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Environment and Architecture

The Western New York area has a wealth of world-class natural, historic and architectural assets that enhance our quality of life and have the potential to stimulate economic growth. However, our industrial history has also left us with brown fields, abandoned land, aging infrastructure and watershed contamination.

In order to positively affect our existing environment, and revitalize and leverage our area’s physical attributes, a solid community renewal agenda must be implemented. CFGB will collaborate with area organizations to address issues dealing with building preservation and restoraton, retreeing landscapes, improving water purity, creating useful green space and more.

For more information on the Foundation's efforts to restore and preserve the environment, click here.

Read more about the Foundation's environmental collaborative, the Western New York Environmental Alliance (WNYEA) and its Shared Agenda for Action.

Click here for the full report

click to view report

Read more about our efforts to enhance and leverage our region’s natural, historic and architectural resources in our Community Impact Report.

This report includes multiple links to presentations, related websites and articles.

Click here for the report in Adobe .PDF format, or try our new iPaper "Flipbook" format.

 

Resource Library

# Article Title
1 Paul Dyster on Niagara Falls, A Green City
2 The urban farming movement finds an urgent new cause: the nation's food shortage
3 Buffalo Lacks Green Jobs
4 Healthy Waters, Strong Economy: The Benefits of Restoring the Great Lakes Ecosystem
5 Steps to Becoming Culturally Competent Environmental Communicators
6 Community Forests: A Community Investment Strategy
 

Why It Matters

  • Urban areas should have 30% tree cover. Buffalo had 16% until October, 2006 and now has only 8%. Less than 1% of city land is open green space, while nearly 10% is vacant and unused.
  • 56% of our region’s bodies of water are rated as “impaired.”
  • 26,000 vacant housing units exist in the city of Buffalo; 42,000 region-wide.