Chancellor Announces Sustainability Challenge

On May 21st, students, staff, faculty, and community members gathered in the Stevenson Event Center for the 5th Annual UCSC End of the Year Sustainability Celebration. While enjoying food from UCSC Catering, students spoke with attendees about their project posters that represented the work they have done this year.

Around 2 PM, Chancellor Blumenthal took the stage, speaking about the accomplishments of our campus this year and recognizing those who have participated in various certification programs, those who have just completed their first year of sustainability work, and those who are graduating this year. He also announced his new campaign, the Chancellor's Sustainability Challenge and invited everyone to participate in it next year. He will be spearheading the Chancellor's Sustainability Challenge to encourage all of us on campus to do our part to reduce waste. Stay tuned for more information about how you can get involved next year!

Throughout the event, there were also six presentations from students, staff, faculty, and community leaders about the sustainability work that has happened on and off campus. Presentations included the Green Labs program, the Bike Transit Planning Team, Real Food, the Green Wharf, and more!

After presentations, the People's Bike Generator was available for anyone to ride and power music. Lacey Raak, UCSC Sustainability Director, took it for a stationary spin, as did Sarah Latham, Vice Chancellor for Business and Administrative Services, and John Barnes, Campus Architect. To see photos from this event and read the project posters that were submitted, view our Facebook album here.

UCSC to Go Paper Towel-Free in Dorms Next Year

UC Santa Cruz is going paper towel-free in the residential dorms next year after a successful pilot program in the Stevenson College dorms this year. After years of student interest in this project and discussions with administrators and staff all over campus in the past year, the University has decided that in order to support our goals of zero waste by 2020 and to promote more sustainable behaviors among students in our residence halls, there will no longer be paper towels provided in dorm restrooms for drying hands. After all, 40% of the waste coming out of residential dorms is paper towels--by weight. That's a lot of waste that can easily be reduced by simply removing the towels from the dorm restrooms.

Instead of providing wasteful paper towels, students will be asked to bring a reusable cloth hand towel to school with them in the fall, just as they will bring their own reusable bath towel and other supplies. Students, if you'll be living in the dorms next year, don't forget to pack your own reusable hand towel!

This is an exciting accomplishment that not only makes sense (10 years ago, there weren't paper towels in the dorms, anyway), but it shows that student-initiated projects can really achieve campus-wide change. It sometimes takes time and conversations with many different stakeholders, but it is possible to see a sustainability vision for the campus come to fruition.

Congratulations to everyone who has been working on this project, including Path to A Greener Stevenson, the Sustainability Office Zero Waste Team, and many other students, staff, and administrators who made this possible.

Read about the history of this project in Stevenson College and why the campus is choosing to remove paper towels.

Summertime Dining Updates

UCSC Dining has some summer updates and reminders to share:

Looking for a container to hold refreshing water in these upcoming summer months? Green water bottles are back in stock at all of the dining halls and cafes on campus! Ditch the disposable water bottle and get yours today--discounts on refills, too.

Staying for the summer? Three dining halls on campus will be open all summer long, so plan to come enjoy breakfast, lunch or dinner there. No need to drive off campus--eat fresh and eat local! Dining will be stocking up on plenty of organic greens and vegetables for their salad bars along with yummy fruits from the UCSC Farm! And if you're looking for a coffee fix this summer, select Perk locations will also be offering summer hours! In addition, there are staff dining discounts in effect all summer long.

Check the Dining website for details including open locations and times.

Bike Transit Team Identifies Safety Improvements

Represented by a logo showing the progression of humanity from ape to modern human to cyclist, a trio of UCSC students have created a proposal for the City of Santa Cruz that identifies high priority resolutions to unsafe bicycling areas on the west side of Santa Cruz.

To promote bicycle riding in the city of Santa Cruz and reduce carbon emissions, the City of Santa Cruz Climate Action plan includes promotion of biking as an alternative mode of transportation. To help City of Santa Cruz meet the needs of current and future cyclists in Santa Cruz, an isolated study of transit to and from the University of California Santa Cruz has been conducted by the Impact Designs: Engineering & Sustainability through Student Service (IDEASS) Bicycle Transit Planning Team (BTPT).

Brenden Fant (Environmental Studies '13), Austin Seller (Environmental Studies '13), and Anthony Siao (Environmental Studies '14) worked on the project with Ross Clark, the City of Santa Cruz Climate Change Action Manager. The team compiled data from three sources and used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to construct maps outlining frequently used roads, road quality, and cycling collision locations in order to "increase the level of safety for cyclists in high traffic corridors," said Fant.

The BTPT accumulated data through a survey regarding the most utilized streets during transit, which was taken by nearly 450 students, staff, faculty, and community members. The team then quality tested these roads with a Bike Environmental Quality Index (BEQI) developed by the San Francisco Department of Public Health that surveyed the safety and usability of roadways for cycling, which included assessing such factors as the speed of vehicle traffic next to the bike lane, the width of the bike lane, if there is parallel parking adjacent to the bike lane, the quality of the pavement surface, traffic calming features (street signs reminding drivers and cyclists that bikes may take the lane, sharrows, etc.), bike parking, and other factors.

"One of our biggest accomplishments in this project was completing the BEQI for sixteen routes," Fant said. "It was a combination of going and riding roads and taking notes to document conditions for each block and looking at Google Maps to confirm conditions we might have missed." In addition to the GIS mapping,  this was one of the most time consuming aspects of the project.

Finally, they combined this data with the cycling and motorist-related collision report data from the City of Santa Cruz over the past 10 years.

The BTPT presents their findings and an overview of their project at the Fifth Annual UC Santa Cruz Sustainability End of the Year Celebration on May 21.

Using the combined results mapped by GIS, the team has identified priority areas for improvements.This prioritization, which features suggestions such as adding more lighting to Bay Street, evening out bike lane surfaces on Bay, and more will be presented to the City Council on May 28 to provide recommendations that can help the City achieve their biking and carbon emission plans by 2020.

If the evolution of humanity leads to everyone cycling, then this project is helping to bring us into the future by "providing safer roads for students so they can feel more confident about riding their bikes," said Siao.

To learn more about the IDEASS program and apply for next year, visit the website. Interested in learning about another IDEASS project from this year? Click here to read about a project that's reusing cooking grease for fuel on the Santa Cruz Wharf.

June 2013: Innovative Approaches to Sustainability at Other Campuses

Here are a few selections of the innovative approaches to sustainability taking place on other college campuses. Each of these examples was chosen because they represent ideas that UCSC could potentially implement in some form, or in some cases, already has begun to. If you see something here that you want to make a reality at UCSC, contact the Sustainability Office and we will help you direct your ideas toward fruition!

College Divestment Campaigns Sweep U.S. Universities
At about 300 colleges across the country, young activists worried about climate change are calling for divestment from fossil fuels. So far only a few small colleges have opted to drop investments in fossil fuel companies, but many campaigns are currently active, from Rhode Island to North Carolina to the Bay Area.

UC Davis Student Union Building Features Exhibit on Water and Sustainability
The Sustainability Showcase has opened its second exhibit for viewing on the first floor of the Memorial Union. The theme of the exhibit is Water: Fact or Fashion and features disposable water bottles and issues surrounding water quality and use. It aims to focus attention on related safety and equity issues on a global scale, as well as issues that hit closer to home, such as the Central Valley, where tap water is unsafe due to high concentrations of nitrates from agriculture.

UCSD Campus Rooftops Serve as Launch Pads for Sustainability Efforts
By the end of 2013, 34 structures on UC San Diego’s campus and its affiliated sites will be equipped with solar photovoltaic panels. Recently, the university also unveiled a vegetative roof, atop Revelle College’s LEED Platinum-certified Charles David Keeling apartments. In addition, more than a dozen wireless sensors that determine the optimal times to gain and expend energy are now poised on UC San Diego rooftops. Solar hot water heating and water collection systems are located above some of the very buildings where UC San Diego students live and learn about climate change and ways to conserve, reuse and recycle.

June 2013: Classes, Training, and Community

Join the Kresge Natural Foods Co-op
The Kresge Community Natural Foods Co-op is a non-profit student-run food store located on the south side of Kresge College. It has been a Kresge College tradition for over twenty years, supporting small farmers, the UCSC Farm Project, and the Kresge Organic Garden. While anyone can buy food at the Food Co-op, members receive a discount. The Co-op operates as a collective and a variety of membership options are available. Special pricing is available on bulk orders. Come in for groceries, lunch, snacks, hot coffee, tea, or just to spend time with your friends. Hours: Weekdays 9 AM - 6 PM To contact the Food Co-op, call 426-1506, or attend the bi-weekly meetings every other Sunday at 11 am in the Student Lounge.

Participate in Zero Plastic Week, June 10-16
Zero Plastic Week is June 10th-16th! Initiated by an international group of students, Zero Plastic Week seeks to stop participants from buying new plastic (including packaging) for a week. You can sign up and commit on the event website.

Gaia Magazine Issue V Available
Gaia, an environmental magazine created y UCSC students, is around campus and available for free! Visit the Gaia website to learn more. A PDF of the magazine will be posted soon!

TAPS Seeks to Connect with Electric Vehicle (EV) Drivers
Interested in learning more about electric vehicle charging developments planned for UCSC? Want to know of potential electrical shutdowns at Core West? Transportation and Parking Services is wanting to be in better touch with our electric vehicle user community at UCSC – please send an email to tabuika@ucsc.edu to be added to the list of current electric vehicle users. Learn more about UCSC's current EV accomodations on the TAPS website.

Early Bird Registration Now Open Until June 7 for AASHE Conference
Join higher education sustainability leaders in Nashville for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) 2013 Conference & Expo, taking place October 6-9 at the Music City Center. Early bird registration ends June 7. Visit the website to learn more about the conference.

Energy Opinion Piece by Recent UCSC Grad Erin Linney Published in SC Sentinel 
Erin Linney, a recent Environmental Studies graduate, and former coordinator for PowerSave Green Campus, authored an opinion piece in the Santa Cruz sentinel about energy policy in the City of Santa Cruz, in which she makes a compelling argument for the establishment of an energy code in the city.

Sign Up to Participate in the Sustainability Tent at the OPERS Festival 
Part of a sustainability group on campus? Every year at the OPERS Fall Festival, the campus sustainability groups cluster together in the "sustainability tent," a collection of all of the environmentally and sustainability inclined groups UCSC has to offer. To be considered for a spot, fill out this registration form before June 20th.

Share Thoughts on Desalination Environmental Impact Report by July 15
The public comment period for the Santa Cruz Desalination Program Draft Environmental Impact Report ends July 15. Don't miss the opportunity to read the draft report and provide your feedback.

June Green Tips: Move-Out

As the academic quarter draws to a close, so do most student housing contracts. Beyond end-of-year bashes (and the subsequent rigor of pre-inspection cleaning) this means one thing... it's move-out season!

In the finals week scramble, it's easy to overlook proper distribution and disposal of your leftover "stuff." Couches, batteries, clothes, and all other matters of household goods have been found trashed or otherwise improperly disposed of both on and off campus in the process. This not only creates unnecessary landfill waste, but can sometimes be outright dangerous.  

Inadvisable method of furniture disposal

With that in mind, here are a few quick and easy tips to make your move-out smooth, safe, and (at least slightly more) sustainable: 

1. Attend a swap meet. Most college programs offices will host swap meets in the weeks preceding move-out. These are a great opportunity to find new owners for your stuff and divert them from the landfill. Keep an eye out for signs posted around your college. 
2. Review the recycling and disposal guide for your area of residence: UCSC, the City of Santa Cruz, or Santa Cruz County (for those neither on campus or in the city). 
3. Utilize social media outlets. Facebook groups like "Free & For Sale" are a perfectly place to give away or sell your things. You'll need a valid UCSC email to gain access. 
4. Donate your unwanted goods. There are a number of local charities that would be happy to take your unwanted clothing, books, and more. Look up charities that correspond with your specific donation items, or visit a Zero Waste Move Out Station at any of the colleges during finals week, and use the donation boxes set up there. 
5. Sign up for the City of Santa Cruz Move Out Program if you live off-campus. The city will pick up  large bulky items, appliances, clothing, e-waste, books, and furniture at no cost, and then either donate them to charity or dispose of them properly. The first 100 to sign up get free pizza! 
6. Volunteer with zero waste move-out at the your college of choice! Colleges, Housing, and Educational Services (CHES) is facilitating Zero Waste Move Out, and needs student help to make it run smoothly during finals week. Sign up to get more information here, or contact this year's coordinator, Kelsey Smith, with questions.