SUNY ESF to create a ‘sustainability plan’ to reduce its environmental impact
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SUNY ESF is in the preliminary stages of developing a sustainability plan that details goals to reduce the impact the ESF campus has on the environment — a timeline first initiated in April 2023 that now has over 150 sustainability goals.
Since announcing the plan, ESF’s Office of Sustainability has held stakeholder interviews — which involved college administrators, faculty, staff and students — across ESF to review internal policies, said Delaney Demro, ESF’s sustainability planning and institutional alignment manager. With the thoughts of over 90 stakeholders in mind, ESF drafted a sustainability plan that takes into consideration statewide policies as well as university goals, Demro said.
At a Feb. 6 social on ESF’s campus, around 140 attendees were able to engage, review and provide feedback on the outline’s over 150 “actions,” or sustainability goals, that can be implemented on campus, Demro said.
Eden Gardner, a junior at ESF and the director of sustainability for the SUNY Student Assembly, said the plan is still in development and has not been released to the public as of Feb. 24. The draft shared at the social was a spreadsheet detailing actions for the campus to take, he said, whereas the final product will be written documents fit with introductions, findings and a conclusion of all the information summarized.
“I think the end result of this is going to be a phenomenal product that will encompass sustainability beyond environmental and climate change-related things, and really just be a document to serve as a living, breathing concept of what students, faculty and staff have in mind for sustainability,” Gardner said.
Gardner said students on ESF’s campus have been “very vocal” in terms of what they want to see from administration and the Office of Sustainability, so he thinks the goals and values shared in the action plan should be seen on campus “within a few semesters.”
Last fall, SUNY announced it would form a Sustainability Advisory Council — a group of faculty, staff and students tasked to work closely with SUNY administrators to develop sustainable practices and ideas for a potential “SUNY-wide Climate Action Plan,” according to a September press release.
Sue Fassler, ESF’s director of sustainability and a member of the council, said many of the conversations have been related to creating SUNY-wide policies to help implement and meet state goals. Traditionally, SUNY has only had carbon and energy goals, but Fassler said there are many other issues to consider.
“There’s purchasing. There’s workforce development, there’s research, there’s teaching. There’s just so much more than carbon, energy and transportation, so it’s nice to see SUNY taking a more holistic look at sustainability,” she said.
Because ESF is well-represented in the council through Fassler, ESF President Joanie Mahoney and two students, ESF can advise SUNY to create new sustainability goals for campuses — like those it has implemented on its own — while also communicating with SUNY and New York state to understand where help is needed, Fassler said.
The next step for ESF is to adjust the draft of the plan based on feedback consolidated from the social event and stakeholder interviews, Demro said. ESF also has an online feedback form for the public to provide input.
“(The plan) won’t be something that disappears, it’s going to be something that our office works really closely with the entire campus to implement,” she said. “We can’t do it alone, there’s no way we can, and it wouldn’t be fair to campus if we didn’t really truly involve them in step one.”
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ESF has been on track in meeting many of its sustainability goals already, Fassler said.
The college has reduced its carbon emissions by 29% and energy usage by 13% since 2007, according to an email from the ESF’s Office of Sustainability to The Daily Orange. The office also wrote that it has reduced trash by 41% since 2018, added 22 electric vehicle charging ports and launched a reusable container program. At the same time, the office has hired more than 40 student employees.
While it helps that ESF’s Office of Sustainability is over 15 years old, the college has accelerated its efforts over the last four or five years, Fassler said. Despite the success the Office of Sustainability has had in its sustainability goals, Fassler said ESF recently pushed its zero waste and circularity goal back to 2026.
“We’re going to (hit that goal) when we realize that we’re on track, but we need more resources, and we’re going to need more time,” Fassler said. “We just live in the world of reality. We have really high goals and it’s okay to kind of tweak and change things in the real world.”
The new sustainability plan has a three-year timeframe, which Demro said is a “quick turnaround.” Throughout its implementation, the college intends to provide yearly updates to the plan’s progress. Throughout the report, Demro said, ESF can share adjustments to timelines or end goals that better fit the university’s needs.
Gardner also said that there is a lot more to the plan than just environmental goals. It also emphasizes creating an “entire campus sustainability” plan that aligns with diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility objectives rather than narrowing its focus to what people think of when they hear the word sustainability.
“This is a plan that’s very all-encompassing, and is so much more than just environmental sustainability. It’s campus sustainability. It’s ensuring our community is being uplifted in a way that’s equitable for everyone,” Gardner said. “I think a lot of people don’t realize that when we first talk about (sustainability).”
Gardner said pessimistic conversations about climate change and the environment may make people less likely to take action, but that it is important to recognize the opportunity to change.
“This is something that we can definitely make a change on and this is something that we will change for the better regardless of whether it’s now or later,” he said. “We’re seeing the difficulties and challenges right now with climate change and higher education sustainability initiatives … but over time I think more and more people are going to realize (its) importance.”
