For the first time, SUNY-ESF is being recognized as a finalist for the Climate Leadership Awards by Second Nature.

Second Nature is a nonprofit that started the Climate Leadership Awards four years ago.

President Cornelius Murphy said he gives a lot of the credit to State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry students.

“Our students have taken on many initiatives in order to help us move toward more sustainable operations,” Murphy said. “Our students are pretty cool.”

ESF was chosen as a finalist from a pool of 650 other colleges selected by Second Nature, said Sarah Brylinsky, director of Climate Resilience and Education programs for Second Nature. She said this year was one of the most competitive years.

“What we are looking for are indications that the campus has gone above and beyond to implement climate leadership and comprehensive sustainability education programs,” Brylinsky said.

New sustainability and renewable energy projects that are now almost complete have contributed to ESF’s improved performance in the awards, said Michael Kelleher, executive director of energy and sustainability at ESF.

“A lot of the things have sort of all come together at this point that were at various planning stages in the past years,” he said.

The new Gateway Building is a focal point of the school’s efforts in sustainability, Kelleher said. He added that it will provide about 65 percent of the campus’ heating needs and 20 percent of its electrical needs from biomass fuel.

Andrea Webster, ESF’s sustainability coordinator, said there are also efforts by the ESF administration that has helped them be recognized as a finalist for the Climate Leadership Awards.

“We are a really progressive campus in terms of implementing renewable energy and carbon reduction,” said Webster, who is also a part-time graduate student.

Webster added that there were two major components in ESF becoming a finalist. One was ESF’s sustainability accreditation, andthe other was a keyword database that helps students select sustainable classes.

Webster said she hopes the leadership award will help get the word out about how ESF will be independently carbon neutral by 2015.

“I think this will show other universities, ‘Hey this is ESF and we are going to be climate neutral very soon, so look out,’” Webster said.

Jocelyn Gan, a senior environmental science major, is working on a capstone project to evaluate how efficient the new Gateway Building will be once it opens. She said since ESF is being recognized with the leadership award, this helps to make the Gateway Building an example for other schools.

She said the award could be a great way for professionals working on sustainability to realize the work students are doing in the same field.

“Just to get students involved with this process is really nice,” she said. “For a lot of schools, it seems sustainability is more just at the executive level.”

Published on February 4, 2013 at 12:18 am

Contact Shannon: smhazlit@syr.edu