The Future Is Now: Celebrating Our Wins & Looking Forward
We are honored to have spent another year focused on growing our community into a vibrant, innovative environment. Together with our partners, we’re working to improve infrastructure, manage a transportation system, build a culture of health, and drive innovation, job growth and economic development to create a better, more inclusive Buffalo for all. Take a look at some of the things we are most proud of last year that we will continue to focus on in 2019:
Strengthened community partnerships, especially through our BNMC Spark micro-grant program
We are excited to kick off our 2nd year of BNMC Spark by inviting local community members and organizations to wp-contently for grant funding for projects that help strengthen the community in neighborhoods adjacent to the Medical Campus. Through BNMC Spark, a micro-grant pilot program, the BNMC will award a total of $40,000 in 2019 with maximum grants to individual organizations for $3,500 for project grants. The BNMC awarded $37,000 to 17 organizations in 2018 through BNMC Spark.
Joined National Commission to Slash Transportation Energy Use by Half
Matt Enstice, BNMC’s President and CEO was invited to be a part of the national commission launched by the Alliance to Save Energy to develop recommendations to reduce energy use in the U.S. transportation sector by 50 percent by 2050 while meeting future mobility needs. Matt is one of only two representatives from New York State selected for the commission, along with Gil Quiniones, President and CEO of the New York Power Authority and the only representative from Western New York. This year the BNMC joined the Commission in releasing recommendations to cut transportation energy use in half. Read Matt’s column in the Buffalo News to learn why this is important for the BNMC and for our region.
Awarded the USDA Farm-to-Hospital Grant to Create a Healthier Campus
We just began a $351,000, three-year initiative to create a model for health care institutions to integrate technology and cultivate a culture of healthy food practices to increase local food procurement. The BNMC is one of 44 organizations around the country, and one of only 4 organizations to receive funding in New York State, through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Local Food Promotion Program (LFPP) during this grant cycle.
Welcomed More than 20 New Companies and Helped Others Grow in the Innovation Center This Year
We continued to build our community by adding new companies to the Innovation Center and expanding our programming and amenities. New additions include Trove, Rel8ed, and Lender Logix, and we built out new space to accommodate rapid growth of ACV Auctions. There are 75 companies in the Innovation Center today.
Continued to Build Buffalo’s Innovation District
From doubling the number of electric vehicle charging stations across the BNMC, continuing to pursue the development of a campus-wide micro grid and opening a new parking garage to ensure easy access for our growing employee, patient and visitor population, to adding new companies and engaging mature companies, to building a diverse and inclusive community, to making sure people who work on live near have access to healthier foods and active living opportunities, our team has worked hard to create the environment to encourage the dynamic intersection of technology, health, invention and collaboration.
If you have ideas or would like to get involved, please reach out to us. Cheers to a healthy and successful 2019!