Dear SWATeam Members,

Attached please find what we're calling version 2 of the 2015 iCAP. This is a mostly complete document that represents a synthesis of all of your teams' contributions into a consistent format, together with some additions from the iCAP Working Group and its subcommittee the iCAP Drafting Committee.

We'd like to ask each of you to read through the entire document -- both so you have a good sense of the context your chapter is placed in, and also because you may well spot problems in other chapters. Please send any comments on other chapters to the relevant SWATeam (email addresses can be found in the headers of this message), or to me for chapters 1, 2, and 9.

We ask that each of your SWATeams discuss your chapters amongst yourselves, with any other relevant stakeholders on campus (for example, units that would be impacted by the recommendations), and also with your consultation group members (or folks who volunteered to serve on your consultation group).  Please especially note the comments and questions from iWG members and others that are noted in the file.  You should feel free to correct any errors we have introduced, and re-insert any important points we might have inadvertently omitted.  Please also take this opportunity to improve the flow of the language where needed, as we have not attempted to polish the language.

For consistency, please continue to use active verbs and "should"-type language for Objectives [which represent the items campus will hold itself accountable for], and use "could"-type language for Potential Strategies [which are to be considered as possible ways to meet the objectives, not as objectives themselves].

Finally, and this is a big one, we'd like to ask you to provide within your chapter a cost estimate for each recommendation, along with the estimated payback (if any) in either financial or emissions terms. 

These numbers, even if they are rough, will be incredibly useful to the Sustainability Council in evaluating the overall cost commitment of this plan, and also to iSEE and the administration as we prioritize campus efforts in response to the plan.  If there are certain things you need help in generating estimates for, please let me know and I'll try to get you in touch with folks who may be able to help.

We realize we are asking for a lot, and the timeline is also fairly short.  We really need to receive your revised chapters by January 24, so that they can be reviewed by the iCAP Working Group in time to go out for public comment in February.  That, in turn, is necessary so that we can secure Sustainability Council approval in March, and have the iCAP signed by the Chancellor before Earth Day.

We can discuss all of this in detail on Thursday morning, but I hope you'll have a chance to read through the document beforehand.

Thanks so much for all you have already done, and all you are doing to shape the future of our campus!

Cheers,

Ben

<<link to draft file>>

P.S. Yesterday we had the first meeting of the Sustainability Council (with the Chancellor, Vice Chancellors, Deans, et al.) and we received very good feedback on the work that you've all been doing!

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Professor Benjamin J. McCall

Associate Director for Campus Sustainability Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus-sustainability@illinois.edu