SUNY Senate Sustainability Network Conference Call April 18, 2013
Present: Debra Howard (SUNY Central), Mark Bremer (SUNY IT), Michael Sperazza (Stony Brook), Kamal Shahrabi (Farmingdale), Shishir Singh (Empire), Kyongsi Sohn (Brockport), Rick Smardon (SUNY/ESF) and SeanNicholson (SUNY/ESF)
Rick Smardon announced the upcoming meeting at SUNY Brockport on April 20th that a number of us on the call will be attending (at least 4). He announced the deadline for Research Foundation Collaborative grant proposals is May 15th for those interested. He also announced the formation of a sustainability education network, which includes both private and public universities by nine regions (see attachment).
Mark Bremer of SUNY IT is proceeding with the small sustainability-matchinggrant for the renewable energy path. They have received the equipment and are entertaining student research proposals. They have located the footprint for the pathway and along the pathway will be 4 solar cells, a wind turbine and a small hydro demonstration. SUNY IT with SUNY Albany and Morrisonville submitted an Innovation in Instruction Technology grant to develop learning tool modules with a portable solar trailer design for virtual learning. They will hear in May whether they received the grant.
Michael Sperazza summarized the climate change data matching grant activity. Most of the work will focus on gathering local historical climate data from as many SUNY institutions as possible. Sperazza and Smardon plus others are working on a larger climate data gathering and stakeholder perception grant to be submitted to the Research Foundation Collaborative grant program. Michael noted that we should connect with both Cornell and Columbia who are doing research on climate change impacts.
Kyongsi Sohn of SUNY Brockport reported that they are progressing with the small matching grant addressing food waste reduction behavior. SUNY Fredonia is finishing up their part this week and SUNY Albany and Brockport will finish their part in two weeks time. At SUNY Brockport they also are working on developing a biodiesel fuel processing operation and hope to scale it up. Kyongsi is also heavily involved in planning and implementation of the Sustainability Research conference at Brockport on April 20th.
Deborah Howard reported that Cobleskill et al have been busy collecting urban garden soil samples for testing – which hopefully will be done by Cornell. She reported that so far the investigators have had an easier time obtaining soil samples from affluent residents versus from those who are not.
Kamal Shahrabi at SUNY Farmingdale reported that the solar parking lot is completed and they have four electric charging stations up and running. They also have poured a foundation for a wind turbine, but are currently looking for another turbine vendor. They also have a small matching grant to do energy conversion with a treadmill. Kamal and Rick Smardon are also offering a “Leading Sustainability” Planning short course starting May 17th at Farmingdale.
We had a discussion about the usefulness of another face-to-face meeting with the whole SUNY Senate Sustainability network. Rick Smardon had mixed reactions from the SUNY Senate, Research Foundation and Deb Howard. Deb opined that we should look at the new “Ecology, Education, Environment & Economy” network and see if there is functional overlap.
Next conference call will be scheduled for the first week of June.
RCS