The Short Version
THE LONGER VERSION: Sustainability conversations aren't just about high-minded principles of environmental stewardship. At their core, they are conversations about the mundane, largely unseen building systems that make our climate-controlled lives comfortable every day.. They’re also about policy choices and the political will to make important changes. UAlbany’s Central Plant, for example, provides heat and hot water to much of the Uptown Campus through gas (and sometimes oil)-fired boilers that pump water at extremely high temperatures and pressures. Hot — as in in 385°F hot. We got a closer look at that system and the people who maintain it in 2024 [https://www.albany.edu/news-center/news/2024-qa-what-it-takes-keep-heat-flowing-campus] when a cracked weld in one of those high-pressure pipes forced the system offline for about 22 hours. Occasionally leaky pipes aside, that fossil fuel-hungry technology represents the past. If UAlbany and SUNY are going to meet the carbon-reduction goals of New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act [https://climate.ny.gov/], big changes need to be made. To that end, Indu and her colleagues across UAlbany and SUNY are working on ambitious decarbonization plans that would dramatically cut fossil fuel usage by electrifying heating, cooling and hot water delivery on campus. The University is currently seeking $37 million in state funding for the next phase of that project, which would include geothermal wells and new electric chillers and heat exchangers. That work would be in addition to plans for a new satellite Energy Hub and geothermal field serving UAlbany’s proposed Health Innovation & Technology Building [https://www.bizjournals.com/albany/news/2025/01/27/ualbany-health-tech-building-plan.html] on the other side of campus, which would help sustainably heat and cool adjacent buildings on the Academic Podium home to advanced research facilities. We already have a model for success. ETEC, UAlbany’s newest and first fully electric research and teaching complex, opened on the Harriman State Office Campus in 2021 and requires no on-site burning of fossil fuels. In 2023, ETEC was named Green Building of the Year [https://www.albany.edu/news-center/news/2023-etec-honored-green-building-council-building-year] by the U.S. Green Building Council of Upstate New York. Fittingly, ETEC is also home to most of UAlbany’s climate researchers [https://www.albany.edu/asrc] and the students who will study climate change [https://www.albany.edu/daes] in the future. What’s in a name? To folks in Albany sustainability circles, Indu is a familiar name and face. And if you’ve worked with her (or just listened to this podcast), you’ve noted she goes simply by Indu — no last name, despite the fact that U.S. immigration officials (and our campus email system) have occasionally tried to assign her one. Typically it appears as “Lnu.” But that’s not Indu's last name; it's just an abbreviation for “Last name unknown.” In part of their conversation that did not make the final edit, Indu explained to Maggie what her name means and its connection to her home in Tamil Nadu, India's southern-most state. Indu: My full name is Indumathi, which means the light from the moon. I don't have a last name. My father decided against giving any of his children a last name because he did not want our last name to be associated with a caste, which it would have been. He did not want that. So I grew up my entire life with one name, and had no problems. But when I decided to come here to get my master's degree and I went to apply for a visa, the U.S. system would not allow a person with no last name because how else do you track this person? So they assigned me the last name “Lnu.” GO DEEPER: UAlbany's Office of Sustainability [https://www.albany.edu/sustainability/climate-action-sustainability-plan] has a wealth of information about sustainability on campus, including an online dashboard [https://www.albany.edu/office-facilities-management/energy-management#tab-energy-dashboard] that tracks campus energy usage by building. UAlbany’s decarbonization efforts have been supported by the New York State Energy Research Development Authority [https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/About/Publications/Featured-Case-Studies/University-at-Albany] and were recently recognized by the New York League of Conservation Voters [https://www.nylcv.org/news/2026-capital-region-cocktail-party/]. In 2024, UAlbany was cited as a top performer in the Sustainable Campus Index [https://www.albany.edu/news-center/news/2024-environmental-building-design-earns-ualbany-high-marks-sustainable-campus] by the Association for the Advanced of Sustainability in Higher Education (ASHE). You can read UAlbany’s latest report here [https://reports.aashe.org/institutions/university-at-albany-ny/report/2023-02-27/] in ASHE’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System. In 2022, UAlbany completed the largest rooftop solar array [https://www.albany.edu/news-center/news/2022-rooftop-tour-shows-universitys-new-solar-array] in the entire SUNY system. UAlbany's first geothermal building, Liberty Terrace Apartments, opened in 2012 [https://www.albany.edu/news/27897.php]. EPISODE CREDITS: Audio editing and production by Scott Freedman Photos by Patrick Dodson Interview by Margaret Hartley Hosted by Jordan Carleo-Evangelist The Short Version is produced by the Office of Communications and Marketing [https://www.albany.edu/communications-marketing] at the University at Albany, which is part of the State University of New York. Comments, ideas, suggestions? Send them to mediarelations@albany.edu [mediarelations@albany.edu] and be sure to put The Short Version in the subject line.
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