Adding metrics to your Illinois Sustainability Award application allows evaluators to truly see the quantitative or qualitative impacts that your organization, program or technology have achieved. Plus, metrics are important for your own use—to tell your story to stakeholders, to evaluate next steps in your sustainability efforts, and to determine the effectiveness of what you’ve done thus […]

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Happy America Recycles Day! Celebrated annually on November 15 since 1997, America Recycles Day is a program of Keep America Beautiful, Inc. and is about educating the public about how and what to recycle, while encouraging people to do so as part of their daily routine. Those of us who were alive in the 1970s […]

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In Cateura, Paraguay (South America) there is extreme poverty.  The people make most of their living from collecting sellable items from the huge landfill near their town, and drug addictions and gang violence are common among the youth.  One day two orchestra directors, Luis Szarán (Sonidos de la Tierra) and Favio Hernán Chávez Morán (Recycled Orchestra), got […]

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The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) is getting ready to host its fall Illinois Biochar Group meeting.  Meetings are held three times a year and are usually located at ISTC.  The Illinois Biochar Group encourages research in the production and use of biochar including the project topics: soil amendments, site remediation, carbon sequestration, and supercapacitors. […]

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A pair of environmental recognition programs have joined together to honor Illinois organizations that have accomplished significant achievements in protecting the environment and helping to sustain the future. Winners of the Illinois Governor’s Sustainability Awards and the Illinois Campus Sustainability Compact Awards Program were presented during a luncheon in Oak Brook, IL.    Twenty-one Illinois companies and […]

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The Sustainability Seminar Series continues with “Sustainable Electronics: Lessons Learned from the RoHS and the Pb-free Transition” by Dr. Carol Handwerker (Reinhardt Schuhmann Jr. Professor of Materials Engineering, Purdue University) on November 5, 2012, from noon-1pm in the SJW Convergence Room at ISTC.    Dr. Handwerker will be discussing how the lead-free solder alloy movement in the late 1990’s provided […]

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Champaign County (IL)  will offer a residential electronics collection event from 8 a.m to noon on Saturday, October 13, 2012. The drop off location is the News-Gazette Distribution Center at 3202 Apollo Drive in Champaign, IL. Click here to view a map of the location, a list of acceptable electronic items being collected, and information […]

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  The new Indoor Climate Research & Training (ICRT) program training facility was completed earlier this month and ISTC hosted an invitation only Grand Opening Ceremony.  Dr. Manohar Kulkarni (ISTC Director) and Paul Francisco (Research Engineer and Program Leader for ICRT) kicked of the ceremony with welcoming remarks and short history of the ICRT program.  Special guest […]

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Join us for a webinar today, Tuesday, December 11, 2012, 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM CDT. This seminar will be hosted at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) in Champaign, IL, and simultaneously broadcast online. The presentation will be archived on the ISTC web site (see https://istc.illinois.edu/about/sustainability_seminars.cfm for more information and additional webinar archives).   […]

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TR- 049 —  Use of Treated Effluent Water in Cellulosic Ethanol Production / Ramchandran, Divya; Singh, Vijay; Rajagopalan, Kishore; Strathmann, Timothy — Champaign, IL : Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, 2013. [available at http://hdl.handle.net/2142/42595].   The report is the result of a project funded by ISTC’s Sponsored Research Program.

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Project Title: Illinois Materials Management & Recycling Opportunities Report  Sector: State Government  Location: Illinois, Statewide  Services: Fostering Sustainable Behavior, Pollution Prevention, Process Optimization, Stakeholder Engagement, Resilient Solutions, Sustainability Planning, Waste Reduction/Management  Background: Between 2019 and 2021, the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) Technical Assistance Program provided support to the Illinois EPA (IEPA) and the statewide […]

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Project Title: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Quad Recycling Containers Sector: Higher Education Location: Champaign-Urbana, IL  Services: Implementation Assistance, Fostering Sustainable Behavior Background: The Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) is the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s roadmap to reducing the campus carbon footprint and achieving carbon neutrality. Since the development of the iCAP, the Illinois […]

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Project Title: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Indoor Solid Waste & Recycling Collection Assessment & Infrastructure Improvement Sector: Higher Education Location: Champaign-Urbana, IL  Service: Implementation Assistance, Fostering Sustainable Behavior Background: In 2008, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UI) signed the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, becoming part of a network of institutions of […]

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Project Title: Chicago Zoological Society Recycling and Waste Reduction Opportunity Assessment Sectors: Zoos, Aquaria, and Museums; Parks and Recreation  Location: Chicago, IL Services: Waste Characterization Study, Fostering Sustainable Behavior Background: The Chicago Zoological Society (CZS) has been committed to inspiring conservation leadership by connecting people with wildlife and nature since the gates opened at Brookfield […]

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Project Title: Forest Preserve District of Cook County Sustainability & Climate Resiliency Plan  Sector: Parks and Recreation Location: Forest Preserves of Cook County, Illinois Services: Resilient Solutions (Climate Resiliency), Sustainability Planning, Fostering Sustainable Behavior, Implementation Assistance Background: In 2014 the Forest Preserve District of Cook County (Forest Preserves), a public agency responsible for protecting and […]

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Project Title: Forest Preserve District of Cook County Clean Energy Framework Sector: Parks and Recreation Location:Forest Preserves of Cook County, Illinois Services: Resilient Solutions (Climate Resiliency), Sustainability Planning, Fostering Sustainable Behavior, Implementation Assistance Background: ISTC’s Technical Assistance Program (TAP) and the Forest Preserve District of Cook County (Forest Preserves) have a history of working together […]

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Project title: Forest Preserve District of Cook County Recycling and Waste Reduction Opportunity Assessment Sector: Parks and Recreation Location: Forest Preserves of Cook County, Illinois Services: Fostering Sustainable Behavior, Waste Characterization Background: In 2014, the Forest Preserve District of Cook County engaged the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) Technical Assistance Program (TAP) to help understand […]

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Project Title: Materials Management Advisory Committee Report to the General Assembly Sector: State Government Location: Illinois, Statewide Service(s): Sustainability Planning, Stakeholder Engagement, Resilient Solutions Background: In July 2019, Governor Pritzker signed House Bill 3068, which created the Statewide Materials Management Advisory Committee (MMAC). Coordinated by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and comprised of a […]

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Project Title: Green Lunchroom Challenge Sectors: K-12 schools (primary original sector targeted), Higher Education, Institutions (any with on-site food service) Location: Illinois (primary focus); United States (Beyond IL) Services: Implementation Assistance, Fostering Sustainable Behavior, Stakeholder Engagement, Waste Characterization Background: According to a 2012 report from the Natural Resources Defense Council, food production represented 10 percent […]

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