Month: March 2016

MARCH 7, 2016 — A new research endeavor to identify energy reduction strategies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is underway as part of the Levenick iSEE Fellows Program.

On March 1, iSEE appointed its first two Levenick Fellows: Research Fellow Erica Myers, Assistant Professor of Agricultural and Consumer Economics (ACE), and Scholar Mateus Nogueira Meirelles de Souza, Ph.D. Candidate in ACE. During their time in residence with iSEE, they will examine how individuals on the Urbana-Champaign campus make decisions relating to energy use and test a variety of behavioral intervention strategies to reduce that consumption.

The Levenick iSEE Fellows Program is supported by a $500,000 gift from Illinois alumnus Stuart L. Levenick and his wife Nancy J. Levenick, both of Peoria. It contributes to iSEE’s mission of actionable research — that is, work that leads to lasting, real-world solutions to the world’s current and future sustainability-, energy- and environment-related issues.

The new project will be completed in two phases:

• During spring 2016, Myers and de Souza will work with engineers and building managers on campus to identify behavioral energy savings opportunities related to office and classroom heating and cooling, electronics and lighting.
• In summer and fall 2016, they will design and test the relative effectiveness of behavioral interventions such as educational campaigns, usage information provision, and social comparisons for taking advantage of savings opportunities and reducing energy consumption.

Myers and de Souza plan to share their findings in meetings with University stakeholders, in presentations at academic conferences, and through a publicly published University of Illinois white paper in early 2017.

“Our results will not only be relevant for the U of I in meeting its campus sustainability goals, but for other campus and commercial settings where energy use is not well understood or salient for consumers,” Myers said.

Read more about the Levenick iSEE Fellows Program and the new project here.

Read more about the Levenicks’ gift here.

 

 

MARCH 3, 2016 — The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign took on a leadership role to more actively respond to global climate change when Interim Chancellor Barbara Wilson signed Second Nature’s Climate Resilience Commitment in February.

Illinois is a Charter Signatory of the Second Nature Climate Commitment, which combines a Carbon Commitment the campus signed in 2008 with the newly signed Resilience Commitment. The full Climate Commitment formally acknowledges that the effects of climate change are already felt — and that universities and colleges must pursue both mitigation and adaptation to combat the unfolding crisis.

By adding the Resilience Commitment, Illinois has made a pledge to evaluate campus vulnerabilities to a changing climate in its landscapes, natural resources, and energy production — and to make an action plan that addresses those weaknesses.

In 2015, Illinois released an updated Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) reporting its progress toward emissions reduction and other campus sustainability goals and outlining a new path to reaching net zero carbon emissions as soon as possible, but no later than 2050.

“While the iCAP is a plan for how campus impacts the atmosphere and climate, the resilience plan will be about how the campus reacts to atmosphere and climate change,” said Evan DeLucia, Director of the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE).

Resilience is a measure of the ability to react to and recover from difficult circumstances. Resilient communities bend but do not break under pressure, he said.

Wilson, who signed the document Feb. 9, said: “Signing the Resiliency Commitment is a natural extension of our efforts to carefully steward university resources. By planning ahead, we can prepare for a range of potential challenges presented by climate change — whether social, financial, or ecological.

“We’re positioning ourselves to be the kind of nimble and responsive university that can deliver on our educational and research missions for generations to come.”

DeLucia said that carrying out the terms of the commitment will create a more holistic picture of sustainability on campus.

“I think this commitment will make us think about sustainability in a broader way,” he said. “Rather than only asking, ‘How much renewable energy do we use?’ we’ll also be asking ‘Do we have a diverse enough pool of energy resources so that if one fails, the entire system doesn’t fail?’ It will be less about being ‘green’ and more about being truly sustainable.”

A PDF of the Resilience Commitment — complete with Wilson’s signature — can be viewed on iSEE’s website.
Second Nature is a nonprofit organization with more than 20 years of experience mobilizing institutions of higher education to lead the way to a more just, healthy, and sustainable society. It sponsors the Climate, Resilience, and Carbon commitments and oversees reporting of the signatory institutions’ progress toward their goals.