Future Leaders in Planning Update

The Future Leaders in Planning (FLIP) program continued Wednesday with a trip to Troy. The students first visited the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, and then received a tour of the Tech Valley Center of Gravity, a makerspace in Troy that provides individuals in the Capital Region with the tools and expertise to create new business or technology ventures. The students got an inside look at the ways municipalities can encourage economic development and innovation for the region. Students were then given a tour of the Brookfield Renewables’ Cohoes Falls Power Plant Facility. This tour provided students with an opportunity to learn more about renewable energy and planners can take advantage of these opportunities in the future. The students then engaged in a discussion of the region’s future energy needs in the coming years.

On Thursday, the students traveled to the Albany Pine Bush Preserve where they learned more about the importance of green space conservation and got an up close look at the Albany Landfill. During their tour, the students were presented with details on how the preserve is funded, how to manage natural resources, and the question of how to handle landfills moving forward. The students then were given a tour of the Sierra Processing Facility in downtown Albany. The facility intakes hundreds of tons of Albany County’s recycling each day and filters the materials to be shipped to various locations to be reused. Waste management is a crucial aspect of planning, and both of these tours helped show the scope and processes of waste management.

To learn more about the FLIP program, check out our program update from Wednesday here.

If you would like to learn more about the P-TECH program or any of our partners, you can click the links attached to their names in the article. If you would like to learn more about the FLIP program, contact Kate Maynard at CDRPC for more information.