So You Recycled, Now What?

A Photo Essay from Behind the Scenes of Waste at UCSC

All UC Campuses are committed to the goal of zero waste by 2020. Currently, at UC Santa Cruz, we have diverted about 64% of our waste from the landfill. This year, we also have the Chancellor's Challenge, which is focused on waste reduction in an effort to move forward with our 2020 goal. Many individuals, organizations, and also the Zero Waste Team  are constantly trying to reduce waste on our campus. This photo essay takes a look at what exactly is happening "behind the scenes" with our waste at UC Santa Cruz. 

October Bike to Work Day at UCSC sees record number of bicyclists

Did you ride your bike last month for Bike to Work Day hosted by Ecology Action? Throughout the county, people got to work and school by bicycle on October 10 and received free breakfast at a number of locations, including three sites at UC Santa Cruz. In total, 201 people on bikes stopped by the UCSC sites at the Base of Campus, Quarry Plaza, and the top of the Bike Path. This is the largest turnout for Bike to Work Day at UCSC! Earlier this year in the spring, 137 people participated, and last fall, 188 people biked to campus for this day that celebrates bike commuting.

A UCSC student who coordinated the top of the Bike Path site took photos throughout the morning--check out the album and tag yourself and friends! Happy bicycling!

Launch of New “Smart” Bike Lockers

In response to requests from cyclists for secure bike parking, Transportation and Parking Services (TAPS) is pleased to announce that 24 new “smart” bike lockers are now available at three locations on the main campus: OPERS, Engineering 2, and Baskin Engineering. These lockers are available to all UCSC employees, students and visitors on a first-come, first-served basis, and provide on-demand, safe, secure, and covered bike parking. These bike lockers have been co-funded by Caltrans and TAPS.

All lockers are operated as part of the Bikelink network, and a fee of $.05 per hour will be collected at the locker. The maximum rental time for any one rental period is ten days. Only a bicycle and its accessories may be stored in the locker.

To obtain a BikeLink card for use of the bike lockers, register online at www.bikelink.org. BikeLink cards cost $20 and typically take three business days to arrive in the mail. Cards arrive activated and ready for use. All use fees are deducted from the card; there are no membership fees or ongoing costs aside from the hourly rental fee. For more information, please go to www.bikelink.org.

BikeLink cards are honored at all Bay Area bike lockers on the BikeLink network; this includes over 100 bike lockers in the downtown Santa Cruz area. Bike locker locations can be found at www.bikelink.org. More information about bike lockers and other campus bike programs can be found at http://taps.ucsc.edu/bikeintro.html.

Call for Your Waste Reduction Stories!

Calling all students, staff, and faculty! Help us tell the whole story about waste reduction at UCSC. Please send us your waste reduction success stories so we can share them with the campus community in our newsletter and on the Chancellor's Sustainability Challenge website.

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! 

"UC Green" Flipboard Highlights Environmental News UC-Wide
Wondering what kind of sustainability research and projects are taking place at other UCs? "UC Green" is an online magazine full of links to stories about the sustainability findings and successes UC-wide. Click here to read it!

Sustainability: A Solution To Student Retention?
Recent statistics from The Princeton Review (1) indicate that 69 percent of college applicants now cite an institution's level of commitment to environmental sustainability as a factor in their college choice, with 24 percent saying that is a very significant factor. This raises an intriguing question: if institutional commitment to sustainability impacts students' decisions regarding where to attend school, how does it impact what happens once they arrive on campus? Is there a correlation between sustainability and student retention and graduation rates?

Survival Of The Fittest For Green Gym Pedalers
Blending the concepts of sustainability, fitness and social media, Fit for Green is the brainchild of Executive MBA and Ph.D. graduates from UC Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business, including founder and CEO John Spirko. “Our goal is to make working out on ordinary gym equipment more interactive and rewarding by returning energy to the grid and competing with peers through modern social networking,” he said in a statement. “This new return on investment model will be a catalyst for renewable energy machines in all gymnasiums replacing calories burned with watt-hours created as a measure of fitness accomplishment.

New Mexico State University Geographers Map Outdoor Campus Recycling Resources
Researchers in the Spatial Applications and Research Center (SpARC) at New Mexico State University recently mapped the outdoor recycling bins on campus and determined they are not evenly distributed across campus and need to be closer to buildings. Those who conducted the study predict that relocating the bins may lead to increased recycling.

Works Cited 
1. The Princeton Review. The Princeton Review Releases Free "Guide to 311 Green Colleges" in Partnership With the U.S. Green Building Council. April 20, 2011.

Green Labs Certification Program Welcomes New Members

Last year was the inaugural year of the Green Labs Program at UCSC, comprised of staff from Environmental Health & Safety and students from the Zero Waste Team, Green Office Certification, and PowerSave Green Campus. Together the team visited campus labs and collaborated with lab staff in pinpointing potential energy-saving strategies and ways of recycling lab materials, thus diverting them from the landfill. The program developed a comprehensive green certification process for all campus labs and set a baseline to evaluate labs based on the three program goals of energy efficiency, waste reduction, and green purchasing. During Spring Quarter 2013, the Green Labs Team certified their first two labs on campus, Partch and Saltikov Labs!

Earlier this quarter, they welcomed to the team Matt Williams, the program's new Green Labs Facilitator. This month they are welcoming two new staff members, Rina Laxamana as the new Outreach & Education Coordinator and Jaclyn Schmitt. Both Jaclyn and Rina will make essential contributions to further the cause of laboratory sustainability at our University.

In the coming weeks the program will be outreaching to laboratories on campus that may be interested in become a certified Green Lab. The Green Labs committee is asking any representatives from labs that would like to learn more about the certification process to contact them: greenlabs@ucsc.edu. The certification process has become more efficient, and it is a highly rewarding undertaking for laboratories interested in being recognized for their commitment to sustainability.

For general program information about the Green Labs Program, please see the website here!

November 2013 Sustainability Profile: Marina Gonzalez Flores

Each month, our newsletter features a person or group on campus that is working toward a more sustainable world. This month features Marina Gonzalez Flores, a student leader in the social justice movement on campus.

We asked Marina what she thinks about sustainability and how it relates to her work at UCSC.

Name: Marina Gonzalez Flores

Title: I am the Chancellor's Undergraduate Intern for the College Ten CoCurricular Office and my title is the Social Justice and Community Programs Coordinator.  I put on events surrounding Social Justice and Community Issues and practical ways for involvement.

Year in school and major: Third year; Politics and Latin American and Latino Studies Major

Favorite Green Tips: At our office we make it one of our goals to reuse as much as possible. With big annual events we make laminated posters and signs that can be reused each year to discourage paper and poster wasting. We save everything and reuse as much as we can.

What does "sustainability" mean to you? For me, sustainability means the ability to continue living a certain way. For an industry to be sustainable it needs to use its resources knowing they will grow back or continue on with or without human intervention. For people to be sustainable we need to live in a way that we encourage our planet to keep evolving and producing without hurting it. 

How does sustainability relate to your role at UCSC? What's one cool thing you've done to make UCSC a more sustainable place? With my role at UCSC I try to bring awareness on social justice and community issues, which ends up being tied with a lot of sustainability issues. The two credit courses I facilitate have a section, which cover environmental racism, and how impoverished communities of color, suffer the consequences of man made pollution. This year, I am trying to coordinate events that create dialogue between agroindustry and agroecology as well as how agroecology is more sustainable for farmers in Latin America and elsewhere.

How do you practice sustainability in your own life? Recycle, ride my bike, buy farm friendly produce, and compost as much as possible. Being sustainable in my personal life is a challenge but as I keep learning each year, it gets easier.

Have you had a favorite sustainability moment at UCSC? Last year I was able to go to the Earth Summit and I was surprised the event was zero waste. It became my goal to make other events such as the Practical Activism Conference become more environmentally friendly. It really inspired me to make my programs more sustainable.

November 2013: Classes, Training, and Community

Instagram
The Sustainability Office is now on Instagram! Follow us at @UCSCsustainability for all things sustainability brought to you in pocket sized photo form!

Seymour Center Behind-the-Scenes Tours
Learn more about exciting marine research behind the scenes and experience the spectacular surroundings of the Seymour Center at one of the tours offered each week, including Marine Mammal Research Tours, Younger Lagoon Reserve Tours, and Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf Tours. For details, please visit http://seymourcenter.ucsc.edu/visit/behind-the-scenes-tours/.

October Bike to Work Day
Did you ride your bike last month for Bike to Work Day hosted by Ecology Action? Throughout the county, people got to work and school by bicycle on October 10 and received free breakfast at a number of locations, including three sites at UC Santa Cruz. In total, 201 people on bikes stopped by the UCSC sites at the Base of Campus, Quarry Plaza, and the top of the Bike Path. This is the largest turnout for Bike to Work Day at UCSC! Earlier this year in the spring, 137 people participated, and last fall, 188 people biked to campus for this day that celebrates bike commuting. A UCSC student who coordinated the top of the Bike Path site took photos throughout the morning--check out the album and tag yourself and friends! Happy bicycling!

California Student Sustainability Coalition (CSSC) Fall Convergence: November 9-10
The CSSC is a statewide network of student organizations from all over California that are working on sustainability initiatives on their respective campuses. Twice a year students from all over the state converge on one campus for a weekend long event full of inspiring keynote speakers, interdisciplinary panels, and dynamic workshops. It’s a chance to network with student leaders from all over California and make friends with hundreds of like-minded people. The theme of the convergence is Building Sustainable Communities. It costs only $25 if you pay online as a student, or $30 at the door. This price includes four delicious meals, housing for the weekend, as well as access to all convergence content. Here is the link to register. There are also sarpooling opportunities if you need a ride, and interim housing available for our distant attendees. Also, please join the UCSC Goes to Humboldt Convergence Facebook group if you want to stay updated on attendees from UC Santa Cruz! Feel free to contact David Shugar at dshugar@ucsc.edu if you have any questions.

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. Come in for groceries, lunch, snacks, hot coffee, tea, or just to spend time with your friends. Hours: Weekdays 9 AM - 6 PM

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.

Sierra Institute
Interested in spending a quarter studying among mountains and rivers? With Sierra Institute's Natural History of the Patagonian Cordillera program, you will conduct hands-on botanical and ecological studies at remote field camps while backpacking and horse-packing in the remote regions of Patagonia. Students will explore and learn about a wide diversity of landscapes, from sea-level rainforests to continental divide mountains. Applications are due November 8. Find out more on their website.

Common Ground Center Speaker Series
The Common Ground Center, located in Kresge College and promoting social and environmental change, is offering a few seminars throughout October. Learn more about the seminars and the Common Ground Center by clicking here or subscribe to their mailing list here.

Take Back the Tap
Take Back the Tap to ensure our right to water! Join them in combating the corporate water grab by removing the sale of single use water bottles at UCSC. Learn how you can get involved by joining them at their weekly meetings in Kresge 166, Thursdays from 6-7 PM. Check out takebackthetapuc.org or like them on Facebook.

November 2013 Green Tip: Sustainable Fall

The leaves are changing into those beautiful fall colors, morning runs are a little harder to get out of bed for, scarves and cozy sweaters are breaking out of the back of the closet. Fall is officially on its way, so to welcome it in Sustainability Office style, we've come up with some tips for the season:

1. Reusable mugs for seasonal drinks: Pumpkin spice lattes are pretty much the best tasting thing coffee culture has ever come up with, and during this season, they are everywhere! Keep your travel mug with you when you head to your favorite coffee shop to avoid generating waste with a paper cup, plastic lid, and cardboard sleeve. Forgot your mug? Many cafes have ceramic mugs "for here," so request one and enjoy the cafe. You could also ask for soy or almond milk for a treat that's animal product-free!


2. Compost those leftover Jack-O-Lanterns from Halloween!

3. Thrift for shop Fall clothing: There is nothing better than bundling up super warm when the weather turn cold, windy, or rainy. Gloves, scarves, hats, the whole shebang are perfect for fall. Instead of buying brand new fall wear, hit up one of the local thrift stores. There are so many funky, unique, cozy clothes. Why buy new things when you can reuse! Also, keep in mind that you are typically wearing sweaters outside of your other clothes, meaning you can wash them less often and reduce the number of laundry loads you need to make, saving energy and water.

4. Thanksgiving: Invest in a certified humane turkey, get veggies from the Farmers Market, and try and buy organic. This won't only taste better but it'll also be better for you.

5. Keep your head up. Sometimes when the weather starts to get gloomy, so do we. Put on your favorite fall tunes, bake a pumpkin pie, and smile to keep your personal sustainability going. The sun will always come out again!

November 2013: Internships, Employment & Volunteering

Volunteer and Internship Opportunities with Gaia Magazine

Interested in putting together this environmentally focused magazine next year? The UCSC Environmental Media Project (EMP) offers many quarterly internship and volunteer opportunities. Volunteers help with fundraising, outreach, and the creation of the Gaia magazine. Interns take on positions like photographer, editor, and graphic designer and gain 2 units for 5 hours of work per week. EMP is also offering annual positions like Web Manager, Editor in Training, Assistant Editor in Chief, and Assistant Executive Editor.  For more information about applying, email the team and check out their Facebook page and website.

Apply to Volunteer with Sprout Up 
Sprout Up is a non-profit program that looks for undergraduate volunteers to help bring lessons of environmental science and sustainability to local elementary school classrooms. They are college student founded and operated non-profit that is always seeking new instructors. For more information about potential volunteering opportunities with them check out their website.

IDEASS Still Accepting Applications for 2013-14 Interns
Turn your ideas into reality! Do you have your own sustainable project design with potential to make a real community impact, but you aren’t sure how to make it a reality? Are you still looking for 5 units to add to your schedule for Fall? If yes, apply to IDEASS, a team-based 3-quarter internship program that provides students with real opportunities to work on local sustainability challenges with community partners or sponsors. To be considered, please apply immediately by clicking here or go to their website for more information!

Green Labs Certification Program Seeks New Labs
In the coming weeks, the Green Labs program is outreaching to laboratories on campus that may be interested in become a certified Green Lab. The Green Labs committee is asking any representatives from labs that would like to learn more about the certification process to contact them: greenlabs@ucsc.edu. The certification process has become more efficient, and it is a highly rewarding undertaking for laboratories interested in being recognized for their commitment to sustainability. Learn more about the program here.

Arboretum Volunteer Gardening Opportunities 
Have an interest in gardening? The Arboretum has volunteer gardening hours throughout the week. Visit their website for details.

Internships at Santa Cruz Natural History Museum
The Santa Cruz Natural History Museum is looking for more interns for their Field Programs, which gives an opportunity for college students to shadow, team teach, and even lead field trips for local 3rd and 5th grade classes that participate in our education curricula. In the past, they have worked primarily with Environmental Science students at UCSC, but are looking to expand to other majors and backgrounds as well. Submit your application and a resume here!

The Demeter Seeds Project: Sowing a Culture of Interdependence 
Autumn means its time to harvest, save, and share seeds! Get involved with the seed project this quarter by coming to our events or starting an internship. Demeter Seed Library is looking for an enthusiastic intern to help cultivate their crops! With 2 unit or 5 unit options available, interns will help the Library manage grow outs at different locations, most notably the Kresge Garden and the Thimann Greenhouses. Other tasks may include managing newsletters, taking inventory, and responding to emails. This will be a great position for a continuing gardener, an avid learner, or anyone interested in learning about gardening, and the seed saving process. If interested, contact Connor at cspears@ucsc.edu.

Internships with WaterLab Research Facility 
The WaterLab Research Facility studies wastewater recycling and how to use recycled water to conserve unused water reserves. Though still in progress of becoming a full-fledged research facility, internship opportunities exist and will be expanding as the facility grows. Learn about the issues this facility will address and about the methods and features of the lab in this article. UCSC students can learn more about WaterLab and internships by through the Center for Integrated Water Research website.

Find or Upload Projects to Sustainability Project Clearinghouse
Interested in getting involved in a campus sustainability project, but don't know how? Are you looking for partners for your current project? Have you completed a project that you would like others to learn from? Visit the Sustainability Project Clearinghouse, a centralized database of UCSC sustainability projects, today! You can view published projects or upload your own projects and ideas. For training on how to upload a project, please contact Shauna Casey at scasey@ucsc.edu.

New! Healthy Mondays

Are Mondays a tough day for you? Come check out Healthy Mondays - where all health breaks loose- at a dining hall near you. Don't forget to celebrate the end of the week with us at Farm Fridays, where fresh and local ingredients are always on the menu. For an updated list of Healthy Monday and Farm Friday locations, check out the website.

Copy Center Transitions to 100% Recycled Paper

If you are a faculty member who has course readers compiled for your classes, or a student who has several course readers to purchase at the book store every quarter, we have some exciting news for you! As of Summer 2013, the UCSC Copy Center moved to printing all course readers on 100% Post-Consumer Waste (PCW, 100% recycled) paper. The Copier Program is also currently in the process of transitioning to exclusively using 100% PCW for all of the copy machines and printers they service across campus. Learn more about how you can maximize the efficiency of your office paper use here.

                                        From http://boiseinc.com/

Impact Award: Beyond a Personal Commitment

Reducing waste for the Chancellor's Sustainability Challenge requires building awareness and educating yourself and others. The Chancellor is sponsoring an Impact Award, which includes a cash prize of up to $300 and recognition by the Chancellor for implementing a project or experience that raise awareness about the need to reduce waste at UCSC. More information, ideas, and award details are available here.

Share Cycling Data with CycleTracks App to Improve Routes

There are so many ways to choose sustainable transportation in Santa Cruz. One great way is biking!

Last month's Bike to Work Day on October 10 set a UCSC record for the highest turnout to-date! In total, 201 people on bikes stopped by the UCSC sites at the Base of Campus, Quarry Plaza, and the top of the Bike Path. Earlier this year in the spring, 137 people participated, and last fall, 188 people biked to campus for this day that celebrates bike commuting. Learn more about October's event here.

To continue the bicycle advocacy that happened on Bike to Work Day and to provide feedback that will help improve infrastructure for people who bike in Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Benito counties, participate in recording your bicycle trips through a new application called Cycle Tracks.


The Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments is working to develop a planning tool that will help make the Monterey Bay Area, including Santa Cruz, an even better place to bike. This tool will assist local governments in identifying the best places to plan for new bicycle routes throughout the tri-county region.

The Association will be collecting data from the region’s bicyclists using the CycleTracks mapping applications. To help contribute, you can either log your bike trips on the CycleTracks Monterey website or download the smartphone application and map your routes while you ride. You can also help by getting your friends, family, and colleagues to log their trips. The information collected will be sent to our secure server to be used in helping us better understand what factors influence the routes that area cyclists bike along. No personal information will be released.

For more information visit cycletracksmonterey.org or find them on Facebook.

November 2013: Contests & Funding

The UCSC Carbon Fund Wants You!: Applications due November 15
The Carbon Fund is accepting applications for project funding! The Carbon Fund is a student-passed fee measure that raises $3 per student per quarter totaling up to ~$100,000 per year to allocate to students, faculty, and staff for their project ideas! This year they have over $200,000 to allocate in funding due to rollover from previous years! If you have any project ideas that reduce the carbon footprint of UCSC, from energy and water conversation to more efficient composting and zero waste techniques, the Carbon Fund has money for your project! For more information, email the Carbon Fund at carbonfund.ucsc@gmail.com and check out their website. Abstracts are due November 15th.

Impact Award: Beyond the Personal Challenge
Reducing waste for the Chancellor's Sustainability Challenge requires building awareness and educating yourself and others. The Chancellor is sponsoring an Impact Award, which includes a cash prize of up to $300 and recognition by the Chancellor for implementing a project or experience that raise awareness about the need to reduce waste at UCSC. More information, ideas and award details are available here.

Net Impact's "Small Steps, Big Wins" Campus Challenge: Ends December 1
Small Steps, Big Wins is a university-focused national student competition to spark undergraduates into doing positive social and environmental actions such as donating blood, recycling or organizing a volunteer day. Join your school and participate in the challenge here. The competition closes on December 1.

Agricultural Innovation Prize 
Interested in participating in the largest agriculture-focused student competition in the world? Share your agricultural challenges and compete for a chance to win the Agricultural Innovational Prize and up to $100,000. The competition is open to U.S. undergraduate and graduate students across all academic disciplines and runs through spring 2014. The contest encourages student teams to develop innovative plans to address social and agricultural challenges within food systems, improving the standard of living and quality of life for the world's population. Additional information about how to participate is available on the website.

Challenge Your Perspectives – The Swedish Scholarship Awards 2014
Two winners will be awarded with full tuition waivers for Master’s of Science programs at two prestigious Swedish universities: Stockholm University and Lund University. If you are interested, enter the challenge here and begin to fill out the application for a chance to win a full tuition fee waiver for either of the Swedish schools.

Zipcar Seeks "Students With Drive"
The "Students with Drive" program is giving student groups an extra hand to help get things done with the help of Zipcars. The program, which gives away over $35,000 in driving credit a month, allows all student groups to nominate themselves to win free driving credit for their group to use for their groups' needs. In 2013, Alpha Phi Omega won $5,000 in driving credit to help students get to their community service events and in 2013, the Sabrosura Dance Troupe won $1,000 to take their dance shows into the community. Learn more about how your group can get involved on the contest website.

Move-In 2013 Diverts 41% of Waste from Landfill

After students move in to their dorms and apartments at UC Santa Cruz, their lives settle in among all of the redwood trees and the many things they brought to their rooms in boxes. But what happens to all of those cardboard boxes, Styrofoam containers, and plastic film after they're unpacked for the year?

This year, 41.71% of the 38,189.84 total pounds of move-in waste containing those boxes and other materials was diverted away from landfill, with the largest portion containing 7.51 tons of cardboard.

Let's break down the diversion numbers into recognizable amounts.

Campus zero waste efforts this September diverted 15,013 pounds of cardboard from the landfill, which is the equivalent of 3.23 Tesla Model S electric sports cars by weight.

The second largest amount of diverted material from Move-In was 494 pounds of polystyrene foam, or Styrofoam. In average-sized, ten-pound pumpkins, that's nearly 50 pumpkins--and Styrofoam is really lightweight!

The third major recycled material was plastic film, which weighs even less than Styrofoam. 423 pounds of plastic film were diverted, the equivalent of nearly 17 average, 25-pound bicycles.

That's a lot of recyclable materials that were fortunately rescued from the landfill and sent off to be recycled! But what does waste diversion actually look like on move-in day? We asked some Student Sustainability Advisors (SSA) to share their experiences.

"This year, the Student Sustainability Advisors assisted Residential Life and Physical Plant staff in their recycling of a range of materials as new and continuing students moved in this September," shared Nuttha Mahakanchanakul, the SSA for Family Student Housing. "We asked parents and students to help us sort and break down cardboard boxes and even taught them a few tips on how to recycle different materials." 

The SSAs worked at all of the different move-in stations throughout Welcome Week. Nuttha Mahakanchanakul also shared that "staff were a great help and we had a good time learning how to make a real  difference in keeping the 'streams' of recycling clean as they are heading to the City's Resource and Recovery Facility."

"Cardboard corrals," stations designated for cardboard, plastic film, and Styrofoam collection, were stationed throughout the colleges so that residents and families could easily sort recycling after moving in. Stephanie Lara, the SSA for Porter and Kresge Colleges shared about her experience with parents during move-in: "After mistakenly putting a cardboard box in the trash dumpster, a parent was kind enough to hop in and retrieve it! It was an amazing bit of dumpster diving skill... Quite a few parents were also interested in what UCSC does regarding sustainability and waste management. I was more than happy to give a small overview--it felt so good to provide a link to our behind-the-scenes activities that help us near our larger waste goals on campus!"

Congratulations to everyone who participated in helping divert move-in waste away from the landfill! This diversion was possible thanks to a collaboration between Grounds Services and Colleges, Housing & Educational Services (CHES), including Residential Life staff at each of the residential colleges and the new Student Sustainability Advisors at each sister college. 

What can you do to to reduce waste at UCSC?

La versión en español acompañará la publicación de este mensaje.

It has been years since I broke the habit of drinking bottled water. I rarely print documents anymore--and when I do, I print on both sides of the paper. Today, my travel mug is so well-used that the UCSC emblem is almost completely worn away.

These are three things I do to reduce my environmental footprint. What can you do? 

It's an important question, because UCSC has committed to becoming a zero-waste campus by 2020. Today, the campus diverts about two-thirds of its trash from the landfill. Getting a handle on that last third is going to require a commitment from each of us. 

That's why I'm launching the Chancellor's Sustainability Challenge this year with a focus on waste reduction. Did you know paper towels make up one-third of the campus's waste stream by volume? Last year's pilot program to reduce paper towel use at Stevenson College was so successful that we're expanding it this year to all residence halls. We need everyone to chip in on this, though. Think about bringing a personal hand towel to work, or clipping one to your backpack. It may seem odd today, but I suspect personal hand towels will soon be as commonplace on campus as reusable water bottles. 

There's more each of us can do, from composting food waste in the dining halls to participating in our Green Office andGreen Labs certification programs. Visit the Chancellor's Sustainability Challenge website for ideas and information.

I also want to congratulate the UCSC Office of Sustainability on the just-released Campus Sustainability Plan 2013-16, a comprehensive document that is guiding our path forward. Many people across campus contributed research and hard work to produce this plan, just as many students, staff, and faculty contribute day in and day out to the good work that is making UCSC a greener campus. I am grateful.

I leave you with one final thought: A recent analysis revealed that UCSC uses 1 billion sheets of office paper annually. Remember that the next time you go to hit "print"!


-Chancellor's Office

Perk Bars Now Water Bottle-Free

Dining is pleased to announce that with the opening of Fall quarter, all Perk Coffee Bars are no longer selling bottled water! This now completes Dining's transition to a single-use-water-bottle-free department! All of the academic buildings that contain these coffee bars had hydration stations installed in convenient locations, allowing guests to fill their own reusable bottles with tap water.

This action supports the campus Take Back the Tap initiative and the Chancellor's Sustainability Challenge to reduce waste! You can purchase refillable bottles at all dining operated retail locations for only $4.99 +tax! Read more on Dining's website.

UC Santa Cruz Carbon Fund: Come and Receive Funding for your Project Ideas

The Carbon Fund is an organization on campus that allocates funds to projects. Our goal is to reduce the carbon footprint both on campus and throughout the Santa Cruz community. The Carbon Fund provides grants for students, staff, and faculty projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, conduct relevant research, or carry out education and behavioral change programs. This year we have $250,000 to give away in grants. If your interested in applying, there will be an information session on Tuesday, October 15^th in the College 8 Red Room from 4-6pm and abstracts are due November 15th at 11:59pm online. If you have more questions, please feel free to visit our website: http://tinyurl.com/carbonfunducsc or email us at: carbonfund.ucsc@gmail.edu