Update: Voting for the 2014 Second Nature Climate Leadership Awards is now open until April 15th. Click here to support SUNY Sullivan for their incredible efforts to increase on-campus sustainability.
The 2014 Second Nature Climate Leadership Awards, an annual competition among US colleges and universities, has announced an upstate SUNY campus as a finalist for the Award.
The honor and achievement is a well-deserved recognition following a brand new partnership with the New York Power Authority to undertake energy efficiency measures at 10 SUNY campuses that will save the university system $3.5 million each year and Governor’s Cuomo’s February announcement that over $775,000 will be awarded to 14 SUNY campuses to, in part, fund energy and environmental research.
This year’s Climate Leadership Awards drew the largest and most competitive pool of nominations to date. The only SUNY campus to enter and be recognized on this level is SUNY Sullivan, which is nominated as a finalist in the Associate/Tribal College category, where it joins four fellow United States colleges as a finalist.
In the spirit of Energy Smart NY, SUNY Sullivan has established its reputation as an institution dedicated to sustainability by incorporating such practices into both its curricula and its campus operations.
The campus has installed a 9-acre solar array, 3-bay composting facility, green roofing system, eco-friendly water bottle filling stations, and wind turbine since 2012, and has been operating a geothermal climate control system that helps heat and cool for over a decade.
Its ongoing sustainability plan ensures that as accomplishments like these occur, they are stepping stones along a path of even greater progress toward the ultimate goals: to teach and model responsible environmental stewardship; and to make an impact on students, while making less of an impact on our natural world.
“The impacts of climate change are being felt at all scales and among all people across the U.S. and the World, and our colleges and universities are clearly at the forefront of identifying solutions, and providing the next generation of responsible and pioneering leaders,” said David Hales, President of Second Nature. “This year we are seeing the most innovative and exciting projects yet, and we are thrilled to be able to recognize these institutions and their work.”
Second Nature will partner with Planet Forward, a web-to-television initiative that documents and shares energy, climate, and sustainability advances, in a public voting competition featuring the finalists’ climate leadership and campus innovations during Earth Month (April 2014). Finalists will produce videos promoting their sustainability efforts, and public voting will open during April. The Second Nature Board of Directors will choose the winners in late Spring 2014.
