Honoring Mother Earth 

ALBANY, N.Y. (April 27, 2017) – Those who raised sustainability at UAlbany to a higher level were honored on Tuesday at the annual Terra Awards.

The award is named for Terra, the Roman goddess of the Earth. Each semester, one faculty member, one staff member and one student receive the award for demonstrating a commitment to advancing sustainable culture at the University.

Interim President James Stellar presented the awards in the Campus Center Ballroom to:

Faculty

Oliver Elison Timm, an associate research professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences (DAES). Timm organized a joint DAES/Atmospheric Sciences Research Center sustainability seminar on climate change, food production and global food security. He assisted Mitch Aso in hosting Andrew Stuhl and his talk on Unfreezing the Arctic and arranged for students and faculty to meet Stuhl. Timm arranged for multiple free screenings of the Leonardo DiCaprio film Before the Flood. In addition, he made a presentation at the Institute for Climate, Environment and Health’s symposium and hosted DAES seminar speakers this semester.

Staff

Zakhar Berkovich, director of Undergraduate Student Services at Rockefeller College, led his office’s efforts to get Green Workspace Certified and helped plan and run the Power dialog last spring. Berkovich is leading the charge to develop a sustainability plan for the campus.

He is a member of two advisory bodies for the sustainability office: The Sustainability Innovation Grant Program Review committee and the Academic Advisory Working Group. In his role overseeing undergraduate programs at Rockefeller College, Berkovich has brought a sustainability flair to the school’s course offerings and event programming.

Students

Aggie Pijanowski is a junior political science major with a minor in sustainability and education. She has spent the last three years making the campus more sustainable. She has organized research on the usage of bins in the main library, is currently helping audit bins in the lecture centers, and has made it her mission to improve signs in the living area’s trash rooms to better educate her peers on recycling behaviors. Pijanowski helped co-chair the Trashion Fashion Show committee. A member of the Sustainability Council the last two years, she focuses on recycling and waste reduction. Her devotion to sustainable living is constant and unwavering.

Madison Corbeil is a junior Environmental Science major with minors in business and math. She splits her time between the Office of Sustainability and the Energy Office. Corbeil educated and worked with all offices in Service Building A to become Green Workspace Gold Certified, the largest office to date because it is an entire building. She is working to identify green lab practices to assist with the creation of UAlbany’s Sustainable Lab Coalition. Her passion for sustainability is evident and she influences peers in a positive and effective manner.

Green Dane Cup Goes to Indian Quad

Each year, the living residences compete for the Green Cup, a year-long series of events aimed at increasing environmental awareness. The events include performance at the recycling sort and spin at Clash of the Quads, electricity reductions during the energy campaign and the score of their Trashion Fashion design. Points are also awarded for participating in the Campus Crunch, Clean Day and council meetings as well as maintaining sustainability theme bulletin boards in the quads.

This year’s winner is Indian Quad.

Photos by Mark Schmidt.

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