At CoRE, our team is committed to making measurable, continuous progress toward all of our goals. 

I WOULD RECOMMEND ELIMINATING THIS SECTION UNTIL WE ARE FURTHER ALONG 

 

Community
Solar panel manufacturing provides much-needed jobs and a huge economic impact — all while helping to address climate change. The problem is that current materials and processes involve toxic chemicals that can impact the health, safety and morale of workers and the community. We’re going to work with communities and the industry, and take a data-driven approach that includes both human and environmental health factors when looking at the manufacturing process. It’s a more regenerative approach — one that makes everyone better off — which means we can keep attracting and retaining jobs, while keeping pollutants out of our water, air and soil.

Industry
We work with solar panel manufacturers to help them gain a competitive advantage, from improving solar panel performance using new manufacturing processes, to discovering new materials that address the use of toxic chemicals, scarcity, corporate liability and other concerns. Our goal is to strengthen and accelerate the production of solar panels, while minimizing any negative impacts on your business or the community. This lets you be a leader in a new, more regenerative economy, which means that everything you do makes life better for everyone.

Thought Leaders
In Buffalo-Niagara we have the largest solar panel manufacturing plant in the Western hemisphere — which is why we’re taking the lead in introducing a more regenerative approach to the solar panel industry. We’re helping manufacturers reduce their carbon and chemical footprints, and address business issues such as corporate liability and scarcity of materials. And we’re helping cities and towns improve the health, safety and morale for workers and the community at large, while creating thousands of new “green” jobs. What’s new is that we’re taking a data-driven approach that includes both human and environmental health factors as we work with industry to design earth-friendly materials and processes.

 

This is all very internal--I would recommend not having these details open to the public 

2017

August

  • CoRE is officially established as a partnership among the University at Buffalo, Clean Production Action and Niagara Share, with financial support from the JPB Foundation

September

  • Identify potential team members in various areas, including material design, clean production, community engagement, civic entrepreneurship and workforce development

October / November

  • CoRE leadership meetings enable team members to finalize goals for 2018, and identify additional opportunities for collaboration

December

  • Team members start to gather data sets that can be used to study poverty, health and other factors
  • Schedule meetings with solar panel manufacturer representatives
  • Tesla begins to produce solar roof shingles at the Buffalo Gigawatt 2 factory

 

2018

January

  • Establish baseline practices for each of our target areas, including workforce development and sustainability
  • Develop new strategic approaches to workforce development
  • Work with solar panel manufacturers and New York State to qualify each organization’s approaches to workforce development, sustainability and community engagement
  • Outline best practices for reducing the use of toxic materials and promoting clean production
  • Identify opportunities to work within New York State programs for clean technology, sustainability, green procurement and workforce development 
  • Identify potential change agent partners
  • Create the CoRE civic entrepreneurial program
  • Develop strategies for empowering youth to impact science, technology and clean energy
  • Develop new strategic approaches for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to engage with corporations and economic development agencies 
  • Launch CoRE website (Phase 1)

February - March

  • Launch Phase 2 of the CoRE website on the HUBzero platform, which will allow for additional collaboration among researchers.

June

  • The 2018 MDI Summer Institute (featuring the Erich Bloch Symposium and CoRE Summit) will bring together academics, industry leaders and others who are interested in working toward a regenerative economy