The Energy iCAP team met at 9:00 A.M. on Wednesday, January 26th and discussed updates on recommendation ideas as well as agreed to move forward with the submission of two recommendations to the iCAP Working Group. Progress is currently being made on a feasibility study of CO2 District Heating and Cooling which will be undertaken by a group of engineering students during the Spring Semester, and progress on a new recommendation for Building Envelope Commissioning will take place.

The Team also agreed to move forward with a recommendation that the Office of the Chancellor commission a report on the Safety and Security of a proposed MMR Nuclear Reactor on campus property as well as another recommendation that would seek to charge Facilities & Services with developing a comprehensive energy plan that will bring the University to net-zero emissions by 2050.

Further Details on the meeting can be found in the attached agenda which also contains meeting minutes.

"Hello Elizabeth and Don,

Thank you again for agreeing to serve as facility liaisons for our NRES 285: iCAP Sustainability Ambassador Course! We look forward to this interdisciplinary, collaborative, and interactive field course. We sincerely appreciate your willingness to participate.

This is the second week of the course and students have begun to learn about the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) 2020 and sustainability best practices. The syllabus with course schedule is attached; please note that the students will not necessarily visit their buildings until the end of February.

Before the initial call or meeting (set up by the student group), we encourage you to assess your building to identify if there are any areas that the students should avoid walking through or areas in which they might need accompaniment. In March, the Thursday class period will be “reserved” as a time for students to work with their facility liaisons and/or assess buildings. If the class period time (Tuesday/Thursday 9:30 – 10:50 AM) does not work for you to meet with the group, the students will work with you to identify another day/time. 

The students will be provided with the building floor plans ahead of time and both you and the student group will receive the “sustainability checklist”. This list will serve as the foundation for their building assessment in which they will base their final report and sustainability recommendations. In summary, the role of you two as facility liaisons are as follow:

• Work with a student team (4 students), who will be trained on the Illinois Climate Action Plan. Students will hear from various guest lectures throughout the month February.
• Students will visit their campus building in March and April to observe and gather sustainability information (e.g., number/location of recycling bins) and make recommendations as a final assessment/report. Building floor plans will be provided to the students by F&S/Eric and Meredith. 
• Facility liaisons are strongly encouraged to have weekly or bi-weekly check-in calls with the student group.
• Facility liaisons are strongly encouraged to walk the building with them and/or to be there for student teams to assess certain areas, and discuss/answer questions about the building.

Please reach out to Eric and myself at any time throughout the semester if you have any questions or if we can help facilitate communication or expectations between you and the student group. Thank you so much again!"

-Meredith Moore (01/25/2022)

Sustainability Programs Manager 
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE)