Hanley Sustainability Institute graduate assistants Lauren Wolford and Meg Maloney are leading the University of Dayton’s resilience assessment as part of UD’s Second Nature climate commitment to plan for climate resilience. They talked to 50-60 community stakeholders about resilience planning in and around Dayton. “Because of what we’re all currently living in, it was really easy to have these conversations specifically around the pandemic,” Wolford said. “It was inspiring to hear from different organizations.”

Zachary Piso, an assistant professor in philosophy, and Roger Reeb, a professor of psychology and former Roesch Chair in the Social Sciences, were both recently named Hanley Sustainability Institute affiliates. Both already are HSI sustainability scholars.

Hanley Sustainability Institute graduate assistant Jack Rees was part of a team that used temperature setbacks in most UD buildings this past summer to save energy. Along the way, he and UD energy efficiency and renewable energy manager Matthew Worsham learned things about the building systems that have made them more operate more efficiently.

City of Dayton Sustainability Manager Mark Charles prefers the term sustainability specialist when it comes to Meg Maloney, a Hanley Sustainability Institute graduate assistant who is working with the city. “She’s not just following me around,” Charles said. “She’s actually got her own responsibilities and activities. She helped me with the final touches on the overall sustainability strategy.”

Before University of Dayton students migrated back to campus during a pandemic, Hanley Sustainability Institute graduate assistant Christopher Baldasare saw the need for more composting. “With the emphasis on not going out, I expect more students to be cooking in their residences,” Baldasare said. “This will also give us a chance to pilot online composting education, which was planned in the spring to potentially expand the composting program by making it easier to reach all students that would want to participate.”

University of Dayton professor and Hanley Sustainability Institute staff member Robert Brecha is one of eight authors of a paper about how West African nations can expand their power supply and meet climate goals by working together. Brecha, along with Sebastian Sterl, also wrote an article about the paper for The Conversation, a publishing outlet for academics and researchers.