efficiency! #EPASmartWay can help you set goals for freight efficiency with proven approaches & industry-driven strategies. Learn more: epa.gov/smartway #fuelsavings #sustainability #movemorewithless

    Attached Files: 

  14. Weekly Update: Sales numbers, new hires

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Last week we had some ominous weather that didn’t turn out to be much. Our visits were down but only barely—I expected a bit of a nosedive that didn’t materialize. Champaign Cycle donated some kids bikes and box store bikes, which is always appreciated. We had another person start a B-a-B.

    This week I’ve got another interview, some new hires starting, and a staff meeting on Thursday night. I’ll also draft a B-a-B/Membership flyer to better explain those programs as there’s been some consistent misunderstanding/miscommunication on that front.

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 34
    Sales: $933.50
    Bike (refurb): 2 for $375
    Memberships: 6 for $180
    Tires/tubes: 5 for $50

    Thanks!

    Jacob Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Coordinator

  17. New iSEE Green Event Certification

    Associated Project(s): 
    Certified Greener Campus Programs
    Certified Green Event Program

    Congratulations to the newest recipient of our Green Event Certification Program! iSEE Illini Lights Out was certified as a Green Event series in January 2023. The events take place Jan. 27, Feb. 10, Feb. 24, March 24, and April 21 this semester. Students volunteer for an hour and a half on Friday nights by turning off lights in university buildings to save energy and money over the weekend. Keep up the great work! 

  19. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - January 27, 2023

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Done:

    • Set up GA4
    • Homepage: make image in Image Gallery go to image gallery (in addition to button)
    • Objectives page: Jump to Chapter migrated to live site
    • (DEV) Currently testing a new way of selecting a Project's location in the menu system. Dropdown list is becoming unmanageable.

    Discussion:

    • Question about a TODO: "Collections page: Add image upload option". At a previous meeting we had this TODO, but what was the context? Was it to have a thumbnail for each Collection? Or a banner image?
    • Should we link to "Take Action" project from homepage?
    • Archiving projects

    TODO:

    • (DEV) Currently testing a new way of selecting a Project's location in the menu system. Dropdown list is becoming unmanageable.
    • Add LinkedIn & Reddit share buttons on Project Updates
    • Can we add social sharing buttons on Projects too?
    • Search: can it be less rigid? e.g. ignore punctuation, understand that "bikes" and "bicycles" are equivalent, etc.
    • Fancy project layout mockups - keep tweaking #3 to improve contrast
    • Discuss metrics
      • Metrics with lots of data
      • Consider how to handle old metrics that no longer track new data. Archive somehow?
      • Fun with math (e.g. combining multiple metrics)
      • Calculated Metrics on Dev site
    • Track down and resolve informational message on full listing page for Project Updates by Key Objective (see, e.g. Projects Updates for key objective: 1.0 iCAP 2020 Illinois Climate Action Plan)

  20. Jen Fraterrigo's comments to the DESMAN EV proposal

    Associated Project(s): 
    Electric Vehicle (EV) Task Force

    Following are Jen's comments:

    1. Currently, there is limited public level 2 charging on campus and in the vicinity of campus. Yet we have many visitors to campus who are coming from out of town and may therefore need to charge their vehicle while here. If chargers are (only) added to parking permit facilities, visitors will not have access to them.
    2. Related to the point above, it is unclear if faculty, students, and staff who do not hold a permit for those facilities (but may hold a permit for other parking areas or may not hold a permit at all) will be able to use the chargers.
    3. I wonder if the analysis could take into account commuter driving distance when estimating demand. Many of us with EVs charge at home and rarely need to charge while on campus because the trip is within the range one can travel on a full charge. Consequently, the demand could be lower than expected.
    4. Finally, I think it is important to evaluate the spatial distribution of potential charging locations. We should aim to distribute these in an way the serves all of campus. It is possible that parking facilities are evenly distributed and thus chargers will be as well, but this is not clear from the parking study.

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