November 2015
Sustainability Bulletin
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Campus Crunch
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Energy Campaign
10 Sustainability Week
12 The American Campuses Act on Climate’ Pledge 14 Around Town
What’s Happening on Campus
December 2nd Ban the Box Presentation by GSA Humanities 354 December 3rd Sustainability Collaborative Meeting Business Administration 223 December 8th US Green Building Speaker Series “Health in Design” Massry Center for Business 217 December 10th Office of Environmental Sustainability Open House Business Administration 3rd Floor For a full event calendar, click here.
#UAlbanyGivingTuesday On December 1, the University at Albany Foundation will again look to inspire the University community and beyond to show its support through a 24-hour giving challenge, known as UAlbany Giving Tuesday. You can support the Sustainability Fund, which is a crucial tool in assisting the Office of Environmental Sustainability build a culture of environmental consciousness and provide programming as UAlbany becomes a leader in higher education. We are pleased to announce that the UAlbany Foundation has established a matching challenge for the Sustainability Fund at UAlbany. Any gifts given to our fund will be matched, up to $2,000. The challenge will officially begin on Monday, Nov. 30 at 5:16 p.m. and end on Tuesday, Nov. 1 at 11:59 p.m. Donors can give online at albany.edu/give or by phone at 1-800-577-7869. A student donation table will also be located in the uptown campus lecture center from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The challenge will be updated live through Twitter, using #UAlbanyGivingTuesday.
College students, faculty and staff across New York State took part in the second annual New York Campus Crunch by taking enthusiastic and hearty bites into apples grown on New York State farms, demonstrating support for serving locally grown food on college campuses. The Campus Crunch is part of Food Day 2015, a celebration of food aimed at raising campus awareness of healthy, seasonal eating. The University at Albany , in conjunction with 19 colleges and universities from around the state, celebrated on Friday, October 23rd around the small fountain at 12PM (See a full listing of registered campuses on the New York Campus Crunch 2015 map). Radha Urribarri, a junior who has been involved in the local food movement on campus since her freshman year, led the crowd in the countdown to the bite. Watch a video of Radha explaining her understanding of why it is important to eat locally. Indian Quad Dining hall held a satellite crunch; students were greeted with New York State apples as they walked into the lunch that Friday, and they bit into them at the signal of Resident Director Leiry Santos. Over 175 students participated at UAlbany. The New York Campus Crunch is organized by the Farm to SUNY initiative to increase the purchasing of New York-grown vegetables and fruit products by SUNY campuses. Farm to SUNY is a partnership between American Farmland Trust, Farm to Institution New York State (FINYS), the SUNY Office of Sustainability and four pilot campuses: University of Albany; SUNY New Paltz; SUNY Oneonta and SUNY Oswego. The Campus Crunch event was sponsored by Sodexo Dining and University Auxiliary Services.
New York is the second largest apple producing state in the U.S., averaging 29.5 million bushels annually that include 19 of the most popular varieties.
Radha Urribarri and John Evers, Director of Operations for Albany County and UAlbany alumnus
New York designated the apple as official state fruit in 1976.
Our ninth annual Energy Campaign at the University at Albany started September 2nd and ran for ten weeks until November 8th. The campaign aimed to reduce electricity consumption on
Ninth Annual Energy Campaign
campus by 10%. The results are in! UAlbany had a 9.2 percent reduction compared to baseline, saving over 1.1 million kWh and an estimate 441 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. Students led the way, reducing their electricity use by 13.6 percent in the residence halls, compared with 6.3 percent in academic buildings. Though we narrowly missed our goal of 10%, there was an overall significant increase from the 2014 campaign, which only had a reduction of about 8%.
On Friday, November 13th, The Office of Environmental
Sustainability held the Energy Campaign Reveal Ceremony, at which we recognized the academic buildings and living residences that made significant reductions during the Energy Campaign. We also heard from recipients of the Sustainability Innovation Grant Program, including: graduate student Natalie O’Neill who shared what she learned about green chemistry at a conference; Sustainability Fellow Cassidy Drasser who gave a presentation on the National Association
for Graduate and Professional Students Leadership Summit (see page 11, picture 1); Kendra Smith-Howard who discussed a presentation by Dr. Romero on the chemicalization of agriculture; and graduate student Erin Sanderson who presented on the Northeast Natural History Conference. All of these projects were funded through the Sustainability Innovation Grant Fund, which awards up to $1,000 for an academic project related to sustainability.
Academic and Specialty Buildings Best Performer (Percent Reduction) Academic Building: Education Biggest Impact (Reduction in KWH) Academic Building: Arts and Sciences + Computing Academic Building Honor Roll (at least a 10% Reduction): Arts & Sciences, Campus Center, Earth Science, Education, Fine Arts, Lecture Center, PAC, Physics, SEFCU, Social Sciences Biggest Impact (Reduction in Percentage and KWH) Specialty Buildings: Lecture Center "Seen the Light Award": Chemistry Most Improved since 2014: Campus Center Specialty Building Honor Roll (At least a 10% Reduction): Lecture Center, Science Library, SEFCU Social Media Winners: We also awarded breakfast to the following offices for their participation on social media: Jason D'Cruz, Campus Center Connections Desk, and UAlbany Art Museum!
Residential Life Best Performer (Percent Reduction and KWH Reduction) Quad Division: Colonial Quad Best Performer (Percent Reduction and KWH Reduction) Apartment Division: Empire Commons Most Improved During Campaign: Indian Quad Honor Roll (At least a 10% Reduction): Alumni, Colonial, Dutch, Empire, Freedom
The Office of Environmental Sustainability also presented the Fall Terra Awards. Senior Nikki Gregor won
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the Student Terra for her work as the President of UAlbany Students for Sustainability, Graphics Design Intern for The Office of Environmental Sustainability, and the Community Assistant for the Environmental LivingLearning Community (picture 2). Donna Crisafulli was awarded with the Staff Terra for her collaboration on the Faith and Environment Series. Lastly, Dr. Mathias Vuille won the Faculty Terra for his research on climate change and outreach to students (picture 3). 2
We'd like to take a moment to say a great big thank you to all of those who participated in the campaign and celebrated with us at the Energy Campaign Reveal. We are especially grateful to UAS for their sponsorship of the program.
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Sustainability Week 2015
Sustainability Week is celebrated during the second week of November to showcase the myriad of ways students can get involved on campus to create a more environmentally-friendly UAlbany. This year, UAlbany Students for Sustainability (USS) took the reigns and designed an event packed week. The students selected a different theme for each day. On Monday, November 9th, the USS group celebrated Climate Change Day. They shared Bill Nye’s sentiment: “Climate change is happening, humans are causing it, and I think this is perhaps the most serious environmental issue facing us.” In the evening, students gathered to watch We Are All Related Here, a film about the first climate refugees in the United States. This film chronicled the plight of an Alaskan whose land is sinking due to permafrost melt. The residents purchased land over 10 years ago to move their community but have been struggling to fund the new construction. This scenario is going to be replayed in dozens of other communities in Alaska due to climate change and illustrates the complex issue of climate refugees. On Tuesday, November 10th, the USS group celebrated Environmental Stewardship Day with the Adirondack Mountain Club. They groups encouraged students to get outside, while being sure leave no trace. In the evening, Jodi Smits-Anderson of the Upstate NY Green Building Council shared a presentation on 8 Highly Effective Habits of Green People. On Wednesday, November 11th, Waste Reduction Day, the USS group achieved a near zero waste goal in the Lecture Center Concourse. The students worked with the janitorial staff to cover the existing garbage bins and divert waste disposal to a few key areas in the concourse. At these locations, volunteers managed waste stations to help and inform campus members to properly dispose of recycling, composting, and landfill trash. One highlight was the personal lesson given to a student on how to separate their coffee cup and place the items in the correct bins.
Thursday, November 12th was Energy Awareness Day. This was highlighted by a climate simulation organized by Professor Eliot Rich which replicated the United Nations climate change negotiation scenario. Over 50 students participated, playing different blocks of nations as well as special interest groups to create a global agreement on climate The exercise is framed by current climate change science, through the interactive C-ROADS computer simulation, enabling participants to find out how their decisions impact the global climate system in real-time. To cap off the week, the USS group hosted Local Food Day on Friday, November 13th. The group hosted a taste testing event to challenge the student body to see if they could guess which sample of cheese was made on a local farm and which one was mass produced. Though most students’ pallets were refined enough to distinguish between the two, many found themselves interested in learning more about local food. Local Food Day was finished with the Energy Campaign Reveal, which served many seasonal items, with help from Sodexo Catering. Congrats to the student leaders who made this year’s Sustainability Week a success!
UAlbany Supports President Obama’s American Campuses Act on Climate Pledge The University at Albany has signed on to participate in the American Campuses Act on Climate Change, a White House-led initiative that illustrates the critical role higher education plays in raising awareness about climate change and in enacting solutions. This pledge confirms UAlbany’s commitment to climate change research, education and implementation of sustainable and resilient practices. More than 230 campuses, representing 3.4 million students throughout the nation have also pledged to mitigate the effects of climate change. The impact of climate change is already being felt worldwide. According to the White House, 19 of the 20 hottest years on record occurred in the past two decades. Countries and communities around the globe are experiencing deeper, more persistent droughts, severe weather, bigger storm surges, and more frequent and dangerous wildfires. Rising temperatures can lead to more smog, longer allergy seasons, and an increased incidence of extreme-weather-related injuries, all of which jeopardize public health, particularly for vulnerable populations. UAlbany’s carbon reduction efforts include:
An annual energy campaign to promote conservation to reduce electricity use. In 2015, UAlbany had a 9.2 percent reduction, saving 1.1 million kilowatt hours and 441 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. Students led the way, saving 13.6 percent of energy in the residence halls, compared with 6.3 percent in academic buildings. From December 19 to January 14, 2016, the University will conduct its 8th annual intersession energy initiative. This has produced annual reduction of approximately 1 million kilowatt hours and 12,000 MMBTUs, garnering a savings of $200,000. Similar to previous years, Phase I (December 19th through January 3rd), temperatures will be held at 55 degrees. During Phase II (January 4th through January 14th),
temperatures will be raised to 68 degrees.
The Office of Parking Management and Transportation Services has also helped increase sustainability efforts on campus by operating five diesel electric-hybrid buses or 41% University’s bus fleet.
The University is also supporting energy reduction the transportation sector by signing on to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Workplace Charging Challenge, which aims to achieve a tenfold increase in the number of U.S. employers offering workplace charging stations for plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) by 2018. UAlbany currently has two charging stations: one on the uptown campus and one on the downtown campus.
The President’s Climate Action Plan, when fully implemented, will cut nearly 6 billion tons of carbon pollution through 2030, an amount equivalent to taking all the cars in the United States off the road for more than four years. This is in addition to the efforts of private companies, local governments, foundations and schools and colleges to reduce their carbon footprint. UAlbany’s efforts reflect measures taken by the public and private sectors in the United States that have enabled President Obama to set an ambitious but achievable goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions economy-wide by 26-28 percent by 2025 last November—and to do so alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping, who committed for the first time that China would peak their emissions by around 2030. As President Obama said at the U.N. Climate Summit last September, “There’s one issue that will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other, and that is the urgent and growing threat of a changing climate.” The 2015 World Climate Summit will be held in Paris, beginning November 30th.
Summer Intern Summary
Solarize the Capital District Join Solarize the Capital District on Thursdays from 6PM-8PM in the Community Room at Honest Weight Food Coop. Solarize is a bulk purchase of solar equipment and installation services. By working together with many households interested in buying solar, we can get better prices on better equipment. This process has been used successfully around the US to dramatically reduce costs and make it easier for home and business owners, because the Solarize team does a lot of the hard work for you. This increases overall demand for solar, a true win-win for all local installers, for our communities, and for the environment. If you are interested in helping make this a reality for the Albany area, or putting solar on your property, please email Dave Hochfelder at dphochfelder@gmail.com
116th Annual Christmas Bird Count Anyone of any age can be a Citizen Scientist in the Capital Region! Join the Capital Region Audubon Society at the Huyck Preserve and Biological Research Center on Saturday, December 19th at 8AM for the Christmas Bird Count! To participate, call 518-797-3440 or send an email to outreach@huyckpreserve.org and please leave them your name & phone number.
Bike Share
Cooking Class: Russian Beet Love On Wednesday, December 2nd at 6PM, Julia Popova will introduce a class to beets at Honest Weight Food Coop. An important ingredient in Russian cuisine, this versatile veggie is great for pickling, juicing, and roasting or as a nutrient-boosting addition to smoothies, soups, and salads. Julia is an experienced gardener, preserver, and Russian cook who will demonstrate how to make delicious beet dishes using fresh produce from Honest Weight. Come to taste, learn, ask questions, and have fun while you broaden your culinary repertoire!
Feathered Friends: Winter Roosting of Crows Have you ever wondered why you often see large numbers of crows all flying together at the end of a winter day? They seem quite purposeful, as though they have an appointment for which they cannot be late. If you’d like to know where they are going and why they feel it necessary to get there, join the crew at Five Rivers Environmental Education Center on Saturday, December 19th at 10AM for this presentation on the purposes of winter crow roosts.
This semester is all about you Being on campus without a car isn’t always convenient. You can grab a bus, ride your bike, or get a lift from a friend. But sometimes you just need access to a car. That’s why we’ve brought Zipcar to campus. Zipcar is an 18+ service that gives students access to shared cars – gas and insurance included! To celebrate the new school year, you can now join Zipcar for $25, and get $35 in free driving credit. Sign up today at Zipcar.com to take advantage of this great deal in 2015.