The ECBS SWATeam submitted a recommendation to the iWG stating, "The ECBS SWATeam recommends conducting the ‘Illini Lights Out’ program on an ongoing basis. It is currently being implemented two Friday nights each month during the academic year (September – April). This recommendation is based on the current successes of the project that originally was piloted on April 15th, 2016. The ECBS SWATeam led the pilot event and the Illini Lights Out events in fall 2016 with support from iSEE for promotion on Facebook and in the iSEE Newsletter. Starting in spring 2017, iSEE staff have begun coordinating the effort with support of the ECBS SWATeam. We recommend that as an ongoing program, iSEE assume coordination of Illini Lights Out, with help from students and the ECBS SWATeam

Pairs of students accompanied by campus security/other personnel (as necessary) are assigned buildings to audit on the main Quad to turn off non-essential lights in classrooms/bathrooms not in use. Volunteers meet at a designated location to sign in, review safety protocols and receive their tally sheets. Students use these sheets to indicate any empty rooms where they turned off lights. After the audit is complete, students return all forms to designated staff and are then eligible for their free meal (pizza/burritos).

Previous buildings audited include: Altgeld Hall, English Building, Lincoln Hall, Gregory Hall, David Kinley Hall, Foreign Languages Building, Davenport Hall, and Noyes Laboratory. Recently, additional buildings such as Morrell and Medical Sciences and Engineering Building were added. Two to three students per building are needed for a total of about 24 to 36 student volunteers needed. At a recent Illini Lights Out event, 2018 lights were turned off for an estimated savings of $615.62 if those lights had stayed on all weekend. Over the five ILO events so far in the 2016 -2017 academic year, 6394 lights have been turned off and 41 windows closed."

See attached the SWATeam recommendation ECONS005 Illini Lights Out Continuation complete with comments from all the ECBS SWATeam members.

Meeting Minutes 3/29

During this meeting, the PWR SWAT Team coordinated with Marya Ryan, the new Zero Waste Coordinator. We discussed previous campus efforts for multiple different projects like composting and recycling as well as introduced ourselves to one another. 

The SWAT Team also was updated on progress with reviewing the Paper Policy Draft comments and will finish this review by next meeting. 

Furthermore, a discussion of composting efforts on campus was discussed and an effort to create a comprehensive map of waste pickup routes will be created. 

Next meeting is TBD.

All, last week was feast or famine, visitors-wise. We had all-stands-full for most of Friday—even with the bad weather--and hardly a visitor in the first two hours on Wednesday. We didn’t do a lot of large sales and the numbers reflect that; most visitors were just tuning up their bikes with small consumables. Our visitor total for last week was 91.

We grossed $617.25 for the week. Sold six memberships for $180; 18 tires for $85; eight tubes for $36; and three locks for $69.

Last week—with Lily’s help--I was able to streamline the stolen bike reports that come in through bike@illinois so I can disseminate that info on to bike shops, advocacy orgs, and businesses and thereby increase the chances (in theory) of recovering the thieved property.

This week I will continue to build bikes, search for and field job applicants for the summer months and begin coordinating and organizing for next month’s Bike to Work Day and the May 10th Moonlight Bike Drive event.

Sincerely,

• Jake Benjamin
  Campus Bike Center Manager

The EGEN SWATeam held another bi-weekly meeting. Topics covered include:

• Performing preliminary assessment for clean energy PPA
• Fact sheet using solar farm as basis to estimate land needs and costs of additional solar farm to meet iCAP goal
• Update on biomass boiler at energy farm
• Identifying opportunities to purseu implementation of ground source heat pump (GSHP) technology on campus.

On the agenda at the ECBS SWATeam meeting:

1) Final review of Illini Lights Out (ILO) recommendation;

2) Scott Willenbrock visiting April 14 meeting;

3) Updates:

- iCAP Portal.  Work of Morgan and Chenxi Jiang;

- Earth Hour photo;

- Eco-Olympics;

- Green Lab Coordinator

4) SWATeam next meeting time and date:  April 13th, from 3:30 to 5 pm. 

see file

see file

Hey all!

The competition has begun! It will run until 4/17. We are close to having the live results up so you can check how your hall is doing. I'll send out a link when that is complete.

You are competing for a catered banquet or a $200-500 prize of your choice. Start saving energy, signing people up for Eco-Olympics, and having events.

For your convenience, I have attached the participation outline that specifies how to win points for that $200-500 prize.

Reach out with any questions and good luck!

Best,

Jessica Mondello

Eco-Olympics | Director

Think Globally. Act Locally.

The iCAP Working Group (iWG) met on Dec 6, 2016. They supported the Green Labs Coordinator recommendation. The Assessment was completed with comments from all the iWG members on March 27, 2017. The iWG's official comment for this recommendation was:

"The iCAP Working Group strongly supports the creation of a formal and campus-wide Green Labs program, led by a full-time coordinator and assisted by a team of student interns and a faculty advisory committee.  Many of our peer institutions have successfully implemented such programs.  Such a program is almost certain to lead to significant cost savings: for example, if the program led to the decommissioning of just 1% of our campus's 1700 fume hoods, the recurring energy savings would pay for a full-time position.  However, we anticipate that a much larger fraction (perhaps 10-20%) of hoods could be decommissioned, and there would be additional cost savings from behavior changes, freezer and refrigerator management, and other improvements.  The fiscal benefit to the campus as a whole, in addition to the sustainability benefit, is clear.  However, given current uncertainties about budgets and even budget models, it is not obvious which unit(s) stand to realize the cost savings over the long term.  We therefore suggest that this position be supported centrally, by the Office of the Provost, as a cross-cutting cost-saving strategy.  In terms of organizational placement, we suggest that the OVCR is the natural home for this program, because this office already oversees many programs related to the responsible conduct of research, including safety, compliance, and animal care.  As suggested by the SWATeam, this program could also receive communications/marketing support from iSEE staff."

See attached the iWG assessment complete with official comments from all the iWG members.

See SWATeam recommendation ECONS004 Green Labs Coordinator.

Ruby Woodside at Second Nature held a Resilience Working Group conference call on Feb 3, 2017.  The meeting notes are attached here.

iSEE welcomes Gillen D’Arcy Wood, environmental author, and Professor of English at Illinois, as an Institute Faculty Affiliate. Wood will provide leadership for the new campuswide Certificate in Environmental Writing program co-created by iSEE, the School of Earth, Society and Environment (SESE), and the Department of English. He will also serve as editor of The Green Century, a new environmental magazine featuring student works.