Sustainability Academy launches at UB

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Students from the University at Buffalo’s new Sustainability Academy will join fellow undergraduates in touring Love Canal, the Buffalo waterfront, Silo City and other locations this Friday to learn about the region’s history of industrial pollution and how the community is turning this legacy around to create a more sustainable Buffalo Niagara.

Media are invited to join the educational tour to meet the students as they hear from local advocates who are tackling problems.

The event helps launch the Sustainability Academy, which is new this fall and gives students interested in environmental issues the opportunity to live and learn together through seminars, internships and hands-on community projects. The academy is one of five themed Undergraduate Academies at UB.

WHAT: Undergraduate Academies Sustainability Tour

WHEN: Friday, Sept. 27, 2:45-6 p.m.

WHERE: At each of the following locations, students will hear from local advocates and researchers who will discuss current challenges related to sustainability:

2:45 p.m.: Love Canal (starts at Wheatfield Ave. and 100th St., Niagara Falls)
3:55 p.m.: GoBike Buffalo and Complete Streets (700 block of Main Street, Buffalo)
4:45 p.m.: Buffalo River (River Fest Park, 249 Ohio St., Buffalo)
5:35 p.m.: Silo City (Intersection of Ohio and Childs streets, Buffalo)

WHO: More than 30 students, including more than a dozen from UB’s new Sustainability Academy.

Kenneth Shockley, academic director of the Sustainability Academy, will also be on-site, along with UB Chief Sustainability Officer Ryan McPherson and Hadar Borden, administrative director of the Undergraduate Academies.

WHY: The event helps launch UB’s Sustainability Academy, which kicked off this semester with a freshman class of 48 members majoring in many different fields.

In its inaugural year, the Sustainability Academy will host seminars on sustainability, facilitate student participation in projects like the planting of a food garden on UB’s North Campus, and place undergraduates in internships with the Western New York Environmental Alliance. Partners that play a key role in facilitating such activities include the UB Office of Sustainability, Campus Dining & Shops and the 100-plus organizations in the WNY Environmental Alliance.

For information on the Undergraduate Academies, visit http://www.academies.buffalo.edu/index.php.

For information on sustainability initiatives at UB, visit http://www.buffalo.edu/sustainability.html