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Rochester Institute of Technology’s Golisano Institute for Sustainability, housed in Sustainability Institute Hall, lists nine different laboratories.
But one that’s not on the list is the biggest of all – the building itself. With power or heat or both produced by a phosphoric acid fuel cell, wind turbines, solar panels, and a geothermal well, the building has more than enough power to run its lights, keep the building warm in winter and cool in summer. It shares the excess energy with the rest of campus. The hall also has 1,500 sensors, allowing researchers and graduate students to analyze all that data and make adjustments as they learn about the building and translate their findings for others.
The hall has a green roof with two levels of solar panels that can be replaced by new technologies, a living wall, and a cistern system that reuses rainwater to flush toilets, reducing the building’s water use to 25 percent of similarly sized buildings.
Perhaps the biggest gee-whiz factor about the institute, however, is not its state-of-the-art building, but its hundreds, maybe thousands of interactions each year with local industries as staff and graduate students work to make them more sustainable. It’s disseminating sustainability.
“They’ve provided us with technical help and research and development ideas,’ said Lauren Toretta, president of Ch4 Biogas-Renewable Energy, owner of Synergy Biogas, a manure-powered and food-waste-powered energy project on the Synergy dairy farm in Covington, Wyoming County.
“They’ve helped us to assess other sites we’ve contemplated over the years, and (are) currently contemplating,” Toretta said. The company, headquartered in Connecticut, has another biogas digester in Ohio and is slated to create a third in Batavia.
A key bit of research RIT folks handled for Synergy was testing of microalgae in an experiment to see if they could produce an algal bloom in the digester as a feedstock to create more energy, she said. Typically methane from the food waste and cow manure is burned to create power, while after digestion the solids are dried and used for cow bedding in the barns and the remaining liquid is spread on farms for fertilizer.
“They were asking not just about science, but the overlay of economics,” Toretta said of RIT researchers. “They’re thinking through the hard questions about the intersection of business and the environment.”
One such questioner is Ph.D. student Diana Rodriguez Alberto, from the Dominican Republic, who is trying to create a substance from the biogas digester’s waste stream that can bind needed nutrients in the soil instead of allowing them to wash away and potentially create runoff problems.
The material Rodriguez Alberto is working with, biochar, comes from treating the solids left over after digesting manure and food waste.
Biochar, which is black, might also have potential for use in ink, said Professor Thomas A. Trabold, head of the Sustainability Department at RIT, as it could replace carbon forms of ink. A manure-based ink might seem pretty esoteric unless you know this: in the last year, one of the institute’s seven centers, the Printing Applications Laboratory, handled 992 requests for help from companies, with many of the requests pertaining to custom ink formulations and the companies’ interests in achieving industry-standard certifications.
Meanwhile, another center under the institute’s umbrella is the New York State Pollution Prevention Institute, a joint project of RIT, the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the federal Environmental Protection Agency, and partner institutions Clarkson University and the University at Buffalo. This center assisted 33 companies in diverting waste, according to RIT.
The Sustainability Institute includes a state Center of Excellence in Advanced & Sustainable Manufacturing, a concept dreamed up by institute Director Nabil Nasr, who Trabold calls an international expert in the area of remanufacturing. Last year the center assisted 20 companies directly and provided 941 workshops and training for 422 companies.
Nasr’s dream of a Center of Excellence won approval from the university’s board of trustees in 2003. Funding to get the center and its academic twin off the ground came largely from the Luce Foundation in 2006 and then a $10 million grant in 2007 from entrepreneur B. Thomas Golisano, the founder of Paychex. Hence the naming of the sustainability institute.
An early result was a Ph.D. program in sustainable systems starting in 2008, the world’s first such doctorate program focusing on sustainable production, Trabold said. (Arizona State created a program earlier that focuses more on policy, he noted.)
Today, the institute fosters three advanced degrees – the original Ph.D. program, a master’s degree in sustainable systems, and a master’s degree in architecture that is heavily steeped in sustainability. Additional Ph.D. programs are under consideration, as is a bachelor’s degree in architecture.
Federal funding has been secured for the RIT-led coalition of leading national universities and companies forging new clean energy initiatives deemed critical to keeping U.S. manufacturing competitive.
The recently passed Omnibus spending bill, which funds the federal government through the end of the fiscal year, contained $70 million for the U.S. Department of Energy’s five Manufacturing USA initiatives—including the Reducing Embodied-Energy and Decreasing Emissions (REMADE) Institute headed by RIT’s Golisano Institute for Sustainability.
The funding announcement was made by U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on Monday.
Early last year, the Department of Energy selected RIT to lead the institute, focusing its efforts on driving down the cost of technologies essential to reuse, recycle and remanufacture materials to achieve significant improvements in overall energy efficiency by 2027.
RIT is involved in seven of the 14 Manufacturing USA institutes, with REMADE being the first the university is leading. The institute now includes 62 members.
Rochester has deteriorated in the job market since 2009, especially in the sciences. Great pharmaceutical companies have moved or no longer exist as they have closed down. Nothing but temporary jobs or science jobs that pay minimum wage even with a degree. I came back to visit family in 2019 and check the job boards to see if anything has changed and it hasn’t. I sat there shaking my head while hearing how my family members want to leave, but are complacent and rather knife down other candidates for the little good jobs offered (even Strong Memorial Hospital has terrible jobs now, except being a doctor or a nurse). If only they would see the light, other areas are prospering while Rochester remains stagnant. Rochester is a frozen wasteland filled with rats, crime, crappy jobs, and high taxes. Glad I left.
Rochester has deteriorated in the job market since 2009, especially in the sciences. Great pharmaceutical companies have moved or no longer exist as they have closed down. Nothing but temporary jobs or science jobs that pay minimum wage even with a degree. I came back to visit family in 2019 and check the job boards to see if anything has changed and it hasn’t. I sat there shaking my head while hearing how my family members want to leave, but are complacent and rather knife down other candidates for the little good jobs offered (even Strong Memorial Hospital has terrible jobs now, except being a doctor or a nurse). If only they would see the light, other areas are prospering while Rochester remains stagnant. Rochester is a frozen wasteland filled with rats, crime, crappy jobs, and high taxes. Glad I left.
A lot of the good jobs in Rochester are gotten through networking. For instance, Optics. There are about 50 optics companies and they mostly know each other, as well as I think 4 colleges have optics degrees, and they scoop up the jobs. There are jobs. Last time I looked on ideed, there were over 4 jobs in my field, which surprised me.
Rochester has deteriorated in the job market since 2009, especially in the sciences. Great pharmaceutical companies have moved or no longer exist as they have closed down. Nothing but temporary jobs or science jobs that pay minimum wage even with a degree. I came back to visit family in 2019 and check the job boards to see if anything has changed and it hasn’t. I sat there shaking my head while hearing how my family members want to leave, but are complacent and rather knife down other candidates for the little good jobs offered (even Strong Memorial Hospital has terrible jobs now, except being a doctor or a nurse). If only they would see the light, other areas are prospering while Rochester remains stagnant. Rochester is a frozen wasteland filled with rats, crime, crappy jobs, and high taxes. Glad I left.
Plenty of jobs in my field in technology. I make 6 figures and get recruited on a weekly basis here. Maybe I'm just better at my job than you are at yours?
Quote:
Rochester, NY (February 1, 2020) – The Rochester region continued its accelerated rate of job
growth in December according to figures released by the New York State Department of Labor
and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
After expanding at an annual rate of 0.6% in September, the regional economy added jobs at
annual rates of 1.0%, 1.5% and 1.3% in October, November and December, respectively. From
November 2018 to November 2019, the Rochester Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) added
8,000 jobs. Preliminary December-to-December data reflect a 7,300-job expansion.
The December growth rate exceeded the statewide average by two-tenths of a percent and ranked
Rochester as the third-fastest growing metro in NYS behind Ithaca (3.3%) and New York City
(1.7%).
The Rochester MSA’s employment level for each month in 2019 was higher than each respective
month in 2018, and the annual growth rates in Q4 were the year’s fastest. The months of
October, November and December represented the first time the region’s total nonfarm
employment level surpassed 550,000 for three consecutive months.
The performance moved the Rochester MSA further into the top-30 of the 53-metro benchmark
group against which ROC2025 evaluates the region’s economic performance. Its November job
growth rate exceeded that of peer metros like Louisville, KY (1.2%), Baton Rouge, LA (1.1%),
Columbia, SC (0.9%), Buffalo, NY (0.9%), Dayton, OH (0.7%), Albuquerque, NM (0.7%), and
Memphis, TN (0.3%).
Rochester has the 6th hottest real estate market in the US. So how in the world can a city with the 6th hottest real estate market have the worst job market? And go to Realtor.com and try to find a nice house (over 250K) in the City of Rochester. There are next to none.
Rochester has the 6th hottest real estate market in the US. So how in the world can a city with the 6th hottest real estate market have the worst job market? And go to Realtor.com and try to find a nice house (over 250K) in the City of Rochester. There are next to none.
Without even seeing the parameters, that has to be a pretty laughable definition of 'hot real estate' markets. I assume it's based on increase in median sale price over a given period of time...but I mean, the starting point is pretty low in Rochester (as in Buffalo).
Without even seeing the parameters, that has to be a pretty laughable definition of 'hot real estate' markets. I assume it's based on increase in median sale price over a given period of time...but I mean, the starting point is pretty low in Rochester (as in Buffalo).
Realtor.com uses analytics on how many views there are for listings (through their website) to analyze demand, and they look at the median time on the market for listings to analyze supply.
I will also add, I have 2 relatives that are currently in the market for new homes. One of them has been looking for about a year and a half now. They have put in 7 offers and lost on all of them. In one example they offered 15 grand over asking and still got outbid. In another example the saw a house come online and setup an appointment the following day to see the home. And on the day after seeing the home they called their realtor to make an offer to find out that the owners had already accepted an offer.
So from my experience with family members currently trying to find home, the analytics that Realtor.com uses are accurate.
Realtor.com uses analytics on how many views there are for listings (through their website) to analyze demand, and they look at the median time on the market for listings to analyze supply.
I will also add, I have 2 relatives that are currently in the market for new homes. One of them has been looking for about a year and a half now. They have put in 7 offers and lost on all of them. In one example they offered 15 grand over asking and still got outbid. In another example the saw a house come online and setup an appointment the following day to see the home. And on the day after seeing the home they called their realtor to make an offer to find out that the owners had already accepted an offer.
So from my experience with family members currently trying to find home, the analytics that Realtor.com uses are accurate.
Fair. Are we assuming or knowing that rubygreta was referencing realtor.com rankings/ratings? I'll probably google in a bit here but I'm playing online poker currently
Fair. Are we assuming or knowing that rubygreta was referencing realtor.com rankings/ratings? I'll probably google in a bit here but I'm playing online poker currently
Yes I'm pretty sure that's what rubygreta is referring to. Realtor has been consistently ranking Rochester in the top 15 "hot" markets each month for about the last year. There was even a month where they had Rochester ranked as the #1 hottest market.
Quote:
Rochester, NY is Heating Up
Rochester, NY claimed the number one spot on the list this month, followed by Fort Wayne, IN, and Lafayette, IN. Rochester’s median days on market remained stable over the past year, but it remains low, with properties on the market 22 days less than the national rate. Rochester’s views per property increased 17 percent over the past year and properties in this market received 2.3 times more views than the national rate. Appealing to a variety of generations, top-notch affordability, and a strong urban housing market are key to Rochester’s success. Rochester is one of the most attractive markets across the country for Gen-X buyers, and it is one of the top markets in the country where the gap between what Millennials put down on a home versus other generations is the lowest. Rochester had a REALTORS® Affordability Score of 0.93 in April, meaning that the market has more properties available for sale that are affordable for buyers across all income percentiles, relative to the rest of the country. Additionally, Rochester’s urban areas are currently outperforming their suburban and exurban areas, tending to have tighter inventory conditions with properties spending fewer days on the market, greater listing price growth and more listing views per property.
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