March 2015 Green Tip: Go Green For Your Spring Clean

It's just about time to open your windows and let in the fresh spring air. These green spring cleaning tips will help you shoo off cobwebs and sweep up dust bunnies without the guilt of using harsh chemicals contributing to the landfill.

Green Cleaning Products: According to the EPA, the air inside of a home is two to five times more polluted than the air outside, mainly because of household cleaners and pesticides. Many common cleaning products can be made from nontoxic ingredients that you already have in your home and work just as well. Making your own cleaning solutions will also help reduce the amount of plastic packaging you buy. Check out this nontoxic solutions site for ideas and recipes.

Trash to treasure: When going through your old notes, don't just toss them in the closest trash bin, save the unused paper and use them for scratch paper and recycle the others.

If you have unwanted and slightly worn clothes, you can donate or sell them. Santa Cruz GOODWILL and the Homeless Service Center are always accepting donations. Also, UCSC has several Facebook groups where you can sell your unwanted items. Check out and join the Free & For Sell and Clothing and Accessories Exchange Facebook groups.

End the Cycle: You can save water and energy by washing full loads of laundry with cold water.

People Power of Santa Cruz County Launches "I Give 3 Ft" Safety Campaign

California’s new bike-passing law takes effect Tuesday, Sept. 16 and many motorists aren’t aware of the new requirements, so People Power of Santa Cruz County, the Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency (HSA), and the California Bicycle Coalition are launching a safety campaign urging motorists to pass bicyclists safely by giving at least 3 feet of clearance when passing. On Tuesday, Sept 16, California joins twenty-five other states with similar laws.

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People Power and HSA are hosting a press event on September 16th at 10 AM at Santa Cruz City Hall, to encourage widespread education of motorists and cyclists on the new law. The event will feature local elected officials, the Watsonville and Scotts Valley Police Departments, and the Capitola AAA office.
“This bill will be a powerful educational tool in Santa Cruz County,” says People Power Director Amelia Conlen. “People on bikes are often passed dangerously close, especially on our rural roads. The new law gives us the opportunity to talk to drivers and cyclists about how to interact safely.”

“More and more Californians are discovering that bikes are an easy, healthy, and fun way to get around, but it’s unnecessarily dangerous sometimes when a motorist passes too closely,” said Dave Snyder, the executive director of the California Bicycle Coalition, whose organization advocated for the bill to remind motorists that three feet is the minimum clearance necessary for safety. Bicyclists need some “wiggle room,” Snyder said, to safely avoid a pothole or road debris without having to worry about getting hit by a passing car.

At least three cyclists have been killed in automobile collisions in Santa Cruz County in the past year.

AB 1371 was signed into law last September. When it takes effect, violators will face a $35 fine plus fees, or a $220 fine -- $959 with fees -- if a collision occurs. Where a violation results in a collision that injures a bicyclist, the law will be valuable because it establishes a basis for citing the driver for unsafe passing.

People Power is providing free bumper stickers and window clings to motorists who want to put them on their car to remind other motorists of the need to pass safely. Visit the press event to pick one up.

For more information, please contact Amelia Conlen, People Power Director, at (831) 425-0665 or director AT peoplepowersc DOT org

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!

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 and Biology '13), and Anthony Siao (Environmental Studies and Technology Information Management '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. "We wanted to really focus on accessibility for all of the people of Santa Cruz to ride bikes and feel safe doing so," said Seller. "Hopefully many of them will become bike commuters as a result."

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 (click here to view the maps), the team has identified priority areas for improvements.This prioritization, which features suggestions such as adding more lighting to Bay Street, improving King Street as a bicycle boulevard, intersection improvements on Laurel Street, and more. To read their full report, click here.

They presented to the Santa Cruz City Council on May 28 to provide recommendations that can help the City achieve their biking and carbon emission plans by 2020. To watch their presentation and hear feedback and support from the City Council members, click here. They are also in touch with People Power to discuss how to move ahead with this project and implement the recommended changes.

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

If you have questions or comments for the team, leave a comment below or email Brenden Fant.

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.