Hi all,

I’m passing along a job opportunity that may be applicable to graduates of the iSEE Fellows and Environmental Leadership Programs.

The Illinois Green Economy Network is hiring their next Executive Director. IGEN is a consortium of all Illinois community colleges working together to drive growth of the clean energy economy and green workforce.

This unique approach leverages the power of a sustainability network while utilizing the deep community connections of individual colleges. IGEN provides a platform to expand the deployment of clean energy technologies, increase employment opportunities, improve environmental and human health, foster community engagement and accelerate market competitiveness. More information can be found at this link: https://www.schooljobs.com/careers/heartland/jobs/3968559/executive-director-illinois-green-economy-network-igen

Please share this with your networks and feel free to share in an upcoming iSEE newsletter.

Sincerely,

Stacy Gloss

Link to the recording

Dear all,

I wanted to share the good news that iSEE has agreed to fund our waste characterization proposal. I’m working with them on the paperwork to set up an account.

We’ll formally start in the Fall, possibly Sep 2023. I plan to hire a student who can lead the ground work.

I’ll be in touch in August to setup a meeting.

Best, 

Nishant Garg

Assistant Professor

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Hello Student Sustainability Committee. Attached is a SSC Step 1 funding application request for the campus Rainwater Management Plan. I have also included a photo of the Boneyard Creek since it is a campus waterway and the application requested one map, graphic or picture. Please contact me with any questions and thank you for considering.

Betsy

Notes from SSLC's March General Meeting. 

From: Hulse, Daphne Lauren
Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2023 1:40 PM
To: Kim, Hannah <hannahk9@illinois.edu>
Cc: Vaya, Sakshi <svaya2@illinois.edu>
Subject: FW: Composting Tumbler

Hi Hannah,

During our call yesterday we briefly touched on part 2 of your project, to be informed by the research study. If it is determined a small-scale pilot compost project should be implemented on campus (& depending on the response from the Sustainable Student Farm), this class which regularly produces food scraps might be a great start.

Thank you,
Daphne

Daphne Hulse (she/her)
Zero Waste Coordinator
Facilities & Services | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
+1 (217) 333-7550 | dlhulse2@illinois.edu
 


Please consider the environment before printing an email. Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act any written communication to or from university employees regarding university business is a public record and may be subject to public disclosure.

From: Wong, Corina <cwong54@illinois.edu>
Sent: Thursday, February 2, 2023 12:13 PM
To: Moore, Meredith Kaye <mkm0078@illinois.edu>
Cc: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
Subject: Re: Composting Tumbler

Hello Meredith and Daphne, 

My class consists of 40 people (or 20 pairs) and we meet twice a week. Our food scraps would consist of egg shells, fruit, and veggies scraps. I'm thinking about 5-10 pounds a week. It depends on each lab. 

Thanks,

​Corina Wong (she/her/hers)

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 

Food Science Major - Class of 2026

cwong54@illinois.edu | 773-733-3719 

From: Moore, Meredith Kaye <mkm0078@illinois.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, February 1, 2023 11:02 AM
To: Wong, Corina <cwong54@illinois.edu>
Cc: Hulse, Daphne Lauren <dlhulse2@illinois.edu>
Subject: RE: Composting Tumbler

Hi Corina,

Thank you for reaching out and for your interest in responsibly disposing of food from FSH 232. I am copying Daphne Hulse, who is the campus Zero Waste Coordinator so that she can stay in the loop as well. We still have a tumbler at the National Soybean Research Center and Presby Hall. These are approximately 65 gallons; do you have an estimate of how much food waste your course generates? The Presby Hall tumbler is not at capacity, so theoretically, you are welcome to use this for vegetable/fruit scraps. We are in the process of identifying a larger scale option though unfortunately this is all we have available at the moment.

Thank you!

Meredith  

--------------------------------------------
“There are a lot of dreamers – dreaming is very important, but it’s really the dreamer and the doer. You’ve got to be the doer.” –Will Steger  

MEREDITH MOORE
Sustainability Programs Manager 

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE)
1101 W Peabody Drive (Suite 382), Urbana, IL, 61801
217.333.0119 | mkm0078@illinois.edu
www.sustainability.illinois.edu
 


Please consider the environment before printing out an email. Under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act any written communication to or from university employees regarding university business is a public record and may be subject to public disclosure. 

From: Wong, Corina <cwong54@illinois.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2023 10:08 PM
To: Moore, Meredith Kaye <mkm0078@illinois.edu>
Subject: Composting Tumbler

Dear Meredith,

My name is Corina Wong, and I am taking FSHN 232: The Science of Food Preparation. When researching composting at UIUC, I found your contact information regarding a composting tumbler. I was wondering if the composting tumbler still exists. 

I'm emailing you because in FSHN 232 we produce a lot of food waste due to the nature of food preparation. Right now, our food waste is simply tossed into the trash. I would like to find a solution to our food waste (and one that would last for future semesters since this class is offered every fall and spring). I was wondering if we could put our food waste into that tumbler. If not, do you have any alternative solutions? I have contacted the dining services, and unfortunately, delivering our food waste to the Grind2Energy services is not possible. 

Please don't hesitate to ask me any questions!

Thanks,

​Corina Wong (she/her/hers)

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 

Food Science Major - Class of 2026

cwong54@illinois.edu | 773-733-3719 

Please see the included link to the Grainger College of Engineering Newsletter on the Illinois Microreactor Demonstration Project.

Good afternoon! I’m Sinead Soltis, one of the sustainability interns at Facilities and Services. In representing my team at F&S, I am planning on getting a committee together to once again to advise our campus’ Bee Campus affiliation. Our campus has previously held this designation in 2018 & 2019, but the committee has since dissolved. As a committee, we will weigh in on all things pollinator related, in addition to having a space for students to share their volunteer efforts regarding bees with faculty/staff (& vice versa)! I can see this being a low-commitment group, as we will likely be sharing efforts already being made across the Champaign-Urbana area.

With that being said, I wanted to gauge interest for joining as a member. Meetings will likely be held monthly, or bi-monthly, as needed. I am aware that some of you have previously been members of this committee, or at a minimum, listed as a member. I would appreciate members who have previously sat to join us, at least for the first few meetings. Also, feel free to forward this invitation to anyone you would feel would benefit from sitting on this committee!

If you are interested in joining the committee, please respond to me when you can. A tentative meeting is planned for some time in April, although an exact date has not yet been chosen.

Bee Campus USA website, for more information: https://beecityusa.org/bee-campus-usa-commitments/

Thanks in advance,  

Sinead Soltis  

Hello Jen and Morgan,

I have attached a draft of the award letter to be sent to the deans and dept heads, and am reaching out to iSEE in regards to supporting this program.

I believe in the past ISEE co-presented these awards with F&S and more recently the awards were presented at the Sustainability Celebration which works well to promote more exposure for all sustainability items on campus.

Unfortunately, the BTAF Mechanical Engineering conference and I2SL conferences are during the same week so we were not available to join this past year.

We are now looking at 5 separate presentations at each location to present this years awards and wondering what support or involvement ISEE would be interested in?

Thank you 

Paul Foote

----------------------------

Hi Paul,

Jen and I spoke about this, and iSEE is interested in continuing to participate in the presentation of the ECIP awards.  We would like to suggest that this be a single award presentation, rather than the five separate events.  It can occur during Earth Month, and perhaps it could be held at the ACES Library, which is a nice venue and it was the ECIP winner with the highest energy savings.

Please let us know if this is an acceptable plan, and we can arrange a call to talk about the details.

Also, I asked Ehab about the Henry Admin Building leadership, and he suggests Paul Ellinger be the point of contact for the award letter.

Thanks,

Morgan

--------------------------

Hello Everyone,

This is a terrific plan, Rob gave the go-ahead to plan the venue, date & time etc.

When works best for all?

Thank you

Paul

----------------------

Hello All,

I am bumping this to the top of the email list for scheduling the venue and timing for this event.

Let me know when we can discuss/finalize the details?

Best

Paul Foote

----------------------

Hi Paul,

Is there anything that you were anticipating including in this event agenda, other than the ECIP announcements and plaque distribution?  If not, it might be better to include both years’ winners in the fall 2023 campus sustainability celebration. 

I realize this is a shift from what we were thinking of, but it would be a shame to put together an event that is only 15 minutes long…  It would also be difficult to get a broad audience.

Thanks,

Morgan

-----------------------

Hi Morgan,

We were thinking this timeframe might fit better than the fall venue with multiple conferences etc…

Pending the date, we should have information regarding the next round of funding and were planning to gather the facilities managers at this event to share examples and promote future project applications.

Thoughts everyone?

Best

Paul

------------------

Hi Morgan and all,

I crossed the revolving loan fund and ECIP, the ECIP awards can be discussed at our next monthly meeting.

Thank you

Paul Foote

-------------------

Hi Paul, What monthly meeting?

thanks, Morgan

------------------------

Hi Morgan,

UES has a monthly meeting for ECIP, RLF, rapid back and other funding items as needed.

Best

Paul

Hello XMT,

If you or your staff are planning to submit an application for Student Sustainability Committee funding this spring, please copy me and Lisa Peacock, so we can advocate and support the F&S applications during the committee review periods.

The step 1 applications are due this Friday, March 24, and the info is online here: https://studentengagement.illinois.edu/student-sustainability/ssc/funding/.

Thanks,

Morgan

-----------------------

Morgan,

Is there a funding limit for SSC?

Thanks

David Hardin

--------------------

Hi Dave,

They don’t really have a funding limit, but they are more likely to fund something under $250k, especially if they are contributing to a project with other funding too.  A lot of student-led projects are only $50-10k.  They probably have about $750k available this spring and they will have more in the future, as they just got approval to raise the fee.

Thanks,

Morgan

-------------------

Morgan,

I asked Dylan to submit an application for Wohler’s Hall. The ReCx team identified some deferred maintenance/energy conservation work at a total cost of $450K. I spoke with Brad, and he believes there is $150K available from deferred maintenance funds, and UES can provide $150K, hopefully another $150K from SSC, which would allow us to move forward. The energy reduction would result in a 5-year payback.

Thanks

David Hardin

Sarthak & I met on 3/20/2023 to go over some more of the BFU application. 

The current version of the log we are using is attached below.

Dear Friend of the Reimagine our Future competition

We are writing to thank you again for the role you are playing in Reimagine our Future, the undergraduate student sustainability competition whose home is at the University of Illinois.

As you know, entrants in the competition are required to address a particular sustainability problem or challenge. This could be at a local, regional, national, or international level. Entrants are required to explain how the initiative they propose will promote one or more of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. You probably have seen the list of 2022 finalists.

Having a list of experts who are available to advise on student projects and who evaluate a few student submissions is a major contribution to this project. Our list includes specialists from various universities, companies, and institutions and from many backgrounds, fields, and disciplines. This broad-ranging list encourages submissions from students in many areas. We are counting on your continued willingness to bring your unique background, skills, professional history and professional contacts to this project.

We want to mention a couple of current developments and some aspects of our planning. In 2022 we tested the waters for the competition to become more international. Students from ZJU-UIUC Institute in Haining, China and the University of Pretoria were invited to participate and we received 39 international entries. This year we are planning to add universities in Austria, the United Kingdom, and Malaysia and we are having additional exploratory discussions with universities in a number of other countries. Dr. Reitumetse Obakeng Mabokela, our Vice Provost for International Affairs and Global Strategies is helping us to form partnerships with a number of international universities with which Illinois already has a strategic relationship.

President Tim Killeen has expressed an interest in the competition being made available to students at the University of Illinois Chicago and the University of Illinois Springfield. We are also working on forming partnerships with some community colleges.

The competition materials include this wording:

Your plan or solution could be a program for a government or private entity, proposal, product or service, system, business plan, event, social media platform, app, game, law, organization, educational initiative, or something else.

We want to encourage students in all fields to come up with brilliant ideas for initiatives that will help to address our major sustainability problems. This, once again, is a reminder of the value of having a diverse list of specialists associated with the competition.

If you have advice or suggestions about how to go about taking the planned steps or about any aspect of this project, we would welcome them. Our email addresses are below.

We are grateful for your ongoing involvement and help with this sustainability competition, and we will be especially grateful if you will continue to work with us in 2023 and beyond.

Yours sincerely,

Leon Liebenberg (Teaching Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, UIUC) 

Warren Lavey (Adjunct Professor, College of Law, School of Earth, Society & Environment, and College of Medicine, UIUC) l

Robert McKim (Emeritus Professor, Department of Religion, UIUC) 

Hi

I love the planting of trees. However, in my Master Gardener training, there is a caution for them. The commercial process of tree production has a lot of carbon involved with it. The average commercially produced tree lives 12 years. It’s carbon emissions in it’s production and planting takes 30 years to make up. So that was my question in the discussion frame.

Just something to consider.

Best, Cheryl

Done:

• Fixed: projects pages metrics 2-∞ have no labels on Y-axis (e.g. Pedestrian and Bicycle Counts)
• Changed iCAP Advocates to iCAP Clerks
• Added descriptions of the statuses to the Projects by Project Status page, per Morgan's email
• WIP: Metric Tracking and Metric Targets permissions - turns out to be a bit more complicated than I initially thought, but should be doable

Discussion:

• Daphne: Formally inquiring about whether this upcoming iSEE Seed Funding Project at the Waste Transfer Station should have its own project page on the iCAP Portal? This came about as I wanted to post on the portal that the seed funding had been approved, but I wasn’t sure where to house this information (& the updates that will come about during this project).
  • Yes, add under iSEE Campus as a Living Lab (CALL) Projects
• Should we show a "last updated" date on the projects?
  • Automatically show last time Project was updated?
  • Add field that is updated intentionally when a project's information has been reviewed & by whom?
  • Add a disclaimer about information being correct at the time it was entered?
  • Decided:
    • Remove user & date/time from search results
    • Add to bottom of project page, centered: "Project details last updated: _______" (greyed out a bit, italicized, don't draw attention)
• 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
  • Add "Archived" checkbox?
  • Add "Archived" to Visibility options?
  • Add "Archived" to Project Status options? (probably not - this mixes the status of the project itself with whether we still want it to show up on the site)
  • Remove from nested listings, still publicly available?

TODO:

• Add last updated date on Project page:
  • Remove user & date/time from search results
  • Add to bottom of project page, centered: "Project details last updated on: _______. Project Updates for recent activity." (greyed out a bit, italicized, don't draw attention)
    • <div><p style="text-align: center; color: #667; font-size: 0.9em;">Project details last updated on 3/24/2023.<br>Check Project Updates for recent activity.</p></div>
• (Low Priority) Make column headers click-sortable on Projects by Project Status page
• Add period (FY, monthly, etc.) somewhere in Metric info (not in accordion header, perhaps in legend?) (e.g. Pedestrian and Bicycle Counts)
• Permissions:
  • Metric Tracking:
    • Add/update: iCAP Admins, iCAP Moderators, iCAP Advocates
    • Delete: iCAP Admins, iCAP Moderators, NOT iCAP Advocates
  • Metric Targets:
    • Add/update: iCAP Admins, iCAP Moderators, NOT iCAP Advocates
    • Delete: iCAP Admins, iCAP Moderators, NOT iCAP Advocates
• 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