The snow melting is one unmistakable sign, but for David Grabowski, it’s not really spring until he pulls his boots on and heads into the woods looking for dinner.

Many college students who head to the Dominican Republic for spring break are looking to enjoy the sun and sand. But 32 students from UB spent their break on this Caribbean Island teaching English to disadvantaged children.

Bill McKibben, author and founder of the global grassroots climate action campaign 350.org, will deliver the 2013 commencement address for School of Architecture and Planning.

Three UB students took first place in UB’s Panasci TEC for their plan to manufacture a material coating that can regulate heat from the sun in any building creating “smart” windows or surfaces.

The collaborative workshop is the third that UB is hosting with the EPA this year to improve the region’s sustainability

Fred Stoss, with his signature mustache and walleye tie, is a well-known name among certain circles on the island of Aruba. He’s also met former Vice President Al Gore several times.

UB is the 11th largest green power user among U.S. colleges and universities, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

A decade past graduation, Kevin Purdy has fond memories of a freshman year spent living in the University at Buffalo’s Ellicott Complex.

Renowned author and environmentalist Bill McKibben is delivering the School of Architecture and Planning’s Commencement address. 

Yankee, the male peregrine falcon nesting on the South Campus, has found a new mate. What’s more, the female—bird enthusiasts have named her “Dixie”—has produced four eggs.

Local activists, academics, community organizers and federal experts will exchange ideas toward making Western New York’s homes and communities healthier at a daylong environmental justice forum.

Solar power plants are often located behind fences, on rooftops or in hard-to-reach places. UB’s Solar Strand, believed to be the nation’s most publicly accessible photovoltaic array, is an exception. 

UB engineers and their students are improving the environment in Western New York and beyond.

PULL projects—multiyear Pop-Up Living Laboratories—aim to promote economic stabilization, neighborhood revitalization, crime reduction and a prosperous business district in the University Heights.

Starting this spring, you won’t need to BYOB—bring your own bicycle, that is—to UB. UB has teamed up with Buffalo BikeShare and a New York-based company to launch a beta test of an innovative new bicycle-sharing program.

A team of University at Buffalo architecture students have earned international recognition for Elevator B, their 22-foot-tall, honeycomb-style tower housing bees on Buffalo’s waterfront.

To get a glimpse of what the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens may look like in the future, head over and take a look at a new exhibit of designs that explores the possibilities.

UB hosted the Young Adult Environmental Leadership Program several weeks ago in Greiner Hall.

Engineers, architects, government administrators, scientists and others met to discuss how Western New York can prepare for, fund and create green infrastructure projects.

State wildlife officials today safely captured a female peregrine falcon that had been nesting in MacKay Tower on the University at Buffalo’s South Campus.

New research describes how long-time residents teamed up with gentrifiers and external environmental activists to push for the cleanup of Greenpoint’s Newtown Creek while preserving the area’s industrial roots.

Samina Raja has spent the better part of the past decade conducting research in the field of food security and heading the only research laboratory in the United States dedicated to food systems planning.

Earth’s exponentially growing population is a “wicked problem” at the root of every major issue plaguing Earth today, Sonny Ramaswamy, director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, said at a thought-provoking presentation March 6 in the Center for the Arts.

Energy-efficiency projects at UB made possible by NYSERDA will save the university approximately $513,000 in energy costs and eliminate more than 2.600 tons of global-warming, greenhouse gas emissions annually.

The director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, will speak on how to increase food production in the context of a burgeoning global population, changing climate and diminishing natural resources.

In a series of experiments, the scientists created spherical silicon particles about 10 nanometers in diameter — a potential source of energy for fuel cells.

The hazards of breathing outdoor air in some Chinese cities are well-documented. A UB study confirms that breathing indoor air also carries significant cancer risks, especially for Chinese women.

The University at Buffalo is betting on an emerging field to boost private industry and economic development in Buffalo Niagara.

While most students were settling in for the semester, Alanna Olear, an environmental engineering major, was in campus bathrooms measuring the amount of paper towels used that day.

If it were possible to capture the soul of a city inside a single home, it might look something like the house that UB faculty member Dennis Maher has spent the past three years refurbishing on Buffalo’s West Side.

A rare collection of materials that could illuminate the personal beliefs of Robert Frost is being made available to the public for the first time, thanks to a UB emeritus faculty member.

UB is again proud to be ranked on the EPA Green Power Partnership list, based on power usage and renewable energy use. 

The term “sustainability,” as it relates to using Earth’s resources wisely, can be problematic, Timothy Killeen, president of the SUNY Research Foundation, said during a visit to UB.

Amy Kedron will be the first to tell you: No matter where she lives, she will always be from Buffalo.

For many, a trip to Louisiana centers on New Orleans and its fabled nightlife. Not so for 16 UB students who earlier this month spent a week volunteering in the wetlands of southern Louisiana.

Coral colonies that suffered tissue damage in The Bahamas were still producing low numbers of eggs four years after the injuries occurred, according to new research by UB scientists. 

Two UB experts will be doing important work on commissions analyzing how New York State can strengthen its response to natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy.

The Larkin District and its development and planning team, including the School of Architecture and Planning, won an honorable mention at the National Award for Smart Growth Achievement ceremony.

Robert G. Shibley, dean of the School of Architecture and Planning, has received the Robert and Louise Bethune Award, from the American Institute of Architects’(AIA) Buffalo/Western New York chapter.

Essentially a blueprint of UB’s accomplishments and future goals, the report was certified “Silver” by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System (STARS). 

When gender-neutral housing was introduced this fall, the new policy reflected not only best practices, it also incorporated a transgendered student’s thoughtful analysis and the ethical principles of social work he holds dear.

Casually but colorfully attired, Blake Mycoskie moved listeners at UB with his account of families whose lives have been altered because of the simple ability to don a new pair of shoes.

You’ve already decided that you’re going to pop the question. Now comes another quandary: Where to get the ring, if you’re buying one?

It’s not often that we can pull something over UB’s technically savvy students, but this fall, CIT replaced nearly 50 personal computers with virtual desktop devices...and no one has said a word.

The League of American Bicyclists has designated UB as a “Bicycle Friendly University” at the bronze level, an award presented only to institutions with a strong commitment to cycling.

Seeking to reduce their environmental footprint, cut costs and provide better service, UB graduate and professional school programs are moving to a paperless application process.

As part of its continuing effort to improve on-campus living, UB has opened Crossroads Culinary Center, a new dining facility that puts the university at the forefront of the collegiate dining experience.

It takes hard work and guts to transform a great idea into a viable business or community organization, but UB students are doing it every day with support and encouragement from the university. 

UB and 20 other U.S. and Canadian universities and institutions will join forces to propose a set of long-term research and policy priorities to help protect and restore the Great Lakes.

UB Professor of Chemistry Diana Aga, and two local High School teachers have won an award to train student scientists to measure pharmaceutical contamination in Niagara County waterways.

“OMG, I think they just spawned on me!”

That was the title of a September blog entry by UB’s Buffalo Undersea Reef Research laboratory (BURR), which sent five UB investigators to the Florida Keys this month to study coral spawning.

Coal kills. That’s the message of “The Silent Epidemic: Coal and the Hidden Threat to Health” by Alan H. Lockwood, UB emeritus professor of neurology.

The UB Sustainable Living Fair—formerly known as Green Shade of Blue & You Day—encourages members of the UB community to practice sustainability at home, as well as on campus.

The task seemed implausible: feed 175 students without producing an ounce of trash. Yet, that’s exactly what UB did last week as it welcomed back students from summer vacation.

A new Arctic study in the journal Science is helping to unravel an important mystery surrounding climate change: how quickly glaciers can melt and grow in response to shifts in temperature.

Students will now have the chance to explore entrepreneurship and sustainability through two new Undergraduate Academies.

Samina Raja has spent the better part of the last decade conducting research in the field of food security and heading the only research laboratory in the United States dedicated to food systems planning.

It’s not often that one has the chance to represent the interests of the United States. But that was the experience that UB Law Professor Kim Diana Connolly had in Bucharest, Romania, in early July.

An analysis of newly sequenced polar bear genomes is suggesting that climate change and genetic exchange with brown bears helped create the polar bear as we know it today.

William R. Greiner Hall, UB’s newest residence hall (housing mostly sophomores), provides a glimpse at the future direction more and more buildings at UB will be modeled upon. 

A dark cloud hovers above a stand of Eastern cottonwood trees in Tifft Nature Preserve. But this is no ordinary cloud; it is a high-tech habitat for one of the world’s most misunderstood species—bats.

Vegetables are beginning to ripen in neighborhood gardens and flower beds are in full bloom. Still, it’s not too early to start thinking about preparing your garden for next year. 

Five years ago, UB pledged to reduce or offset its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

Teachers from the Buffalo Public Schools are taking part in the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Partnership, a professional development program that encourages hands-on laboratory and field work in science classes.

About 15 children learned about renewable energy, art and sustainability at the University at Buffalo’s Solar Strand yesterday. The children, from the UB’s Child Care Center, took part in activities, such as a scavenger hunt and baking cookies in a solar oven.

UB promotes a culture of sustainability at its three campuses. Aside from saving money, the university’s efforts aim to educate, inspire and enable people, both on and off campus, to reduce their environmental footprints.

At a base camp miles from the western coast of Greenland, UB geologist Jason Briner is conducting climate change research that will help answer pressing questions about rising sea levels.

A massive and thriving colony of bees is now living in the walls of an abandoned outbuilding in “Silo City,” the former industrial site at the corner of Ohio and Child streets in Buffalo.

You’ve probably seen them zooming around campus by now, in flashes of bright blue. A new fleet of UB Stampede buses are here, and they sport some interesting new features.

The nation’s $1 billion stream-restoration industry needs to do more to ensure that projects are guided by science, according to the co-editor of a new monograph reviewing the state of the field.

UB researchers are making significant progress on rust-proofing steel using a graphene-based composite that could serve as a nontoxic alternative to coatings that contain hexavalent chromium, a probable carcinogen.

Barbara and Jack Davis Hall will enable UB to expand research in nanotechnology, pattern recognition, bio-based security systems and other fields

Two new University at Buffalo buildings took home top honors in Buffalo Business First's annual "Brick by Brick" awards, announced on May 10, 2012.

UB is the 14th-largest green power user among U.S. colleges and universities, according to new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rankings.

The April 23 dedication of The Solar Strand, an innovative 3,200-panel solar array on North Campus, will mark a milestone in a year of sustainability achievements at UB.

University at Buffalo junior Esther Buckwalter has won the nationally coveted Morris K. Udall Scholarship, awarded to outstanding students who have demonstrated a commitment to careers in the environment, health care or tribal public policy.

When Alex Domijan arrived at UB last fall, he brought with him a center, a laboratory and part of a $12 million program that promises to go a long way toward providing a major jolt to energy, redevelopment, education and the workforce across the campus and community, as well as nationally.

Eight graduate students in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning have spent months mining the complex network of activities, actors and resources that enable the production, processing, wholesaling, distribution, consumption and disposal of the food in Erie County.

Several UB graduate and professional degree programs, including its environmental engineering program, again were recognized as among the best in the country by U.S. News & World Report in its annual ranking of “America’s Best Graduate Schools,” released March 13, 2012.

Back from a weeklong service learning trip to Louisiana, three UB undergraduates took time to reflect on their experiences on the Gulf Coast.

UB students in the “Geography 470/570 /Law 777” course have spent the semester developing plans to manage the Cattaraugus watershed and surrounding ecology.

UB has created a new position of chief sustainability officer to provide leadership and direction for sustainability initiatives as the university works to implement ambitious environmental objectives.

Sitting on his front porch one day, Joe is approached by two strangers on bicycles. They strike up a conversation. A factory worker from London, Ohio, Joe says he’s concerned about being laid off from his job making replacement vents for Ford and Chevy vehicles. He lives in the house he grew up in, and talks about how the neighborhood has changed over the years.

The University at Buffalo will add a major in environmental geosciences to its undergraduate offerings this fall, giving students another opportunity to study and research topics tied to the ever-changing environment of Western New York and the world.

A few minutes before 8 a.m. one morning last November, Kathryn Foster, director of the UB Regional Institute, stepped out into the world from the front door of her yellow home in a residential neighborhood just south of Hertel Avenue. She pulled on black leather gloves and, umbrella in hand, began a half-mile trek to the rail station on Amherst Street.