The location to drop off gloves at the Physical Plant Services Building (PPSB) changed in the summer of 2018. The map showing the location was updated accordingly. It is still at PPSB but in a slightly different location there.
In July 2018, BER student volunteers identified contacts for about 15 departments that purchase significant quantities of nitrile gloves but do not currenty participate in the glove recycling program. In the fall, volunteers will follow up with the contacts to inquire about interest in participation.
All, last week was slow, for the most part. Felt like we got a lot of donations. Trained a new staffer, waiting on clearance to train one more. Still building and scrapping bikes on the regular. My checklist sheet for shop builds is working—for the most part. There are still detail things that the staff don’t really notice, a slack chain on a single-speed for example, or cable ends are too long. Overall, I think it’s helping but the details matter and very much can still result in an unsafe bicycle. I’ll look at revising it a bit this w eek.
This will be Dennis’s last week here (I think, will check on this). He has been a great staffer and we’ll miss him!
This week I will begin prep for our big clean out/purge at the beginning of August. I’ll poll the staff for availability and iron out the details for how many days we’ll be closed (best-case scenario: one day). We’ll begin August 6th. We’ll be pulling all the bikes out and moving furniture around to give a solid, deep clean, and toss out the junk that has accumulated. We haven’t ever done a big clean like this during my tenure here and it’s wholly overdue. While we might lose a day or two of open hours, the end result will be a better functioning and cleaner/easier to navigate space.
This week I will also be getting in touch with Lexco about ordering PB Blinky lights for LTN 2018!
Numbers:
Visitors: 75
Sales: $724
Memberships: 7 for $210
Bikes (refurb): 2 for $220
Tire/tubes: 11 for $88
The University has been approached many times by students and others about the possibility of implementing a bike sharing program, and the 2010 iCAP included a goal to create a bike sharing program by 2012.
The University conducted a feasibility study in 2011 and 2012 (attached below) to assess whether the campus could truly sustain a bicycle sharing program. That study recommended the Campus Bike Plan be implemented first, in order to improve the conditions of bicycle infrastructure across campus, before a public bike sharing system be considered. In Fall 2013, it was decided that there have been improvements made on the bicycle network so bike sharing was reopened for discussion. A graduate student was hired to work with departments in trying to implement a bike share within the University, while creating discussion within the local community about a community wide system.
In addition, the study also suggests a few interim programs to serve known needs of providing bicycles to University employees for work-related trips on an hourly basis, and providing bikes to visitors, conferences and classes for daily rentals for group tours, etc. The University is working to develop both of these programs now, and will continue to explore options for making communal bicycles available to students and potentially to the general public.
Background
Although the community bike sharing costs too much, which means community bike sharing is not feasible in the recent years; some departments have developed their own bike sharing programs, staffs and students can rent a bike daily, monthly, even yearly. It is really convenient and increases the usage rate of bike around the campus. Now, a promotional campaign is being conducted to encourage more departments to participate, with the goal of increasing the number of departmental shared bikes from the current level of 15 to a goal of 60 by FY20. Additionally, campus still continue to work with community partners to explore the implementation of a communitywide public bike-sharing program.
Minnesota has a nice ride which sharing bike among all people. It started from 2012 and since 2014, the cumulative trip exceeds 500,000 per year, whose net assets are $62,469 in 2015, which means with the contract, sponsor and rental fee, there is not much economic stress. Maybe in the next several years, it will work for us, too.
Spring 2018 Semesterly Report Submitted to the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) on behalf of INNER VOICES.
Hi Pete and Shawn—
[This past week, there were] just a few emails, including one from the BER student volunteers. I had sent them a spreadsheet showing departments that were not yet participating in the glove recycling program but had $2,000 or more in nitrile glove purchases this year. They identified contacts for each department and will do some outreach when the fall semester begins.
Best regards,
Marya Ryan
Zero Waste Coordinator
The solar PV design for the rooftop of the Idea Garden shed is 12 panels with 340 Watts each, which is a total of 4.08 kWdc. The construction estimate is in progress at F&S, then an interconnect agreement will be needed from Ameren.
The Solar Farm 2.0 site selection committee's recommendation was approved by the Chancellor's Capital Review Committee.
All, a nice and generally manageable number of visitors to the shop this week. 2-3 people working on shop builds and some fix-a-flatters in every day.
I rode down Green St last week and that was a delight. Great new markings!
Thanks to Todd for grabbing the scrap pile over the weekend.
This week I will be contacting the Dero bike pump people about the problem with the Altgeld pump: squirrels keep chewing off the pump head, rendering it unusable. I’ll check with them to see if they’ve got any solutions.
I will also be setting up a meeting this week with a student group who are looking to solve bike waste on campus.
Numbers:
Visitors: 88
Sales: $777.45
Bike (refurb): 1 for $160
Bike (B-a-B): 2 for $158
Memberships: 3 for $90
Tire/tubes: 23 for $123
Sincerely,
SSC approved the Zero Waste Coordination scope change request to extend the funding agreement by one year.
Hi Pete and Shawn—
Zero-waste activities for the past were
Best regards,
Marya Ryan
Zero Waste Coordinator
All, pretty relaxed week here. The construction on Pennsylvania is in full swing and will probably adversely affect how many visitors we get but we’ll see. If the main door is completely or even mostly inaccessibly, a lot more people will be using the back garage door that we open for air flow. In that case, I’ll reorganize the shop to accommodate for that. All told, we’ll probably miss some visitor sign-ins because of it. But I’ll play it by ear and see how people navigate i t.
On Monday morning last week I had three folks come in who are going on a mission trip with their church to Malawi, Africa and hoping to teach some bike skills over there. I showed them some basic repairs and gave them some old parts/tools that they could use and advised against buying expensive and specific tools. Their trip is annual so they’ll check back next year.
I’ve got another interview for a student worker today.
On Friday alone we got like 5 bikes donated. Nice old 3 speeds (like we need more). This morning I arrived to find 3 Walmarters donated in front of the garage. I’ll pull and scrap a few more to even it out.
The numbers:
Sales: $1,173.25
Memberships: 5 for $150
Bikes (refurbished): 4 for $695
Bikes (B-a-B): 1 for $57
Tire/tubes: 10 for $87
Sincerely,
Jake Benjamin
Campus Bike Center Manager
Hi Pete and Shawn—
Here are the zero-waste activities for the week: Morgan, Brent Lewis, and I met with Shawn Hopkins of Bigbelly to discuss possibilities for indoor bins.
Best regards,
Marya Ryan
Zero Waste Coordinator
Bevier Cafe submitted their semesterly report for their Indoor Herb Garden project.
The annual usage of electricity at the Idea Garden shed is much lower than the proposed solar array will provide. Because this building is currently powered by Ameren and not connected to the campus electrical grid, there will be a loss of any kilowatt-hours not used during the course of one year.
The Master Gardeners are interested in adding rooftop solar PVs to the garden shed to the east of the Idea Garden in the Arboretum. The Idea Garden is a community garden planned, managed and maintained by the Champaign County Master Gardener volunteers.
The accompanying map shows the layout of the garden, The solar panels would be installed at shed (A) and provide power to building. The power grid would be extended to the garden to power light fixtures and outlets at sites B1-B4, C and D. Remodeling of the Idea Garden to provide access for people with disabilities is scheduled to begin in 2016, so this would be an opportune time to install underground cables. A small parking lot is also to be built at D. Funding for the proposed installation is not available from the grant supporting the remodel.
Hi Pete and Shawn—
It was a quiet week this week, so I have no updates on zero-waste activities to report.
Best regards,
Marya Ryan
Zero Waste Coordinator
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