The EGEN SWATeam held their second meeting for the Fall 2016 semester. Topics covered include:
All, we had 88 visitors last week—and that includes being closed on Monday and Thursday! We grossed $1,145.30; sold 19 memberships for $570; one bike for $120; and one build-a-bike for $40.
Last week was eventful. We had The Illinois Bike Summit, Light The Night, and on Friday I counted all the bikes in the warehouse: 517! Light the Night was very successful, installing 1188 lights (or 594 sets) at Alma Mater; numbers on the Illinois/Lincoln location are to-be-determined.
In tandem with Working Bikes, we’ve set the date for the Bike Warehouse to be emptied: October 7th. I will coordinate with Parking to insure we have access on that date.
I also set up a Facebook account to promote events and better connect with the cycling community.
This week I will work on building new bikes that I acquired from the warehouse, continue to organize for the Bike Warehouse event, and persist on the Sisyphean task of organizing inventory and streamlining volunteer tasks to make better use of everyone’s time.
Sincerely,
Hello all, last week we had a gross sales total of 2,049.50. We sold 31 memberships for a total of $930. We sold 3 refurbished bikes for $360 and one build-a-bike for $80.
We’ve had a decent stream of volunteers at the campus bike center this past week, which has been welcome. Lily and I also attended the Illinois Bike Summit on Monday. It was an informative and empowering event to see so many like-minded people working for better biking in Illinois. We are continuing to prep and promote for Light The Night on Thursday.
This coming week we will host LTN, Lily is hosting Bicycling 101 and attending Urbana BPAC, which was eventful. I will continue inventory and the building of bikes as well continue to work on arranging for the bike warehouse exodus.
Sincerely,
At the ECBS SWATeam initial meeting Marian Huhman was elected as a new chair. Recruting more proposals for education of other students about energy conservation was discussed. The "Illini Lights Out" Program pilot last semester was very successful and should be a year-long program. Engaging the whole campus for the "Green Labs" Program is needed. More funding for energy conservation was discussed. The completion of 2015 iCAP tasks poster templete is expected by September 23.
This was the first meeting of the Fall 2016 semester. Discussion was focused on non-potable water and meeting schedule for the rest of the semester.
Hello all, first, the numbers: We had 78 visitors last week that signed our digital guestbook. We had $1,062.83 in gross sales; 15 memberships totaling $450; and a single build-a-bike for $120.
Things of note: The Bike Project voted at the last meeting to implement a two week trial policy of no-free-visits for the Campus Bike Center, which netted us a lot more memberships than we otherwise would’ve had. But it also served to quickly inform people that the CBC is a cooperative, investable space not a free university-provided service.
This past week I began reorganizing the shop, built up for-sale bikes, and organized a staff orientation meeting set for this evening.
This week I will build more bikes, continue to arrange and organize the space, finalize a student workers’ schedule for this semester, and begin to coordinate with Parking and Working Bikes on a shipment of bikes bound for Lesotho and Botswana.
Jake Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Manager
In support of the U.S. Department of Energy's SunShot initiative, NREL is offering no-cost technical assistance to universities seeking to go solar.
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2016-08-26/toms-mailbag-aug-26-20...
UI solar farm
“The solar panel field located near the corner of Windsor Road and First Street has become overgrown with tall weeds. Do the panels still work with that much foliage under and above them? Also, would hiring sheep or goats to ‘mow’ the weeds be harmful to the sheep or goat (heat from the panels)?”
The Solar Farm on the University of Illinois campus was implemented as a power purchase and land lease agreement with Phoenix Solar South Farms, LLC, said Steve Breitwieser of the UI’s Facilities & Services Department.
“The agreements designate Phoenix as responsible for all maintenance of the Solar Farm during the 10-year contract, and this includes vegetation control.
“A contractor hired by Phoenix was on site in mid-June, and they are performing additional weed control activities this week.”
When the agreement with Phoenix ends, Breitwieser said, the UI will assume Solar Farm maintenance responsibilities.
And — how about this? — preliminary discussions have begun with research faculty regarding the use of sheep or low-height food crops in the future, he said.
Meanwhile, neighboring plant growth has not impacted solar production, said Breitwieser.
Solar array data can be viewedat: http://go.illinois.edu/solar.
Volunteers are needed for Light the Night on Thursday, September 12, 2013. Volunteers can sign up for 1.5-hour or 3-hour shifts here:
http://thebikeproject.wikispaces.com/light-the-night-2016
Light the Night is an annual bike light give-away, sponsored by the CATS agencies.
The Office of Advancement hired Elite Air Productions LLC to create a video flyover of the new Solar Farm. The video can be seen at https://youtu.be/k7b-F0zCgxs.
This years Light the Night has 1,090 bicycle light sets for installation on bicycles in the span of four hours. We need all the volunteers we can get! Sign up on the facebook page of the wiki!
http://thebikeproject.wikispaces.com/light-the-night-2016
https://www.facebook.com/events/247904592263343/
Any questions or other ways to help the event, contact Lily Wilcock, lwilco2@illinois.edu .
Prairie Rivers Network, the Illinois affiliate for the National Wildlife Federation, is leading an effort to support monarchs in the local region. The are also working with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) on a plan for protecting monarchs in our state. IDNR is planning a statewide event in Springfield on September 9 to share the results of initial surveys.
The Champaign County Sustainability Network (CCNet) participated in the Pollinator Palooza on July 16: "Help plant milkweed at Firefighter Park, 305 S Randolph St, Champaign, Saturday July 16 from 9-12, bring gloves -- The Champaign Park District is transforming Firefighter Park (305 S Randolph) into a butterfly habitat. All City Staff are invited to help plant milkweed this Saturday from 9 am to noon. Champaign joined the Mayor's Monarch Challenge Leadership Circle to save the Monarch Butterfly. In the last 20 years, the Monarch population has declined by over 94%, shrinking from over 1 billion to just 60 million butterflies. Monarchs rely on Milkweed plants, the only plant that they can use to cocoon. The Midwest is an essential breeding ground for the annual Monarch migration from Canada to Mexico, and habitat loss has contributed to their decline."
CCNet also hosted the Pollinator Pocket Garden Tour on July 28: "Walking Tour Begins at Bresnan Center,706 Kenwood Rd, Champaign -- Moving beyond pollinator week in June and to keep the conversation ongoing, CCNET is hosting a tour with, Randy Hauser, Horticulture and Natural Areas Supervisor for the Champaign Park District to learn about "pocket gardens". This will be a great learning experience for people who love plants and want to help the pollinators and the Monarch, but only have small space for gardens."
The City of Champaign and other partners in the community such as the Champaign Park District, Prairie Rivers Network and many others have been working to preserve Monarch Butterfly habitat throughout the community. The City of Champaign joined the Mayor's Monarch Challenge Leadership Circle to save the Monarch Butterfly. In the last 20 years, the Monarch population has declined by over 94%, shrinking from over 1 billion to just 60 million butterflies. Monarchs rely on Milkweed plants, the only plant that they can use to cocoon. The Midwest is an essential breeding ground from the annual Monarch migration from Canada to Mexico, and habitat loss has contributed to their decline. The Champaign Park District hosted a number of Monarch Themed events throughout the summer focused on Monarch Butterfly education and habitat preservation.
City of Urbana staff have planted milkweed seed in landscapes at the Boneyard Creek. They have also designed a butterfly and pollinator garden to be installed south of the City Building next spring. Additionally, Mayor Prussing has signed the Wildlife Federation’s Mayors For Monarchs Pledge. In accordance with the pledge and the Mayor’s interest in supporting monarch populations, staff have assisted in the creation or enhancement of monarch and pollinator gardens with community groups at the Lierman Garden, Urbana Free Library Garden, and Downtown Garden.
Hello all, this past week was busy, we had a lot of people in. We sold 7 bikes for $860, 4 build-a-bikes for $190, 5 memberships for $150, and grossed $1855.70. We got a lot done, I meet with Stacy and Jim and discussed problems and solutions on the University side of things in regards to the Bike Center. Phil held a conflict resolution meeting with Barry and I and went very well. I setup posts for closings and made a temporary schedule for keeping the shop open with Lily and Jake running the shop.
This coming week I'm heading to Colorado. Jake and everyone else will have to write the next chapter.
From the Campus Outpost,
James Roedl
Hello all, this past week was a mixed bag. The patrons were in a good mood and we got a lot done. We sold 7 bikes for $810, 1 build-a-bike for $65, and grossed $1914.10. I built several bike and got about 90% of the reports done.
This coming week I will be organizing the shop, building bikes, and Jake will be job shadowing me.
This is my last week at the shop, and I will close it at 5:30 on Friday.
From the Campus Outpost,
James Roedl
The attached file shows the full list of Retrocomissioned buildings, as of FY16. For each building, the RCx dates, the energy reduction, and the associated cost avoidance is shown.
Hello all, this past week was good. We were slower than normal, and the 4th of July shaved a day off the week. We had several people building bikes, and some cool projects came in. We sold 3 bikes for $280, 1 build-a-bike for $60, and grossed $871. We are doing particularly well on bike sales this year. I'm wrapping up reports and YTD bike sales should be about 101. This gets some cash, but the real benefit is the community service that gets more people on reliable bikes. It lowers our work load because considerably less people leave without a bike only to come back with a broken down craigslist find that needs far more work than it is worth. We have also seen a reduction in build-a-bikes, but the completion rate of build-a-bikes has gone from 5%-10% up to 90%. The mood at the shop is much more relaxed because those coming in have small repairs like flats and brake adjustments rather than complete rebuilds. I have been working on yearly and quarterly reports quite a bit as well as getting the shop clean and organized. I have hosted several tours for different student groups who are new to campus and are looking for sustainable transportation. This past week the tours of note were a class of freshman football players, and a group of freshman engineering students. Lily came to the football tour and helped with the talk. She will most likely be in charge of future advocacy events with the athletic dept.
This coming week I will bring all reports up to date with the end of FY16. We will be building bike and cleaning the shop. I will also be taking some time to write down procedures and things only I know to be pass to my successor.
From the Campus Outpost,
James Roedl
Hello all, this past week was good. A little slower, but good. I suspect the summer course modules has something to do with it. We sold 2 bikes for $330We were able to get do a really thorough cleaning of the shop both for our own good, but also for a visit from Brian and Lowa some folks from Student Affairs(right Lily?). I spoke to a group who may be putting in a repair station for the new art and design building. I built some bikes and got some cabinets from surplus. We were able to further organize the shop using these cabinets. Each seat post size has its own drawer.
This week I will be building bikes, working on reports, and setting up the transition to my leaving CBC.
From the Campus Outpost,
James Roedl
Minutes from the Purchasing, Waste, and Recycling SWATeam on May 9, 2016. The meeting covered several topics, and was the last meeting with Bart Bartels in attendance.
F&S submitted an application for the 2016 Illinois Governor's Sustainability Award, on behalf of the Renewable Energy Program on campus and the Solar Farm. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is proud of its sustainability initiatives, and Facilities & Services (F&S) is honored to support the campuswide Illinois Climate Action Plan. One of the most important and challenging initiatives is a shift from conventional energy to a future of renewable energy.
F&S is submitting this application to the Illinois Governor’s Sustainability Award for the Renewable Energy Program and specifically the new 20-acre Solar Farm. Five major Renewable Energy Program projects have been implemented since signing the Climate Commitment in 2008. The first Renewable Energy Program project was a 32.76 kilowatt (kW) solar photovoltaic (PV) array on the roof of the Business Instructional Facility. The 14 kW PV array at the Building Research Council is a research platform for the Illinois Center for Smarter Electricity Grid. Solar thermal panels on the Activities and Recreation Center roof heat the swimming pools. The fourth project was the purchase of 20,000 Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) from Midwest Independent Systems Operators (MISO) wind power in April 2014. The most significant project went into commercial operation in December 2015, with the completion of the 5.87 megawatt (direct current) Solar Farm. The Solar Farm will produce an estimated 7,860 megawatt-hours annually and is expected to generate up to 91% of its original output even in Year 20 of the project. F&S is monitoring the efficiency of the Solar Farm, compared to the design specifications, and in February 2016 the Solar Farm produced 100.2% of the anticipated electricity for that month.
The Sustainable Student Farm (SSF), has been growing sustainably produced vegetables for the U of I campus community since 2009. Since 2012, Fresh Press (FP) has been producing paper from agricultural waste like soybean stalks and prairie grass, including much of the waste from SSF.
This project deepens the connection between SSF and Fresh Press while expanding their offerings to the community. In addition to expanding the current paper production, this project will also allow for the creation of a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program at the Sustainable Student Farm, increasing the farm’s ability to sustain itself financially. Through employing students while selling their products to the campus and the community, this proposal ultimately truly creates a circular and sustainable economy on campus while furthering campus sustainability goals.
