The Resilience SWATeam met on 04/22/2020 to discuss changes and edits to the draft of the Resilience Chapter of the 2020 iCAP that the team recieved from the iWG. After the discussion, edits were made to the draft document and then sent to the iWG for further review.
Affordable and Sustainable
Solar Urbana Champaign is returning in 2020 with version 5.0! Offered by the City of Urbana, Prairie Rivers Network, and the Midwest Renewable Energy Association, home and business owners throughout Champaign County, Piatt County, and Vermillion County may participate in this program to help pool their buying power to secure significant discounts that make installing solar more affordable. Go here to check for updates on solarurbanachampaign.com and announcements on our forthcoming, socially-distant Solar Urbana-Champaign 5.0 bulk solar energy purchase program.
This project will document existing trees on campus, using a GPS device and collecting tree details into the ArcGIS data layer. The existing Tree Inventory was last updated in 2006, so it includes trees that have subsequently been removed and it is missing new trees that have been planted. Through this project, the Tree Inventory will be updated to include all and only existing trees on campus.
Please see attached the meeting minutes and slides from the April 6th meeting.
Thank you to everyone who joined us live or watches later on the CCNet Facebook page! We enjoyed a great turnout for the Tree Campus USA Celebration, with about 35 people on the Zoom call and a reach of 365 on Facebook.
This event included a review of the five years that the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has been designated as a Tree Campus USA, by Brent Lewis. Senior in Integrative Biology student, Maddie Smith, presented the results of her diversity analysis for the campus' urban forest, and the F&S Tree Surgeons, Dustin Reifsteck and Sky Drewes, answered tree-related questions. At the end of the hour, community announcements included Arbor Day and Earth Month events coming up.
Celebrate National Arbor Day next week on April 24, 2020!
Links from announcements and presentation
The event concluded with a round of thanks, and several were captured in the chat log.
12:56:43 From Eliana Brown : Thank you to the Grounds Dept!
12:58:28 From Samantha Fisher : Thank you for this presentation! I really enjoy your monthly presentations.
13:00:02 From Stacy Gloss : Thanks CCNET for a great presentation today. Awesome collaborative effort. Everyone have a great day!
13:00:33 From ekamarah : Thank you everyone for these interesting presentations and conversations. Have a great day.
13:00:37 From Brent Lewis : Yes, thank you everyone!
13:00:49 From Eliana Brown : Thank you, everyone! Great job!
13:01:08 From pattsi : Stay well everyone
13:01:12 From Marya Ryan : Yes, great presentations! So glad to reconnect with CCNet after a few years away.
13:01:24 From Miranda Vieson : Thanks!
13:01:25 From Marcus Ricci : It was a great presentation, with all of the different presenters nicely tying in to the theme. The Q&A was cool.
13:01:26 From Jenna Kurtzweil : Thanks, everyone!!
13:01:26 From Kate Gardiner : Love CCNet, thanks Morgan!
SSC funded the Bike Maintenance Instructor project with $1,000 in FY17. Please see attached the final report for this project.
See the project update for the funding letter for this project here.
Many university employees want to set an example for students by taking environmental action at work, but they aren’t sure where to start. The Certified Green Office Program is designed to identify simple, inexpensive actions you can take in your workspace.
In its first four years, more than 50 offices and over 1,000 staff and faculty joined the Certified Green Office Program. In the program’s fifth year, we invite you and your office to make a pledge to reduce your use of resources and improve the overall sustainability of your office’s day-to-day practices.
Small actions make a big difference when many take those small actions. The Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) outlines campus plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and we believe everyone can play a part in achieving that goal through their day-to-day actions. With your help, we can reduce the environmental impact of this campus and strengthen its position as a national leader in sustainability.
Click here for more information about the Certified Green Office Program.
A graph of energy consumption at BIF during the week of April 2 - April 9 is attached.
The Resilience SWATeam made the following recommendation on 4/3/2020:
An update to the Champaign County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan (CCHMP) will be finalized by June 2020 and it is recommended that the University of Illinois (UI) adopt the CCHMP. Hazard mitigation plans are required for some Federal disaster assistance under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act*. The adoption of the plan requires Chancellor Jones’ signature.
Attached is the SWATeam recommendation Res001 Champaign County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan with comments from the Resilience SWATeam.
The minutes of the Resilience Team meeting held on 04/03/2020 is attached.
Energy consumption at BIF during the week of March 20-March 26 is attached. We are tracking energy usage while most people are off-campus.
BEE CAMPUS USA
F&S collaborated with students in the Bee Campus committee to complete the renewal of our Bee Campus USA designation in February; Illinois originally earned recognition in 2018 becoming the first B1G school to do so. This process includes using integrated pest management, installation of native plantings, student living lab projects, and outreach.
SOLAR FARM LANDSCAPE BUFFER
F&S representatives shared detailed designs for the pollinator supportive landscape buffer along the future Solar Farm 2.0 site to the Village of Savoy. Village leaders were pleased with the design plans and thanked us for being responsive to their neighborly request. When completed, this site will serve as a demonstration for pollinator-friendly solar arrays, following the requirements of the Pollinator Friendly Solar Site Act (Illinois Pub. Act 100-1022). Solar Farm 2.0 will produce approximately 20,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) annually, and will generate the equivalent electricity use of more than 2,000 average American homes.
F&S completed the renewal of our recognition as a Green Power Partner through the US Environmental Protection Agency. Green Power Partners of our scale now have to use renewable power for seven percent of their annual consumption, an increase from the previous requirement of three percent. Fortunately, the FY19 green power supply for FY19 was 7.28%. See attached file.
Overview submitted: The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is proud of its sustainability initiatives, as documented in the Illinois Climate Action Plan. The first project was a 32.76 kilowatt (kW) solar photovoltaic (PV) array on the Business Instructional Facility in 2009. The 14.7 kW PV array, ground mounted at the Building Research Council, is a research platform for the Information Trust Institute. The most significant on-campus renewable energy generation project to date went into operation in December 2015, with the completion of the 5.87 megawatt (MW) Solar Farm, producing approximately 7,200 MWh/year. In December 2015 another solar array was installed on the new Wassaja Residence Hall roof with a capacity of 33 kW. In September 2016, campus signed a ten-year Wind Power Purchase Agreement for 25 million kWh/year. Most recently, the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Building had 970 rooftop panels installed. Since production began in April 2019, 11% of all power supplied to the ECE Building has been from the rooftop panels, not including the panels that are used for student-oriented research. The University will soon be home to Solar Farm 2.0, which is projected to produce 20,000 MWh/year, nearly tripling on-site production.
Energy consumption is less this week (Friday, March 20 - Thursday March 26) than last (Thursday, March 12 - Wednesday, March 18). We will continue to monitor energy consumption at BIF as most students and employees are not on campus due to COVID-19 concerns.
I-Pollinate is a citizen science research initiative, through the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, designed to collect state-wide pollinator data. I-Pollinate enlists citizen scientists to participate in three research projects and collect data on monarch egg and caterpillar abundance, pollinator visitation to ornamental flowers, and state bee demographics. If you are interested in participating and want more information, visit the website site at https://ipollinate.illinois.edu/.
All, This is a digest for the week of 3/9 - 3/13. Last week we were closed for spring break and now we’re closed for the pandemic. I’ll be back to reporting when we reopen.
The numbers:
Visitors: 38
Sales: $162
Memberships: 2 for $60
Thanks!
- jake
Hello Tree Campus USA Committee,
Thanks to those of us who were able to join the web-call this morning. Here are brief notes about our discussion and next steps:
Our next group meeting is April 27 at 9am, but we will be in touch during the next few weeks to finalize plans for April 24th.
Thank you,
Morgan
Message from the Arbor Day Foundation: http://adestra.arborday.org/q/120OBVMvRZTmL6qMkonn/wv
Due to concerns about volunteer safety, the stay-at-home order for Illinois, and anticipated continuation of the COVID-19 social distancing, we are officially cancelling the Dump and Run collection from University Housing this spring.
I am very sorry that this is the case, and I hope that all of you are safe and staying calm during this crisis.
We intend to still hold our next group meeting on April 14 at 1pm, via telephone. We will discuss options at that time for providing some of the benefits from the fall sale to our future incoming students. We will also include an update from Shantanu about the preparatory work that can occur this spring and summer.
Please let me know if you have any suggestions or concerns which we should also address during our next group meeting.
Thank you and best wishes,
Morgan
The University YMCA has coordinated a waste reduction program called "Dump and Run" since the early 2000's. At student move-out, hundreds of volunteers help collect the reusable materials for resale after summer break. Then the weekend before school starts, the YMCA's staff and volunteers sell the materials at a massive "garage sale" in the Stock Pavillion. The University YMCA is a local non-profit, and they work with the International Student and Scholar Services department on campus, as well as University Housing.
