CUNY’s annual New York State Executive Order # 4 (E04) Report summarizes CUNY’s progress toward becoming a more sustainable institution. Highlights in the CUNY report includes an increase in annual recycling rate of 53%, with almost 19,000 tons of materials recycled since 2008 – avoiding emissions equivalent to over 112,000 barrels of oil.
Sustainable CUNY Conserves is a University wide effort to reduce energy consumption, spend less money on utilities and use the savings to support other campus efforts.
Sustainable CUNY has created a $1-million fund, the Sustainability Investment Fund, to support projects on CUNY campuses which produce energy savings and other sustainability benefits.
Registration for the annual national, inter-university recycling contest, RecycleMania, has opened. Participation in the 6-week event, which begins on February 3rd 2013, involves students, faculty and staff working together to collect and measure various recyclable materials, competing to collect as much as possible and comparing their results with colleges & universities across the country.
Colleges interested in participating in a Spring 2013 effort to increase the number of Cool Roofs at CUNY are being sought. Cool roofs significantly reduce the surface temperature of asphalt and similar roofs during warmer months, by reflecting sunlight and emitting rather than absorbing solar radiation, in turn lowering cooling loads and helping to conserve energy.
The NYC Department of Environmental Protection has announced a $6million fund for its Green Infrastructure Grant Program for 2013, inviting proposals which help capture, divert or reuse storm-water in a bid to minimize runoff into the city sewage system.
Queens College celebrated the opening of three separate rain gardens at their campus in October, which will help divert almost 1 million gallons of stormwater annually out of the sewage system, helping in turn to preserve water quality in nearby Flushing Creek.
