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What’s the environmental impact of a cup of coffee? Skyler Hein, PMBA ’22, and her team members set out to find the answer—and a business opportunity—in the UB School of Management’s first “Sustainability as a Business Strategy” course.

Buffalo’s story of place is being shared with mayors, ministers, journalists and thousands of others attending the United Nations’ 10th World Urban Forum this week in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Jim P. Zheng, a recognized leader in battery technology and UB alumnus, has rejoined his alma mater to help advance research in clean energy. Zheng, who returns to UB after a decorated career of more than 30 years in academia and national laboratories, has been named an Empire Innovation Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering.

In spring 1970, millions of people across the United States took part in more than 12,000 events to mark the first Earth Day, heeding the call of a senator from Wisconsin who felt that pollution and development were out of control and needed to be checked.

The Department of Theatre and Dance will present a free screening on Feb. 5 of “Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America,” an award-winning, feature-length documentary about an undocumented queer activist fighting for equality.

A #UBLawResponds team of students and faculty are currently in Puerto Rico, continuing legal and policy work to support a resilient Puerto Rico as part of the fifth service-learning trip to the island by the School of Law’s Puerto Rico Recovery Assistance Legal Clinic.

A #UBLawResponds team of students and faculty are currently in Puerto Rico, continuing legal and policy work to support a resilient Puerto Rico as part of the fifth service-learning trip to the island by the School of Law’s Puerto Rico Recovery Assistance Legal Clinic.

The College of Arts and Sciences has received a $3.174 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in support of a new Department of Indigenous Studies.

Alumna Jessica Ottney Mahar graduated in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in English. Today, she works as the New York director of policy and strategy for the Nature Conservancy, where she shapes environmental policy and was instrumental in passing the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.

Finished with that cup of yogurt? Don’t throw it in the blue UB recycling bin. Some of the rules have changed, and UB Sustainability has some advice on what now can and cannot be recycled.

As the world warms, a new study is helping scientists understand how cone-bearing trees like pines and junipers may respond to drought. The research addresses a classic question in the field: When conditions are dry for long periods of time, do trees survive by growing new roots to tap water sources, or by relying on established roots that already go deep?

Scientists have created thin films made from barium zirconium sulfide (BaZrS3) and confirmed that the materials have alluring electronic and optical properties predicted by theorists.

In collaboration with the community, UB is focusing the expertise and passions of researchers and students from across the university on a major new effort to address one of the most pressing problems facing the city of Buffalo: health disparities among people who live on the city’s East Side.

A new study on the Greenland Ice Sheet shows that it’s shrinking at an alarming rate, and highlights the urgency of conducting new research to improve our understanding of how, exactly, the ice sheet is losing mass, says UB expert Beata Csatho.

The first campuswide food drive for Blue Table, UB’s online food pantry service, is a success, with more than 2,500 food items being donated during the drive last month, the Blue Table Organizing Committee says.

UB Sustainability Student Assistant, Michael McDonald has recently returned from an exciting trip to Spokane, Washington for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s (AASHE) 2019 Conference. Mike sat down with us to share his experiences at the AASHE conference and all things sustainability he discovered!

UB’s Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDEA Center) is partnering with Erie County on a project to integrate design and livable communities strategies across all county departments.

“Some have come to view the Arctic as the earth’s ‘environmental canary,’ ” write the editors of The Big Thaw: Policy, Governance, and Climate Change in the Circumpolar North (SUNY Press). “In days gone by, when a caged canary taken into mines stopped singing, coal miners knew that the carbon monoxide gas level was so high that they had to escape the chamber. The thawing Arctic may be the earth’s early warning system.”

UB students who have trouble accessing affordable food now have support on campus from Blue Table. The online food pantry service began with a soft launch in April and has been fully operational since the beginning of the fall semester.

Under a silver sky, on a quiet patch of earth by Lake LaSalle, UB freshman Trang Le examines a small tree. The specimen, a staghorn sumac, is petite compared to majestic oaks and willows that rise nearby. But it commands her attention.

Growing up in a lower-income household, Kelseanna Hollis-Hansen remembers most of her dinners coming from the corner store, including lots of convenience foods and few fruits and vegetables. That changed in her older teen years when her mother’s employment situation improved, but fueled Hollis-Hansen’s interest in the effects of healthy eating and health.

Artists from Brooklyn to São Paulo will travel to UB to beautify open water sewers, engineer living perfumes, construct an evolutionary tree of skulls, craft sculptures made of bacteria-dyed llama wool and more.

Joseph Gardella Jr., SUNY Distinguished Professor of Chemistry in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences, has been reappointed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board.

As an entrepreneur, Smart Walls Construction founder and Chief Technology Officer Jorge Cueto understands the inclination to hire experts when possible. He also recognizes the potential disadvantage that abundant experience can spawn: bias. So when he was ready to advance his telescopic structural wall concept, he placed significance on recruiting energetic individuals willing to survey an issue from all angles.

POP Biotechnologies Inc. (POP BIO), a University at Buffalo spinoff, has received a $600,000 contract from the National Institutes of Health to pursue development of a life-saving, life-changing technology: a vaccine against HIV.

Advisers, teachers and others who work with women studying in STEM fields can help students stay in their programs by encouraging mentorship opportunities that establish a sense of “belonging” with their academic and professional colleagues, according to a Graduate School of Education professor who specializes in preparing teachers for the classroom.

UB students were elbows-deep in garbage on Wednesday, searching for sustainable ways to manage large-scale waste and encourage companies to do the same.

The Earth is warming. Rising seas are eroding coastlines. Air pollution is rife in many cities. Household chemicals and medicines are finding their way into water and soil. Many animals have gone extinct due to human activity, while many others are endangered.

Alex Dombrowski keeps a spare beekeeping suit in her car.

“I’m always showing people around the hives,” she explains, bending over to pull on a leg of her white canvas coverall. “It’s just easier this way.”

New York State got the ball rolling toward a carbon-free world with its recently passed Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. The ambitious legislation is believed to be the most aggressive measure any state has yet taken toward achieving climate neutrality. UB is looking to further advance climate action with an event next week that will discuss the new law in greater detail with a group of diverse local and state panelists that are working to move the statute forward.

A UB master of urban planning studio recently toured sites along what could be one of Buffalo’s next multi-use paths. The combined trails would create a seven-mile continuous trail for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Two Buffalo pastors, the Revs. George F. Nicholas and Kinzer M. Pointer, are the driving forces behind the Buffalo African American Health Equity Task Force a coalition of community leaders that formed five years ago. The group’s mission is to eliminate race-based health disparities on Buffalo’s East Side. It’s a daunting task, but Nicholas, pastor of Lincoln Memorial United Methodist Church, and Kinzer, pastor at Agape Fellowship Baptist Church, believe that changing health outcomes is possible if enough people pay attention to the underlying issues.

The Niagara River – and pro bono work by University at Buffalo School of Law students – gains national prominence Oct. 2-3 when the river and its corridor become a Wetland of International Importance and part of the Ramsar Convention.

UB Sustainability hosted Campus Garden Work Day on Friday as part of Climate Week, giving the UB Campus Garden a new home outside the Statler Food Commissary.

In gold mines near Fairbanks, Alaska, scientists are hunting for something precious — and it’s not metal.

Of all the long and arduous roads students have followed to become part of the UB community, none has been more challenging than the path of Graduate School of Education student Kang Kerubino Guot.

You’ve probably heard of the “triple bottom line” approach to sustainability. But do you really know what it is? The Professional Staff Senate is inviting members of the UB community to find out at this year’s Sustainable Living Fair.

Algae may be found in oceans and lakes, but some scientists are hoping that the next place you’ll see these organisms is a coal-fired power plant. That’s because algae, which mostly reside in aquatic habitats, consume carbon dioxide to conduct photosynthesis. If the organisms grow in dense enough concentrations in a controlled setting, they could conceivably be used to capture carbon dioxide from power plants that burn coal or natural gas.

Sifting through the clothing rack, Rosie Mollica spotted a garment that caught her eye. “Look at this skirt!” she blurted out, showing it to her father, Peter.

To measure air pollution across the United States and other large areas, scientists rely on a patchwork of satellites.

The girls are laughing, smiling, jockeying for position along a line of masking tape on the floor, gently bumping up against the three teachers in their classroom at Enterprise Charter School in downtown Buffalo.

Faculty, staff and administrators from UB’s three campuses were among thousands of volunteers fanning out across the Buffalo area Wednesday to lend a hand to local not-for-profit organizations for the 27th annual Day of Caring.

What’s to be done when disadvantaged residents lack transportation to get the legal help they need?

One solution: Take the legal help right to them.

The large panels of bright colors fill the most visible crosswalk on the North Campus — on Putnam Way between the Student Union and UB Commons — a bold, visual symbol of UB’s pride and support for the LGBTQ community.

Standing at the front of a packed lecture hall, three UB students wear colorful hair clips, pins and bags that were hand-sewn and embroidered by refugee women at the nonprofit Stitch Buffalo.

As part of a multi-year initiative in Madrid, UB faculty member Joyce Hwang has joined an international group of designers to explore how design can create a new discourse on climate change in the context of public space.

Engineers have designed a new system that can help cool buildings in crowded metropolitan areas without consuming electricity, an important innovation at a time when cities are working to adapt to climate change.

According to CDP, an international nonprofit, approximately 200 of the world’s largest companies collectively peg their climate change exposure at nearly $1 trillion. Manufacturers around the globe cite changing weather patterns and rising seas and rivers as increasingly disruptive to their supply chain. 

To get fresh produce many people immediately think about going to the grocery store around the corner. But what do people do if they don't have that access to fresh fruits and veggies?

When a heatwave is a forecast, the standard advice is to drink plenty of water, take frequent breaks and wear sunscreen. But for extreme heat events, those steps may not be enough. Over 30 percent of all weather-related deaths in the United States are attributable to high outdoor temperatures, heat stroke or sunstroke. And heat waves are expected to increase in intensity with climate change.

Ruthenium, a transition metal, is a key component of catalysts used to speed up chemical reactions in the food, pharmaceutical and petroleum products industries. Ruthenium does its job well. But it’s scarce, pricey and toxic.

What do you do with a dead, 400-year-old tree? If your specialty is animal architecture, you turn it into a living habitat/art project. That’s what UB architect Joyce Hwang did in collaboration with the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Parks and Conservation Service. 

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded Say Yes Buffalo and its partner institutions — including UB — a 22-month, $2.9 million grant to increase college completion rates for Buffalo Public Schools graduates.

Even brief variations in a city’s seasonal weather can totally throw entire metro areas into chaos. Montreal, Canada, experienced record-breaking heat last year that led to 66 preventable deaths.

Summers often bring a wave of childhood memories: lounging poolside, trips to the local amusement park, languid, steamy days at the beach. These nostalgic recollections, however, aren’t held by all Americans.

Coffee as a pathway to peace. It sounds strange. And yet, on an island in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, that’s exactly what’s percolating.

What do you do with a dead, 400-year-old tree? If your specialty is animal architecture, you turn it into a living habitat/art project. That’s what UB architect Joyce Hwang did in collaboration with the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Parks and Conservation Service. 

Before any new playground, sledding hill or trails transform Buffalo's LaSalle Park over the next decade, some other key work will come first.

Before any new playground, sledding hill or trails transform Buffalo's LaSalle Park over the next decade, some other key work will come first.

“We started off with just an idea. We didn’t have a product, and we didn’t even know if this was possible to finish.” So says Anish Ajay Kirtane, a graduate student in the Department of Civil Structural and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Going head-to-head with teams from around the world, three UB School of Management graduate students took first place at the 2019 Global Analytics Competition (GAC), held June 3-4 in Washington, D.C.

Join the UB team for the Green Your Commute Challenge (GYCC), a summer-long competition between state agencies, local governments and SUNY and CUNY institutions to see whose employees can reduce their institution’s carbon emissions the most by greening their commutes.

Oscar A. Silverman Library, the University at Buffalo’s 24-hour library that receives nearly 1.3 million visits per year, has been certified silver under the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, a green building certification program that recognizes best-in-class building strategies and practices.

Going head-to-head with teams from around the world, three UB School of Management graduate students took first place at the 2019 Global Analytics Competition (GAC), held June 3-4 in Washington, D.C.

A new Manhattan pop-up experience, “Ocean Cube,” takes visitors underwater in a technical simulation filled with bioluminescent sea creatures.

By the end of June, 240,000 bees will be buzzing in six hives in green space between Crofts Hall and Bizer Creek on the North Campus, thanks to the persistence of a bee-loving UB student and faculty member.

Albert Makila Mangapi has spent his life running from war in his native Republic of the Congo. He walked 450 miles to avoid being shot, then started his family over as refugees in Kenya, where they were not allowed to work.

A new UB study based on levels before, during and after the Beijing Olympics reveals how air pollution affects the human body at the level of metabolites. Researchers found that 69 metabolites changed significantly when air pollution changed. Their results were published May 29 in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

Two UB-affiliated teams are set to compete June 5 in Detroit in the semifinals of ErieHack 2.0, an innovative water-solutions competition that was first held two years ago.

UB students Isabel Hall, Danielle Vasquez and Kelley Mosher expected to win the global finals of the 2018 World’s Challenge Challenge (WCC), an international competition where the winning pitch, which tackles a major global issue, is provided with funding to move forward.

Two Buffalo re-pats came up with a pretty cool idea. Agnes Wilewicz and Jesse Farinacci are the co-developers of The Buffalo Cool Roof Project, an app that identifies dark roofs that could be painted white, decreasing the energy use of the structure.

Two Buffalo re-pats came up with a pretty cool idea. Agnes Wilewicz and Jesse Farinacci are the co-developers of The Buffalo Cool Roof Project, an app that identifies dark roofs that could be painted white, decreasing the energy use of the structure.

There’s a new episode in the ongoing balance between wildlife and life at UB: The Canada goose who returns to take up residence each spring at the School of Law now — because of an upcoming internationally known guest —has a catchy name: Ruth Bader Gooseburg.

Scientists were studying ecohydrology for decades before it became an official ‘ology’. Find out how this field has evolved over the past century.

At Triad Recycling and Energy Corporation in Tonawanda, employees take waste that's headed to the dump, and recycle it. Drywall gets shredded and turned into flooring for cattle. Foam from mattresses gets shredded too, and is made into carpet padding. 

In a new class, UB students are confronting the challenge of climate change by working with local companies to cut their carbon footprints.

On its 49th birthday, Earth Day is having a midlife crisis. In the beginning, it was a policy-shaking event that awakened a new generation of activists. But now even environmentalists have misgivings about it. Sure, they can get behind planting trees and clearing trash out of rivers, but they have issues with Earth Day itself.

Green Your Commute Day and National Bike to Work Day on May 17 promote and celebrate sustainable modes of transportation.

UB’s virtual food pantry program, Blue Table, is officially accessible to students. Sherri Darrow, director of Health Promotion, announced the program went live on April 19.

Tis the season for sustainability rankings in higher education, and UB fares well on two lists that track green power usage among the nation’s colleges and universities.

More grim news from the Arctic: Greenland’s ice sheet has shrunk six times faster than normal since the 1980s, and it could keep melting for decades even if humans significantly reduce carbon emissions.

In most cities and towns around the country, Pride Week occurs in June or July. For example, Buffalo’s Pride Week runs from May 28-June 2. The timing of such celebrations, however, means that many UB students aren’t able to participate in the festivities since they’ve either returned home or are working summer jobs or internships.

As a medical case manager for Evergreen Health in Buffalo, Theo Have assists many refugee patients. Too often, Have’s clients experience health issues that are directly related to their housing situation.

Hassaballah, fellow graduate student Anish Ajay Kirtane and Business Administration junior Olivia Burgner earned first place in UB’s World’s Challenge Challenge (WCC), and $3,000, for their work on a sustainable beef alternative addressing three of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals. 

Is there a product besides plastic that’s more omnipresent in people’s lives today? It’s everywhere, and in everything, from straws and Styrofoam, to grocery bags and water bottles.

Is there a product besides plastic that’s more omnipresent in people’s lives today? It’s everywhere, and in everything, from straws and Styrofoam, to grocery bags and water bottles.

People eat animals that eat plants. If we just eliminate that middle step and eat plants directly, we would diminish our carbon footprint, decrease agricultural land usage, eliminate health risks associated with red meat and alleviate ethical concerns over animal welfare. 

Is there a product besides plastic that’s more omnipresent in people’s lives today? It’s everywhere, and in everything, from straws and Styrofoam, to grocery bags and water bottles.

The University at Buffalo is ranked No. 3 in climate action among 250 institutions worldwide, according to the first-ever Times Higher Education (THE) University Impact Rankings revealed April 3.

Human beings originated in Africa about 100,000 years ago and have developed societies during the past 200 years that have contributed to climate change, which risks making the globe uninhabitable for our species and many others.

Girls with an interest in technology and entrepreneurship will have the chance to spend the day with likeminded souls at Girls Get IT, a free public event happening later this month.

Is there a product besides plastic that’s more omnipresent in people’s lives today? It’s everywhere, and in everything, from straws and Styrofoam, to grocery bags and water bottles.

Ever heard of The Green Program? I hadn’t either. Fortunately, one of their student ambassadors is at our University and took some time to fill us in on what the program entails, who is eligible, and why the experience has made him even more passionate about working on sustainability issues.

As a medical case manager for Evergreen Health in Buffalo, Theo Have assists many refugee patients. Too often, Have’s clients experience health issues that are directly related to their housing situation.

Looking over the lengthy list of events coming up as part of Sustainability Month at UB, one thing in particular stands out: The vast majority of them — and there are more than 40 in all — are touched by units that don’t fall directly under the UB Sustainability umbrella.

Students across the globe are fighting for climate change. WBFO's senior reporter Eileen Buckley says here in Buffalo, a City Honors School student is organizing a walk-out for this Friday, March 15, to demand climate justice.  

Students across the globe are fighting for climate change. WBFO's senior reporter Eileen Buckley says here in Buffalo, a City Honors School student is organizing a walk-out for this Friday, March 15, to demand climate justice.  

The story goes like this: Zandra Cunningham was obsessed with lip balm. When her dad stopped bankrolling her habit, the 9-year-old had to learn to make her own. Nine years later, that's turned into a $500,000 skin care company with products sold nationwide in such stores as Costco and Target.

The little boy and his mother boarded the bus, picked out some produce, paid and took off. Just two more customers served by the Farm Express mobile market in the Phoenix area. So thought Elyse Guidas, its executive director. Then, a few days later, she got an email from the boy’s mother.

There is such an astonishing quantity and variety of waste coursing in, around and above the planet that it can be easy to think of all of it as one dense, destructive substance—but there are degrees. Some kinds of trash are worse than other kinds, and it is worth knowing which is which, as we hover in the mudroom of apocalypse.