May 2016 Green Tip: Refreshing Your Summer Wardrobe

The approach of summer means the arrival of warmer weather and the latest, hottest clothing trends to match. Fashion companies have begun producing new lines of clothing at higher frequencies, and modern mass-production has kept prices lower than ever. But what is the true cost of these practices?

This month, Zhai Yun Tan wrote a piece featured on NPR.org that looked into the textile waste created by the $250 billion dollar industry of fashion. She posits that we are more likely to dispose of cheaper, mass-produced fashion garments than pricier ones. In her piece What Happens When Fashion Becomes Fast, Disposable And Cheap?, she identifies a few ways to combat these recent trends.

Ultimately, some of the best ways to dress sustainability is to reduce the amount of new material that you are purchasing. Buying second-hand clothes from the many thrift and consignment stores in Santa Cruz, clothes swapping, and crafting your own fashionable designs are all easy and cost-effective ways to reduce your impact on the disposable economy.

Are these practices already familiar to you? Share your sustainable fashion experiences and ideas in the comments below!

Procurement Services Receives Gift for Sustainability Efforts

Procurement's Strategic Sourcing Team is proud to report that they have received a $5,000 gift from The Dreaming Fund of the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham to expand on their vendor sustainability program.  Their benefactor selected Strategic Sourcing's initiative from among more than a dozen proposals from students, staff, and research groups.

Last year, Strategic Sourcing initiated a program to improve sustainability efforts on the part of their suppliers. Strategic Sourcing's goal, keeping with the Procurement's Strategic Sourcing Team's commitment to the Campus Sustainability Plan (CSP), is to engage suppliers to develop strategies that promote sustainable procurement practices within the supply chain and measure those suppliers to agreed standards. To that end,  Procurement's Strategic Sourcing Team applied to the Provost's Sustainability Internship (PSI) program, and recruited a dynamic and capable UCSC student named Marissa Meisterling to develop the process.

Throughout FY15, Marissa contacted 17 select suppliers and developed a method for benchmarking suppliers’ sustainability efforts. This information acts as a baseline and a framework for encouraging vendors to take additional steps to improve their "sustainability profile." To expand on these efforts, they have retained another engaging and brilliant PSI student intern, William Watson. Our goals for this year are to establish an online method to better engage suppliers, work with Procurement Buyers to incorporate sustainability into their daily interactions with vendors, and significantly increase the number of participating suppliers. 

That's where their benefactor comes in. To accomplish these goals, they will need to move to an online database that the suppliers can access and update themselves, providing them with additional information, and exhibiting their progress as an incentive to participate in the program. Further, the Procurement's Strategic Sourcing Team will need training and marketing materials for both their own staff and their vendors. These items cost money, and they now have a $5,000 budget to work with.

They are extremely grateful to the benefactor for supporting this effort. There has never been funding for this kind of effort before. By encouraging their suppliers to make more sustainable choices, they can enhance UC Santa Cruz's excellent reputation as a green campus, and promote real-world actions that support a healthy environment.

October Campus Sustainability Plan Workshops

Want to participate in creating new goals for the Campus Sustainability Plan? October is the month for topic planning workshops!

What is the Campus Sustainability Plan?
The Campus Sustainability Plan is a document that identifies goals for UCSC to incorporate sustainability into all aspects of campus operations. It represents the campus’s first comprehensive effort to build a cohesive, phased strategy for the future. Individuals from across UCSC’s administrative and academic divisions helped create it. By working together, they helped raise awareness about the challenges and opportunities of creating a more sustainable campus. It's time to revisit this document and develop new goals for the coming years.

Get Involved 
Workshops are being held this month to start drafting goals and objectives for each topic in the new Campus Sustainability Plan for the years 2013-2016! The workshops will consists of all the staff and faculty members of each Topic Working Group, as well as any students who are interested in participating. The Working Groups are eager to include the student voice as much as possible!

If you are interested in participating, here is the information regarding the Topic Planning Workshops scheduled throughout October.

If you would like to attend one (or more), or can even attend for just one hour, please e-mail Elida Erickson and she can give you some more specific information about those topics.

Here is the link to the current Campus Sustainability Plan 2010-2013 if you'd like to familiarize yourself with the document.

CSP Topic Planning Workshop schedule

• Food Systems Working Group: Tues. 10/2, 1pm-4pm, Kerr Hall Room 307
• Procurement & Business Contracts: Tues. 10/9, 1pm-4pm, 2300 Delaware room A275G
• Waste and Recycling: Thurs. 10/18, 1pm-4pm, Chancellor's Conference Room Kerr 212
• Transportation: Tue. 10/23, 1pm-4pm, Kerr Hall Room 61
• Water: Tue. 10/23, 1:30-3:30pm, Barn G, Physical Planning & Construction Conference Room
• Buildings & Facilities: Wed. 10/24, 1pm-4pm, Barn G, Physical Planning & Construction Conference Room
• Energy: Tue. 10/30, 9am-12pm, Barn G, Physical Planning & Construction Conference Room
• Land Habitat & Watershed: Date and Time TBD, Location TBD (likely Kerr Hall)
• Awareness, Education & Engagement: Date and Time TBD, Location TBD (likely Kerr Hall)

Procurement and Business Contracts Office Certified Green as a "Tree" by PROPS

PROPS (Program Recognizing Offices Practicing Sustainability) has just awarded the Green Office Certification level of “Tree” to the Procurement and Business Contracts office. This is the highest award level currently available and it is the first time it has been awarded. The first certification for the Procurement Office was “Sapling,” awarded in August of 2011.

The Procurement Office received its original "Sapling" award in August 2011. They have just been certified "Tree" level, the highest level PROPS recognizes.

In addition to the initial assessment and award, Procurement was given a set of improvement recommendations that could increase the certification rating. The Procurement Office committed to these on-going improvements and future re-assessment.

With the help of PROPS, Procurement was able to achieve the new certification by successfully fulfilling multiple goals for improvement in areas such as waste reduction, energy conservation, and purchasing environmentally preferred products.

Great work, Procurement and Business Contracts Office!

To find out more about the Green Office Certification Program (formerly PROPS), click here.