Sustainability Month at UB celebrates success, work yet to be done

Not to be outshined by the total solar eclipse, Sustainability Month always occurs in April here at UB.

While all eyes — protected, of course, by eclipse safety glasses — will be on the sky on April 8, there are plenty of other events throughout the month that aim to bring the university community together in celebration of the sustainability successes that have been achieved, and the work that still must be done.

“At UB, we recognize that the quality of our lives and the economy of our region, nation and world are increasingly tied to how we develop and deliver energy and manufactured products, how we use and sustain our natural resources, and how human activities — including those at our university — alter and impact the environment,” Provost A. Scott Weber and Vice President for Finance and Administration Laura Hubbard wrote in their annual Sustainability Month message to the campus community on April 1.

“From our groundbreaking research on the environmental disaster at Love Canal to the collaborations currently being supported by our RENEW Institute and our innovative sustainability efforts across campus in support of our ambitious climate action plan, UB has long made environmental sustainability a top priority.”

Dozens of sustainability related events will be hosted by campus partners throughout April.

Once again, the signature event will be an update on the university’s Climate Action Plan set for 8:30-10 a.m. April 22 (Earth Day) in the Mainstage Theatre in the Center for the Arts. University leaders and campus partners will gather to share how UB is advancing climate action, especially the university’s decarbonization strategy, and what collective actions members of the campus community can take to be part of the solution. Attendees are asked to RSVP online.

Additional events include:

• A screening April 2 of “Storming Caesars Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War on Poverty,” a documentary based on the groundbreaking book by Annelise Orleck, who will give a talk the following day.
• A presentation April 3 on the UB Veggie Van, which aims to address food access for students, by Leah Vermont, assistant director of community outreach and partnerships, and predoctoral associate Angelica Tutasi Lozada.
• Pride Week April 5-12.
• The 2024 Storytellers Conference on April 6, which highlights research and educational initiatives that mobilize Haudenosaunee knowledge, languages and intellectual traditions in concrete ways.
• A talk on April 10 by Daniel Seider, UB’s landscape architectural planner, on the history of the manicured lawn and the case for being more strategic in its use to make space for a diversified palette of sustainable land cover practices.
• The 13th annual Global Health Day Symposium on April 19, which features keynote speaker Marian L. Neuhouser of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, who will talk about the impact of nutrition on global health.
• A talk on April 22 by human rights scholar David Androff of Arizona State University, who will discuss social work and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“It’s great to see the list of events and campus partners grow each year. It’s indicative of the passion our campus community has to make a difference as we work to move the needle on creating a more sustainable campus, region and world,” says Derek Nichols, associate director for sustainability. “Clearly, UB students and employees are ready to lead.”