While most people will be sleeping at 3 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 6, three employees of the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems—two ’09 Syracuse University grads and one ’09 St. Lawrence University grad—will head out on a road trip to Phoenix, Ariz.
What’s in Phoenix? The group— Kelly Anderson, Aimee Clinkhammer, and Carissa Matthews—are traveling to attend the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo (http://greenbuild.org), the largest annual green building conference in the world, and exhibit on behalf of SyracuseCoE as well as New York’s Creative Core (http://creativecoreny.com). The round-trip journey will go from Syracuse, to Phoenix by the shortest route possible, driving through St. Louis, Tulsa, Okla. and Albuquerque, N.M.
Exhibiting at a conference is typically a very unsustainable process. Most organizations ship a large, heavy exhibit; exhibitors travel by plane, many times with multiple layovers; and most exhibits are made from unsustainable materials, such as vinyl and plexiglass. To lessen SyracuseCoE’s carbon footprint, the design team collaborated with the exhibitors and sponsors to create a booth entirely out of repurposed and/or sustainable materials, making it easy to pack into a car and send three employees to Phoenix in one vehicle. By forgoing shipping for the exhibit and air transportation for just these three employees, SyracuseCoE will cut 1 ton of carbon, the equivalent of taking 58 cars off the road for one day.
In addition to creating a sustainable exhibit, SyracuseCoE’s environmental impact will be reduced by driving instead of flying three employees and the entire exhibit; by camping during the road trip to lessen use of electricity in hotels; by eating locally and packing up food from the Syracuse Co-op; and by minimizing the number of paper materials to be given away at Greenbuild.
The trip is made possible by a sponsorship from C&S Companies. SyracuseCoE’s presence at Greenbuild is also supported by National Grid and the Metropolitan Development Association.
The trip will be chronicled at http://greenbuildorbust.weebly.com, which will feature details about how SyracuseCoE is cutting its Greenbuild carbon footprint, road trip photos, a blog about the “green” trip to Phoenix and tweets about current locations, bios on the road-trippers and advice for how they can make the experience even more sustainable.
Dear Students and Families: The first day of classes is now less than 40 days away. We are all excited by the prospect of a return to an academic and student experience that resembles our pre-pandemic campus environment. A critical…
Dear Students, Faculty and Staff: I hope everyone is enjoying the summer months. During these quieter times on campus, many construction and renovation projects are underway, as we prepare for the return of students and the start of another busy…
With help from the Syracuse University and greater communities, a rehabilitated red-tailed hawk was released back into the wild to rejoin its family on July 15. Juvenile A is the first of two chicks that hatched this year in the…
It’s one of the sounds of summer: a gas-powered lawnmower. The noise is quite common in neighborhoods as people work to keep their lawns looking good. It’s no different on the Syracuse University campus. With 800 acres of grounds, cutting…
Two campus construction projects beginning next week will involve the temporary closure of College Place, due to crosswalk replacement work, and Smith Drive, due to the installation of Machinery Hall chilled water service. College Place Closure Campus Planning, Design and…
If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.
