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  1. SSLC First Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Student Sustainability Leadership Council (SSLC)

    Below is an email from Jack Reicherts regarding SSLC's first meeting of the semester.

     

    Ahoy there ye lily-livered landlubbers!

     

    (If any pirate speak is unclear, please email me for clarification). This be yer friendly neighborhood pirate, writing to remind ye that the first meeting of the Spring semester for the Student Sustainability Leadership Council be approaching fast. We'll be meeting on the 6th day of February, at the strike of 6 bells in the evening (2/6 at 6 pm!), in the Student Org Complex.

    Now, if ye be new to these parts, ye should know that the Student Org Complex be located on the southwest stairwell in the Illini Union. Ye can't miss it, just keep yer eyes peeled for the skull and crossbones.

    And remember, every meeting requires a representative from each member organization to be present, otherwise ye'll be walking the plank. But if ye have a recurring conflict, ye can always reach out to me, yer friendly neighborhood pirate.

    But there's more to this meeting than just the usual business. We're electing a new exec board for SSLC, and we'll be holding a simple application and interview process. So, I'd like to invite all interested members of your respective organizations to attend, so they can see a normal general meeting.

    So, mark yer calendars and don't be late, or ye'll be feeding the sharks. And don't forget, to bring interested members with you to join SSLC exec board.

    Yours in service,
    Jack "The Scalawag" Reicherts, Pirate Co-Captain of the SSLC

  7. 1-25-23 External Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    "Don't Waste" with Coca-Cola
    Fighting Illini, Fighting Waste
    Green Sports Alliance (GSA)

    On January 25, UIUC sustainability representatives met with Coca-Cola and discussed the following:

    Attendance: Jake Slager, Jen Fraterrigo, Thurman Etchison, Steve Breitwieser, Bryan Johnson, Sarah Carten, Shawn Patterson, Dominika Szal, Daphne Hulse

    Agenda:

    1. Zero Waste men’s basketball game Thursday, March 2 at 6pm (vs. Michigan).

      1. This is a Coca-Cola partnership game, so Jake will be there.

      2. Continue integrations with the DIA as we move forward, rather than pushing to be at the center of attention.

      3. F&S Zero Waste Team to plan and execute.

        1. Work out the logistics with State Farm Center recycling.

      4. iSEE will connect to volunteer base to pull 75-100 volunteers.

      5. Coca-Cola:

        1. Digital signage.

          1. Advertise across campus ahead of the event.

          2. Signage we can create that will be printed for use? Student volunteers said the Fighting Illini, Fighting Waste signage they were holding didn't make it clear to attendees what was going on.

        2. T-shirts: volunteer and giveaway.

    2. Recycling Value Assessment audit details:

      1. Afternoon of February 16.

      2. Jake, Daphne, and Shawn will discuss in more detail.

    3. Campaign updates:

      1. Don’t Waste Wednesdays.

    4. Coca-Cola video from the 11/14 game.

     

  12. Education iCAP Team January Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    Education iCAP Team
    Education iCAP Team Recommendations Summary

    Education iCAP Team had its first virtual meeting of the semester on Friday, January 20th, at 3 PM. The team has a new student member: Sydney Wei. Eric Green gave updates on his meeting with the BUS 101 course instructor Aimee Barbeau about implementing sustainability in Business classes. Afterward, after briefly explaining the iWG approved Sustainability in Study Abroad Recommendation to Sydney, the team discussed its goals and recommendation ideas for Spring 2023. 

    For this semester, the new chair of the team will be Eric Green and the vice chair will be Sydney Wei. 

    Meeting minutes are attached.

    Attached Files: 

  13. Expanding the F&S FIR map to auxiliary facilities (McKinley, Housing)

    Associated Project(s): 
    Reduce Single-Use Plastics

    On 1/24/23 Daphne Hulse sent F&S FIRS inventory information for McKinley and University Housing (attached), and requested the unit to update the existing map with this new information. Additionally, the new map will ideally differentiate between fancy and simple bottle fillers through symbols or colors.

    Attached Files: 

  14. Zero Waste Coordinator meeting with Kasey Umland

    Associated Project(s): 
    Dump and Run

    On January 24, Daphne Hulse met with Kasey Umland, Director of the Women's Resources Center, formerly the Associate Director at University YMCA, to discuss the following:

    1. What is the history of UIUC-YMCA Dump and Run events?

      1. Started with private certified housing, religious affiliated groups around 2012. 3 semi-trailers worth of stuff from campus and from the community. A lot of staff time went into the program.

      2. Previously had 2 boxes on every floor of Illini tower, which was a huge source of items. 26 boxes in this one building. Change in Illini tower management meant YMCA couldn’t do collections here anymore. It was great to have the materials, but hard to get everything out in time. the same year, University Housing came to YMCA about their Housing salvage drive (the person who ran it left). This was the first year YMCA collaborated with UIUC.

        1. Started doing some university housing dorms, but not all.

        2. Realized they couldn’t keep up with the overflow of materials.

        3. Big shift in kinds of items they received. Went from servicing mini apartments/suites (Illini Tower) versus university dormitories. 10x the amount of stuff as before with the Illini tower. 3/4 was clothing and bedding.

      3. Talked to Housing and needing more resources. It was too hard for YMCA to keep up. Majority of volunteers who did collections were students, but it was finals. Had a close relationship with them, but students would need to go right when things were picking up near the end of the move out week.

    2. Based off a quick survey of other schools move-out programs, it seems most common for schools to work with local nonprofit(s) to immediately donate items following the move out program. As opposed to storing items over the summer and preparing for a fall move-in sale. Thoughts about these two different ways of operating?

      1. Donating most items straight away seems like it may be the only way it can work for the university, since there’s an immense quantity of items to deal with.

      2. Suggest talking with intended recipients of non-profits beforehand, to see if they can accept it all immediately, or if it will be too much.

      3. Even when YMCA was running it, their excess was too much for some places.

      4. Salt and light had capacity.

      5. Goodwill said to stop (no more clothes).

      6. Most places would say they would want at least some items.

      7. The value of selling these items in a sale near move in is that there are items unique the college experience: XL twin sheets, for example.

    3. What are some best practices for event coordination?

      1. If you are dealing with multiple sites - think in advance about plotting out how to do collections.

      2. Thinking about when things will come in from certain places. Which were high donation spots? Some will only need checked every so often, some places needed checked 2 or 3 times a day.

      3. Capacity - Kasey always wanted something better than just putting items in a cardboard box.

        1. It is easier if items are placed directly into a bag. Otherwise, volunteers have to do this work.

      4. Try to be really clear about what people can and cannot donate. In a perfect world, check the boxes in the evening, that’s when students move out.

    4. We will have to rely on the help of volunteers, but students will have their finals during this time, and be moving out. We want to strengthen town and gown relations through this program. Any suggestions for local groups/organizations who would be good to reach out to who you think would have an interest in volunteering?

      1. Rotary Clubs

      2. Church or high school youth groups

      3. If the university would consider half day leave, that could be an incentive

      4. during business hours means it increases the privilege needed to participate

      5. Honors societies

      6. Sierra Club

      7. Junior League

      8. Humane Society

      9. Court Diversion

  15. Bike Fee potential increase - discussion with SSC

    Associated Project(s): 
    Bicycle Programs and Infrastructure Fee
    Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)

    Sarthak Prasad, Morgan White, and Stacey DeLorenzo met with Jack Reicherts and Lucy Nifong from Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) to discuss a possible increase in the Bike Fee from $1 per semester per student to $3 per semester per student.

    SSC will lead the referenda and seek approval for this increase from the Student Fee Advisory Committee (SFAC). Sarthak Prasad has shared the Bike Fee proposals from FY17 to FY24 that were approved by the SFAC as supporting document. Sarthak will also share a possible proposal for FY25 and FY26 with the budget of nearly $250,000 per year.

  17. iSEE and F&S initiate an analysis of the drinking water survey

    Associated Project(s): 
    Drinking Water Survey
    Zero Waste iCAP Team
    Reduce Single-Use Plastics

    Hi Daphne,

     

    Morgan and I spoke yesterday about mining data from the drinking water behavior survey that Meredith led. I started a list of question that I shared with Meredith, but she does not have time to take look into them. Morgan suggested you would be interested in working on this and could recruit Alec McKay to perform the analysis.

     

    The survey and responses can be found here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSceArOvxVzrJDNEwuWICC8nY2sBsXaF1NgJp9ZXI9DJf1rAcQ/viewform?usp=sharing

     

    My initial list of questions is below. There may be other items worth examining.

     

    Let me know if you want to discuss further. I’ll reach out shortly about scheduling regular meetings.

     

    Thanks,

    Jen

     

    *********************************

    Hi Meredith,

     

    I think it could be informative to analyze some of the responses to the survey. Specifically, it would be valuable to know if there is any consistency among respondents (in terms of gender identity and role on campus) to better target an information campaign. I made an initial list of questions and responses (below) that warrant a closer look (others could be added). Do you have an intern that could perform an analysis?

    -         Agree or strongly agree to the statement: “Bottled water is my primary source of drinkable water.”

    -         4 or 5 to the question: “To what degree do you prefer one type of water over another? Tap vs filtered” or “tap vs bottled” or “Filtered vs bottled”

    -         4 or 5 to “Bottled water is safer to drink than tap water.”

    -         4 or 5 to “Filtered tap water is safer to drink than tap water.“

    -         4 or 5 to “One single-use bottle of water does not yield a significant environmental impact.“

     

     

     

     

    Jennifer Fraterrigo (she/her)

    iSEE Associate Director for Campus Sustainability and
    Professor of Landscape and Ecosystem Ecology
    Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences

    University of Illinois

    W-423 Turner Hall, 1102 S. Goodwin Ave.

    Urbana, IL 61801

  18. Alec & Sarthak Meet to Discuss 2023 Bicycle Friendly University Application (BFU)

    Associated Project(s): 
    2014 Campus Bike Plan
    Reduce Driving on Campus
    Bicycle Friendly University Status

    Sarthak Prasad and Alec McKay met to discuss Alec helping Sarthak with the 2023 BFU Application. Sarthak provided some guidelines on getting up to date with the current status of the Bike Plan goals and objectives.

    A document containing notes Alec took is attached below.

    Attached Files: 

  20. 1-23-23 Internal Meeting

    Associated Project(s): 
    "Don't Waste" with Coca-Cola
    Fighting Illini, Fighting Waste
    Green Sports Alliance (GSA)

    On January 9, UIUC sustainability representatives met and discussed the following:

     

    Attendance: Marty Kaufmann, Thurman Etchison, Dominika Szal, Jen Fraterrigo, Pete Varney, Shawn Patterson, Tony Mancuso, Steve Breitwieser, Travis Tate, Bryan Johnson, Julie Wurth, Daphne Hulse

     

    Agenda:

    1. Meeting Cadence

      1. Reduced to every other week, based on a conversation Daphne Hulse and Jen Fraterrigo had. They would like to hold strategic meetings for initiatives that extend beyond recycling (focus on waste reduction).

    2. External Meeting with Coca-Cola (Jake Slager)

      1. First of the semester: Wednesday, January 25 (1-1:30pm).

      2. Once per month.

      3. Agenda: discuss upcoming basketball game, Don’t Waste Wednesdays campaign, Coca-Cola video from the 11/14 men’s basketball game.

    3. DIA Sustainability Initiatives

      1. Zero Waste Big Ten Men’s Basketball Game

        1. F&S Zero Waste leading the effort, with support from iSEE, DIA, Coca-Cola.

        2. Tentatively Thursday, March 2 6pm (versus University of Michigan).

        3. More operational than forward-facing.

        4. 75-100 volunteers working in shifts. Emphasis on after-game stand pick up.

          1. Tom Divan - contact to confirm the logistics of the after-game stand pick up.

          2. Next steps:

            1. Logistics

              1. Address tunnel situation under the State Farm Center (include Shawn Patterson in this discussion).

            2. Volunteers

              1. Use iSEE’s volunteer network.

              2. Provide Marty with the names of student volunteers.

              3. Volunteers can still check-in at main west entrance, though we cannot use the Orange Krush area again.

            3. Messaging - bringing reusable bottles?

              1. Seek a sponsorship for this initiative.

              2. Giveaway versus selling?

              3. Consider DIA messaging a topic for a smaller, strategic meeting.

        5. Measuring the efficacy of the recycling effort

          1. Marty reached out to concessionaire - will follow up. Data from the concessionaire helps us understand how many items actually end up recycled.

          2. F&S measures these weights separate from the rest of campus waste.

      2. State Farm Center permanent recycling bins

        1. F&S Zero Waste working with the facility to perform an audit, create a cost breakdown, and justification for recycling infrastructure.

        2. Submit an iCAP recommendation by the end of the semester.

      3. Fall 2023 Tailgate Recycling

        1. F&S Zero Waste + iCAP Zero Waste working with Tim Knox on developing a plan for comprehensive tailgate recycling.

        2. Document is in progress…

        3. Loop in Coca-Cola when plan is more formalized.

      4. Student Involvement

        1. Students from the iCAP Zero Waste team are interfacing with the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (a committee made up of student-athletes assembled to provide insight on the student-athlete experience) to determine how best students can approach sustainability initiatives within Athletics.

        2. Combine our top-down staff/faculty approaches with a bottom-up student approach.

    4. Don’t Waste Wednesdays Campaign

      1. First post: iSEE on Wednesday, January 25.

      2. iSEE working on social media backgrounds.

     

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