For the Spring 2014 semester, I am enrolled in NRES 285 – a field course entitled Performance Metrics and Assessment Techniques for Sustainability Projects. This course utilizes experiential learning in order to gain hands-on experience with sustainability projects on the UIUC campus. In order to assess these initiatives it is necessary to evaluate effectiveness of the project, means of improvement, methods of communicating results, and suggestions for the future. In particular, a project I found particularly appealing is the solar thermal system at the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC) used to heat the indoor and outdoor pools.

The Vermicomposting project (also known as I-Compost) in Sustainable Student Farm (SSF) began as part of the Transplant and Vermi-Composting Multiuse Greenhouse project. It is a pilot project to close the loop between the student farm and the university dining hall. The Transplant and Vermi-Composting Multiuse Greenhouse project received $65,222 grant from Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) on April 24, 2013. It also received $8,565 grant from the Office of Public Engagement on November 28, 2012 and $1,000 grant from Ernst & Young on March 21, 2012. The constructions of greenhouse and vermicomposting unit are completed on Fall 2013.

The goal of this project was to assess the success of the electric vehicles and solar panels on the Student Sustainable Farm (SSF). In 2010, through Engineering 298, the farm received a 1960 Allis-Challmers G Cultivating tractor that has been retrofitted to contain an electric powered motor. The following year, the same course began a new project to install 8 PV cell solar panels and charging station to service the SSF’s tractor. In 2012, a new course, Engineering 315, proposed and developed a project that would give the farm a delivery truck powered by an electric motor and a set of 24 PV solar panels and charging station to supply enough electricity for the truck’s daily use. As of now, all projects have been installed and are currently being used on the SSF except for the delivery truck, which has taken longer to construct than previously thought. The goal for all three projects is to offset the farm’s fuel costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While these projects have been funded and constructed with the intent they will make significant reductions to the farms energy cost and reduce emissions, they have not been appropriately assessed after implementation to measure if these goals have truly been achieved. With the help of Zack Grant, the SSF manager, the expertise of my professors, and extensive research, I have developed measures reflecting the performance of these projects and the impact they’ve had. I’ve measured water savings, carbon savings, and cost savings in order to express how the Student Sustainability Committee’s (SSC) money has been spent. With this information, I hope to provide honest feedback to the SSC so they can maximize their investments and provide our campus with projects producing the greatest energy savings for the cost. My intent for this paper is to teach people what sustainable really is, not to suggest that this or any other SSC funded projects are bad. I truly believe the work of the SSC is essential to our campus for guiding our students to become stewards of sustainability.

In 1820, Illinois contained 22 million acres of prairie, but due to modern intensive agricultural practices, only a few thousand remain today. Of high quality, remnant prairie, there are only 2,300 acres which mostly persist along railroads, in cemeteries, and in ground that is not fit for farming (DNR, 2014). Prairies are part of the history and culture of Illinois. The rich soils that grow so much food for people all over the country were formed under prairie landscapes. These grassland habitats have a lot of potential to continue providing ecosystem services for the citizens of Illinois, but first we have to recognize those ecosystem services and realize the value of the sustainability of prairie landscapes. Faculty at the University of Illinois Veterinary School and at the Illinois Natural History Survey have aimed to do just that through a prairie restoration project on the Veterinary Medicine campus.

From: Sweeney, Eva Maria
Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2014 3:41 PM
To: Chasco, David; Hall, Gaines B; Johnston, Morgan B; Tousignant, Teresa Marie Giardina
Cc: Rubin, Joshua
Subject: RE: Temple Buell - lighting controls upgrade

Dir. Chasco,

Thanks for your reply.  I’ll notify the project coordinator to proceed without the dimming controls.

Regards,

-Eva

From: Chasco, David
Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2014 2:05 PM
To: Hall, Gaines B; Sweeney, Eva Maria; Johnston, Morgan B; Tousignant, Teresa Marie Giardina
Cc: Rubin, Joshua
Subject: RE: Temple Buell - lighting controls upgrade

See below.

From: Hall, Gaines B
Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2014 12:27 PM
To: Sweeney, Eva Maria; Johnston, Morgan B; Tousignant, Teresa Marie Giardina; Chasco, David
Cc: Rubin, Joshua
Subject: RE: Temple Buell - lighting controls upgrade

I will defer to Director Chasco for this answer.

Gaines

From: Sweeney, Eva Maria
Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2014 11:24 AM
To: Johnston, Morgan B; Tousignant, Teresa Marie Giardina; Hall, Gaines B; Chasco, David
Cc: Rubin, Joshua
Subject: FW: Temple Buell - lighting controls upgrade

All,

Please see below.  Per our discussions at the 95% review, I added in continuous dimming

to the 2nd and 3rd floor studios daylighting controls.  I had hoped we could afford this within the

project budget, but the bid has come in too high.

Would it be acceptable to the department to remove the dimming function, and have the

daylighting operate in on/off mode only?  This will save a huge amount and put us back on budget. Yes, that is ok if it helps the budget.

Please let me know your thoughts ASAP so I can have the contractor revise their bid.

David

Thanks,

-Eva

From: Rubin, Joshua
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2014 4:44 PM
To: Sweeney, Eva Maria
Subject: Temple Buell

Eva

As discussed, the fixed cost JOC scope of work for the TBH Lighting upgrades is ~$119,580.  This does not include any F&S system integrity support (this would be time and material support for things like smoke outage support, electrical outage support, ballast disposal) which would be minor on this project.

The emergency exit light replacement cost is approx. $9,500.00

Removal of the dimming requirement for the studio/lab areas would save somewhere in the range of $33,300 - $50,000

Please let me know if you and the customer (Gaines Hall?) would like a more exact proposal for any of the options above and how you would like to proceed with this project.

Thanks,

Josh Rubin

JOC Project Specialist

Facilities & Services

University of Illinois

1501 S Oak St.

Champaign, IL 61820

Office:   (217) 300-2469

Cell:        (217) 377-5493

A look at the presentations from the May 8 retreat on energy hosted by the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (the underlined PowerPoint presentations can be viewed):

• Welcome by Professor Ben McCall, iSEE Associate Director for Campus Sustainability.
• Introduction by Professor Scott Willenbrock, Chairnan of the iSEE Sustainability Working Advisory Team for Energy Generation, Purchasing, and Distribution.
• "Energy Planning and Procurement at the University," presented by Dan Mortland, Assistant Vice President of Enterprise Services at University of Illinois.
• "Geothermal," videoconference presentation by Jim Lowe, Ball State University Director of Engineering and Construction Operations.
• "Solar," presented by Xinlei Wang, Associate Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at U of I.
• "Biomass," presented by Eric Rund, Owner of Rund Farms in Pesotum.
• "Capturing and Converting CO2 into Useful Chemicals," presented by Paul Kenis, Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at U of I.
• "Replacing Petroleum through Carbon-neutral Biofuels from Next-generation Integrated Infrastructure Systems," presented by Yuanhui Zhang, Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at U of I.
• "Energy Efficiency and Energy Sources," presented by Cliff Singer, Professor of Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering at U of I.
• "Retrofitting," presented by Paul Francisco, coordinator of the Indoor Climate & Research Training Program at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center.
• "Think Globally, Act Locally: What are the Implications?" presented by Cliff Singer, Professor of Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering at U of I.

Hey Bike Team,

Found this awesome thing online today: http://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#6/-120.90000/38.36000/blue/bike

It takes GPS data from Strava (an app people use to log bike and running mileage and share it with friends) and lays it over google maps. Kind of neat to see where people are biking on campus.

Hope you're all enjoying the weather.

Andy

Ken,

Let’s do this, and let Randy Whitman know we appreciate his suggestions – both about the LEDs and the attachment method.

Thanks.

Carl

From: Sweeney, Eva Maria
Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2014 2:29 PM
To: Buenting, Kenneth C; Wegel, Carl Victor
Cc: Johnston, Morgan B
Subject: FW: Energy Savings proposal

Ken & Carl,

Please see below for Randy Whitman’s suggestion of LEDs in the step lights at Lincoln Hall. I concur 100% that they would save energy and maintenance effort.

The cost would be in the ballpark of $1000-1500 including labor install.  Could this be done under maintenance, or should we look for other funding from RLF or SSC?

-Eva

From: Whitman, Randy E
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2014 11:09 AM
To: Sweeney, Eva Maria
Cc: Moen, Gregory A; Eckstein, Timothy J; Henry, Mark A; Ball, Sharon L
Subject: Energy Savings proposal

Eva,         

                I read somewhere recently that the University is transitioning to the use of LED lights as an energy savings measure.  I have a small proposal that would be a step in that direction.  In Lincoln Hall Theater there are numerous (at least 45) un-switched, un-dimmed, aisle/step lights that are on 24 hours a day to provide safe egress from the theater.  Currently they are lamped with 9 watt CFLs that cost approximately $5.00 with a life expectancy of 8,000 hours.  I have talked to Terry Gustafson from Englewood and he could get us a 3.5 watt LED lamp for $11.70 with a life expectancy of 25,000 hours.  The LED will provide adequate illumination for egress purposes.  So, for a little more than twice the cost we could get 3 times the lamp life and consume 60% less energy as well.  The #1 electric shop is already stocking that 3.5 watt LED lamp for candelabra fixtures in the foyer of the theater.  So, I was wondering if replacing the CFL lamps with LED lamps could be submitted to someone as a cost/energy savings measure?

               If this idea does not fall within your scope of work could you please tell me who I should submit this proposal to?  

On another  note for those aisle fixtures, I believe we need to modify the attachment of the fixtures to the floor box  adding washers to the attachment screws.  These fixtures are being kicked and become so loose that the wires feeding the fixtures become exposed creating a safety hazard for occupants of the theater.  I believe that the warranty for these fixtures has expired so they could be modified with better attachment means at the same time they are being re-lamped if a work order were to be generated to do this needed upgrade.

  Thanks for your time and attention.

Randy Whitman  rewhitma@illinois.edu

There are currently four League Certified Instructors in Champaign County: Valerie Sivicek, Cynthia Hoyle, Tim Marty, and Sue Jones.

Dear Mike,

The Student Sustainability Committee recently decided to fund a project entitled "Energy Shade Curtains - Phase III" for the Plant Care Facility in the amount of $71,000.  The project aims to install and program new shade curtains to decrease unnecessary overuse of energy to heat, cool, and power greenhouse rooms.  An earlier phase of this project included detailed metering, which demonstrated a 50% reduction in heat inputs and a 32% reduction in electricity consumption.

The SSC, and iSEE, would like to ask whether the energy savings resulting from this project can be "paid back" into the Revolving Loan Fund in order to help facilitate future energy-saving projects.  Obviously we would have to quantify exactly what the savings are, before moving forward.

Sincerely,

Marika Nell (Outgoing Chair, SSC)
Amy Liu (Incoming Chair, SSC)
Ben McCall (Associate Director for Campus Sustainability, iSEE)
 

Work Request 141288 converted to Work Order 10288695

Work Order: 10288695

Building: 0034 - MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENG BLDG

Room:

Department Reference:

Customer Description:

Please provide engineering design services to install lighting occupancy sensors and HVAC occupancy sensors in the Materials Science and Engineering Building (MSEB).  Charge CFOP 1-762417-862004-xxxxxx-198000.

Phases:

Phase: 001 DESIGN SERVICES

Hello Big Ten CCN competitors! 

CCN officially ended on April 25th and the results were published yesterday. Congratulations to Penn State University on taking the lead of Big Ten Unplugged with an overall 3.3% electricity reduction during the competition. Penn State University was also a winner in the poster category.  

Taking 2nd place was Ohio State University with a 3.1% reduction. 3rd place goes to University of Wisconsin - Madison with a 2.2% reduction. Congrats to our top 3 Big Ten Unplugged winners! 

I'd like to propose that we continue a Big Ten Challenge in the future not only for CCN but any nationwide competition focused on resource reduction. I will propose a meeting for us some time in late summer to outline what future competitions within Big Ten might look like. 

Best, 

Stacey White
Sustainability Coordinator

University Services

University of Minnesota

Office: 612-624-3285

Cell: 612-978-0843

Fax: 612-625-4133

see file

CUUATS completed a University District Traffic Circulation Study, using information from a campus-wide statistically relevant survey.

The following table shows the mode share information based on the survey conducted in April-May, 2011.

From: Rajagopalan, Nandakishore [mailto:nrajagop@illinois.edu]
Sent: Friday, May 02, 2014 10:18 AM
To: swat-water@dib.illinois.edu
Subject: oxijet water nozzle

A suggestion from someone in the UI physics department.

http://www.felton.co.nz/?sid=2152

The Felton Oxijet™ volumises the stream with air giving you a more luxurious shower.

Traditional flow restrictors work by simply reducing flow and pressure, whereas the Oxijet™ uses flow energy to draw air into the water stream.

From: Amy Liu [mailto:amy.linqin.liu@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, May 02, 2014 11:41 PM
To: Johnston, Morgan B
Cc: swat-water@dib.illinois.edu
Subject: Re: EPA Campus RainWorks Challenge

This is really interesting, I will look into this. Thanks!

On Fri, May 2, 2014 at 10:15 PM, Johnston, Morgan B <mbjohnst@illinois.edu> wrote:

Hi Water SWATeam,

One of the potential water-related projects for campus could be this student competition: http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/greeninfrastructure/crw_challenge.cfm.

What do you think?

Thanks,

Morgan

Dear ALUFS SWATeam,

Evan DeLucia has asked me to share with you some ideas being propounded by Bruce Hannon (bhannon@illinois.edu).  Bruce is advocating the establishment of a central authority for sustainable landscaping, preferably at the University level, to approve landscape designs, implement a shift towards native species, and coordinate fundraising.  I personally find all of the objectives he has in mind to be attractive ones, but it's not obvious to me whether the mechanism he proposes is the best one to further those objectives.  I attach three documents from Bruce for background.

In any case, I would like to recommend that your team meet with Bruce and discuss his vision.  That discussion, in addition to others you may have with other experts and stakeholders, might lead to a formal recommendation from your team that iSEE could route through the emerging process for campus sustainability recommendations.

Cheers,

Ben

From: Marquissee, Mike
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2014 11:22 AM
To: Mies, Timothy A; Anderson, Gary L; Dale Johnston (dkjohnst@igb.illinois.edu)
Subject: RE: Copy of UofI propane 040414-MLM EDITS.xls

Tim,

See answers below.

Mike

From: Mies, Timothy A
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2014 9:01 AM
To: Marquissee, Mike; Anderson, Gary L; Dale Johnston (dkjohnst@igb.illinois.edu)
Subject: RE: Copy of UofI propane 040414-MLM EDITS.xls

Hi Mike,

Several questions have come up that I would like you input on in regards to the green revolving loan fund in cases that might occur that do not follow the typical project pattern.

Scenario 1) The energy farm reverts to another department at the completion of the grant of the Energy Biosciences Institute before the loan is repaid.  How would the loan be handled in cases where the new department weren’t within the VCR cost area? 

• Since the loan is being repaid from the campus pool in favor of the VCR, it is likely that it would still pay out in favor of which other campus department it goes to.  Unless it turns into a self-supporting entity, which is unlikely.  In that unlikely event, the self-supporting entity would repay the loan.

Scenario 2) A crop loss occurs one year that would limit/prevent the savings that are estimated from our initial estimates? 

• The Campus utility pool would still pay out.  Just that the savings would not be recognized.  It would also pay for the additional propane.  The loss would not come out of the project.

Scenario 3) Miscanthus ceases to be produced on the energy farm, resulting in no more mxg produced locally?  Would F&S then consider purchasing MXG from a local farmer who could supply the material? Assuming the boiler installed could handle multiple feedstocks, wood chips may be an alternative. 

• We support this project because there is a research project attached to it.  If that project is discontinued, we would then have to discuss who repays the loan.  Most likely it would be out of the research fund, then, which would also pay for the restoration of the site and so on.  I don’t think we would be interested in providing alternative fuel sources or manage an abandoned research project.

Thanks for your input.

Tim