SUNY Senate Sustainability Research Conference Call Oct. 26th

Present: Rick Smardon (SUNY/ESF), Mike Hoffman (Cornell), Debra Howard (SUNY Central), Ivar Strand (SUNY Research Foundation), Junaid Zubairi (SUNY Fredonia), Saed Engeldis(SUNY New Paltz), Mark Bremer (SUNY IT), Xinchao Wei (SUNY IT), Michael Sperazza (SUNY Stony Brook) and Peter Domalavage (SUNY Maritime)

SUNY/ESF Outreach staff Sean Nicholson and Brandon Murphy

Michael Hoffman was introduced to the group and he is Associate Dean of Cornell Life Sciences and Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station at Cornell. He described on going activities as part of the Cornell University Climate Action Plan, which includes some 12,000 acres of farmland. Some of the Experiment station Federal USDA funds are utilized for climate change and food security research. He also described the Atkinson Center for Sustainable Futures (web site sent in previous email). The Center has an $80 million dollar endowment and funds energy, environment, economic development and innovation projects. Besides building partnerships and holding meetings, the Center administers $750,000 per year in high risk/high gain projects. Hoffman is also on the Cornell President’s Sustainability campus advisory committee, which oversees 10 different focus areas. He also has some connections with the Cornell Waste Management Institute.

Ivar Strand next reported on the Research Foundation’sCollaborative Grant Program. This is a new program and the objective is promoting SUNY collaborative grant research for two or more collaborators on different SUNY campuses. Initial proposals were due in July 2012 and were reviewed this last week. Some 65 proposals were received for review and it is expected that 7 to 10 proposals will be funded from the total amount of $700,000. Proposal preparers could submit for one year at up to $50,000 or two tears at up to $100,000. Announcements will be made for this round of proposals by the next week or two and review comments fed back to the other proposal preparers. A new call for a second round is expected to come out in January. R. Smardon noted that a couple of the proposals from the initial May 2012 Sustainability research workshop were submitted to the collaboration fund and several of the proposals (especially energy related) were similar in concept to research ideas from the May workshop. Ivar Strand and R. Smardon will follow up to facilitate potential linkages for future proposals.

Deb Howard from SUNY Central reported on the small Sustainability Matching Grant program – where proposals are due October 31st and a number of the SUNY Senate teams are submitting such proposals to this program. These are small matching grants of up to $7500 for practical sustainability projects with cross –campus SUNY application and/or benefit local communities. Deb clarified that cost matching is necessary and in kind amounts such as faculty time count.

Junaid Zubairi of SUNY Fredonia reported on the Social Science/Human Behavior working group. The focus of their proposal is reducing food waste and trash on SUNY campuses. This project would involve some 40 students on 3 SUNY campuses with and education al program, monitoring results and post project assessment. There are 4 co-PIs involved from the three campuses (Albany, Fredonia and SUNY/ESF). They are planning on submitting to the SUNY Central sustainability matching grant program on October 31st. There were some questions about cost sharing and Deb Howard responded.

Saed Engeldis of SUNY New Paltz responded for the Food Sustainability working group. They also are planning on submitting a proposal to the SUNY Central Sustainability matching grant program. The proposed focus is on developing a cost effective soil testing for suitability for urban gardens as a key problem with soil contamination risk. They would like to collaborate with the Cornell Waste Management Institute for testing of heavy metals in soils. There was a conversation with Mike Hoffman of Cornell about facilitating such contacts. Deb Howard is hoping for a second stage of sustainable small grants to enable a full-scale survey for the project.

MarkBremerfrom SUNY IT responded for the Campus Sustainability working group. They have recruited Julian Dautremont-Smith form Alfred State who has had extensive experience with ASHEE’s STARS campus sustainability rating system. They hope to create a database that is useful for benchmarking across the SUNY system as well as promotion of best management practices. Mike Hoffman recommended Dan Roth as a good contact at Cornell for campus sustainability planning.

Bremer of SUNY IT reported on a project to develop a portable laboratory for bio-diesel development and testing. Students would help to design and develop the trailer lab and it could be accessed through a reservation system.

XinchaoWei of SUNY IT also reported on collaborative project proposal for the SUNY sustainability fund. This project would the development of a 350-foot interpretive trail that would have several renewable energy systems demonstrated along the trail such as solar panels, wind turbines, hydropower, biomass energy plus renewable energy storage systems. This would be utilized to develop sustainable energy curriculum development that could be utilized on other SUNY campuses.

Michael Sperazza of SUNY Stony Brook reported on activity in theClimate Change group. He is working with others on a spring RF collaboration fund grant which focuses on local climate records to build a more accurate climate change data base. R. Smardon reported on a social science sub projectto assess those who are most sensitive to climate change e.g., famers and recreation industry and explores indices of climate variability. Such would be utilized to better predict climate change impacts and facilitate adaption measures. Hoffman recommended contacts at the federally-supported Northeast Regional Climate Center Cornell Climate change center and the Institute for Climate change and Agriculture Cornell Climate Change web site. He opined that famers are really supportive and open to the concept of gathering science to build adaption strategies. Smardon also announced the NYSERDA Request for proposals REP 2628 that calls for creating a climate change science repository.

Wei of SUNY IT and Peter Domalavage of SUNY Maritime reported from the Materials Science/Waste Managementworking group. Wei asked about specific issues to be addressed for the floating ship laboratory development. Peter Domalavage started that the major issues are ways of treating ship generated water pollution, e.g., grey water, black water (sewage) and bilge water contamination. This is costing Maritime some $5 million per year to store and then send to a treatment system. This is an issue for both developing on board treatment technologies as well as specifications for a new training vessel. Thus the potential impact could be development of new water quality treatment technologies for the maritime industry. Peter Domalavage had a question about matching funds for Deb Howard and this was answered. He also had a question about applicability to other SUNY campuses. The response was that this project has practical application to the whole maritime community in NYS. It was also recommended that the appropriate contacts be developed at SDUNY IT, SUNY Farmingdale and Stony Brook to assist in developing such treatment technology.

Ivar will send an announcement about new funding sources (already distributed) and Mike Hoffman wills supply additional Cornell contacts and programs (already distributed).

The next conference call will be scheduled for November 30th from 3 to 4 PM.

Respectfully submitted;

Richard Smardon, PhD, Professor of Environmental Studies

SUNY Senate Research Subcommittee