Why You Should Care About the Cool Campus Challenge

By: Jamison Czarneki, UC Santa Cruz Carbon Neutrality Initiative Fellow 

October 6th, 2015 marked the beginning of the first ever UC wide Cool Campus Challenge. C3, as it is being called now, is a 10 week UC inter campus competition that encourages students, staff, and faculty to lower their carbon footprint. This challenge is designed to get people talking about UCOP’s Carbon Neutrality Goal by 2025 where we hope to be the first US university system to do so! Some people say this competition distracts us from the real issues around neutrality, but I believe this has allowed for the opposite. Instead of distracting us, it is enthralling us to talk about carbon neutrality. It’s getting people excited about this initiative and allows a space to take a tiny step to help the campus work to achieve this goal. If people really took the time to look into the actions they can pledge, they would learn so much about their carbon impact! Ever heard of vampire loads? They suck the energy (and money) right out from you.  There are a ton of ways you can learn to lower your footprint as you pledge actions. By doing so, there are even prizes to win for everyone who participates!

So how does the competition work? Participants sign up and make a quick account on the Cool Campus Challenge website.  After signing up, there are a list of actions to pledge and a space for non-listed actions (for the more creative minded person). Every action you pledge, you verify with a picture or story to get points, and those points add up for you and the campus! The more points you earn, the more chances you have to win prizes such as solar chargers, Itunes gift cards, or a brand new Momemtum Bicycle! The competition goes until December 10th and UCSC needs your help! Currently, we’re in 4th place. Every point that you earn shows the UC Regents that we care about Carbon Neutrality and we’re excited for it. So log in, pledge actions, and let’s own this competition!

December 2015: Contests and Funding

Cool Campus Challenge
As the end of Fall quarter approaches, so too does the end of the Cool Campus Challenge. This event supports the UC Office of the President’s 2025 Carbon Neutrality Initiative and raises awareness on being greener amongst student staff and faculty. While a friendly competition with the other UCs on which campus can be the “Coolest Campus,” UCSC is currently in 4th place! As a point of Slug pride, let’s move up in number of participants and green pledges, showing the UCs we care about Carbon Neutrality. If you make it to 10,000 points, you'll be entered into a raffle to win a momentum bike (in UCSC school colors) and right now, with only 140 people at that level your odds are pretty good! Sign up and pledge today at coolcampuschallenge.org!

Just Sustainability Deadline Jan. 18
The Seattle University Center for Environmental Justice and Sustainability (CEJS) invites papers for its second biennial conference “Just Sustainability: Hope for the Commons” to be held in Seattle on August 7-9, 2016. Attendees will have a unique opportunity to connect with researchers, businesses, and communities that are bringing EJS issues to the fore of public discourse. Authors will have the opportunity to publish papers in a special issue of the journal Interdisciplinary Environmental Review.

Authors should submit abstracts of no more than 200 words by January 18th, 2016 by using the conference paper submission system. Authors should indicate their preference for an oral or poster presentation. Authors should also indicate if they would like to submit a full paper for a special issue of the journal Interdisciplinary Environmental Review. Full papers will be due on July 1st, 2016, and final versions of accepted papers will be due on October 1st, 2016.

Pitch Slam
If you're interested in sustainable innovations to present at a live competition on December 1st, email Sue Carter (sacarter [at] ucsc [dot] edu). They are awarding 4 prizes, each $500, to the top 4 presenters.  Students can present any idea as long as it involves some type of innovative product or service.

Cool Campus Challege update

As the end of Fall quarter approaches, so too does the end of the Cool Campus Challenge. This event supports the UC Office of the President’s 2025 Carbon Neutrality Initiative and raises awareness on being greener amongst student staff and faculty. While a friendly competition with the other UCs on which campus can be the “Coolest Campus,” UCSC is currently in 4th place! As a point of Slug pride (and the chance to win cool prizes like a Momentum Bicycle), let’s move up in number of participants and green pledges, showing the UCs we care about Carbon Neutrality. 



If you make it to 10,000 points, you'll be entered into a raffle to win a momentum bike (in UCSC school colors) and right now, with only 140 people at that level your odds are pretty good!


Let's go UCSC! Go ‪#‎CoolGreenSlugs‬! Go to coolcampuschallenge.org and (bike) rack up those points!

Cool Campus Challenge update!

With week 5 kicking off for the Cool Campus Challenge, we’ve achieved a lot! Over 1,100 students, staff and faculty have signed up for a total of 2.3 million points earned. This adds up to 2.3 million pounds of CO2 saved from our pledged actions. It’s an awesome achievement, but we can do more. There are also plenty more PRIZES to be given out to people who sign up and more for top earners!

However, despite all we’ve achieved, UCSC fell from 3rd to 5th place since last month. We can move back to the top, but we need YOU! Invite your friends, professors, and co-workers to sign up and pledge actions to earn more points!

Did you know you can earn points for taking the bus, riding your bike, or ride sharing to campus? These simple actions, and so much more, are easy ways to lower your carbon impact and earn some points for UCSC. So how can we win this challenge and prove UCSC cares the most about lowering our collective footprint? If you haven’t signed up yet, please do! If you have, then continue to log in and complete pledges. You can even make your own actions that are not on the list. You also get more points if you add pictures. If you’d like to help spread the word and get your foot in the door to the sustainability office, contact fellows Jordi Vasquez (jpvasque [at] ucsc [dot] edu) or Jamison Czarnecki (jczarnec [at] ucsc [dot] edu).

Remember, this is MORE than a friendly competition! This is a chance for UCSC to show that we collectively care and support these initiatives. Every point earned is a statement to our regents that we want more actions like carbon neutrality! Thank you for working hard at this. We have 5 weeks left to show the other UCs that we really are the Coolest Campus!

Cool Campus Challenge

Launching Oct. 6 and running through Dec. 10, the first Cool Campus Challenge aims to get everyone across the UC campuses on board with the carbon neutrality effort with a bit of friendly competition to get things moving. Help prove that UCSC is the coolest campus!

During the 10-week contest, UC faculty, staff and students will be challenged to take steps to reduce their carbon footprints using an online tool to track their activity and earn points for their campus. Show how cool you can be all by yourself, or form teams among your friends, colleagues, and roommates. 

Here’s what you can do to be an important part of the Cool Campus Challenge (#UCool):

• Sign up and take the Challenge: http://www.coolcampuschallenge.org. Then invite your colleagues to do the same.
• Better yet, create a team so you can earn points together.
• Share this email with staff, students and colleagues.
• Send an announcement to campus listservs you’re on.
• Share your profile, the sign-up link, pledge you’re taking, etc., online with the Challenge hashtag: #UCool.
• Faculty, have your students take the Challenge as extra credit.

Once you sign up you will be given a variety of ways to learn more about your carbon footprint and to pledge to numerous actions that have a direct impact on reducing energy use. Each week, there will be a highlight for important theme along with suggested actions (or pledges) you can take that will either directly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and/or increase education and awareness about climate disruption.

For every action you take, you’ll earn valuable points for our campus that will enter you in a raffle to win cool, energy efficient prizes. You can also earn “bonus points” for completing the action within a specified time period or for taking new and creative actions that aren’t yet on the pledge list.

Find out more and sign up to compete on the Cool Campus Challenge website.

To help spread the word, share this article. We have 10 years to be carbon neutral and we can’t be carbon neutral without you.