Measuring and Making It Happen
Climate change has occurred over many years and can often only be seen in microscopic clues. Measuring this change and finding innovative solutions to affect it will require organizational commitment, scientific expertise, and a culture of tenacity. Fortunately, we have that here at UB. UB plans to use the intelligence of its researchers to find cutting edge ways to analyze, measure and improve the impact of our actions.
Sub-strategies
1. Establish a working group including students, faculty and staff to continually assess cutting-edge research happening at UB (and throughout industry) that can be applied to carbon reduction tactics and how they may be leveraged for experiential learning opportunities
2. Create key performance indicators for climate action plan progress, which may include: annual or quarterly building level energy data updates, annual transportation data updates, biennial commute data updates, biennial food data updates and others
3. Conduct an annual review of campus-wide reduction strategies' impact on overall greenhouse gas footprint
4. Update carbon data for transparency in alignment with reporting periods for institutions such as STARS and Second Nature
5. Leverage UB's new data-rich footprint platform for faculty or student-led research that includes predictive analytics, artificial intelligence and customized applications that foster building a culture of change
Policies
UB will continue to use the SIMAP tool developed by the University of New Hampshire as our greenhouse gas impact calculator as well as strive to achieve quick and effective improvements to lessen the impact our university has on the environment.
Updates
Fall 2020 - Spring 2021
- Developing and hosted Greenhouse Gas Bootcamps to our committee, student clubs and other on campus groups.
- In June, there was session on sustainability at the Center for Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness conference that will connect the Sustainable Development Goals to any business to foster taking action on climate.
- Lastly, a four week summer design challenge that focused on these 10 in 10 was hosted this summer.
10 in 10 Design Challenge 2021
Committee
Captain: Hadar Borden, program director, Blackstone Launchpad, Student Life
Molly Anderson, Executive Director, CLOE
Holly Buck, Assistant Professor, Environment and Sustainability
Emmanual Frimpong Boamah, Assistant Professor, Urban and Regional Planning
Daniel Kaczmarek, Director of Assessment, Student Life
Theresa Mccarthy, Associate Professor, Transnational Studies
Andrew Olewnik, Assistant Professor, Director of Experiential Learning, School of Engineering
Stephanie Rothenburg, Associate Professor, Art
Erin Rowley, Head of Science and Engineering Library Services, UB Libraries