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Spring 2025 Final Capstone Presentations

by Katherine Gloede Silverman

Here is a short recap video on capstones presentations by Jason Redman in the Division of Science: Here are all of the presentations: Three capstone research teams gave their final presentations. First is Waste-to-Wings: An Approach to Wastewater in NYC for Sustainable Aviation Fuel Production. Second (at 36 minutes) is Harlem Community Energy: Toward Grid Interactive Efficient Buildings and Virtual Power Plants. Third (at 1 hour & 18 minutes) is Assessing Climate Resilience of NYC’s Living Shorelines: Ecosystem, Infrastructure, and Community-Based Assessment Approach. For the link to the Mid-Year presentations, please e-mail [email protected]

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Strategies to address Flooding in Lokoja through Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS)

by Katherine Gloede Silverman

By Tawfiq Zubairu, Current Sustainability Student As part of our spring ’25 capstone project, my partner Wasiu Alimi and I have been working on developing strategies to address flooding in Lokoja through Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) that also integrate renewable energy generation. Being a Kogi native, this work is personally meaningful. While it’s a departure from my electrical engineering background, it has been incredibly rewarding to develop new skills in geospatial and meteorological analysis and spark an interest in the dynamic interactions between urban environments and natural systems. A highlight of this journey was attending the Waterfront Alliance‘s annual …

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Image of Campus Waste Audit

Digging Through the Data: Waste Audit of the Science Building at CCNY

by Katherine Gloede Silverman

By Jake Weinberger, CCNY Sustainability Coordinator This spring, our team rolled up our sleeves and got our hands dirty—literally—for an important cause. As part of our commitment to sustainability at The City College of New York (CCNY), the Environmental Health and Occupational Safety and CCNY Sustainability Team conducted a waste audit of the Marshak Science Building to better understand what we’re throwing away and how we can improve waste diversion on campus. Over the course of the audit, we collected and sorted a total of 78 pounds of waste. After careful categorization, here’s what we found: This audit was part …

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Nadia Samaroo, current Sustainability Graduate Student

Nadia Samaroo Reflects on NOAA Fellowship and Research

by Katherine Gloede Silverman

By Nadia Samaroo: Sustainability Graduate Student; NOAA EPP/ MSI Center for Earth System Science and Remote Sensing Technologies II, Cohort III Fellow Over the past few months, I’ve been conducting research on living shorelines in New York City—specifically at West Pond in Jamaica Bay—to study how the area’s vegetation has recovered since Hurricane Sandy in 2012. This project is part of my research with NOAA CESSRST (Center for Earth System Sciences and Remote Sensing Technologies), where I’ve been combining both remote sensing data and fieldwork observations to better understand the shoreline’s recovery. My research looks at whether there has been …

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Jeremy Edwards at the Woolworth Building

Reflections on Facade Restoration and Sustainability: The Intersection of Historic Preservation and Environmental Responsibility

by Katherine Gloede Silverman

By Urban Sustainability Graduate Jeremy Edwards Abstract Facade restoration is a critical discipline that straddles architectural historic preservation and sustainable design. While traditional preservation methods have focused on maintaining historical authenticity, emerging sustainability imperatives have introduced new paradigms that emphasize energy efficiency, carbon footprint reduction, and lifecycle assessments. This paper critically examines the intersection of facade restoration and sustainability, highlighting theoretical underpinnings and best practices. It discusses the tensions and synergies between preservation ethics and modern sustainability mandates, explores material innovations and energy modeling, and offers reflections on how restoration professionals can integrate sustainable principles without compromising historical integrity. Introduction …

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Divya Fellowship Presentation

SUS Student Completes UNH Sustainability Institute Fellowship

by Katherine Gloede Silverman

Over the Summer of 2024, current Sustainability Student Divyaprabha Chandrasekar completed a fellowship with the University of New Hampshire’s Sustainability Institute. The annual paid fellowship program places qualified students from universities all over the country with various partner organizations to work on wide range of sustainability projects. Divya noted “it’s an amazing opportunity and UNH has more areas of interest and resources to work with on sustainability parameters that CCNY sustainability students could check out.” Her fellowship focused on sustainable interior design materials with Stibler Associates. The fellowship program also brings together each cohort for a professional development retreat and …

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Jerilys Perez presents on CCNY Campus Sustainability for the capstone team's final presentation in the Spring, 2023 semester.

Decarbonize CCNY

by Katherine Gloede Silverman

Beginning with Professor Stephanie Rose’s capstone team project in 2022, a student-led decarbonization effort has gained momentum on campus. Here is a roundup of some progress to date, including the work of the Sustainability Students. In the Spring of 2024, the PSC-CUNY Environmental Justice Working group launched a plan to hold Decarbonization Town Halls on all CUNY Campuses. The first took place in May at Brooklyn College. With support from PSC-CUNY, Public Power NY, and NYPIRG, CCNY hosted a Town Hall on September 26th, 2024. Below is the video of that event. In Fall of 2024, capstone team Dave Myers, …

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Now With a Fully Online Option and Advanced Certificate

by Katherine Gloede Silverman

Formalized this academic year with CUNY, applicants to the Sustainability Program at CCNY will now see the option to apply to a fully online degree. Though options remain to complete the M.S. mainly in person or in a hybrid format, our SUS community will now expand from NYC to anywhere. The Fall 2019 Industrial Ecology Course. Since this particular course offering, students have been able to complete the core class either in person or online depending on schedule and preference. Alongside this exciting expanse in our student body learning from each other’s diverse backgrounds and knowledge, the Sustainability Program has …

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