State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
PA-1: Sustainability Coordination

Since 2009, a Campus Climate Change Committee (CCCC) made up of ESF faculty, staff, administrators, and students has been meeting two times per semester to review and approve Student Sustainability Fund projects, and review and provide feedback on ESF's progress towards sustainability. The goals of the CCCC are to: continue and increase efforts to foster awareness and involvement with sustainability and climate action projects among the campus community, publicize and expand sustainability efforts to the local community and beyond, closely monitor and adjust plans, progress, and goals as necessary, and continue growing ESF’s portfolio of sustainability efforts. Starting in the summer of 2015 with new leadership, the College has been transitioning from the CCCC to a more structured and inclusive Sustainability Committee organized around STARS credit categories. An ad-hoc group of College representatives has met since that time and the first official meeting of this new committee took place in May, 2016.

2016 Sustainability Steering Committee: Alex Poisson - Sustainability Coordinator and Ph.D. Student- Graduate Program in Environmental Science Chellby Kilheffer- PhD Student- Environmental Forest Biology Conservation Biology Christine Langlois- Staff- Physical Plant for Maintenance Operations Chuck Spuches- Staff- ESF Outreach Ethan Requardt- Undergraduate Student- Sustainable Energy Management Gary Peden- Staff- Physical Plant for Maintenance Operations Ilana Weinstein- Undergraduate Student James Rooney- Undergraduate Student Josh Arnold- Staff- Energy Manager Justin Heavey - Staff, Office of Sustainability Lisa Campagna- Staff- Office of Business Affairs Mariann Johnston- Faculty- Ranger School Marie-Odile Fortier- Faculty- Forest and Natural Resource Management Dept. Mark Lichtenstein - Executive Director of Office Sustainability Melissa Fierke - Faculty, Environmental and Forest Biology Mike Kelleher- Faculty, Forest and Natural Resource Management Dept. Nafisa Tabassum- Graduate Student- Environmental Resources Engineering Namrata Shenoy- Graduate Student- Environmental Management Neal Abrams- Faculty, Chemistry Dept. Neil Patterson- Staff- ESF Center for Native Peoples and the Environment Paul Crovella- Faculty- Sustainable Construction Paul Otteson - Staff, Communications Office Rebecca Hart- Staff- Environmental Studies Secretary Robert Davis- Staff- Director of Forest Properties Sharon Moran- Faculty- Environmental Studies Taylor Brown - Undergraduate Student- Environmental Resources Engineering Terry Ettinger - Greenhouse Manager, Environmental and Forest Biology Dept. Timothy Volk – Faculty, Sustainable Energy Management Tomasz Falkowski- Graduate Student- Environmental Resources Engineering Ecological Engineering Tristan Brown- Faculty- Sustainable Energy Management Vanessa Gravenstine- Graduate Student- Environmental Science Environmental & Community Land Planning

The Office of Sustainability's mission statement is to advance campus community knowledge and skills, and provide leadership to reduce ESF’s carbon footprint and impact on the environment, and to broadly promote sustainability. The office helped develop a broad range of college sustainability policies including: Space Churn Renovation Plan and Policy, Reduced Mercury Light Bulb Purchasing Policy, Low Impact Site and Green Building Exterior Management Policy, Erosion and Sedimentation Policy, College Sustainable Cleaning Products Purchasing Policy, and the College Solid Waste and Recycling Policy. In addition, the Office advises and engages in many areas of sustainability including campus grounds, transportation, and storm water runoff (green roofs, rain gardens, and others). The Office also reviews and helps implement student projects and develops materials to disseminate sustainability information.

The Office of Sustainability (http://www.esf.edu/sustainability/) is staffed by an Executive Director for Sustainability (jointly appointed as Chief of Staff to the College President) and a sustainability coordinator (long term graduate assistant-ship and professional experience credits). This office also oversees and coordinates student interns and graduate assistants during the summer and during the year. Accomplishments Fall 2015: - Divestment: provided informational support and advise to a student-led fossil fuel divestment campaign; leading to ESF's College Foundation decision to commit to fully divesting from fossil fuels ( http://www.esf.edu/communications/view.asp?newsID=3985 ) - NYS' REV Campus Challenge: registered to New York State Governor Cuomo's REV clean energy challenge. ESF is a "leader" in clean energy. - EcoReps: oversaw ESF's EcoReps program in partnership with ESF's Student Affairs Office, and Residence Hall. - SUNY Sustainability Conference: attended the annual SUNY Sustainability Conference, this year hosted by SUNY Stony Brook, in Long Island. - White House Climate Pledge: signed the White House's climate pledge, in the lead up to the U.N. Paris Climate talks. - Diversity and inclusiveness: attended and participated in a mix of activities on campus, from diversity training run by ESF's Student Affairs Office, to a diversity and inclusiveness forum hosted by ESF's two student governance associations, to a panel of guest speakers hosted by ESF's student Club the Baobab Society. - Syracuse Food Justice Symposium: participated in Syracuse's first annual Food Justice Symposium, an event co-organized by Syracuse Grows, Cornell Coop Extension and a host of other Syracuse community organizations. The event boldly tackled difficult socio-economic issues surrounding hunger, injustice, food insecurity such a racial inequality, "black lives" matter, and a still too dominant, yet often unmentioned, "white supremacy" culture. Summer 2015: - summer interns: oversaw a team of 4 summer student interns, who worked on waste management, energy, urban gardens, food systems - organic garden and edible habitats landscape: acted as a volunteer coordinator for ESF's student-run organic garden, along with members of ESF's student club Green Campus Initiative. Also coordinated a planting of 800 native perennial flowers on ESF's main campus, to attract and support insect pollinator diversity. - Native Earth Youth Camp: participated in ESF's Center for Native People and the Environments (CNPE) summer camp experience for indigenous youth at ESF's Huntington Wildlife Forest, in the Adirondacks http://www.esf.edu/nativepeoples/NativeEarth.htm - Composting: helped re-organize ESF's composting program, to have greater integration and cooperation between students and ESF's Campus Grounds.