Student Projects from ‘Greening Your Campus’ Contest on Display in Albany

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New York State Pollution Prevention Institute hosts event from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 2 p.m. April 25 at Empire State Plaza Convention Center, Albany. The exhibit is free and open to the public.

Campus sustainability will be on display in Albany as the students from the New York State Pollution Prevention Institute’s partner universities present their work from the Greening Your Campus contest.

Five teams from Clarkson University, three teams from Rochester Institute of Technology and two teams from University at Buffalo have submitted projects for this year’s contest and will exhibit their work from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 2 p.m. April 25 at Empire State Plaza Convention Center, Albany. The exhibit is free and open to the public.

“The students involved are incredibly passionate about the environment,” says Anahita Williamson, director of the Pollution Prevention Institute. “We are excited the public gets to see the great ideas and concepts these students came up with in terms of making their campus environment more sustainable and environmentally friendly.”

As part of its Research and Development Program, the Pollution Prevention Institute had developed a student competition in which teams must identify a specific activity at their university with a high environmental footprint and define a solution for lowering the impact. The winning project will be announced after a luncheon for the students at noon.

The projects from the teams will address the following issues on the respective campuses:

• Reduce the use and disposal of plastic water bottles
• Campus dining facility organic waste to energy conversion
• Thermal storage in refrigerator/freezer smart grid units
• Reduce lighting use in dorm hallways using motion sensors
• Determine the feasibility of installing wind micro-turbines on campus
• Refrigerator replacement feasibility
• Anaerobic digestion of cafeteria waste
• Evaluate use of wasted liquid byproducts of campus composting program
• Evaluate installation of water bottle refill stations
• Evaluate an ultra-high efficient natural gas turbine to get the campus “off the grid”

Projects will be judged at the event. First, second and third place prizes will be awarded at a ceremony after the exhibit.

For more information on the contest including official rules, go to New York State Pollution Prevention Institute website.

The New York State Pollution Prevention Institute is a partnership between RIT, Clarkson University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University at Buffalo and is funded by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The institute works to make New York more sustainable by assisting companies in reducing toxic chemical use, solid and hazardous waste generation and overall emissions to the environment. It also encourages industry to efficiently and effectively utilize raw materials, energy and water.