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  2. Weekly Update for Zero Waste

    Associated Project(s): 
    Zero Waste

    Hello Pete and Shawn--

    This past week,

    • I had emails with the BER students to answer a question about their efforts to identify teaching coordinators for the labs participating in the glove recycling program. We are seeking the information for the Division of Research Safety (DRS) as part of the effort to ensure that biohazards and dangerous chemicals are not inadvertently introduced into the recycling stream.
    • Morgan confirmed that she will do additional outreach to Anthropology about the labs/room numbers where they collect gloves. I have a second email out to Veterinary Medicine requesting the same information and also their PI names. These efforts are also part of the information collection for DRS.
    • Joey Kreiling expressed an interest in reaching out to the BER students regarding ActGreen's involvement with the Student Sustainability Leadership Council (SSLC). I have emailed him a couple of times for clarification so that I can get him in touch with the BER students, per Morgan's suggestion. I have not heard back from him yet.
    • I confirmed with the BER students that we are not yet ready to recruit new participants for the EPS recycling program (they had asked about additonal volunteer opportunites when I met with them the week before last; I said I would check on the status of the styrofoam recycling program).
    • I sent Joe Pickowitz an email to see what he has learned about operating costs to run the EPS densifier on campus.

    Best regards,

    Marya Ryan

  3. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Slow last week, as to be expected.

    Currently have 8 bikes for sale with a couple more queued up. Should have about 15 ready to go by end of the week.

    Instead of having student workers build bikes piecemeal, this week I’ll try having each staffer be responsible for a bike—basically just a B-a-B but for sale. The hope here is that it will be a more holistic and teachable situation seeing a bike through from start to finish, just as the B-a-B program is. I tried this with one staffer last week and he was noticeably more engaged and hustling by the end, trying to get the bike done. It’ll help that we won’t have to figure out “what’s been done?” when each staffer comes in for their shift, too.

     

    This week will be building bikes, organizing, and drafting student staff training guides.

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 62
    Sales: $235.50
    Memberships: 5 for $150
    Tire/tubes: 4 for $25

     

    Thanks!

     

    • Jake Benjamin
      Campus Bike Center Manager

     

  4. Food Waste Management presentation to Housing

    Associated Project(s): 
    Food Waste Reduction
    Sustainable Food Practices

    On November 12, 2018, Sarthak Prasad from Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) presented a Food Waste Management study to compare the current mode of food waste management (EnviroPure) with 7 other food waste management equipment. 

    He recommended the Housing at UofI switched from the EnviroPure systems to InSinkerator's Grind2Energy systems as food waste processing system, before sending the processed food waste (in slurry form) to the Urbana-Champaign Sanitary District (UCSD) in Urbana, IL. UCSD's Wastewater Treatment Plant  (WWTP) has existing anaerobic digesters that can convert food waste into valuable biogas for electricity generation.

    See attached the presentation in PDF form and the detailed cost analysis.

    Attached Files: 

  7. Weekly Update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    All, Last week was quite slow, as the sales numbers confirm. It’s been great to be able to keep the student staff on even as we slow down as I can train them better. Running through repairs and assembly of some of the more intricate bicycle componentry is a boon to them and myself—more skilled student workers makes for a better shop experience for all.

     

    Big news of the week: Warehouse is empty of bikes—finally! This morning I’ll head over there to sweep up the last of the debris and straighten up. Working Bikes was thankful for the donations and some of the bikes are already in El Salvador and others will make their way to Lesotho, South Africa. A big thanks to Hank, Rick, Rafael, Todd, and APO for their assistance loading bikes.

     

    This week I’ll be moving on hiring 2-3 more student workers, building bikes, ordering, inventory, and shop design/organization.

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 62
    Sales: $139.00
    Memberships: 1 for $30

    Tire/tubes: 4 for $15

     

    Thanks!

     

    Jake Benjamin
    Campus Bike Center Manager

  8. Weekly Update for Zero Waste

    Associated Project(s): 
    Zero Waste

    Hi Pete and Shawn—

    Zero waste activities this past week centered on glove recycling:

    • Morgan and I had some email about our PI and lab/room-number information-collection effort for the Division of Research Safety.
    • I replied to an inquiry from Arizona State University, seeking information about glove recycling programs at other universities such as ours.

    Best regards,

    Marya Ryan

  14. Illini Union dashboard

    Associated Project(s): 
    Energy Dashboard Project

    Hi Becky,

     

    As I mentioned yesterday at the Sustainability Celebration, we have developed HTML web pages for embedding into FourWinds digital signage so you can demonstrate or monitor your daily and weekly electricity usage.  Here at the physical plant building, we have them built into a frame that toggles between the two web pages.  You have to create a frame with a titel like “Electricity Usage – Illini Union”, embed the html, and then add a button to switch between the two sites.  Unfortunately, the person who did this for us has moved to another job, so I can’t help you on the FourWinds programming.  But I know that there are ways to display web pages.  Here are the links to the pages we created for the Illini Union.  We’d really like to see you guys put something like this up on your digital signage.  

     

    Day version:

    https://ednaweb.illinienergy.illinois.edu/post/IUnion/graph.html

     

    Week Version:

    https://ednaweb.illinienergy.illinois.edu/post/IUnion/graph.html?week

     

    If you would like more information, feel free to give me a call over here at F&S.

     

     

    Mike Marquissee

    Director – Budget and Planning Resources

    Utilites and Energy Services Division

    Facilities and Services

    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  15. Weekly update

    Associated Project(s): 
    Campus Bike Center

    Last week was really relaxed in the shop. I’ve been able to dedicate some time to training the student staff a little better. Having them strip and build bikes is good repetition and practice for them.

     

    Tuesday was the Bike Shipping Event, which did not go as planned. Working Bikes wasn’t able to get their big container down here so they only took 260 bikes. That was compounded by a poor showing of volunteers to help. Most of the loading was done by two Working Bikes people and myself, which was tiring. By the second half, we had 5 or 6 people to help.

     

    On Friday, Todd and I pulled about 60 bikes out of the warehouse. We should have it all cleared by end-of-week.

    I interviewed two students last week as well. I have another interview tomorrow.

     

    This week is the aforementioned job interview, as well as an iCap interview with someone from Sustainability. Mornings will be loading bikes at the warehouse and most shop hours will be spent teaching the staff more bike skills now that it’s slow.

     

    The numbers:

    Visitors: 73

    Sales: $430.25
    Memberships: 4 for $120
    Bikes (B-a-B): 2 for $40*
    Tires/tubes: 10 for $84

    *B-a-B pricing are now itemized to reflect the cost of new parts so TBP can keep better track of stock and sales of new parts. B-a-Bs aren’t cheaper, they’re just recorded as the base price only.

     

    Thanks!

    • Jake Benjamin
      Campus Bike Center Manager

  16. Weekly Update for Zero Waste

    Associated Project(s): 
    Zero Waste

    Hello Pete and Shawn--

    Here are the past week's zero-waste activities:

    • I completed a survey from the University of Michigan on campus composting. There was no initial question as to whether our campus composts or not, so I filled in most of the questions with the information that we do not have a composting program at this time.
    • I met with two Business in Environmental Responsibility (BER) students to ask them if they could help us identify teaching coordinators for the labs that recycle gloves. This is part of our effort with the Division of Research Safety (DRS) to ensure that labs have adequate guidelines and training to prevent biohazards and/or dangerous chemicals from entering the recycling stream. I prepared a spreadsheet for them to enter coordinators' names and contact information as well as a model message to send to Chris Holmes in the Provost Office and to participating departments.
    • I responded to an inquiry from the Illinois Natural History Survey regarding a message to their staff to promote glove recycling. I told them it would be fine to put my name and contact information in the message and cc-ed Morgan to ensure that promotion within an already participating unit does not conflict with our commitment to DRS to refrain from recruiting new units to the program until a decision is made about having additional safety guidelines/training.
    • Replied to the iCAP User Experience Portal Questionnaire.
    • Reviewed PWR SWATeam emails and minutes.
       

    Best regards,

    Marya Ryan

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