Staff met with the SSC “F&S/SSC Process” subcommittee, and developed a workable plan for how to coordinate SSC projects with campus procedures. The process flowchart met all needs, and looks like a great solution for the future.
President Hogan agreed to contribute $750,000 to the Revolving Loan Fund.
Working with James Scholar in Barbara Minsker’s engineering class to make recommendations related to sustainability for the Grainger crosswalk on Springfield.
Staff hosted interviews with about a dozen Rhet 105 students about various sustainability topics.
Urban Planning masters student Marcus Ricci is doing a GIS project about bike parking capacity in relationship to the buildings they serve.
The LINC U of I Bikes section sent out a bike sharing survey and had a great response rate, a summary will be available by the end of the spring semester.
The Climate Leadership Award video was completed and is now in the voting stage. At the end of March, we had about 650 votes.
Stephanie presented an overview of the iCAP at the MSTE Friday luncheon, and shared the first release of the sustainability video for the Climate Leadership Award.
The Campus Bike Project celebrated its second anniversary with the survey’s Naturally Illinois event.
The SSC awarded funding for Solar at the ECE North Campus Parking Deck project and the Conceptualization phase for Solar at KCPA.
Held pre-proposal meeting and site visit for the Solar Farm RFP. Also, submitted the EcoCAT review request regarding that space. Responded to over 30 questions from potential proposers for the Solar Farm RFP.
Feasibility Study for an Anaerobic Digester at the Beef and Sheep facility on South Farms has funding approved and will move forward with A/E selection.
Completed the Revolving Loan Fund survey for the Sustainable Endowments Institute.
Engineering News Record is doing a story on the University of Illinois about green buildings/LEED certification.
Daily Illini article about campus sustainability progress.
Staff created flowcharts for sustainability themes, as preliminary step to filling in the content on the Sustainability Portal website. Staff provided field definitions and sample data for the database tables that will be available through the portal. Also, we met with staff from MSTE and drafted the page layouts for the website, which will be shared at the iCAP Forum in April.
We participated in meeting with representatives from Columbia, Missouri about their transit goals. Articles were written about the visit: http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2012/mar/13/gold-standard/, http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2012/03/13/final-bus-trip/, and http://wjf.im/xkmY5f.
We also provided information to Arizona State University about our bike registration system and intentions.
Urban Planning masters student, Marcus Ricci, will complete a capstone project about a methodology for prioritizing iCAP projects.
Submitted SSC proposal for steam reduction projects at the Main Library, and were awarded funding.
Tim Hoss was approved as a Recycling Assistant academic hourly position to oversee the implementation of the Food Waste Composting Facility and assist with other iCAP waste management projects.
Spoke with Jeff Weaver at Property Accounting about developing an online system where departments can post furniture and equipment they intend to relinquish, and other departments can choose to get that item directly from the current location, rather than send the item to Surplus and get it picked up from Surplus.
As part of the Lighting Retrofit #5, 2,711 T-12 fixtures in the Natural Resources Building were replaced with more energy-efficient T-8 fixtures. This switch will incur an Annual kWh Savings of 424,466 hours. The simple payback for this project is 2.2 years.
F&S met with representatives from the Center for Neighborhood Sustainability to continue discussion of potentially building a biogasification power plant off campus for production of biogas as an alternative fuel for power generation for campus.
This portion of the LED Campus Initiatives exit sign AFMFA funded project is complete 522 fixtures were installed.
IDNR staff will review the project because the Franklin's Ground Squirrel may reside there. They state they will require thirty days of review. The Franklin’s Ground Squirrel resides in culverts and areas with low shrubs and prairie grasses and not in cultivated farm areas. Most of the Solar Farm area has been farmed for years.
The Office of Sustainability collaborated with Public Affairs to develop and create a Climate Leadership Video. The video included Chancellor Phyllis Wise, Professor Madhu Viswanathan, F&S Waste Management Coordinator Tracy Osby, and Student Sustainability Committee member Emily Cross. This video highlights some of the key campus achievements related to sustainability.
