You are here

Project Updates for collection: 2010 iCAP Projects

Search

Search tips:

  • This form will search for words in the title OR the description. If you would like to search for the same term(s) across both the title and description, enter the same search term(s) in both fields.
  • This form will search for any of the words you enter in a field, not the exact phrase you enter. If you would like to search for an exact phrase, put double quotes (") around the phrase. For example, if you search for Bike Path you will get results containing either the word Bike OR the word Path, but if you search for "Bike Path" you will get results containing the exact phrase Bike Path.

  1. GRITS one month trial period January 2014

    Associated Project(s): 
    Revolving Loan Fund (RLF)
    Billion Dollar Green Challenge

    F&S is working with Shoshana Blank, the Senior Research Fellow & GRITS Project Lead at the Sustainable Endowments Institute, on a trial tracking and reporting system for the Revolving Loan Fund (RLF).  Mike Marquissee is entering some historical data in to the system.  F&S is also sharing access to the trial site with the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) Program Advisor, Micah Kenfield. 

    Initial reactions at F&S are very positive.  The GRITS system has a low annual cost, and it provides a simple and robust tracking system for the RLF.  This would be an upgrade from the spreadsheet tracking we are currently using.  The program also provides reports on payback, energy saved, fund growth over time, and more.  Additionally, there is a Project Library resource, which shares conservation project information from other GRITS participants.

  3. update from Ben McCall

    Associated Project(s): 
    Transportation iCAP Team
    2014 Campus Bike Plan

    Dear Transportation SWATeam,

    Morgan and I had a very nice discussion with Pam Voitik at F&S late last week, and I wanted to brief you on some of the key points as they relate to the iCAP revisions.

    1) F&S is in favor of hiring a full-time "Active Transportation Coordinator," and having that person report to the Transportation Demand Management Coordinator (Stacey DeLorenzo).  "Active Transportation" (as you probably all know, but I didn't!) is industry lingo for all transportation except single-occupancy-vehicles.  So this person would be responsible for mode shift, the Bike Plan, and so forth...basically the last two bullet points in item #6 on page 30 of the current draft.

    2) Pete Varney and his team would be the sensible locus for efforts related to shifting the fleet more towards EVs and bicycles, and exploring renewable fuels for the fleet.  [The second and third bullet points in item #6 on page 30.]

    3) The first bullet point, about air travel, is outside of the scope of F&S, and should perhaps be a focus of iSEE or another entity in the domain of the Chancellor or Vice Chancellors.

    4) The Campus Bicycle Plan is essentially finalized now, but F&S is working on ascertaining exactly what entity should formally approve it. 

    Pam's suggestion is that it should be approved by the campus leadership (rather than by F&S), but the responsibility for implementing it should be with F&S.  This would give the Plan more authority/heft than if it were approved by F&S alone. There is reason to hope that this approval will be finalized before the iCAP.

    Cheers,

    Ben

     

  5. National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant announcement

    Associated Project(s): 
    Seek External Grant Funding for Implementation

    2015 NFWF Five Star/Urban Waters Restoration Program Invites Applications

    The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation is inviting applications for the Five Star/Urban Waters Restoration Program, a public-private partnership designed to develop the capacity of communities to sustain local natural resources for future generations, with a particular focus on water quality, watersheds, and the habitats they support.

    The program is supported by the National Association of Counties and the Wildlife Habitat Council, in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,  Southern Company, FedEx, Bank of America, and PG&E. Each funder under this RFP has specific requirements for the projects they will support (see below). NFWF will match all funding sources applicable to that project’s activities, location, and project type. Grant awards will range from $20,000 to $50,000 and must be matched on a one-to-one basis with cash and/or in-kind goods and services.

    1) EPA Five Star Restoration Training Program: A total of approximately $180,000 is available nationwide, in any size community, from EPA to fund projects meeting the Five Star program elements.

    2) Southern Company Five Star Restoration Program: Approximately $300,000 is available from Southern Company to support on-the-ground restoration projects and outdoor conservation outreach in the company’s service area.

    3) EPA and USFS Urban Waters Program: Grants totaling approximately $600,000 are available to help improve urban water quality, increase public access, and restore riparian habitat and urban forests in developed watersheds across the United States. Priority will be given to projects with an environmental justice focus or that benefit underserved and economically distressed communities in urban areas.

    4) FedEx EarthSmart Outreach: Approximately $415,000 is available from FedEx’s EarthSmart Outreach program to support urban conservation and restoration. All projects must include a volunteer event for up to fifty local FedEx employees. The program will support high-quality projects in Boston; Los Angeles; San Francisco/Oakland; Chicago; Memphis; Seattle; Dallas/Ft. Worth; Newark; Washington, D.C.; Indianapolis; Pittsburgh; Miami; Colorado Springs; Philadelphia; Harrison, Arizona; Phoenix; Cleveland; Atlanta; Portland, Oregon; Lakeland, Florida; New Berlin, Wisconsin; and Akron/Uniontown, Ohio.

    5) Fish Wildlife Service Urban Programs: Approximately $360,000 is available from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for projects that engage urban neighbors and foster a sense of stewardship where there are Fish and Wildlife Service lands or offices nearby (within approximately 25 miles). Priority areas could also include locations where there are existing Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnerships or established Urban Bird Treaty Cities specified by the Fish and Wildlife Service. Proposals should articulate tangible ways the Fish and Wildlife Service can become an asset to the community.

    6) PG&E Nature Restoration Trust: Approximately $90,000 is available to support community-based habitat restoration and stewardship projects within PG&E’s service utility area. The trust supports projects that empower community groups, provide benefits to underserved communities, and engage with organizations that provide hands-on experiences for youth in the outdoors. In partnership with NFWF and PG&E, all grant recipients must be willing to host one media event that increases awareness of the project, facilitates partner recognition, and  serves as a volunteer opportunity for PG&E employees to engage in restoration and stewardship. Projects must be based in one of the following California counties: Kern, San Luis Obispo, Sonoma, or Humboldt.

    7)  Bank of America: Approximately $195,000 is available from Bank of America to support community-based restoration and stewardship projects within specified geographic areas. All proposals in these areas must include a volunteer event for up to a hundred local Bank of America employees. The program will support projects in Boston; Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.

    To be eligible for any of the above grants, applicants must be a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization; a state,  local, or municipal government agency; an Indian tribe; or an educational institution.. Projects should be completed within one to two years of the award. For USFS urban waters funding, preference is given to projects that take place on, or directly benefit, public lands.

    See the NFWF website for complete program guidelines and application instructions: Complete RFP.

    Deadline: February 3, 2015 @ 11:59 p.m. EST

  7. accounting update from Mike M.

    Associated Project(s): 
    Revolving Loan Fund (RLF)

    I have realigned the way we account for projects in AiM, so each RLF will need to have a specific  AiM account number that maps to a banner plant fund.  As soon as I can transfer the open work orders off of MY862-Revolving Loan Fund, I will inactivate that account number.

    So, each new RLF project will need a Banner Plant Account number (I obtain) and a new AiM account number (mee, too.) then I will let the PM know so he/she can set up work orders.  This way, it keeps project costs segregated.  Putting it all into one account like I did initially dumps all project costs into one AiM account making it hard to keep the expenditures separate.  - Mike

  8. F&S response to iWG request

    Associated Project(s): 
    iCAP Working Group (iWG)
    Utilities Master Plan for Energy Production and Distribution

    Hi Ben,

    Thanks for your letter from the iWG about the Utilities Master Plan (attached for reference). 

    F&S shares the iWG’s concerns with the slow pace of getting an acceptable draft product from AEI.  This has taken much longer than the original goal of completion; however, it is important to have an accurate and good quality report even if it takes longer than planned.  The scope of this study was developed in cooperation with the Office of Sustainability, and approved by FY12 Acting Director of the Office of Sustainability, Associate Chancellor Pradeep Khanna.  It is attached here for your records, as well as the executed contract.

    It has always been our intention to share the draft report with campus stakeholders, especially those participating in campus sustainability efforts.  Once we get an acceptable product, we will share it with the SWATeam and iWG for feedback.  At this time, we expect to have a draft ready to share later this month. 

    Thanks,

    Morgan

     

    Attached Files: 

  11. FY14 ECIP Winners Announced

    Associated Project(s): 
    Energy Conservation Incentive Program (ECIP)

    CHAMPAIGN, IL (October 22, 2014) – Eight facilities on the Urbana campus will win funding for facility improvements as recipients of the 2014 Energy Conservation Incentive Program (ECIP) awards on Wednesday, October 22 at 3:00 p.m. in Illini Union 314B as a part of the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) Forum.

    Last year, the ECIP awarded more than $250K in pre-approved energy conservation projects.

    The list of FY14 winning facilities is attached.

    Attached Files: 

  13. News about Coffee Ground repurposing

    Associated Project(s): 
    Reduce Foodwaste

    From: Kenfield, Micah Charles
    Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2014 9:00 AM
    Subject: SSC Spotlight in the Daily Illini

    Good morning, team!

    Some of you may have already seen this, but the Daily Illini gave some great coverage to the Coffee Ground Repurposing Project in today’s paper:

    http://www.dailyillini.com/news/article_bd4b0c04-4381-11e4-93bc-0017a43b2370.html

    Great job to all involved in the project, and a special thanks to Dr. Wander for her interview in the article.

    All My Best,

    Micah Kenfield

    Program Advisor, Student Sustainability Committee

    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

    285 Illini Union, MC-384

  14. FY14 air travel data

    Associated Project(s): 
    Offset Emissions from Plane Trips
    Report on Progress

    From: Miller, Kristina Ruth
    Sent: Friday, September 12, 2014 8:43 AM
    To: Lage, Stephanie M
    Cc: Strater, Darren; Alexander, Franklin S
    Subject: RE: Air Travel dollars

    Hi Stephanie,

    Darren Strater asked me to provide you with the information you requested. 

    For FY14 Airfare for Chart 1 (UIUC) totaled $14,014,590.  This included extra charges for baggage fees, changed ticket fees and booking charges. 

    With JUST the price of the Airfare ticket, the total for Chart 1 (UIUS) totaled $13,671,434.

    If you need a formal breakdown, please let me know.

    Kristina R. Miller

    Analytics and Operations Support Coordinator

    University of Illinois

    OBFS University Payables

  15. Calculation of air travel emissions

    Associated Project(s): 
    Transportation iCAP Team
    Offset Emissions from Plane Trips

    Good morning all,

    To get air travel emissions, miles must be entered into the Clean Air-Cool Planet calculator. 

    Mileage data is not tracked for our campus. So, I request air travel dollar data from OBFS.  This number has become more reliable in recent years because of the T-card implementation.

     

    Air travel dollars are converted into miles using the passenger yield (fares per mile) data from Airlines for America. 

     

    In fy 2013, dollars spent on air travel was $9,283,105.82.  Passenger yield was $0.1514 (this is fy 12, apparently fy 13 was not yet available).

     

    Divide the two, and you get 61,477,522

    Best,

    Stephanie

  16. note from Billion Dollar Green Challenge

    Associated Project(s): 
    Revolving Loan Fund (RLF)
    Billion Dollar Green Challenge

    Hi Morgan and Mike,

    It was great to speak with you both today and learn more about the revolving loan fund at UIUC. Your green revolving fund would be well-fit for the Billion Dollar Green Challenge.

    I have attached an information packet with all you need to know about The Challenge. If you want to sign-on to The Challenge, sign page 15. If UIUC has a $2 million revolving fund, it would cost $1,000 a year to be on The Challenge.

    I also attached the document with estimated lifespans for various energy efficiency equipment.

    I'll be in touch in early November to get you GRITS trial access, unless I hear from you sooner!

    Actually, Morgan, I see that you will be attending the Climate Leadership Summit hosted by Second Nature in Boston next month. Our office is actually down the hall from Second Nature. My boss, Mark Orlowski, will be at the Summit, and could always meet to answer questions. Also, if you want to meet up with me, I could meet by the conference as well. Just let me know if that would be helpful.

    Thanks,

    Shoshana

    --

    Shoshana Blank
    Senior Research Fellow &

    GRITS Project Lead

    Sustainable Endowments Institute
    A Special Project of
    Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors

    18 Tremont Street, Suite 930

    Boston, MA 02108

    Office: (617) 528-0334

    shoshana@greenbillion.org

    Attached Files: 

  17. Archived iCAP page information

    Associated Project(s): 
    Large-Scale Food Waste Composting

    The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is pursuing development of a large-scale food waste composting facility on the University’s property, in order to compost food waste from University dining halls.  This interest is precipitated by the commitment made by the University in the 2010 Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP): “The University will commit to… a large‐scale food composting project by 2012.” The new facility will initially receive and process all acceptable pre- and post-consumer food waste from six dining halls on campus, as well as supplementary landscape waste as necessary carbon bulking material from Campus Grounds. In the future, if needed, the system may accept additional landscape waste from the city of Champaign as well as livestock bedding and other animal-related organic waste from the University’s Agricultural and Animal Sciences Departments. The finished product will provide rich compost material to agricultural projects on campus such as the Sustainable Student Farm, as well as to campus grounds and athletic fields.

    Background

    The University of Illinois is dedicated to composting across the board.  There are three main academic campuses at Urbana, Springfield, and Chicago and two medical campuses at Peoria and Rockford.  We are in communication with all of these sites about the future of composting at the University.  This is an exciting opportunity for the sustainability contacts to work together and support each other in a major sustainability initiative.  Additionally, the University Extension office has a long history of supporting sustainability and has numerous resources for composting operations that we can call upon as the project progresses. 

    In 2008, the Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, pledging to become carbon neutral by the year 2050.  As part of this commitment, the University published “Illinois: A Climate Action Plan (iCAP)” in May 2010, describing several projects related to various aspects of campus sustainability.  This document is available online at http://sustainability.illinois.edu/iCAP.html.  

    The Procurement and Waste aspects of campus sustainability are highlighted on page five of the iCAP.  It states “The University will commit to a Zero Waste campus policy by 2012, a large-scale food composting project by 2012, and target an increase in the University’s waste diversion rate to 75 percent by 2020.”  The specific project is listed on page 34 item 4 under Agricultural targets, as “Incorporate a large-scale food composting project by 2012.” 

    The composting project also has significant support from campus leadership represented by Associate Chancellor Pradeep Khanna, Facilities & Services as represented by Tracy Osby the Waste Management Coordinator and Jack Dempsey the Executive Director, and the students as represented by the Student Sustainability Committee.  The Office of Sustainability works closely with Facilities and Services to assist with the various projects in the Climate Action Plan, and will assist with project implementation and promotional information.

    Currently, approximately 1411 tons of food-waste is collected annually from the five major Dining Halls on campus.  Unfortunately, all of this waste is sent to the Clinton Landfill.  There was a small pilot composting project which diverted about five percent of this waste during the short pilot test phase, but it has not been in operation for the last year.  The proposed Large-Scale Food Waste Composting Facility will divert 100 percent of this food-waste and utilize Grounds department landscape waste to generate approximately 2,822 tons of high-quality compost annually.  The compost material will be used solely on University land, including the campus grounds, athletic fields, and the Sustainable Student Farm project.  Future expansion of composting operations could incorporate the animal waste at the Beef and Sheep Facility, which is directly south of the Compost Facility.   At that time, the finished product may be used on certain crop sciences lands.

  18. Bousfield Hall receives Platinum LEED status

    Associated Project(s): 
    LEED Certification

    Bousfield Hall LEED® Certified: Bousfield Hall, which opened in Fall 2013, became the third university facility to achieve LEED Platinum status, the U.S. Green Building Council’s highest certification level, joining the Business Instructional Facility and Lincoln Hall.

  19. F&S shared info about DDC system with Berkeley student

    Associated Project(s): 
    Utilities Master Plan for Energy Production and Distribution

    For a general overview of our energy systems at the University of Illinois, please see the online overview at http://www.fs.illinois.edu/docs/default-source/Resources/brochures/utilities-energy-3-14.pdf?sfvrsn=0.

    1. Does your school have sort of campus-wide energy management system (EMS)? Or does each building have its own energy monitoring system?

    Each building has its own metering station where chilled water, condensate, and electricity are measured and recorded. The chilled water and condensate usages are recorded into the building automation system and transferred over BACnet I/P to our campus data historian system and the electric meters have an Ethernet I/P connection that is directly fed to the data historian.

    1.  Does the EMS at your school have the ability to turn the HVAC systems on/off (this feature is often called Direct Digital Control) ? 

    We have a mixture of control system types and vintages on campus. There are older pneumatic controls systems still on campus that we are gradually converting over to DDC systems. Back in 1984 is when the campus starting installing its first digital control system. This system’s primary function was for monitoring temperatures, status of various types of equipment, and start/stop and speed adjustment of HVAC.  About 20 years ago is when DDC systems were being installed for full control of system and not just for start/stop purposes. I would approximate that our campus has about 60% DDC and 40% pneumatic control.

    The HVAC systems that do have DDC control typically have some sort of occupancy schedule where the unit either shuts down or a setback mode is used for after hours. We also utilize occupancy sensors on variable air volume(VAV) air handlers for classrooms and offices. This allows us during normal hours where the unit would be running to achieve additional saving by closing off air dampers( or air flow) to specific spaces that do not have occupants.  

    We have an Energy Management Control Center (EMCC) that is staff during normal working hours to monitor our DDC systems. They monitor the alarms, handle hot/cold calls and make sure the campus HVAC systems are running at their optimal level. We use two primary DDC systems for our building controls, Siemens and Schneider Electric’s TAC system and the Delta V system is used in our production plants. All three systems are monitored in the EMCC.

    Requested information:

    Hi my name is Sho Kawano.

    I'm a student at the University of California, Berkeley currently doing research on sustainable operations, specifically energy use.

    I thought this would be the right place to contact regarding energy management at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

    1. Does your school have sort of campus-wide energy management system(EMS)? Or does each building have its own energy monitoring system?
    2. Does the EMS at your school have the ability to turn the HVAC systems on/off (this feature is often called Direct Digital Control) ? 

    If you can answer these questions for me, I'd greatly appreciate your help

    Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

    Sincerely,
    Sho Kawano 

    University of California, Berkeley | May 2017

    B.A. Statistics

Pages