F&S staff met to discuss the Speech and Hearing Sciences Building Rooftop Solar PVs project. Managing Engineer Kristine Chalifoux and Electrical Engineer Brian Finet will take the lead on the design. The design will use a ballast mounting system, real time energy meters, and an online solar dashboard.
All, last week we grossed $506.80. We sold one build-a-bike for $35 and two memberships for $60. We had 60 visitors to the shop.
We were inundated this past week with volunteers, which isn’t a bad thing but is difficult to come up with enough unskilled jobs in a very skill-demanding environment. Thankfully, the organizing never ends! I made some good progress on the wheel storage rack in the back corner of the CBC and it will be completed by the end of the day today. While not the best built thing out there, it will get the job done and allow us to store more wheels safely out of the way and off the ground.
This week will be truncated since I was sick over the weekend and did not work on Monday or Tuesday. But good news: Lily has secured funding for some basic maintenance classes for the spring! Way to go Lily! I will meet with her next week and discuss the details. This week I will start recruiting again for more hires since four of the current CBC staff are graduating in May and at least one more will not be around to help in the summer.
Sincerely,
The Veterinary Diagnostic Lab (VDL) at the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) functions similar to a human medical institution, in that it generates waste that is not recyclable due to biosafety considerations. This is an unfortunate waste. This project seeks to begin recycling some of VDL’s plastics. This project’s goal is to capture the waste from their work that involves single use sterile pipette tip boxes, which are safe to be recycled. The VDL typically disposes of 12lbs a week of clean plastics in the form of pipette tip boxes; VDL operates 52 weeks a year, generating over 600lbs a year of recyclable plastics. With funding from the SSC, VDL can take 600lbs of plastic out of the waste stream using a clean pipette tip recycling program. http://ssc.sustainability.illinois.edu/?p=1446
Revolving Loan Fund Selection Committee,
The time is almost here to select another round of projects for the Revolving Loan Fund. For this upcoming selection we have approximately $1,000,000 to allocate. However, due to a timing issue I am appealing to the committee to decide on a Retro-Commissioning project in advance of the formal selection meeting. The reason for requesting Retro-Commissioning at Memorial Stadium early is due to a deadline associated with the availability of DCEO grant dollars. If expenditures and savings are realized prior to May 31, 2017, DIA could receive $100,000 in grant money from DCEO. Our meeting for project selection is targeted for the first week of May 2017 which does not give us enough time to qualify for the grant.
Below is project specific information that would normally be presented at the project selection meeting. We don’t necessarily need to score this project, all we need is a majority decision (yes or no) to approve this project. If accepted, the committee would be considering $800,000 for allocation at the targeted May selection meeting.
Project Name: Memorial Stadium Retro-Commissioning
Project type: Retro-Commissioning
Buildings: Memorial Stadium
Energy Cost Savings: $300,000 /year
Funding Request: $200,000
Project Cost: $500,000 (DIA will contribute $200,000 and DCEO grant contribution will be $100,000)
Payback Period: Approximately 2 Years
General Description of Work:
Provide temperature control upgrades & retro-commissioning services for the west and north portions of the stadium. During preliminary work, many noteworthy items have been identified. Several HVAC equipment scheduling improvements have been made already.
Project Owners: Brett Stillwell (Athletics) / Karl Helmink (F&S)
Project Execution Contact: Brett Stillwell (Athletics) / Karl Helmink (F&S)
Criteria:
1- Payback Period: The payback period is approximately 2 years.
2- Reduction of Greenhouse Gas: Greenhouse gases will be reduced by 3,491,227 lbs due to conservation of electricity, chilled water, and steam.
3- Fund Size Impact: While grant dollars are available for this particular submission, the grant will not be used to increase the Revolving Loan Fund balance.
4- Visibility: Memorial Stadium is an iconic building for Athletics on campus. The energy savings could be indirectly visible in that it could pay for other items that Athletics desires. There is a large amount of diversity in the usage of the space.
5- Project Coordination: Coordination items need to be considered as the south end zone & east grandstand project approaches. There are temporary plans to be considered prior to the arrival of this particular project.
Other Pertinent Information:
It is proposed that Athletics provide $200k for this project. Eileen Westervelt, via DCEO funding, has provided a building energy study which has identified large energy savings in this building of over $300,000 per year. It is suggested that to secure the $100K DCEO grant, $150K needs to be spent by May 31, 2017 and evidence will need to be presented that the indicated energy is being saved.
The campus has realized a significant amount of utility savings due to the efforts made by the Retro-Commissioning teams and the expectation would be no different at Memorial Stadium. The data the Retro-Commissioning group has provided for this application predicts a very positive outcome which is consistent with most of their projects throughout campus.
The reason for the expedited decision is to take advantage of the possible DCEO funds that will likely not be available in the future. Thanks again for your participation in this selection process and please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
I ask that you please reply with your individual yes or no votes before February 10, 2017.
Thanks again,
Josh Whitson
The SSC semesterly report was submitted for this project. See attached.
Hello, this past week saw 57 visitors come to the Campus Bike Center. We grossed $381 even. We sold one build-a-bike for $87, zero refurbished bikes, and one membership ($30).
This past week also saw two new staffers start: Leah and Angelica. They are both capable, helpful, and welcome additions to the staff. This week David (and hopefully Zack) will start, rounding out this semesters’ staffers. I reconfigured the cone wrench station, which is now much easier to use and keep clean and efficient.
For the upcoming week I will be contacting surplus about some furnishings, ramping up the for-sale bike quota, training new staff, and beginning to construct the wheel storage rack that I could not get to last week.
Sincerely,
At the PWR SWATeam meeting on Feb. 3, the team reviewed the status of the Illini Gadget Garage. It is going very well, and they have hired students to help promote and market the open hours. The team also discussed the proposed recycled-content paper policy. This policy was not approved at the System level, and UI at Chicago is working to implement their own policy for their campus. UIUC can do the same, through an update to the existing policy. Morgan will bring the policy to the next SWATeam meeting for discussion. Morgan also asked about the SWATeam recommendation process and invited team members to send her comments and suggestions. The Chair was selected as Fanxing Liu, with plenty of help from iSEE and the SWATeam Clerk, Meghan Killinger, because Fanxing just joined the team.
The EGEN SWATeam a meeting for the Spring 2017 semester. Topics covered include:
Review of pending recommendations: BIF Greywater, Increase Cooling Tower COC, Design Center Greywater Piping. Discussion on possible edits to the SWAT/iWG process. Student members will submit proposal to Student Sustainability Commision for apermanent meter to measure BIF greywater use. The Water SWATeam will meet every other week and will have a joint meeting with the Agriculture, Land Use, Food, and Sequestration (ALUFS) SWATeam this semester.
There were nine projects approved by the Revolving Loan Fund selection committee, see attached image.
Hello! This past week we had 74 visitors. We grossed 1,068.50. We sold 4 bikes for $630, one build-a-bike for $40, and 8 memberships to the tune of $240.
As the numbers bear out, bike sales are ticking up, which has been a pleasant surprise. I figured it would be real quiet here until March or April but there has been a steady stream of visitors and people interested in the space. This past week a TBP volunteer debuted a new spreadsheet that already vastly improved the efficiency of processing shipping and receiving here at CBC, as well as clears up the vagaries surrounding POS transactions on unmarked merchandise—all very good things! It will be even nicer as the shop gets busier and busier.
This week Leah starts staffing and the rest of the new hires are coming along with their hiring process. This week I plan to build an extra wheel storage rack and reconfigure the cone wrench station to make it safer and easier to use. I will continue to build bikes, organize, and prioritize accessible inventory and parts based on their usage and demand.
Sincerely,
F&S Director of Sustainability, Morgan Johnston, asked the ALUFS SWATeam for their input regarding the forthcoming "Low Mow Zone" sign updates. She said, "I would like to talk with you about the “No Mow Zones” on campus and our efforts to better name them as “Low Mow Zones.” Brent and Ryan Welch are working on updating the locations in a map form and our F&S communicators (primarily Steve Breitwieser) are developing a message about the updated words and locations.
As part of this effort, we are also going to be updating the signs, and I am hoping to get your help with taking a look at the specific sign locations (once we have the updated map). We need a volunteer to visit each Low Mow Zone and note the
The SWATeam chair, Brent Lewis, indicated she would be included in the first spring semester meeting.
Morgan Johnston and Shawna Grady met to discuss the potential uses for the Transportation Building's ECIP funding award ($10,000). Options included additional recycling bins, LED lamps, power strips, battery recycling containers, and potentially a waste characterization study for the building (if available through ISTC).
Hello, we had 65 visitors last week. We grossed $1,135, sold 8 memberships for $240 and 3 bikes for $475. We had a steady number of volunteers. I think we are a destination for those seeking community-service hours on campus, which has the positive effect of a sustained volunteer—a week or sometimes more—and in turn less training is required, and more work is done more efficiently. It’s a win-win.
Last week I interviewed 5 student workers, installed new signage on two of the three new fix-it stations, updated iCAP numbers (thanks, Lily!), and built bikes/organized.
This week I will continue to build bikes, talk to the Bike Project about funding some projects that will increase the efficacy, functionality and safety of the Campus Bike Center. I will also finalize the hiring of student workers for this semester. And of course, build more bikes for the spring.
Sincerely,
The EGEN SWATeam held their first meeting for the Spring 2017 semester. Topics covered include:
The iCAP Working Group (iWG) met on December 20, 2016, to discuss and start the assessment of SWATeam recommendation, Water001 BIF Greywater Meter. The iWG's official comment on the recommendation was:
"A permanent real-time water meter should be installed on the greywater piping system in BIF, and the collected data should be made available in the Energy Billing System and through an online dashboard."
See attached the iWG assessment of Water001 BIF Greywater Meter complete with official comments from all the iWG members.
See SWATeam recommendation Water001 BIF Greywater Meter here.
All, surprise! When the semester nears, students return! We had 26 visitors in last week. Grossed $388.75. Sold one membership ($30) and one bike ($225). One member was achingly close to finishing his Build-a-Bike but alas, it was not meant to be.
This past week I interviewed a student for staff help here at CBC. I also spoke with another student and set up an interview for him this week. On Tuesday and Wednesday a TBP volunteer came by and we reconstructed the tire rack storage shelf to accommodate more tires as well as make them more accessible. It will greatly help the effectiveness and ease by which members can utilize the space—especially once it gets hectic and busy.
This week I will be interviewing more potential student staffers, ironing out the schedule for the staff semester, prepping for the incumbent staffers to return, and of course the general clean, organize, and building of bikes.
The Solar Farm system capacity is 4.68 MWac and 5.87 MWdc. Original materials produced before 2017 generally referred to the capacity as 5.87 MW, which does not match the industry standard of using the AC generation capacity. The correct figure to use is 4.68 MW, when sharing information about the Solar Farm on the UIUC South Farms.
All, predictably slow first week back at the Campus Bike Center. Hope everyone had a nice holiday! We totaled 10 visitors for last week. Grossed $63 for the week. Didn’t sell any bikes or even have anyone in working on a build-a-bike.
Lily and I picked out three bikes for the Departmental Bike Share. The last of the new fix-it station pumps were installed. John, a Bike Project volunteer, came by to lend his architectural expertise in redesigning the bike tire storage space to be a little more efficient. I did a general inventory of wheels and was able to pull a bunch out for scrapping and reorganized the ones I am going to keep. I also found a dozen or so bikes that were beyond repair and needed to be stripped for parts.
This week I will continue to parse out bikes and parts that are not salvageable which will in turn make the space a lot more useful and navigable for everyone. On Thursday I will be interviewing a student worker for the upcoming semester. I will install the new signage for the fix-it pumps this week as well.
Sincerely,
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U of I Campus Labs Encouraged to Join Freezer Challenge |
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