UB recognizes 2024 SLICE winners

Since their inception in 2015, UB’s Sustainability Leadership Innovation and Collaborative Engagement Awards, better known as SLICE, have provided an opportunity to highlight the exemplary sustainability efforts of the UB community.

Those efforts were on display again this year with six awards handed out on April 22 as part of UB’s fifth Earth Day Climate Action Plan update event, one of numerous events that took place in April as part of Sustainability Month at UB.

“Each year, we are in awe of all that is done both on and off the campus to improve our planet and humanity[RM1] , and this year is no different,” Laura Hubbard, vice president for finance and administration, said shortly before announcing and recognizing each of this year’s honorees.

“Once again, we’ve created unique awards by repurposing a piece of our buildings that have been renovated or built so you can always have a part of UB with you,” Hubbard added. “This year’s SLICE award is made from reclaimed limestone from Foster Hall — a fixture of UB’s South Campus since 1921 — and which was recently renovated into a low-carbon building that is powered, cooled and heated by renewable energy.”

This year’s SLICE winners:

Alissa Drag, assistant director of employer relations and external engagement in the Career Design Center, received the Staff Award for Sustainable Operations.

Drag has worked over the past five years building deeper connections between sustainability and career readiness for UB students.

Her work catalyzes UB graduates and inspires them to infuse sustainability, environmentalism and social justice into their personal and professional lives, and across all majors and disciplines.  

She also worked to organize the “How I Got Started in Sustainability” panel, which invites speakers from the public and private sectors, nonprofit organizations, advocacy groups and government agencies to network with UB students, giving them valuable insight on how these organizations are moving forward sustainability initiatives in their respective roles.

Michael Griffin, a student in the sustainability leadership master’s program in the Department of Environment and Sustainability, College of Arts and Sciences, received the Student Award for Sustainability Leadership.

Griffin’s academic case study, “Collegiate Academic Participation Driving Clean Energy Solutions,” will serve as a model for future sustainability students seeking to develop pedagogical tools for sustainability education. 

He also manages the Student Sustainability Impact Team, a group of 20 students who work to fulfill sustainability requests across the UB community.

Griffin’s work with UB Sustainability’s website, social media and newsletter curation has taken the office’s communications to the next level, connecting and engaging with other students, campus departments, student groups and community organizations.

John Atkinson, Scott and Coleen Stevens Chair in Engineering Sustainability, Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, received the Faculty Award for Sustainability in Higher Education.

Atkinson leverages experiential teaching methods in the classroom and continues to spread knowledge through the sustainability master’s program, nurturing the development of students’ potential to not only recognize the planet’s needs, but also allow them to understand the role they can play in creating the future they seek.

He has created innovative learning opportunities through his work in advancing the Costa Rica sustainability trip.

In addition to his academic and research success, Atkinson not only teaches the importance of sustainability, but models it every day by advancing a low-carbon lifestyle.

The UB Regional Institute received the Award for Sustainability Excellence by a Department or Team for its One Region Forward plan.

Founded in 1997, the Regional Institute is being recognized for its continued commitment to sustainability in Western New York. Through its innovative work with the One Region Forward for Sustainable Development plan published in 2014, Citizen Planning School initiative, and current One Region Forward for Climate Action Plan, the institute has a proven track record of bringing our communities together to fight climate change.

The One Region Forward for Climate Action Plan advances key issues and priorities to ensure regional climate action addresses the needs of disadvantaged and underrepresented communities, and identifies priority measures the region can take between now and 2030.

Tendaji Ya’Ukuu, ecological justice coordinator for Open Buffalo and a UB environmental design student, received the Award for Leadership in Climate Justice.

Ya’Ukuu leads clean mobility projects that aim to create equitable neighborhood adoptions of regenerative and cooperative economies, generating innovative and sustainable solutions that improve the conditions of the community.

They have a passion for collective improvement and are committed to developing collaborative and multifunctional spaces for communities that prioritize human flourishing and economic prosperity.

Ya’Ukuu continues to advocate for sustainability and power-building in marginalized groups.

Jessica Ottney Mahar, New York director of policy and strategy for The Nature Conservancy, the largest environmental organization in the world, received the inaugural Alumni Award for Sustainability Excellence.

A 2000 graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences, Mahar recently spearheaded the Clean Water and Jobs Coalition Bond Act — the largest environmental bond measure in New York State history — securing a $4.2 billion investment for the environment and climate action.

Mahar played a key leadership role developing New York’s climate action strategy, and has worked to advance conservation efforts at the national level as well.

Nominations for next year’s awards can be submitted here.