November 2014

Sustainability Bulletin

Energy Campaign

September 3rd–November 9th

Harvest Fest

Saturday, November 8th

Campus Sustainability

Week

November 10th-14th

Energy Campaign Reveal

November 21

Click here for the full calendar of events.

Energy Campaign

New York Campus Crunch

Sustainability Week Events

Local Food on Campus

Around Town

Opportunities

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6

10

14

16

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The eighth annual Energy Campaign kicked off on Wednesday,

September 3rd! During the 10-week challenge, the entire UAlbany

campus works to reduce our electricity consumption by 10%! This

year, the Energy Campaign runs from September 3rd until

November 9th.

We’re entering the final stretch of our energy campaign as we

wrap it up on November 9th. We are holding steady at a 9%

reduction but are closing in on the 1,000,000 kilowatt hour saved

mark! The living residences really helped us out this week as

they have achieved a 16% overall reduction. Our academic

buildings slipped back to a 4% overall reduction, so let’s finish

strong and get that number up!

The apartments Freedom and Empire have a strong lead over the

competition, with 36% and 32% reduction respectively. Alumni

has invoked some Halloween magic, because the quad jumped

from an 18% to a 27% reduction. State scoreboard now reads

10%, which means that four out of five of our quads are now in

the double digits! Indian is steadily making progress, up to a 7%

reduction.

On the academic side, five academic buildings are in the double

digits of savings, with Social Sciences leading with 22%! Many

buildings are stagnant in the single-digit realm, though it is

absolutely possible for them to join the double-digit ranks. We

have five buildings in the red, but we are confident they can

bring up their numbers. Our Student Energy Team will perform

extra energy checks in these buildings, ensuring that classroom

lights and computers are off at the end of the day.

Keep up the good work! If you have any questions, email

gogreen@albany.edu

UAlb

any’s

Energ

y C

am

paig

n

Living Area Percent Reduction CO2 Reduction

Freedom 36% 20

Empire 32% 71

Alumni 27% 31

Colonial 15% 36

Dutch 12% 31

State 10% 23

Indian 7% 16

Liberty Terrace 4% 6

Academic Building Percent Reduction Co2 Reduction

Social Sciences 22% 15

Education 20% 7

Physics 20% 13

Lecture Center 12% 25

Earth Science 12% 9

PAC 12% 6

Arts and Sciences + Computing

11% 11

Business Administration 7% 5

Fine Arts 6% 4

Campus Center 5% 13

SEFCU 4% 4

Science Library 3% 4

Humanities 2% 1

Chemistry 2% 4

University Library 1% 1

Physical Education 0% 0

Downtown Campus -1% -1

University Hall -1% 0

Life Sciences -4% -15

Biology -8% -6

Week 8s

Leaderboard

See how your academic

building is performing!

Week 8’s

Leaderboard

See how your living

residence is

performing!

We want to thank you for participating in this year’s Energy

Campaign! Join us for the Energy Campaign Reveal Celebration

in University Hall 110 on Friday, November 21st at 3pm!

It was the crunch heard around New York State. On Oct. 24 at the University at Albany campus, the first New York Campus Crunch was held in front of the small fountain in honor of National Food Day. Campus Crunch, which was hosted by the UAlbany Office of Environmental Sustainability, was meant to raise awareness of local food suppliers and advocate the use of more local food on campus. Director of Sustainability Mary Ellen Mallia was pleased with the fact that many students came out for the Crunch, despite the overcast skies. The event included speeches from students and local farmers, all of whom stressed the importance of utilizing the local food resources located around Albany. A local farmer named Peter mentioned that people should not seek out or expect fruits to be completely round and shiny. “Some apples are big and beautiful and some aren’t, just like people. People shouldn’t want perfect fruit,” he said. He also mentioned that purchasing local fruits over mass grown food ultimately sends money back into the community and that people should be concerned about getting naturally grown food that hasn’t been altered with pesticides and fertilizer. Radha Urribarri, a student who made a speech at the event, has only recently joined the fight to get local food on campus. Originally from Queens, she mentioned that focusing on local food was not something in the forefront of her mind until she came to college. Now, she said that she is going to carry the message back home to Queens. “Eating local means a lot to the planet,” she said. Making a speech in front of people was something that Urribarri had never done so she admitted that she had been nervous, but acknowledged it was a learning experience. Currently she is trying to get the dining halls to bring in more local food. Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy made a speech at the Crunch as well, and emphasized that change in communities frequently starts in colleges. According to Fahy, there needs to be an increase in environmental sustainability at every level. “We cannot change the world without changing our colleges,” she said. At noon, all of the speechmakers stood in a line holding apples provided by Indian Ladder Farms, a medium sized- farm located in Altamont, N.Y. At 12 on the dot, the advocates for environmental change all bit into their locally grown, imperfect apples. When the crowd started to disperse, Mallia said that though this was the inaugural Campus Crunch, she hopes that it will continue as a school tradition. “We want to get our campus involved,” she said during her speech.

UAlbany community takes bite of local

food during the first Campus Crunch By Kassie Parisi, Managing Editor of the Albany Student Press

Eighteen Campuses participated in the

NY Campus Crunch!

Winners! We challenged the campus to see which quad, LLC,

and student groupcould bring the most participants

and here are the results:

Quad: Colonial

LLC: Laws and Justice

Student Group: Pan Caribbean

A special thank you to all of the volunteers

who helped make the event a success!

Photos by Bill Pyke

Gre

en

Bu

ildin

g Sp

eak

er

Seri

es Did you know that the US Green

Building Council hosts a

Sustainable Speaker Series on the

second Tuesday of each month in

the Business Building?

Registration fees range from $15-

$20 for the public, but is free for

UAlbany students, staff, and

faculty!

Click here for more details on this

month’s program!

Food of

the Month:

Winter Squash

Through the Farm to

SUNY program, UAlbany

highlights a seasonal

and local food of the

month to be featured in

the dining halls.

Welcome to winter

squash!

UAlbany Students Demonstrate Commitment to Sustainable and Local Food

Whether it's working to bring healthy eating options in the dining halls or increasing locally sourced foods on campus, University at Albany students have taken the lead on bringing the concepts of sustainable farming and food production to the campus community.

"We started out by creating a student group called Grow Green," said Lisa Cassidy, who serves on UAlbany's sustainability council and is studying to earn her master's degree in biodiversity, conservation and policy. The group, which now has 90 participants, spent a recent fall day constructing a new Heritage Garden, promoting the use of native plants with cultural significance to New York.

The garden, which utilizes a low-water landscape with efficient irrigation

methods, will serve to educate the community about the history and

biodiversity of the region, said Amanda Colley, who co-chairs the grounds

committee with Cassidy on the sustainability council. Each of the gardening

beds represents a period of history in New York, as reflected by the four

University residence quads: Indian, Dutch, Colonial and State. As such, the

garden serves as a living-learning lab for students and the community.

Click here to see a video of UAlbany

students construct the Heritage Garden!

Enjoy the Pine Bush at night with an hour long hike under the almost full moon. We will plan to walk 0.9 miles over rolling topography stopping intermittently for night vision and sound observations. All ages.

Please plan to arrive at least 5-10 minutes before the start of the program to purchase your ticket ($3.00/person, $5.00/family, Children under 5 free). Tickets can also be purchased in advance of the program at the Discovery Center reception desk.

Almost Full Moon Hike Albany VegFest

Come out for the Albany Annual Veg Fest on November 15th from 10am-6pm. Albany VegFest brings together the global health benefits of green sustainable living, environmental awareness and compassion for animals and all beings.

Free admission; suggested $5 donation. Polish Community Center, Washington Ave Extension, Albany. Click here for more details.

Come out to Honest Weight Food Coop on

Thursday, November 27th at 6pm to learn

about Solarize.

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.

Solarize the Capital District Green Drinks

Co-hosted by Creo and the NY Upstate Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, this event welcomes all who have any interest in connecting with other local “greenies” be they actively working for sustainable options in their day job, concerned about buying healthier foods and products, interested in understanding alternative energy, curious about local business opportunities, or simply interested in meeting some of the coolest people in the area.

Every fourth Tuesday of the month at Creo Restaurant at Stuyvesant Plaza beginning at 5:30.

Scholarship Opportunity

Office of Environmental Sustainability Interns

C2C Fellowship Workshop

The 2014 Fall Sustainability Leadership C2C Workshop application is now open. The workshop will be held December 5th-7th at Bard in Annandale on Hudson, NY. C2C Fellows workshops are for current students and recent graduates who want high-impact careers in sustainable business and politics. Join C2C to learn the leadership skills necessary to succeed, such as how to: raise money, tell your story, build your network, pitch your idea, and know what you’re good at. Graduates of our workshops are eligible for scholarships to become funded graduate students at Bard's Center for Environmental Policy. View a draft workshop agenda here.

The Theodore Gordon Flyfishers, Inc. Founders Fund

Scholarship is a merit scholarship offered annually in the

name of the TGF founders, to a single recipient who has

demonstrated excellence and outstanding dedication in a

field of study that falls within an environmental field of a

school or department. It was the hope of the founders, as it

is the hope of the current membership of Theodore Gordon

Flyfishers, that the recipient will use this scholarship to assist

his or her studies, and after graduation seek employment in

the tri-state region in either the public or private sector

furthering the cause of environmental protection and riparian

habitat conservation for the benefit of all. Read more

The Office of Environmental Sustainability is seeking three motivated and energetic

interns to assist with the publication of monthly sustainability bulletin, developing

flier templates for a variety of sustainability engagement initiatives, assisting with

social media management and completing other assignments as requested. The

interns are expected work a minimum of 10-12 hours weekly. Internships are unpaid

though students may obtain academic credit through the Communications

Department.

Qualifications:

Excellent writing and communication skills

Working knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite applications, especially Publisher

Background or strong interest in environmental issues/sustainability

Project-oriented with strong self-initiative

Adaptable to organizational changes and new projects

Positive attitude, commitment and follow-through

Photography skills a plus

Deadline:

Applications for the fall internship will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

If interested, send a resume and letter of intent to Mary Alexis Leciejewski

at mleciejewski@albany.edu. Questions about the internship can be addressed to

Mary Alexis at 518-442-2592

Green Genies is a local residential and commercial cleaning service that goes

above and beyond industry green standards to offer truly healthy, effective

cleaning methods for getting homes or businesses healthy and clean without toxic

residue.

Their services are in such high demand that they are hiring individuals for full-time

or part-time work that are passionate about the natural environment and natural

living, have an eye for details and a strong team work ethic.

Owner Michelle Boyle has formulated the Tidy Thyme line of 100 percent natural

plant-based cleaning agents. Throughout the year, Green Genies brings their

services free of charge to places like animal shelters, homes of cancers patients,

and the Albany Pine Bush Preserve.

Send resumes to mboyle@green-genies.com. For more information, call 518-813-

7366 or visit them on the web.

Green Genies Jobs

Office of Environmental Sustainability Interns