UB ESW earns national recognition; will host 2021 conference

By Peter Murphy

“ESW’s three main goals are design, educate and build,” says Austin Izzo, a senior environmental engineering student and club president of UB ESW, “our new projects this year are doing new things. We’re volunteering with the community and have constructed designs that are going to be really helpful.”

ESW examines activity from all of its different student chapters over the course of one year (in this instance, from April 2018 to April 2019), and awards one group with the outstanding chapter distinction. Some of the big projects UB ESW developed over the last year include the club’s 2018 Build Day and ongoing initiatives like its portable solar charger workshops, biofuels project using hydrogen as a fuel source, aquaponics and edible cutlery projects.

“A good example of our larger success is the portable solar charger workshop,” Izzo says, “we collaborated with UB Sustainability and the tinkering lab. ESW supplied the people, UB tinker provided the space and helped modify the design, and UB Sustainability funded and helped plan the event.”

The solar charger project featured two workshops, each with 15 people. The first group was strictly ESW members, but the second workshop was open to the public. UB ESW designed the plans for the charger, built them, and educated UB students and the community during its workshop.

UB’s student club has also collaborated with Tesla (SolarCity factory in Buffalo), University tool heights, the Buffalo Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, Awesome Buffalo and other ESW chapters.

This sustained collaboration around community educational events is also one of the reasons Izzo earned the outstanding member award. According to UB ESW member, Sarah Wagner, “he was an integral member of our chapter’s Build Day team, helping design our project, organize the event and build the final product. He does an excellent job bridging the connection of professionalism and community in our chapter.”

Izzo’s peers also see him as an ideal leader. Wagner’s nomination describes Izzo as “passionate about his academic work as well as his work for the student chapter. He makes himself available when project leads need advice and is inclusive to all members at social events.”

Izzo joined UB ESW during his freshman year, and served various positions within the club over multiple years. He was the club’s parks project leader initially, and served as vice president last year before becoming president this year. In addition to his service to UB ESW, Izzo has also been working as an intern with CannonDesign, a global architecture, engineering and design firm, on UB’s updated climate action plan.

“That’s my plan for summer, really,” Izzo says, “there hasn’t been a climate action plan put out for UB since 2009 and that one set a goal of carbon neutrality by 2030. Basically, CannonDesign is working in collaboration with almost every facilities department on campus along with UB sustainability to create a path to carbon neutrality.”

Izzo will pursue a master’s degree in environmental and water resources engineering at UB in the fall, and serve as a graduate student advisor for UB ESW. Incoming senior environmental engineering student Charlotte Kuhl will take over as president for the club, but Izzo still plans to stay involved.

Izzo also earned the Sustainability, Leadership, Innovation and Collaborative Engagement (SLICE) Award from UB Sustainability. This award recognizes "outstanding individuals and departments who exhibit a sincere commitment to transforming our campuses into a holistically sustainable community through the kinds of leadership, innovation and collaboration that demonstrates environmental stewardship, enhances social progress, or promotes responsible economic systems and growth," according to UB Sustainability's website.

UB ESW learned earlier this year that it will host the 2021 national ESW conference. The club will host the first of national ESW’s “revamped” conferences, according to Izzo.

“ESW normally holds yearly conferences and they announce the location at the previous conference each year,” Izzo says, “There are more ESW chapters growing like crazy, and national ESW had the idea to take a year off, revamp the conferences and work on sponsorship opportunities. As soon as we applied, national ESW said ‘we want you guys to do this. We want University at Buffalo, specifically, to be the first ones to do this.’”

You can watch UB ESW's conference announcement video at this link.