UC Santa Cruz Sustainability Office: December 2018: Classes, Trainings, and Community

Education for Sustainable Living Program Spring Lecture Series

Host a Workshop with Education for Sustainable Living Program's Spring Lecture Series! Every year Education for Sustainable Living Program hosts a Spring Course, CRSN 61/161. This is made up of Monday Night Lectures and Action Research Teams. This year’s theme is Narratives of Hope for a Sustainable Future. ESLP invites campus groups and other relevant organizations to hosts workshops to complement their Monday Night Lectures. They invite you to speak on any subject that relates to our Blueprint for a Sustainable Campus. Find more details and apply at https://www.eslp-enviroslug.org/hostworkshop/

Join DROPS IDEASS project in Winter Quarter

Interested in joining a team of passionate and motivated students? Join, DROPS, an interdisciplinary team of students in the IDEASS program that are working to find municipal solutions for rainwater catchment and stormwater management. Students will have the opportunity to work with local experts, including MADI architects and a professional mechanical engineer. Students will work on redesigning the layout for the Bay View Elementary Life Lab space to accommodate two new rainwater tanks and irrigated garden beds as well as develop and test relevant Life Lab curriculum. Additionally, students will be working on installing rainwater catchment systems and LID landscape features (rain gardens, bioswales) to mitigate the impacts of stormwater run-off. This is a great opportunity to gain professional hands-on experience. Interested students will be starting in Winter Quarter 2019 and will have the choice to enroll in either the 5-unit ENVS or 2-unit CRSN 152. Contact ideass@ucsc.edu for more information.

Forest Ecology Research Plot (FERP)
The UCSC Campus Natural Reserve is offering a wide variety of field ecology research, monitoring and stewardship internships this winter. Join a project on the Forest Ecology Research Plot (FERP), help assess fuel load and wildfire risk, help monitor small mammal populations, steward campus natural lands, or monitor the regeneration of coastal prairie and northern maritime chaparral following prescribed fire management. For more information, visit their website at https://ucsccampusreserve.ucsc.edu/internships-and-classes/internships-folder/index.html

DUE 2/5/19: Summer 2019 California Ecology and Conservation Supercourse

Applications for the Summer 2019 offering of the UC Natural Reserve System field course, California Ecology and Conservation are now being accepted. Applications can be found here and are due on February 5, 2019. Students from across the UC system have gained strong independent scientific research skills while immersed in the training grounds of the UC natural reserves, from Big Sur to the Mojave Desert, from coastal redwoods to California grasslands to high altitude bristlecone pines.

LEED Accreditation Courses

LEED is a globally recognized rating system devised by the United States Green Building Council to evaluate the environmental performance of a building and encourage market transformation towards sustainable design.The UCSC Carbon Fund provided a grant to the the campus to support the purchase of a Gold Membership through July 2019. This provides unlimited access to the LEED Online platform for all staff, faculty and students (a $1,500 value per person)! The platform offers 200+ LEED Green Associate (GA) + Accredited Professional (AP) prep courses - which are certifications students can obtain to demonstrate knowledge of green building principles and understanding of the LEED rating systems and is a great professional development opportunity for students; study guides & other support materials; access to over 2000+ on-demand web-based courses that all count towards continuing education credits, access to all LEED web based reference guide access and an online credit tutorial. Essentially, all staff, faculty and students have all resources needed to support the pursuit of either a LEED GA or LEED AP (or both) accreditation through this online portal. Having at least a LEED GA accreditation is viewed as a minimum qualification for most jobs within the green building industry.

So how does one get access to this great resource?

Step 1) To access the Campus Subscription Resources, start by viewing these brief video tutorials:

Video Transcripts may be downloaded here.

Step 2) Once you've registered, peruse the links below to check out a wide variety of tutorials, webinars and information based on your interest.

All: Education @USGBC Campus Subscription: Knowledge-Based Badges

Students: Education @USGBC Campus Subscription: Learn About Green Building and Sustainability

Faculty:

Selected courses in Education @USGBC Subscription to support Higher Education Curriculum – This resource is updated at the end of each quarter. We encourage you to regularly check the Education @USGBC catalogue as we publish several new courses each week with new ones always appearing at the top of the list.
Courses by Education Partner Island Press include a lot of reading based content on a variety of sustainability topics.
The newest Higher Education Toolkit: Summer High School Program Toolkit. If your institution hosts summer programs on campus for high school students this is a great resource for incorporating sustainability education and activities.