Education and Leadership Fellows in Sustainability: Green Area Certification

City of Buffalo / UB Skyline.

Create a green area certification program for spaces on our campus.

Project is Not Currently Available

This project has reached full capacity for the current term. Please check back next semester for updates.

Project description

This green space certification pilot program at the University at Buffalo, SUNY is intended to provide staff, faculty, and students with the opportunity to reduce the environmental impacts of their labs, offices, classrooms and residence halls. These spaces are the foci for intervention and remediation.  The overarching concepts of conservation, recycling, chemical use and disposal, and purchasing guide the actions of this project.

Project outcome

Education Leadership Fellows in Sustainability (ELFS) will be charged with the operations, logistics, and certification of these spaces after scrupulous monitoring and data collection. The ELFS will need to create a green area certification assessment tool for the three types of campus spaces: offices, dorm rooms and laboratories.

Then, they will find a sample of campus spaces that will be reviewed and selected to begin a pilot of the program to determine efficacy and effectiveness of the project model. These spaces will be selected based on operations, energy consumption metrics, and willingness of faculty/staff to openly exchange information pertinent to certification process. Necessary changes to the program’s approaches will be made in response to pilot outcomes, if needed. Subsequent to that would be an expansion to spaces of all operations across the UB system.

Project details

Timing, eligibility and other details
Length of commitmentLonger than a semester (6-9 months)
Start timeFall, Summer
Level of collaborationSmall group project (2-3 students)
BenefitsResearch experience; UB Sustainability also has a collection of swag for students that participate in this initiative under the ELFS program.
Who is eligibleAll undergraduate students 

Project mentor

Derek Nichols

Sustainability Engagement Coordinator

UB Sustainability

Phone: (716) 829-5725

Email: djn2@buffalo.edu

Start the project

  1. Email the project mentor using the contact information above to express your interest and get approval to work on the project. (Here are helpful tips on how to contact a project mentor.)
  2. After you receive approval from the mentor to start this project, click the button to start the digital badge. (Learn more about ELN's digital badge options.) 
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Preparation activities

Once you begin the digital badge series, you will have access to all the necessary activities and instructions. Your mentor has indicated they would like you to also complete the specific preparation activities below. Please reference this when you get to Step 2 of the Preparation Phase.