The exterior Integrated Pest Management program has been in place for several years, and recently the program was formalized and adopted by F&S Grounds. This helps meet iCAP objective 7.2 and supports the student-led efforts to achieve Bee Campus USA recognition.
Student volunteers from Business Environmental Responsibilities stepped forward over the winter to assist with outreach to departments that purchase nitrile gloves but are not yet participating in the glove recycling program. They now have a list of about a dozen departments that purchase large quantities of gloves. Over the summer, they will identify contacts within each department. In the fall, F&S will provide them with information and materials to send to interested departments, and they can start emailing and calling the departments.
The current Bee Campus committee at the U of I is working to develop a University Habitat Plan and official web page this semester (Spring 2018). In addition, with funding from the SSC, we will be installing pollinator signage on campus this year. A goal is set to submit our first application for certification by June 2018.
Lance Schideman, Morgan White, Linhan Yang, Manying Zhang, and Kulsoom Abbas met to discuss progress on the projections of total food waste by building on campus. We will adjust the total estimated, based on population changes over the course of the year.
On May 14, 2018, Marya Ryan added a PDF with instructions for program participants to drop off gloves at PPSB.
The Illinois Natural History Survey inquired about participating in the glove recycling program in April and agreed to be listed in the iCAP Portal as a participating location. They were added as a location on May 6, 2018.
SSC approved a $200 micro grant to Eco-Olympics for digital signage in the residential halls. These signs will display progress and energy savings.
"Eco-Olympics is an energy saving competition between the dorms. Residents sign up for teams which then participate in activities led by hall captains to earn points. Energy use also translates into points, and less energy used means more points. At the end of the three week competition, the team with the most points is declared the winner and members of that team receive a prize."
Kimberly-Clark reported the following waste diversion statistics related to the glove recycling program:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign/Illinois Sustainable Technology Center: 3,000 lbs
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign/Illinois Chemistry Department: 440 lbs
The time frame was not included in the report. Additional information will be sought.
The campus recognizes that we need to support the pollinator population on campus. Potential solutions include creating "Pollinator Pockets" in strategic locations throughout the campus grounds, and encouraging the use of native plants in appropriate landscape locations.
The F&S Landscape Architect is working with campus stakeholders and subject matter experts to develop sustainable landscape solutions that support pollinator populations.
As a new student organization on campus, the Beekeeping Club will install and maintain two new bee hives located at the Sustainable Student Farm (SSF). Any honey produced will get sold at the SSF weekly stand on campus. Students will learn beekeeping skills as well as an appreciation for honey production. In addition, having the bees located at SSF will increase crop output, bettering local food production. The allocated funding will go towards the bee hive installation as well as the bees.
This proposal directly funds:
This student-led project provides awareness about pollinators around the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign campus. Students will design and install signage inside and outside of campus buildings, giving facts about native plants and pollinators. This signage will be approved by the University Board as well as Facilities & Services. This project contributes to the campus goal of becoming Bee Campus USA certified and meets Illinois Climate Action Plan objectives. Students will learn more about pollinators and pollinator efforts on campus. The allocated funding will go towards the signage costs.
This proposal directly funds:
On January 19, 2018, the ECBS SWATeam discussed updates on the Freezer Challenge, Eco-Olympics, and the Illini Lights Out program. They also brainstormed methods for the departments to become more invested in energy conservation. They are broaching the idea of the departments receiving payback for their participation or possibly charging departments for their energy usage. The team members will research into peer institutions and what they are doing on this issue. The ECBS SWATeam also wishes to build more awareness for energy conservation in residential facilities and in the campus community.
Matt Turino at the Sustainable Student Farm provided this overview of the food waste handling / transportation related to the Vermicompost project.
"So we only collected Pre-consumer waste from Busey-Evans so only the things that were cut off the usuable parts of vegetables and fruits. We had special 30 gallon trash cans that only existed in the kitchen of the Busey-Evans so there was almost never other kinds of trash. If we saw some while handling we would remove it but we did not need to sort it.
We had no packaging or animal products in the compost.
We used a pick up truck to transport the containers and we did not have a good way to load these. We often had to lift 50-90 lb trash containers up into the truck bed, and us not having the correct equipment contributed to it not being a sustainable program for us. The waste was extremely wet and so something that made it tricky to handle and and to transport. We were using leaves from U of I landscaping for the Brown material.
I did not track the cost of our transportation because we would often drop our produce off and pick up the waste on the same trip. We were driving a pickup truck about 3 miles per trip 2-3 times a week. We were picking up between 60-100 gallons of food waste per week during the semester.
Also we were using a vermi-compost unit which was not the most effective system for this, if you wanted to do a composting set up I would recommend a larger windrow set up."
Sustainability staff asked Lesley Deem at the Pollinatarium if the proposed pollinator pockets should be within a specific distance of each other, such as every half mile. Ms. Deem replied, “I think if we put them in the best spots available there will be enough coverage. For example, honey bees can fly for a few miles to find food. They use up less of their energy if it is closer but they should be able to find it even it is a mile or two away.”
Krannert Art Museum started participating in the glove recycling program in the fall of 2017. The location was added to the map of participating locations on Feb. 4, 2018.
The Lincoln Avenue Residence Hall Sustainability Living Learning Community Intern, Rachel Daughtridge, called a team meeting with various stakeholders to discuss the process for becoming an official Bee Campus USA.
Project team listed until Dec. 14, 2017:
Replaced Glove Bin Poster.pdf file of the glove bin sign with a newer version sent from Jonathan McClintock. The newer version (UIUC KC RIGHTSYCLE BIN SIGN.pdf) includes a campus logo.
Archived and replaced the following description on Dec. 10, 2017:
In lab buildings, protective gloves can be a major component of the waste stream. For example, at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC), plastic gloves were found to be over 8% of their total waste by weight. There is a recycling program for nitrile gloves that can be purchased through Fisher Scientific, for Kimberely-Clark nitrile gloves. This program is being implemented at various locations across campus.
