UCSC Climate Visioning Charrette

On Thursday, April 14th, UC Office of the President hosted a Climate Visioning Charrette at UC Santa Cruz, which was facilitated by a consultant team and included presentations by UCSC and UCOP staff.

All 10 UC campuses have been hosting these charrettes to support the achievement of President Napolitano’s ground-breaking goal of reaching Carbon Neutrality by 2025. The purpose of this workshop was to engage key academic, administrative, and operational leadership in order to start developing a cohesive vision towards achieving this ambitious goal. Nearly 40 UCSC staff, administrators, faculty, and students attended the charrette on April 14th.

Goals for the UCSC charrette included the following:

• Facilitate individual campus efforts towards carbon neutrality
• Leverage, support, and expand existing campus-level carbon neutrality efforts
• Align carbon neutrality efforts and collaboration between campuses, the U.C. Office of the President, and the U.C. Carbon Neutrality
• Create a carbon neutrality vision statement
• Identify key strategies and next steps for carbon neutrality at the campus level and across the UC system 

Desired Outcomes included:

• Draft a vision statement 
• Draft a list of strategies
• Develop an initial implementation approach

The UCSC Campus Snapshot that was presented at this event is available online here. A report from this event is currently being developed and will be available soon. For more information, please contact Climate Action Manager Chrissy Thomure.

Carbon Slam: Deadline April 10th

The University of California is sponsoring a UC-wide Carbon Slam event on May 23rd at Xerox PARC in Silicon Valley.

This system-wide event will bring students from all 10 University of California campuses to present their climate change science and solution research in 3-minute pitches and posters in a live competition before a panel of esteemed judges and guests for a chance to win cash prizes.

This event will highlight the important work that UC students and faculty are doing to understand the impacts of climate change and to develop new innovations, practices and policies that can help mitigate those impacts.

UC students and teams interested in being selected to attend and compete in the Carbon Slam event can submit their application through the system-wide portal at carbonslam.org. The deadline to apply is April 10th.

Anyone with questions with questions about the application, initiative or live event can contact Sue Carter at carbon-slam [at] ucsc [dot] edu. 

This event is sponsored by the Faculty Engagement and Education working group of the Global Climate Leadership Council as part of the University of California President’s Climate Neutrality Initiative.

Students & Staff Share Takeaways from Fall Conferences

There were many sustainability conferences all over the country this quarter! Students and staff in the Sustainability Office were able to attend many of them and wanted to share what they learned. Here are some key takeaways and stories from the conferences they attended this fall. If you ever attend a sustainability related conference and want to share a report-back in a future newsletter, please email sustain.education@ucsc.edu. 

South by Southwest Eco Conference
"Biomimicry, the idea of innovation inspired by nature, is a relatively new field of science focusing what we can learn from nature rather than what we can extract from nature. After facilitating an Education for Sustainable Living Program class on the topic of Biomimicry last quarter, I have been constantly curious about the world around me. When I heard about this conference, I saw it as a way to learn more about the field and meet the people with big ideas for Biomimicry..." Click here to continue reading this report from Lily Urmann, Green Labs Facilitator.

The Post-Landfill Action Network's Zero Waste Youth Conference 
"This conference was a great experience. We met a ton of hardworking and dedicated students from all across the country who were making positive impacts at their respective campuses. The conference theme was zero waste and we learned how to overcome challenges to get a zero waste program started, how to build a strong initiative, and how to network to leverage your goals. We were also inspired by some amazing speakers! To top it off, we had beautiful farm to table food and all of it was a 100% zero waste event!" - Jamison Czarnecki, Carbon Neutrality Fellow

National Bioneers Conference 
"Bioneers, for me, brought the many threads of 'sustainability' - environment, people, ecology, biodiversity, diversity, justice, equity, celebration of difference, purpose, conservation, conversation, art, climate, water, community, etc. - into a beautifully, vibrantly, amazingly woven cloth that held all of the attendees in its embrace for a weekend, bringing us in contact with new ideas and new people, encouraging us to sink into the realities of our world in their fullness..." Click here to continue reading this report from Melissa Ott, Office Manager/Events Coordinator.

Why I Love Bioneers 
"Even though this was my third time attending Bioneers, I was constantly blown away by the influx of new experiences and inspirations. I was grateful this year to be part of the Youth Leadership program, where I was surrounded by motivated young adults out to change the world. The dire state of our planet is often scary and overwhelming to think about, but the capacity of humans and our ability to collaborate on solutions keeps me hopeful. That is why I love Bioneers..." Click here to continue reading this report from Lily Urmann, Green Labs Facilitator.

Conference of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education 
"I had the honor of representing our campus at the national annual conference of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). Sustainability professionals from all around the world converged on Minneapolis, MN for the occasion. The session that struck me the most was an all-day workshop focused on incorporating sustainability and diversity issues..." Click here to continue reading this report from Elida Erickson, Interim Sustainability Director.

UC Carbon Neutrality Summit - Bending the Curve
"It's not often that UC President Napolitano, Governor Jerry Brown, 50+ faculty and researchers, Nobel laureates, and business leaders get together in one place to focus on a topic.  But on October 26 & 27, these movers and shakers got together at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at UC San Diego to focus on one of the most critical issues facing society; climate change..." Click here to continue reading this report from Chrissy Thomure, Climate Action Manager.

UC Office of the President (UCOP) Fellowship Orientation
"On Saturday, November 14th, the UC Santa Cruz Carbon Neutrality Initiative Fellows and Global Food Initiative Fellows attended the UC Office of the President’s fellowship orientation.  During this daylong event, the UCSC fellows were able to meet all of the other UC-wide fellows and get to know which exciting projects they were working on.  The UCSC fellows were able to share our efforts with the Cool Campus Challenge and which projects they will be undertaking as the academic year continues.  They also learned about new strategies from different workshops on how to maximize student, staff and faculty engagement.  Completing this orientation provided the UCSC fellows with a network of like-minded UC fellows and new strategies that will help UCSC complete the UCOP sustainability initiatives.  The fellows look forward to the future projects and opportunities that will secure UCSC’s carbon neutrality and food security goals." - Jordi Vasquez, Carbon Neutrality Fellow

UC Carbon Neutrality Summit- Bending the Curve

Chrissy Thomure, the Climate Action Manager at the Sustainability Office shares her experience at the UC Carbon Neutrality Summit.

 
It's not often that UC President Napolitano, Governor Jerry Brown, 50+ faculty and researchers, Nobel laureates, and business leaders get together in one place to focus on a topic.  But on October 26 & 27, these movers and shakers got together at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at UC San Diego to focus on one of the most critical issues facing society; climate change.

The latest science presented at the conference revealed that under the current “business as usual” practices, the planet is on target to exceed a 2 degrees Celsius increase relative to the pre-industrial average by 2050 and a 4 degrees Celsius increase by 2100, triggering serious large-scale problems including droughts, forest fires and sea level rise from 1.5–2 meters by the end of the century. Catastrophic climatic events are becoming more and more common, and are disproportionately affecting the world’s most vulnerable people.

Despite the stark facts that were presented, there was a sense of excitement and optimism in the air as we heard from the leaders of a committee of 50 academics and researchers from across UC’s 10 campuses who worked over the summer to develop a report recommending a set of actionable solutions for curbing climate change using existing technologies.  The report, called Bending the Curve, pulled together experts from a broad spectrum of fields ranging from climate science to ethics, economics, ecology, energy, environmental justice, political science and religion.  The Chair of the Committee, Veerabhadran "Ram" Ramanathan- who in 1975 discovered the greenhouse effect of chlorofluorocarbons in the Earth’s atmosphere- insists, “there is still time to mitigate the most disastrous of the predicted changes.”  Governor Brown iterated this point by saying, “The challenge for us is to imagine the likely extreme outcomes of climate change and take actions now to prevent it.”

Yes, this is a monumental challenge.  The encouraging thing is that it was apparent at this Summit that these leaders are not just “talking the talk” but are also “walking the walk.”  With the Carbon Neutrality Initiative announced by President Napolitano in 2013, the University of California pledged to become carbon neutral by 2025.  The state of California has its own ambitious climate targets: Reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels, shift California’s electricity production to at least 50 percent renewable sources, and increase building energy efficiency by 50 percent – all by 2030.  To learn more about UCSC’s commitment to climate action, click here. 

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!

October 2015 Sustainability Profile: Jamison Czarnecki and Jordi Vasquez

Jamison Czarnecki and Jordi Vaquez are the new Carbon Neutrality Initiative Fellows for UC Santa Cruz. The CNI Fellows support the University of California's Carbon Neutrality Initiative, which commits UC to emitting net zero greenhouse gasses from its buildings and vehicle fleet by 2025, something no other major university system has done. As part of a network of CNI Fellows throughout the UC system, Jamison and Jordi are responsible for helping to promote and engage the campus through the Cool Campus Challenge, an online competition to reduce our carbon emissions through behavior change. We decided to learn more about our new fellows.

Jamison Czarnecki (left) Jordi Vasquez (right)

What is your major and college affiliation? 

• Jamison: Environmental Studies BA/Sustainability Studies Minor. Kresge College.
• Jordi: Earth Science, B.S. College Nine.

What's your favorite green tip? 

• Jamison: Don't take the bus on campus, walk! Especially around fall and winter when our mascot is out in full force from the rain and everything smells fresh and renewed. Also, drink sustainably! Order brews from the tap instead of the bottle and local brews over national brands. It's a smaller impact and usually better taste.
• Jordi: Be water wise! Every drop counts whether it’s a wet or dry year, recognize the importance of water. Full loads of laundry, turning off the tap when brushing your teeth, or using reusable water containers all promote water efficiency. 

What does "sustainability" mean to you? 

• Jamison: Focusing on the triple bottom line: People, Planet, Profit. Our increasingly complex global society is showing us that environmental and social issues are inter-connected. To truly solve them, we have to incorporate all disciplines and backgrounds to approach this important nexus. 
• Jordi: For me, sustainability means to remember that our Earth, that one speck of life in a vast universe, only has a finite amount of resources. Therefore, we all have a responsibility to sustain what matters for today and tomorrow. 

How do you practice sustainability in your daily life? 

• Jamison: I try to be conscious about my everyday actions and making good habits of those. For example, keeping my shower time under 5 minutes, unplugging my coffee pot when I'm done, or composting my food scraps. They're easy steps with BIG impacts! 
• Jordi: Besides being water wise I also do simple tasks such as recycling, unplugging unused appliances, and by walking or busing around. 

How does sustainability relate to your role at UCSC? 

• Jamison: As a Carbon Neutrality Fellow and a conscious student, I am always trying to research, learn, and share new ideas that we can become as sustainable as possible. We've made a lot of progress, but we can do so much more! 
• Jordi: As a Carbon Neutrality Fellow, sustainability is our main focus, promoting a carbon-neutral campus by the year 2025. Knowing the dedication of UCSC staff, students, and faculty, I’m sure we can achieve such an ambitious goal! 

Have you had a favorite sustainability moment at UCSC? 

• Jamison: Attending the workshops with the Student Environmental Center and the Winter Inter-Organizational Retreat. They really taught me how to become more conscious and aware in an inspiring way. They're also great ways to get to know like-minded students! 
• Jordi: As a fresh-eyed freshman, the strive for sustainability was eye-opening! The first few days it was amazing to realize that if a university could push for energy, food, and waste sustainability, then certainly I or any individual could achieve the same. 

Can you tell us about what it means to be a Carbon Neutrality Fellow? 

• Jamison: It's truly an honor to be selected. The UC system has pushed itself to achieve the tremendous feat of being carbon neutral by 2025. This will show that if we as a huge entity can do it, then other educational systems and businesses can become carbon neutral as well. Being a fellow this year will not only give me great professional skills to advance my career, it will allow me help other people see the importance of this goal and how they can be a part of this movement too! 
• Jordi: Being a Fellow means much more than the title portrays. The work on the 2025 Carbon Neutrality goal goes far beyond our campus and UC System; here we have the chance to promote sustainability as an everyday aspect of life. I’m excited and honored to get started!

Learn more about the Carbon Neutrality Initiative here. 

Sign up for the Cool Campus Challenge today!

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.

October 2015: Contests & Funding

Carbon Fund Info Session: October 22
The UCSC Carbon Fund is a granting body that funds student, staff, and community sustainability projects. If you have a project geared towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions on campus or in the community, consider applying for a Carbon Fund grant! There will be an info session to learn more on October 22 from 6-7:30pm. The meeting location has not been finalized, so please check the Carbon Fund website here or email carbonfund [at] ucsc [dot] edu for updates.

Cool Campus Challenge: October 6 - December 10
The first ever Cool Campus Challenge aims to engage UC campuses with our carbon neutrality initiative through a bit of friendly competition. Join the challenge, pledge to reduce your carbon footprint, and help us prove that UCSC is the coolest campus! Sign up here.

H&M Conscious Foundation Global Change Award: Deadline October 31
Students and faculty are invited to submit ideas that share the future of how fashion is designed and produced, shipped, bought, used and recycled with a focus on protecting the planet. The Global Change Award, by H&M Conscious Foundation, seeks to create fashion for a growing population while reducing its impact on the environment. The aim of the challenge is to close the loop in the fashion industry. Five winners will share a grant of $1 million euros ($1.1 million), get access to a tailor-made innovation accelerator, and fashion industry access. Deadline to submit is October 31.

Carbon Neutrality Ideas Contest Open To All UC students

President Napolitano’s Carbon Neutrality Initiative agreed to fund the extension to all UC campuses of a student ideas contest started at Berkeley. Student teams from any UC campus can now compete for cash prizes and mentoring and other support for ideas related to carbon neutrality at the campus, national, or international scale.
Got a big idea? Save the world and win prizes. For more information about rules, categories, resources, funding and contact information, visit the Big Ideas website at http://bigideas.berkeley.edu/energy/

Get paid to fight climate change!

The UCSC Sustainability Office is looking for two passionate, knowledgeable and organized Carbon Neutrality Student Fellows to coordinate climate action engagement and planning this academic year! If you’re a UCSC student interested in climate change, creative problem solving, and student organizing and empowerment, then this is an experience you want to have!

Climate change threatens to destroy our communities and destabilise our economy with higher temperatures, extreme weather, and rising seas. At its core, climate change is an injustice hoisted onto future generations and people who have done little to create the problem, affecting first and worst the global poor. But the world is changing in more than just climatic systems, and tackling climate change promises to host co-benefits for humans and non-human beings alike. 

Be part of the transition.

The Carbon Neutrality Initiative Fellowship program, now in its second year, gives students the opportunity to engage in the rapid decarbonization of the university’s energy system through a yearlong paid internship. The Student Fellows will have the opportunity to build their knowledge of climate change science, policy and economics, social movements, campus sustainability, UC bureaucracy, renewable energy systems, climate justice, and other topics related to carbon neutrality and climate leadership.

Fellows will help coordinate a carbon reduction pledge campaign through social media, host events to garner student feedback and priorities in climate action planning, as well as gain leadership skills and explore intersectional sustainability issues through a revolutionary inter-fellowship retreat with students involved in the Global Food Initiative. The Fellows will also lead efforts to plan and execute visioning sessions and charrettes to engage the campus community in climate action planning.The Fellowship will require creative construction of programs, activities and/or campaigns to promote climate action and reduce emissions on campus and beyond.

Apply here for ER#7842, and submit a cover letter and resume that highlights your direct skills, knowledge and abilities supporting the position. Send to Chrissy Thomure, Climate Action Manager, at cthomure@ucsc.edu. Feel free to contact Alden Phinney, the outgoing Carbon Neutrality Fellow, with any questions regarding student experience in the fellowship program at aphinney@ucsc.edu. Applications are open until filled.

This Fellowship is open to undergrad and grad students at UCSC, though applications may be open at other UC campuses as well; check with your campus Sustainability Office for more details.