11 lawn signs were posted across the campus on September 5, 2022. Only 7 signs were removed after the removed, the remaining were lost.

Deke Weaver, Professor in the School of Art & Design, requested a tour of the Waste Transfer Station, as well as asked the following questions: 

1. Do any of you have a rough estimate of how many plastic water bottles the U of I population goes through in a day (week, month, year)?

2. Would it be possible to collect a few of the plastic water bottles from the recycling center for this project?

Weaver is working on a public engagement piece about the oceans, climate, plastics and interconnected ecosystems and needs approximately 2500-4000 bottles. The project is a whale sculpture named CETACEAN. 

Shawn Patterson from Facilities & Services replied explaining that the waste transfer station acquires 2-3 thousand pounds of plastics each month and will be able to accommodate the professor's need for plastics.

On September 19, UIUC sustainability representatives discussed the following:

• We need to talk with Coca-Cola about best practices from other schools regarding zero waste athletic events.

• Jen: coordinating a phone call with Ohio State University — think about how we (UIUC) can partner with other campus units:

  • Reusable containers, change behaviors through Dining Services folks. Will invite people from the Union. Jen will invite Daphne to this conversation.

• Daphne will be talking to a OSU about general waste practices and athletics specifically as part of the Big Ten & Friends Waste Affinity Survey being worked on.

• Zero Waste Events:

  • Think about our ability to compost.

  • We could do this for the Nov 14 zero waste game, and we could collaborate with the Recycling Center (Scott Tess) — organic waste (food and yard debris), not any compostable goods (no cutlery).

  • In the upcoming call with the Landscape Center, we will discuss the feasibility of this.

  • In the previous zero waste game, Student for Environmental Concerns stood around the bins and said to passersby where to put recycling

    • Will want to get volunteers for our event (iSEE can help with their sustainability network).

    • SSLC would be a great resource.

• Clerk for Zero Waste: how does Jen feel about glass recycling?

  • Shreya, Daphne could communicate how this is done

  • Glass: dining and catering services recycle

  • Glass: athletic events

    • Aaron: Spectra (vendor)

    • In order to be LEED Certified, the State Farm Center committed to recycling concessions

    • Aaron: the majority of what they buy comes in aluminum cans.

      • Specialty drinks like Kombucha may come in a glass bottle.

  • Waste audits: 8 buildings. Small amount of glass coming out of buildings that it isn’t an urgent issue. Glass going into landfill is wasteful, but not poisonous like plastic is

• Picnic table cell phone charging stations:

  • Request by Jake to put together a timeline.

• Recycling bins at DIA — Morgan is unclear about this:

  • 3 bins with Smith.

  • State Farm Center is in progress.

• Sponsorship fee coming from advertisements on campus:

  • If we increase their advertisements around campus, when do we need to start considering that they owe us more for this increased advertising on campus?

  • OSU contract: much larger fund. Their athletic revenue exceeds ours by a couple hundred million a year. They have a 100,000 person stadium, we are around 60,000. Limits our advertising revenue potential.

  • Usually other schools are happy to talk contracts with other schools, unless there is a NDA.

  • No NDA for us. Usually there is some level of confidentiality. Releasing agreement information depends on legal offices at universities.

• Aaron: interested in hearing from OSU, pursuit of refillable bottles. Riff with Coca-Cola? Ramifications of that, if we pursue at UIUC?

  • Reusable containers, glass, plastic, cardboard, continue to talk with Coke about this. Interns digging into research about the different materials. Coke has said plastic better for Earth than aluminum cans. Some sustainability advocates agree. Shantanu Pai had looked at plastic vs aluminum for UIUC campus and came up with: it’s not an easy answer. we could be looking long term, large scale. Our campus could identify the best option for people who don’t have reusable items

• Long term, could Coca-Cola support the dump and run in the spring? Coke pays employees to help with our efforts?

  • Aaron: sounds complicated. company hiring interns with a tie to procurement could be a concern, in terms of tying into a contract. Aaron could look into this more.

  • Shreya suggests volunteers from iSEE or zero waste team. Morgan explains that it’s during finals week, and is not ideal for students.

    • Staff and faculty are usually swamped with graduation events, etc.

• Dump and run: collaboration with Housing, iSEE.

• Illini Union: go through Dave Guth. Ask for student contacts available on Wednesday? Illini Union Board interested in Zero Waste Events (do they have a liaison for this?)

Next steps:

• Proposals for athletic events (based on the contact Jake has) — what’s worked and what hasn’t for other institutions.

• Acquiring materials for Don’t Waste campaign (digital signs).

• Does Jake have revised drawings for the picnic table charging stations?

• We are asking for support from Coca-Cola about our waste audit (September 30 meeting, internal, ISTC). We need a quote. Then we can go to Coca-Cola about financial support and human resources support.

• Coca-Cola said they would do a refreshed timeline for the year about initiatives for the Don’t Waste campaign— we are interested in seeing this soon!

• Clarification on the bin discussion. Are they replacing? Are they sending with the new colors? Is there something going on with providing bins to athletics?

Below is an email exchange between Meredtih Moore of iSEE and Steve Muzzy of Second Nature:

Hi Steve,

Hope you are doing well! I am touching base again to see if there is an update about the status of our carbon credit sales. We look forward to hearing from you. Thanks!

Meredith

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

Hello Meredith,

Thanks for checking in. I've been meaning to follow up with the great news that UIUC credits have been issued and sold. However the reason I have waited is because the broker sold the credits in five batches and they are still waiting on final payment for one batch. Once they have all payments in hand, Second Nature can invoice them for your portion of the revenue. As with the entire process for this round of verification, the sale of credits has for some reason taken longer than expected. We are wanting to issue one invoice for all the batches rather than do multiple invoices - this will allow us to pay UIUC in one lump sum. 

I can tell you the total number of credits sold was 115,836. And pending the final batch sales per/ton you should clear a per ton amount between $6.00-$6.50.

I would expect issuance of UIUCs credit sale revenue check next month.

Best,

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

Thank you so much for the update, Steve!!

A few members of the iCAP Engagement Team (Ann Witmer, Kathy Adams, Sophie Fox, Mika Lew, and Justin Holding) attended the midterm presentations for ADV 498, the Sandage Project. The course is currently taught by Shachar Meron.

Students that were apart of this 8-week Capstone course presented their brand audits and main suggestions to improve the engagement side of iSEE. The teams brought new and creative ideas to advertise sustainability efforts on campus.

Air Quality Monitoring Station Project Updates:

• The project is still underway as the initial phase of data collection is completed.
• Collected air concentration and weather data at 15-minute’s intervals for a year. The data will be made public for use by campus.
• Past data is being used to develop data filters to prevent outliers and data imputations in the proposed dashboard being implemented on PowerBI.
• Public dashboard to be released to telecast live data through API access before the end of 2022.
• Collected data being used for advanced research at Land Use Evolution and Assessment Lab (LEAM) to identify the potential for low-cost sensor deployment for urban scenario predictions.

Geothermal Urbana-Champaign Project updates:

• Geothermal Urbana-Champaign is an ongoing project with no end deadline.
• John Freitag is the Project Consultant.
• So far, 11 geothermal contracts have been signed for 47 tons of capacity.
• During the first year of the Geothermal Program, the Midwest Renewable Energy Association MREA was involved in helping to start and run the program. 

The marketing resources document of the project is attached.

Solar Urbana-Champaign project update from Scott Tess:

This year, there are currently 25 contracts for 236 kw of solar capacity. That’s 25 more solar systems getting installed in our communities.

Project update from Gabriel Harper-Hagen:

Over the course of the 2022 summer, Gabriel Harper-Hagen interviewed 45 members from the Champaign-Urbana region to understand more about the regions position on biodiversity. This process has created support for the plan from the community. Achievements and gaps were identified in the region along with barriers and recommendations to successfully integrate a biodiversity master plan. Photos of key aspects and sites were gathered. Strategies for achieving goals have been identified and are in the revising process. The plan is currently being constructed as a draft. Background research and information has been collected and used for support on the topic of urban biodiversity. 

WCIA conducted an interview with Sarthak Prasad at the Alma Mater station during the Light the Night event. This interview was published on September 15 and 16.

DIA provided 6 powerade containers that were used for water for the volunteers at Light the Night event. Work Order (WO 11003192) was created for the Transportation Shop to transport 2 large gatorade containers (filled with water) each to Alma Mater, Hallene Gateway, and Campus Bike Center by 3:30 pm tomorrow (September 15, 2022) for Light the Night event.

Final volunteer list was sent out to the station leads on September 15, 2022 at 12:24 pm. We had a total of 50 volunteers signed up for this event, however, 6-8 volunteers had to back out at the last minute.

From: Nichole Millage <nichole.millage at champaignil.gov>
Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2022 9:13 AM
To: White, Morgan <mbwhite at illinois.edu>
Subject: Residential Electronics Collection Event on 10/15/22

Hi Morgan!

Our online registration is a bit slow going for the Fall Residential Electronics Collection Event on Sat, October 15th.  It probably doesn't help that there's a home football game that morning.  🙂

Are you able to help us promote this event?  Not sure if that's something you already do, but I thought I would ask.  Here's the most important info & I've also attached the postcard.  Thanks!

The online registration for Champaign County’s Fall Residential Electronics Collection Event is now open!

If you post it anywhere, please make sure that the registration website looks exactly like this when posted: https://ecycle.simplybook.me/ (If you copy & paste the link from the website, it will have "v2/" at the end of it, & we don't want that!)

If residents do not have internet access or need assistance scheduling an appointment, they can call me at the City at 1-217-403-4780.

The actual drop off is on Saturday, October 15th at Parkland College again.  Residents should use the Duncan Rd. entrance and follow the red signs.

After residents register online, they will automatically receive a confirmation email and/or text.  And then they will receive a postcard "ticket" in the mail approximately 10 days before the event.

Full event details can be found on the registration website.

Thank you! Nichole

Nichole Millage

Environmental Sustainability Specialist

City of Champaign Recycling

702 Edgebrook Drive

Champaign, IL 61820

(217) 403-4780

Follow 'Keep Champaign Beautiful' on Facebook!

The City of Champaign's main recycling webpage: www.champaignil.gov/recycling 

Good morning Eric, Molly, and Zach,

I hope this message finds your team well. I wanted to follow up with you after the presentation from last week and make sure that you have my contact information going forward, since I joined the Facilities & Services team so recently. I was very excited to see the zero waste pillar included in so many of the solutions you presented, especially regarding the green cleaning chemicals.

One of the projects that the F&S waste management interns and I have been working on the past few weeks is finding chemical alternatives for all the cleaning products that BSWs currently use that would satisfy the requirements for WELL and LEED certifications. This has proven to be challenging, as no single brand we researched had a comprehensive program to address all our needs. After hearing about the WAXIE green cleaning program, I am interested in continuing the conversation about this! I’d love to learn more about what products North American would recommend for the university.

Thank you,

Daphne Hulse (she/her)
ZERO WASTE COORDINATOR
Facilities & Services | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
+1 (217) 333-7550 | dlhulse2@illinois.edu

Thank you Daphne for your email, and it was great meeting you last week!

Pete and Macie made it very apparent how important Zero Waste is to the university, so I am sure you have the university’s complete support in your efforts.

I was telling Macie in a separate email chain that I am working on next steps with CIF, Can Liners, Robotics, and we can also continue the chemical conversation as it relates to Waxie Solsta.

I am attaching a product sheet that shares which solutions the system has that are third party registered and what those certifications are (review pages 28-29). These are just the products that are in the dilution control system, which means they would do 90% of the daily cleaning for the buildings.

When we come down next week, we can dive in a little deeper and develop a list of chemicals to trial.

Thank you everyone!

Zach

iCAP's Engagement Team met September 14th to discuss new projects for the upcoming semester! The team will be partnering with ADV 498 to support students' sustainability initiatives. The team also made note of in progress projects, such as Green Sports Alliance, Sustainability Art Displays, and Toted.

The team will meet next month.