University at Buffalo
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Through the END 302: Sustainable Urban Environments course undergraduate students worked to complete the University’s greenhouse gas assessment for fiscal year 2014. They identified sources of information for Scopes 1, 2 and 3 and worked to collect, summarize and analyze the information to create a comprehensive emissions assessment. They also identified opportunities to further reduce the University’s GHG emission by researching best practice case studies from peer institution. The results of their work has not only provided a great assessment of our current emissions, but they also identified future goals, strategies and tactics for achieving climate neutrality by 2030.

Better Not Bigger Project. A group of students took the initiative to leverage the UB Campus Garden as a research project to demonstrate how small scale permaculture can contribute to the food system in a campus setting. The students applied for and received a research grant to expand the campus garden’s outputs while maintaining the same square footage. The tested alternative growing methods and tracked outputs while also engaging UB’s Campus Dining and Shops in conversations about what food items would be best to grow and how to best inform the university community about the use of produce grown on-site. The results of the project were shared in a University-wide research symposium as well as a SUNY-wide research symposium. The project builds on previous year’s successes and through support from CDS to send students to an annual conference to learn about permaculture on Universities. The UB Campus Garden was created in 2012 to serve as an experiential learning and engagement project for students, faculty and staff. Faculty and students work together at the Campus Garden in partnership with Campus Dining and Shops who work to incorporate the produce grown in the garden when possible and use it as an opportunity to educate students about the importance of local food. Also, students from ESW worked with faculty to grow plants using moist air by hanging them, and then they put those plants in the Campus Garden. More info on the campus garden can be found here: http://www.buffalo.edu/sustainability/working-green/campus-garden.html

Over 300 Students worked on a project to research energy generation at UB’s Solar Strand for submission to the annual New York State Pollution Prevention Institute competition. The focus of the project was to research how snowfall impacts energy generation by the University’s on-site solar array and what strategies should be implemented if snow cover was impacting energy generation. To carry out this project undergraduate and graduate students worked in teams to analyze how much energy was supposed to be produced by the Solar Strand, how much snow was covering each panel and how much energy was actually being generated each day throughout the winter. They also analyzed the financial side of the situation to determine if there was a cost-benefit to implementing a technical solution, i.e. ‘snow wipers’ or shoveling off the snow when snow cover reached a certain level. The results of the project dispelled the myth that the snow melts off the panels, however even with snow cover on the panels on occasion for a few days at a time the this does not greatly reduce the amount of electricity generated overall. These results confirmed that despite the interest in removing snow doing so was not necessary and would be cost-prohibitive.

A senior design class taught by Dr. Joseph Atkinson worked on a project to research the impacts of climate change and UB’s planed future development on storm water levels on campus. In particular, one group of students looked at how to handle groundwater that seeped out from underground when constructing Davis Hall and whether the planned bioswales were working to accommodate displaced ground water as originally designed. They also modeled the impacts of diverting additional ground water to the on campus retention pond, Lake LaSalle and researched different technologies and approaches for treating the water before it enters the lake. Results of this research project were used to make changes to existing bio-swells in order to better manage groundwater on campus.

Students from the group Engineers for a Sustainable World worked with faculty members such as Dr. Jensen and UB Facilities to explore the cost-benefit analysis of purchasing and utilizing paper towels in the bathroom versus purchasing and installing a new type of automatic hand dryer in high traffic bathrooms. The students conducted a life cycle analysis (LCA) to determine the environmental, social and economic trade-off between Dyson Airblade hand dryers and paper towels. Facilities connected ESW to paper towel vendors and paper towel making companies in this project, which helped ESW measure the costs, and the environmental impacts of producing, transporting and using paper towels. Their findings demonstrated that purchasing electronic hand dryers was less expensive than paper towels and had fewer environmental impacts.

In a course offered by Dr. Jensen students worked on a class research project about UB’s on-campus transportation services including a shuttle bus between campuses. They worked to monitor and record bus frequency and wait times to determine how much idling was occurring and where bottlenecks were contributing to unnecessary idling and less than desirable service. They also monitored how long people were waiting outside in cold and unfavorable weather conditions to explore whether adding heating lamps was a viable and worthwhile endeavor. Their results recommended ways to reduce waiting and idling times in order to reduce fuel use and emissions from buses while also improve overall service which helps to encourage greater use of public transportation rather than single occupancy vehicles.

Through an internship program, students have taken the lead on evaluating UB’s waste outputs at large-scale events and consequently developing, managing and implementing waste management efforts in attempt to increase the waste diversion rates working toward an ultimate goal of zero waste for all large-scale events.

Through a capstone engineering course, environmental engineering and civil engineering students worked on a 2 year project centered on Bizer creek which is an on campus creek. As part of the project they worked to characterize the creak using stream classification principles and researched the eco-system impacts of straightening and redirection the location of the stream. They also developed recommendations of ways to remediate the creek and restore the creek’s natural eco-system.

Professor Bob Shibley, Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning, worked with students on UB 2020, UB’s Master Plan, and ongoing engagement detailing how UB can grow and expand in a smart, sustainable method. Through this, students got to learn about urban planning concepts such as smart growth and how to engage diverse stakeholders in planning future development. They played a lead role in facilitating large-scale workshops to gathering input and priorities.

University at Buffalo’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences coordinates a program called Buffalo Area Engineering Awareness for Minorities to engage local minority school children with engineering and university experiences. UB students are integral to creating and implementing programming, events and activities for this program. The program includes a Saturday academy, a summer camp and clubs where high school and elementary students work on sustainability related engineering projects such as solar cars and fuel-cell development. In addition, a course offered in the School of Architecture and Planning provided students with hands on experience developing and implementing a community-based initiative called Champions of Change. Through this course, students worked with community members to develop projects that would improve their neighborhood in some way by helping them with technical skills, communication skills, leadership training and experience with engaging the public in their projects. The class resulted in many successful community based projects and a core group of engaged community members.

Through a senior capstone course in the Graphic Design program, students spent a semester developing empathetic design campaigns to inspire, encourage and support sustainable and healthy behaviors on campus. They researched a variety of different campaigns and proposed and tested a variety of graphic interfaces to raise awareness around sustainability and convey the importance of behaving in a responsible, considerate manner. Their prototypes were then used as the basis for another student project to create one unified sustainable behavior signage campaign. The campaign is designed to get people’s attention, provide information about a topic and then convey a desirable behavior.

Information for all of these topic areas was provided by multiple sources and has been collated and summarized by UB Sustainability Staff.