iWG meeting minutes August 28, 2015
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see file
A mention about the Solar Farm project (see submission below) will be read on Chicago radio (popular morning show) in September as a part of the university’s branding/marketing efforts.
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA - CHAMPAIGN
Did you know the U of I is building a 20 acre Solar Farm on campus this year that will be one of the largest university solar arrays in the nation? It will produce enough electricity yearly to power 700 typical U.S. homes. Just another cool fact brought to you by the U of I.
The News-Gazette published a story today about the percent of Champaign-Urbana residents that take active transportation to get to work. http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2015-08-19/c-u-driving-work-not-s...
Channel 3, WICD, did a news story about the Solar Farm construction progress. http://www.illinoishomepage.net/news/local-news/solar-farm-construction-...
“People would like a nice simple story with a guy in a black hat as the bad guy, but it’s complicated,” says May Berenbaum, head of the entomology department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. --from http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/September-2015/bees-or-not-bees/
The attached file is a draft bike checkout sheet. This can be modified for future uses.
The Sierra Club’s Cool Schools rankings are out today. Illinois ranks 3rd among Big Ten universities, behind Maryland and Penn State. Overall, #38 out of 153. http://sierraclub.org/sierra/2015-5-september-october/cool-schools-2015/...
The application for the Bike Friendly University is completed & was submitted for review this morning.
Morgan Johnston spoke about the Solar Farm on RFD Today radio at 9:40am http://farmweeknow.com/radio.aspx .
A copy of the minutes and agenda from the PWR SWATeam meeting on August 10, 2015.
The News-Gazette published an article about the start of the Solar Farm construction: http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2015-08-01/solar-farm-constructio....
Nice Solar Farm reference in this article about Ohio University….
“We can learn from and be inspired by these models. Meanwhile, other schools also developing significant solar energy projects, such as University of Maryland (2 MW), Rochester Institute of Technology (2 MW), Elon University (3 MW), University of Illinois (5.87 MW), and Pennsylvania State University (the class of 2015 is holding a solar-array design contest to determine its gift to PSU).”
Emily Cross and Mike Doyle from the University YMCA met with Ben McCall from iSEE, Nancy Holm from ISTC, and Morgan Johnston from F&S to describe the history and process of the YMCA Dump and Run. The program has been around for approximately 15 years, and a couple years ago they expanded collections to include the campus residence halls. There are many opportunities to grow the program, and thereby reduce the waste going to landfills, but the YMCA staff are currently at capacity for managing the program.
The Architecture Review Committee (ARC) got an inquiry about the possiblity of mounting solar vertically on south-facing walls (without windows). This could be a sheer flush-mounted solar PV array immediately against the wall. The PVs would not produce as much energy as a roof-top array, but there could be fewer issues with rooftop penetrations, etc. The ARC noted that there is not a specific policy about this idea yet, and they would willing to work with the idea on installation on a case by case, building by building basis, at least until there is a comprehensive policy in place.
For a given capacity of PV modules, a vertical wall will harvest 78% of the energy that a flat roof would, and 67% of the energy that could be harvested at a 40 degree tilt. While this is not ideal, the costs may be lower and the maintenance and roof loading concerns would not pertain. Two possible candidates are the south wall of NSRC (which has no windows in the "central" part) and the south facade of the Tryon Festival Theater in Krannert, which is actually somewhat tilted
Dear Colleagues:
We hope this email finds you well. We are writing to provide you an update on the Big Ten Prospectus. Based on conversations with individual partner institutions, Metrics Working Group members, and progress made over the last month, we’ve determined we need to expand the metrics development process to allow for:
We’ve summarized these modifications in the attached graphic.
Given these modifications to the process, we’ve extended the timeline for the project with the pre-AASHE meeting in Minneapolis now serving as a midpoint check-in for the project, and a potential meeting at the Smart and Sustainable Campuses Conference serving as the final project deadline. A summary of key dates can be found below.
We will be touching base monthly to inform you of progress on the project, but we encourage you to reach out any time with comments or questions about the process.
To-date, nine (9) partner institutions have committed to the Prospectus project by paying the invoice that was distributed by AASHE on our behalf. We have a verbal commitment from several of the remaining institutions and hope that you can get the invoices paid by the end of the month. Thank you for your continued support and participation.
Best,
Michael, Denice, Liz, and Emilie
***********************************************************************************************************************************
REVISED PROJECT TIMELINE:
Please find definitions for each stakeholder group at the bottom of the timeline.
STAKEHOLDER GROUPS:
Michael J. Gulich, AIA, LEED
Director of University Sustainability
Purdue University
Many purchasers require that their trucking carriers participate in the SmartWay Transport Partnership. In addition, purchasers can participate in SmartWay as shippers (as UIUC Housing did), which facilitates the tracking of emissions from their carriers and allows them to compete for awards presented annually by EPA.
Here are some examples.
1. The State of Illinois' contract for Small Package Air and Ground Parcel Delivery Services, signed in 2014, requires that the carrier "must maintain its enrollment in the USEPA SmartWay® Program and continue in 'good standing', by submitting required data annually, for the duration of any awarded contract without backsliding." "Backsliding" refers to maintaining the carrier's annual SmartWay performance ranking (1 to 5). See State of Illinois Contract CPOGS15001 (attached), Section 1.5.1 and Attachment A. This contract is available for agency and university use. The RFP required that bidders participate in the SmartWay Transport Partnership.
2. A federal contract -- Domestic Delivery Services 3, for the General Services Administration and at least 14 other participating agencies, signed in 2014 -- includes the following provision: "Contractors are required to belong to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) SmartWay Transport Partnership, a voluntary partnership between the Federal Government and the trucking industry, to improve the environmental performance of freight and small package transport by adopting fuel and emission-reducing strategies. As an alternative, contractors may also report GHG emissions directly to GSA and the Department of Energy through the annual GHG inventory process which is followed by federal agencies." See GSA, "DDS 3 Green Features Fact Sheet" http://www.gsa.gov/portal/getMediaData?mediaId=196419.
3. Federal Executive Order 13693 ("Planning for Federal Sustainability in the Next Decade", March 2015) directs agencies to apply preferences in purchasing for SmartWay participating carriers and SmartWay products. See Section 3(i)(ii): "[T]he head of each agency shall, where life-cycle cost effective, beginning in fiscal year 2016, ... promote sustainable acquisition and procurement by ensuring that each of the following environmental performance and sustainability factors are included to the maximum extent practicable for all applicable procurements in the planning, award, and execution phases of the acquisition by ... purchasing sustainable products and services identified by EPA programs including ... WaterSense certified products and services (water efficient products); Safer Choice labeled products (chemically intensive products that contain safer ingredients), and SmartWay Transport partners and SmartWay products (fuel efficient products and services)." https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/03/19/executive-order-planning-federal-sustainability-next-decade
4. The SmartWay Excellence Awards for 2014 recognized seven shippers for moving 98 percent of their products and merchandise with high-performing SmartWay carriers: Lowe's, The Home Depot, Hewlett-Packard, Johns Manville, Kimberly-Clark, S. C. Johnson, and Nordstrom. http://www.epa.gov/smartway/about/documents/awards/420f14052.pdf As another illustration, Best Buy strongly encourages its carriers to participate in SmartWay, contractually requires all of its over-the-road trucking and intermodal business to be handled by SmartWay partners, and provides SmartWay partners prime docking times and locations. http://www.fleetequipmentmag.com/best-buy-an-active-smartway-shipper-partner/
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Several SWATeam recommendations were discussed. Also, an update from the Sustainability Council was provided:
"Review of Council Meeting/Status of iCAP Approval - The Sustainability Council meeting went very well with lots of good discussion. There were not too many serious objections to the iCAP. They would like to see financial information, such as cost-benefit analysis on projects. This information will be included in the study for accelerating our carbon neutrality date. The cover letter from the Chancellor affirming our commitment will include language about the current fiscal climate in Illinois. The Chancellor was keen to be able to reach carbon neutrality by 2035. Other concerns were in regard to the net zero space item and they suggested a space audit be included in the iCAP."
Adam Dornford, Rahul Gogia, and Tarsis Sousa met with Professor Ben McCall, Professor Madhu Khanna, and Morgan Johnston at iSEE. The discussion revolved around the faculty advisor needs for the group. Madhu Khanna will be the faculty advisor of record, and Ben McCall will continue to participate with the program. There may be a graduate student in analytical chemistry who could assist with the chemical aspects of the program.
Issues reviewed at this meeting included:
Emails from each group - Dining, Car Pool, Energy Farm, SSC - to document what you will do... prepare a mini proposal (with short term and long term plans) and send to this group - include:
A copy of the minutes and agenda from the PWR SWATeam meeting on July 6, 2015.
IBI representatives, Adam Dornford and Rahul Gogia, are meeting with campus stakeholders to get ready for the fall semester. Discussion topics include: