Attached are the notes from the October meeting for the Campus Tree Advisory Committee. 

Below is the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories Winners for Sustainable Achievements. UIUC was awarded excellence for the following. 

Excellence Winners in the Renovation/Retrofit Category

• Excellence in Energy Efficiency: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Materials Research Laboratory Renovation
• Excellence in Energy and Water Efficiency: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign-Holonyak Micro & Nanotechnology Lab Renovation

On October 31, UIUC sustainability representatives met and discussed the following:

Attendance: Pete Varney, Thurman Etchison, Shreya Mahajan, Daphne Hulse, Tony Mancuso

Updates:

1. State Farm Center will accommodate an outdoor recycling receptacle on the zero waste game day (to keep trash and recycling separated, easier to compare final weights).

   1. Temporary for this game. Need to get creative about a permanent solution.

   2. Next step: coordinating blue plastic bags for the indoor recycling containers.

2. Volunteer and Giveaway t-shirt renderings.

   1. Goal to receive the shirts by 11/11.

3. Student volunteer recruiting:

   1. iSEE Newsletter Tuesday 11/1 will generally advertise the event

   2. iSEE Newsletter Tuesday 11/8 will solicit for volunteers if we have not hit the 40-50 target

4. Pre-game trivia questions:

   1. F&S Zero Waste Team will take the lead on this.

5. OSU MyCup Program — survey findings?

6. Updated contact list (with Coca-Cola contacts included).

7. SSLC attempting to connect with Illini Pride and Orange Krush leadership, no response yet. Part-time staff advisor at the SSC is attempting to make contact, too.

8. Post-game feedback:

   1. Circle back with Marty to see if a QR code with a link to questions is possible. “Let us know your feedback.”

   2. Keep it short:

      1. “Did you notice that this was a zero waste event?” YES / NO

      2. “Do you support having more emphasis on recycling in future games?” YES / NO

9. Get the zero waste game as a iSEE Certified Green Event.

   1. F&S Zero Waste Team will take the lead on this.

10. Green Sports Alliance — Meredith, Daphne, Betsy Liggett + Colleen Ruhter (Safety and Compliance) met with two Green Sports Alliance representatives (Bradley Vogel and Matt Adler)

    1. Play to Zero platform.

    2. Safety and Compliance worked with Procurement to process a GSA annual membership.

    3. Discussed how to get Athletics to take initiative on sustainability programs, and to transition contact with GSA to them

       1. Focus on resource + cost savings (F&S tracks all of the waste from Athletics facilities as of July 1st 2022). Betsy and Colleen are investigating if we can track their energy + water use.

       2. Next step: Set up a meeting with the GSA Director + UIUC Athletics Leadership (those who are interested)

    4. Simultaneously, the Zero Waste iCAP team is attempting to find student athletes would be interested in joining our iCAP meetings

       1. Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC)

       2. Invited Tim Knox, Assistant Athletic Dir of Facilities/Capital Projects (Engagement iCAP team) to our next iCAP meeting

Long-term thinking

1. Recycling bin infrastructure:

   1. 16,000 seats at State Farm Center.

      1. 10,000 of the seats are accessed on floor 2.

      2. 4 concession counters accessed on floor 2.

   2. No recycling bins on floor 2.

      1. Encourage permanent infrastructure on this floor.

      2. Zero Waste iCAP team would like to submit a formal recommendation — is this the best route?

2. Concessionaire — Oak View Group.

   1. Achieve a higher diversion rate at future events by addressing concession waste.

      1. Drinks (cans and bottles) are plastic #1 and #2.

      2. There are paper cups with plastic lining + souvenir cups which can’t be recycled.

      3. None of the food containers (paper cartons, aluminum foil, cardboard containers, paper wrappers) will not be recyclable (and no infrastructure for composting).

      4. Look to other Big Ten schools as models of success (F&S Zero Waste Team is working on creating a Big Ten waste management comparison report).

3. Illini Lights Out as a model for student engagement:

   1. Dedicated, consistent group of students interested in assisting with sustainability at athletic events.

   2. Meredith is working on creating a listserv of trained volunteers.

   3. Utilize the opportunity of service fraternities and sororities looking to get involved in the community (tailgating).

On October 28, Meredith Moore, Colleen Ruhter, Betsy Richardson, and Daphne Hulse met with Bradley Vogel and Matt Adler from GSA. The following was discussed:

• Introductions
  • Betsy Richardson: works in environmental compliance with Colleen Ruhter. Their work revolves around regulations with EPA and permits. They signed up with GSA in 2019. Garrett Wong presented at the Green Infrastructure Conference, which is how UIUC became connected with GSA. They are trying to roll this out of compliance and into the world of Athletics, where it should be.
  • Colleen Ruhter: Civil engineer, background in stormwater, currently works on sanitary and drinking water projects as of late.
  • Bradley Vogel: Senior Memberships and Events representative. Bradley works with major athletic events to do waste diversion at games.
  • Matt: Works in the corporate and non-profit side of their services (ex: technological resources used to achieve goals).
  • Daphne: newest to the university, Zero Waste Coordinator.
  • Meredith: Sustainability Programs Manager at iSEE. Keen to see Athletics take initiative and want to help them achieve goals.
• What is athletics currently doing?
  • Are they tracking waste, energy, and water use?
    • UIUC thinks we should be able to track their energy, because they are a campus operation.
    • F&S recently (July 2022) acquired responsibility to take care of the waste at all of their facilities (previously, Athletics contracted with other waste haulers for some facilities).
• Approach Athletics with a money mindset.
  • How much could they theoretically save in costs by reducing their resource use?
• Play to Zero platform.
• Next steps
  • GSA will send UIUC a guide, and we can see about how to track their utilities in the meantime.
  • We should set up another meeting with GSA, especially if we can get Athletic leaders on the call. Keep the conversation going.

Below is an email from Chad Kupferschmid:

Hello,

I created and attached a “Draft” version map book for Level 2 DOR. Please note the legend at the top of each page contains all of the departments identify by the team and are included in the GIS domain list. The departments that were actually assigned to GIS features in the current draft, I made bold and located them on the left side of the legend. The remainder and current non-assigned departments I left in the Legend for reference during the review process. Once the review is complete and we’ve reached a “Final” status with the map/data, I will leave unassigned departments off the list.

There is a lot to take in with this level of detail so I created an ArcReader version to assist with the review process, use one of the three options below to find and access the map.

Option 1:

Click the link to Launch the Map directly in ArcReader: J:\10_Transfer\Workgroups\DoR_Infrastructure_Review\ArcReader_DOR_Level_2_Review.pmf

Note with this option a dialogue will popup asking if you for sure want to open the file, click Open.

Option 2:

Click the link, to find the map on J-drive then double click the .pmf file to access: J:\10_Transfer\Workgroups\DoR_Infrastructure_Review\

Option 3:

Manually follow the path on J-drive to get to the map then double click the .pmf file to access: J:\10_Transfer\Workgroups\DoR_Infrastructure_Review

Tips:

1. Hover the cursor over a feature to reveal a popup indicating the following attributes

• Feature Type
• Level 1 DOR
• Level 2 DOR
• Comments

1. Use the Identify tool to see a list of the attributes.

1. Use Bookmarks to zoom to regions around campus.

Don’t hesitate to ask me questions if I can assist further.

Thanks,

CHAD KUPFERSCHMID
 

On October 26, UIUC sustainability representatives met with Coca-Cola and discussed the following:

Attendance: Anthony Mancuso, Jake Slager, Daphne Hulse, Sarah Carten, Pete Varney, Bryan Johnson, Marty Kaufmann, Jen Fraterrigo, Meredith Moore

Agenda:

1. How to hear from basketball game attendees (survey, open-ended feedback)?

2. How to keep this momentum going for future collaborations between Coca-Cola, iSEE, F&S, DIA?

   1. Quantifying results. Compare typical basketball game waste production with this event.

   2. Recycling infrastructure/logistics. Look into the possibility a dedicated recycling container at State Farm Center. Supplying blue bags. Incorporating recycling containers to the second floor where logistically feasible.

      1. Temporary “Don’t Waste It” bins will be placed here for the zero waste game.

   3. Cultivating a dedicated, core group of students/volunteers.

   4. Touring Memorial Stadium in the future — understanding how the operation works there.

3. How do we make it clear what is and is not recyclable?

   1. Other than student volunteers engaging with attendees, is there a more passive option worth pursuing?

   2. Zero waste game logistics: what if an attendee has a half-full drink they are ready to recycle?

      1. Shawn, Pete might have an idea.

4. What game day messaging do we want to give for advertisements (what are we wanting to achieve)?

   1. “America Recycles Day” (November 15) — drawing attention to the Keep America Beautiful program.

   2. “Zero Waste” — consistency with the iCAP chapter.

   3. “Use the Bin” — building off of this ongoing initiative?

   4. “Don’t Waste Your Shot to Recycle” — building off of the Don’t Waste messaging.

   5. A way to incorporate a fun basketball term in the event tagline?

      1. Slam dunk, shot.

5. Graphic design that showcases all of the involved parties of the event? This is how I (Daphne) think we can best reach out to RSOs, relevant groups, to help us promote the event in advance on social media.

   1. Coca-Cola, DIA, F&S, SSLC, Illini Pride, Orange Krush.

   2. Who will be in charge of creating this graphic?

6. Volunteers

   1. Meredith: any update on SSLC meeting with Illini Pride and Orange Krush?

   2. Who is in charge of creating a form for interested student volunteers?

   3. Coca-Cola Heartland: We’d like to open up the opportunity for student volunteers first, but if we don’t reach our 40-50 sign up goal, we would like to reach out to the Heartland group

7. Do we have a Don’t Waste hashtag?

Discussion:

• DIA typically does standardized responses for basketball, so we can’t commit to anything right now.

• Jen: scan a QR code, and quickly respond to a couple questions. Half-time or short-break in the action.

  • Feedback may be more based on our diversion rate, rather than the attendees.

• What questions would we be asking?

  • Leichert scale 1-5, or yes-no.

  • Do you support having more emphasis on recycling?

  • How do you feel about zero waste emphasis?

  • Is it helpful or harmful? Neutral?

  • Did you notice that this was a zero waste event?

  • How well did we bring this to people’s attention?

• Lightshow or pre-game trivia specific U of I recycling, Jake has generic Coca-Cola trivia.

  • • Marty thinks this could be possible.

  • Marty will bring back to his group for discussion.

• Messaging:

  • Definitely include “America Recycles Day” → action item for the next day, after the game

  • One or two screens we can use, says Marty (thanks to these partners, groups, Keep America Beautiful)

  • As we observe America Recycles Day tomorrow, we are proud to make tonight a Zero Waste game!

• Meredith: SSLC had the meeting, 5:30 show up at SFC for training, meet and greet until 6, stand by stations.

• Student volunteer sign up:

  • iSEE newsletter - captive audience first.

  • Neither Orange Krush or Illini Pride leaders showed up at the Monday SSLC meeting, so we need to reach out to them to make sure they have buy-in.

  • Tuesday Newsletter, as well as Instagram (student-based)

  • Reconvene next week (Tony) to see if we reach out volunteer goal (40-50 individuals)

• Don’t Waste Hashtag?

• Coca-Cola will do the logo (Zero Waste Game) for consistent branding with YAH Agency

• Ongoing #DontWaste hashtag → consistent messaging, auto-tag when taking selfies

  • YAH Agency.

• Heartland Coca-Cola team has let us know that we can incorporate local Coke team.

• Lucy, Coca-Cola ambassador can help with messaging.

• Dozen or so iSEE student employees who are dedicated to sustainability events, interested folks in educational programming, possible that iSEE could have interns take lead on creating a group to keep things going for future events

• Long-term goal, iSEE and F&S don’t have to be involved with every game, more embedded with athletics. Laying the foundation for this year

• Will be helpful if we have the bins out there, strong infrastructure to support these events

• Illini Lights Out is a model — commitment to being involved; same way as having a group committed to helping with events. Listserv to blast to events for those who are interested in events.

  • Meredith is working with Zoe: starting with iCAP ambassador program. Will be a giant listserv of trained volunteers.

  • Service organizations, frats and sororities.

The reasons for the putative decrease in recycling rate include the increase in plastic production, flat change in recycling capacity, and China no longer accepting our recyclables. A Time magazine article further suggests that the estimated 9% recycling rate from 2018 was inflated because most of the plastic we sent to China was landfilled or incinerated. Another interesting point: an estimated 30-36% of collected PET is wasted in the recycling process.

The original report can be accessed here: https://bit.ly/US-plastics-recycling-rate . Table 2 provides estimates and sources.

On October 24, UIUC sustainability representatives met and discussed the following:

Attendance: Daphne Hulse, Meredith Moore, Jen Fraterrigo, Shreya Mahajan, Marty Kaufmann, Aaron Finder

Agenda:

1. F&S has ~27 old “Don’t Waste It” recycling bins stored in the Waste Transfer Station. We estimated ~14 bins will be used on game day. We will use the old bins and allow Jake time to find a more durable option for the updated “Don’t Waste” branding.

2. Jake to provide t-shirt renderings for green volunteer shirts and Coca-Cola branded giveaway shirts. Shirt cost will come from the mutual sustainability fund.

3. Toured the State Farm Center: we are working with the facility to determine the logistics of separating the blue recycling bags from the compacted landfill bags for game day. We provided them dimensions for our recycling container; waiting to hear if it is acceptable. If not, we will place blue bags in the compactor and have to sort them out at the Waste Transfer Station.

4. Concessions: Drinks (plastic bottles and aluminum cans) will be recyclable. Some of the items (the souvenir cup (plastic 5), paper Coca-Cola cups (lined with plastic film), and food containers (greasy boxes, foil) will not be recyclable).

   1. Thinking about how to advertise what is and is not recyclable to attendees…

5. High resolution logos have been added to Box.

6. Surprise & Delight Activation Reward Giveaway items are being sent to F&S. 50 reusable tote bags (filled with a t-shirt, hat, reusable straws (4 per pack), and thank-you messaging card on recycled paper).

7. Student engagement: based on the tour, we think the best way to engage attendees and ensure the correct items are being recycled is to have pairs of volunteers in green shirts come out during time-outs to walk through the seating areas with blue bags. There are 12 “internal entrances” to the stadium, ~24 students needed.

8. We expect not every student volunteer who signs up will show up, so we suggest recruiting around 40-50 volunteers total (pairs walking around the seats, floaters, bin guards, a few volunteers at entrances greeting attendees)

   1. Jake has offered to relay a message to the Coca-Cola Heartland team (the team regional to our area) to see if we can recruit any of them for volunteers — do we want to do that? Or stick with only UIUC student volunteers?

9. Identified opportunities for outreach (publicity contacts).

   1. When to reach out to student RSOs to promote? Do we have a graphic design we will use (Coca-Cola’s Don’t Waste?)

Discussion:

• Zero Waste game updates:
  • Orange Krush and Illini Pride meeting with SSLC.
  • Doors open at 6, starts at 7.
  • Meet on sight at 5:30? Marty suggests.

• Zoom meeting prior to game for the volunteers
• What if the bottles and cans are half full? Where do we throw it out?
• Open up the volunteering opportunity to students first, and then open it up to Heartland folks if we can’t get 40-50 student volunteers.
• Graphic design? Jen will reach out to iSEE publicity, F&S comms director, DIA comms.
  • What we want, and what we are asking? Marty thinks we have graphics, but what we need is our message. It would be good to showcase the partnerships here (different logos of the different depts involved).
  • Marty will find the point person, dept meeting this afternoon.
• How are we creating a foundation for future events? We have the momentum here, so use it as a platform for partnership going forward. Increasing this behavior at future events. Meredith, how might we have a dedicated group assisting for the future?
  • Marty: know that there are things that we can improve upon (blue bags, needing more bins on the second floor, logisitics with F&S). Can’t commit to how frequent. Don’t see an issue, and ideally it would work to change behavior. Some of which will be fast, some will be short.
  • A way to evaluate attendees experiences? Marty is not sure, he will ask at the department meeting. Football gets standard post-game question/feedback. The basketball games is probably by season, rather than game (because there are so many games).
  • Quantify what difference is made — F&S will do this. Ask Shawn about this.

Below is an email from Andrew Stumpf regarding the CIF's Geothermal Exhange Borefield.

From: Stumpf, Andrew J <astumpf at illinois.edu>
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2022 9:39 AM
Subject: Re: CEE190 Instructor meeting

Hi Eric,

Yes. The report is available on IDEALS https://hdl.handle.net/2142/111796, so publicly available. Correct, John has been doing further study on the CIF building. He has been working with me on the research… his PhD exam is next Monday, so pretty busy. I’ve only had a brief tour of the mechanicals when it was first built, so I can’t really comment about the system inside. Dr. Tugce Baser in CEE tbaser at illinois.edu I believe received a more detailed tour, so you might want to reach out to her. Here is some information about the mechanicals published for an ASHRAE award the building received.

Best,

Andy

Below is an email from Tony Spurlock:

Ben,

Attached is a summary of UIUC’s response to Legal Concerns with PEI entering into the PPA related to the Agri-voltaics project.

Mike,

We do not see any hard cost savings from having PEI do the PPA as opposed to University Purchasing, but we would expect PEI to be able to get it done more efficiently its greater flexibility and expertise in procuring energy commodities.  The timing for this project is critical to be able to do the research as planned.

Regards,

Tony

Below is an email exchange between Morgan White, Rob Roman, and members from the iWG and Energy iCAP Working Groups:

Hello iCAP Working Group,

One of the iCAP 2020 objectives is to develop a Comprehensive Energy Planning Document that includes clean energy and energy efficiency solutions to identify the best path to meet our climate commitments.  To that end, I worked with a team of students last year who developed the attached ABE 469 report, describing options to consider. 

Our intention is to hire a consultant to calculate the costs and benefits of various pathways for our campus, and the attached “Comprehensive Energy Planning” document is a first draft of scenarios to be evaluated.  We will go through this document during our discussion today.

I’m also including a list of buildings that use steam inside the building, so that you can be aware of the reasons we don’t just turn off Abbott Power Plant, which co-generates steam and electricity for the campus facilities.  Many other buildings are heated with steam, through the district heating system, but they convert it to hot water or forced air once it gets inside the facility.

Thanks,

Morgan

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

Energy iCAP Team,

I attached several documents related to scenario development for energy planning. Please see the trailing email from Morgan White for additional explanation. We are still in the early phases of this effort and welcome your input. The iWG will be discussing scenarios at our next meeting on November 7 @ 9AM.

Thanks,

Jennifer

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

A couple of thoughts:

There probably should be a list of major capital projects that are targeted for completion in say the next 10 years.  We typically cut the energy usage in the range of say 50 -75% on major renovation projects examples of this are the Everitt lab remodel, Undergraduate Library,  MRL via the ESCO project, ..etc.   Examples of old buildings that need funding and/or are waiting for projects to be delivered are at Bevier Hall, Newmark  civil engineering, Turner Hall, Main library, ..etc.   There are probably others that I am not thinking of immediately.  We have to find ways to reduce the campus energy load in my opinion.  I agree that space evaluation needs attention.

Thanks,

Karl

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

Morgan,

Who was included on these emails. The addresses are general lists, so I cannot see who is included. Apparently Karl is one of them. The topic would, on the surface, indicate that it would be appropriate to have UES involved.  But, maybe not. Can you share your thoughts on level of involvement?

Thanks,
Rob

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

Hi Rob,

I forwarded the invitation to the Sustainability Subcouncil and Council meetings to you today.  You may recall attending the council meetings last November to talk about the Utilities Master Plan, the F&S Energy Management Plan, and the idea to do a Comprehensive Planning Document, as suggested in the iCAP 2020 and recommended by the Energy iCAP Team.  At that time, the Council agreed that F&S and iSEE should work together to develop a scope for a consultant to develop a comprehensive planning document for how we can meet the carbon-neutral energy goals.

In the spring, I asked a student group to gather more information about what to include in the scope, and last week UOCP posted an RFP to hire a consultant to update the Deferred Maintenance facility condition assessment (expected to take about a year from when the consultant is on-board).  There are several studies and analysis available and underway, but the specific scope of what we want to hire a consultant to do for this comprehensive energy planning document is not completely resolved. 

I believe UES should take a very active role in developing the scope for this plan, requesting funding through campus, and seeing it actualized.  The iCAP Teams are advisory and they are advocacy groups, but the authority is still held within the campus hierarchy.  As the Sustainability person in F&S, I am here to assist and facilitate meeting the iCAP objectives.  I propose we officially call this project a UES project, with you as the lead and with me as part of the team helping it happen.  What do you think?

Thanks,

Morgan

PS. The iCAP Energy Team includes the following people, and Meredith, Jen, and I get all the iCAP Team emails.  Would you like to get these emails, as well?

Primary Contact: Tyler Swanson

Project Leader: Aman Mehta

Team Members:

• Paul Foote
• Yun Kyu Yi
• Tim Mies
• Damon McFall
• Roman Makhenko
• Andy Stumpf
• Shannon Anderson
• Martha Kubakh
• Karl Helmink, non-voting
• Mike Larson, non-voting

Here are the related emails. 

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

Hello Morgan,

Thanks for the detail below. I do agree that the creation of a long term comprehensive energy provision planning document needs heavy involvement from the utility production and distribution staff, along with those with in depth engineering knowledge of end use devices (i.e.; building HVAC, process flows, etc.). Therefore, it does seem appropriate to have UES be the lead in this work.

I am unclear if your thought is to include this comprehensive energy study with the deferred maintenance study, but I would strongly advocate for them to be separate efforts and documentation.

I do agree that UES should seek input from the campus community in the development of this plan, and keep the iCAP team as an ally in our efforts. Please include me in any emails and meetings involving this topic as we get started. I would ask that the leadership of the iCAP team be the first to present the topic to executive leadership of the campus in an effort to obtain initial funding. Of course, UES will partner with them do develop the proposal and presentation, but I believe their leadership is crucial to securing the necessary resources to move this initiative forward.

I am happy to discuss in more detail at your convenience.

Thanks,
Rob

Below is an email exchange between Morgan White and Tony Spurlock:

Can you send me the powerpoint for the Source of Energy Supply you requested?

Regards,

Tony

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

Hi Tony,

It is from slide three in the attached file.

Thanks,

Morgan

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

Morgan,

I prepared the graph you requested.  I made some assumptions regarding the numbers to include in the graph based on the previous breakdown.  Please review to make sure these are consistent with your understanding of the previous graph.

Regards,

Tony

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