Recently Green Certified Payroll Office Writes Song

Congratulations to the Payroll office for their completion of the Green Office Certification Program! They earned a "Sapling" rating for their sustainable practices and created a commitment plan as a guide to help them improve their behavior and become a "Tree."

They also wrote an incredible song about their experiences and overall feelings about sustainability on campus. Check it out!

To the tune of "Yakko's Universe" from The Animaniacs.

Everybody works in a cubie or an office
or a lab on location for what it's worth.
And we all report to a division which is part of a department
that works at a University known as UCSC.

And UCSC is a college full of oceanographers and lit majors
and students silently analyzing data deep in space.
And working at UCSC are the students and employees
striving to insure the living planet is keeping pace.

It's a great big University
and we’ve all heard the call:
Zero Waste by 2020,
“We can do it!” says George Blumenthal.
You might think it won’t mean much
but shut your lights off on the way to lunch.
It's a big University and we’re Green!

Going Green is super easy; it can start with a towel

that you bring from home to dry your cups and hands.

And as you are leaving work, flip off all the lights in sight,

don’t forget about your computers and the monitor screens, too!

Across the entire campus, we’re opening up the blinds

and finding carpool buddies for our daily drives

and there’s a bunch of folks riding bikes up Bay Avenue

in a beautifully Go Green parade!

Take a look around the campus, you will find recycle bins

of blue and green and brown to put your recycling in.

Stop buying bottled water and compost your banana peel!

We can make our goal a little at a time.
‘Cause education starts with action, and we all can do it:

UCSC – full of students, faculty and staff

doing our part to be sure the universe extends to a place that never ends.
Going Green is not a passing trend!

It's a great big University
and we’ve all heard the call:
Zero Waste by 2020,
“We can do it!” says George Blumenthal.
You might think it won’t mean much
but shut your lights off on the way to lunch.
It's a big University and we’re Green!

The Green Office Certification Team has loved working with you Payroll! Thank you for your enthusiasm.

To learn more about the Green Office Certification Team and to have your office green certified next, visit the website.

Copy Center Transitions to 100% Recycled Paper

If you are a faculty member who has course readers compiled for your classes, or a student who has several course readers to purchase at the book store every quarter, we have some exciting news for you! As of Summer 2013, the UCSC Copy Center moved to printing all course readers on 100% Post-Consumer Waste (PCW, 100% recycled) paper. The Copier Program is also currently in the process of transitioning to exclusively using 100% PCW for all of the copy machines and printers they service across campus. Learn more about how you can maximize the efficiency of your office paper use here.

                                        From http://boiseinc.com/

Enterprise Financial Systems Green Office Certified

Congratulations to the entire office of Enterprise Financial Systems for their successful completion of the Green Office Certification Program! They earned a Sprout rating for their sustainable office practices and have created a commitment plan to continue improving their sustainable behaviors and become a tree!

Here is what Frankie Brouwer, Senior Analyst at EFS, has to say about their certification:

"The EFS office recently went through Green Office Certification process and earned a sprout rating!  Our office is one of the offices in Financial Affairs, the goal is to have all of Financial Affairs certified.  Of course we will not stop with our certification, but will continue to think about ways to practice sustainability in our office.  Some of the ideas include using reusable containers for lunch items, reusing scrap paper and bring our own towels to work instead of using paper towels.  We encourage other offices to adopt these green practices as well."

If you work in an office and would like to see it Green Certified like EFS, check out the website for more information.

Controller's Office Goes Green

The Green Office Certification Team would like to congratulate the members of The Controller's Office for their successful completion of our Certification Program and Sapling rating. Great job! Below is the personal account of Controls and Compliance Manager, Ivan Ditmars, on their Green Office process and the work of the Controller's Office:

"First and foremost on behalf of the Controller’s Office I would like to thank Christian Frederick, Casey Wing, and the rest of the Green Office members. The professionalism presented by the team of students shows they have been trained well in the art of conservation and work ethics. The controller’s Office has many solid conservation best practices in place which earned our team with a certification level of Sapling. The assessment conducted revealed some interesting improvements that we can make around the office, which may be small, but if implemented campus wide would be a great conservation achievement."

The top recommended changes they encouraged the Controller's Office team to make were:

1. Improve signage on/near recycling bins in office and provide a main recycling bin near the printer. 
2. Use “smart power strips” for office appliances in order to make it easier to turn off multiple appliances at once

Thanks Ivan, and thank you Controller's Office! Way to improve your sustainable practices and be a model for green offices across campus!

For more information about the Green Office Certification Program, please visit their website or email Casey Wing.

October 2012: News & Achievements

Procurement and Business Contracts Worm Bin

Back in June when students were on break, the Procurement and Business Contracts Office was setting up their new worm bin for food scraps! Here's a photo of David transferring the inhabitants of their existing worm bin to their new home. Procurement and Business Contracts is certified as a "Tree" through the UCSC Green Office Certification Program. Find out more about Green Office Certification here.

Ethnic Resource Center Green Team has a new website
Last January, our newsletter profiled the American Indian Resource Center's Green Team. Since then, the Team has expanded and is now titled the Ethnic Resource Center's Green Team. In June, they launched a new website that includes resources, photos, and information about what the Green Team does. Check it out here!

Sustainability Office Zero Waste Team member Elizabeth Lin photographed and mentioned in Santa Cruz Sentinel article

Photo by Dan Coyro

In his 'State of the Campus' address Chancellor Blumenthal highlighted partnerships with the community that improve ocean health and sustainable agriculture, and accepted 100% PCW paper from Sustainability Office Zero Waste Team Coordinator Elizabeth Lin, stating that his office is as paper-free as possible.

What are your thoughts about this month's news? What are you most proud of related to campus sustainability at UCSC? What do you want to see happen here? Post in the comments! 

September 2012: Internships, Employment, & Volunteering

Green Office Certification Program Seeks Student Staff

As a member of our Green Office Certification program you’ll learn how to conduct energy and waste assessments of campus offices, write reports and present recommendations to participating office staff to empower them to improve their environmental performance. As a member of the green office certification team, you’ll attend weekly meetings and work closely with campus staff and other stakeholders to reduce waste and increase conservation in campus offices. Ideal candidates will demonstrate interest in sustainability, initiative, excellent organizational, communication and writing skills. Find out more about the program here, and for a list of available positions, click here. Send your resume and letter of interest to Shauna Casey. Be sure to note the position title you are applying for in the subject line of your email.

ESLP Publicity and Media Outreach Intern

Education for Sustainable Living Program (ESLP) is looking for interns interested in helping us create artistic flyers and website design! Interns will attend any necessary meetings with ESLP’s collaboration networking sphere to discuss outreach efforts, and get involved with the organization while developing flyers, web design and publicity skills on a professional level. Internship is 2-units and Photoshop skills are preferable. Please contact ESLP for more information and to apply.

Get Involved with the Campus Sustainability Plan
Since 2010, working groups of staff and students have been making progress on environmental performance targets for UCSC in eight topic areas: Buildings & Facilities, Energy, Food, Land & Habitat, Procurement & Business Contracts, Transportation, Waste, and Water. Now, it's time for UCSC to create a new Campus Sustainability Plan 2.0 for the years 2013-16! If you'd like to check out the original Campus Sustainability Plan, click here. To get involved in the planning process and help create the next set of environmental performance targets for UCSC, please email Elida Erickson.

Help UCSC Take Back the Tap

These cool water spigots for refilling your reusable water bottle were installed by UCSC Take Back the Tap. Visit their Facebook page to find out all the locations so you can stay hydrated.

Take Back the Tap UCSC is an initiative to end the sale and distribution of bottled water on our campus. If you've seen those new water spigots around campus for filling up water bottles, you can thank Take Back the Tap. If you're interested in getting involved, please email Take Back the Tap or visit their Facebook page.

Call for Volunteers: Greenbuild International Conference and Expo
Greenbuild is the world’s largest conference and expo dedicated to green building, and it is coming back to San Francisco November 14-16. If you are a full-time student or professional age 25 and under, volunteer and attend for free! For more information visit the website. For questions, click here to send an email.

Volunteer at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History
Interested in gardening, habitat restoration, tidepooling, maintaining exhibits and helping at events for the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History? Volunteer today! Find out more and fill out an application here or email Matt.

PROPS PLOP: Sustainability News from the Chancellor's Office!

UCSC Chancellor George Blumenthal has started a sustainable trend. 

On May 7, 2012, PROPS (the Program Recognizing Offices Practicing Sustainability) sat down with Chancellor Blumenthal and his office staff to consult on the sustainability of their office operations. During the meeting, the Chancellor was delighted to tell PROPS about their efforts to reduce the paper usage involved with his job. 
 
According to the Chancellor, at large meetings (such as Regents' meetings), each attendee is given at least one binder full of agenda items. This is a typical occurrence, but the UCSC Chancellor is fed up with the excessive paper use. His alternative? Downloading software that allows him to read, highlight, and mark up the meetings' documents on his computer tablet. Chancellor Blumenthal says that he is the first of the UC Chancellor's to make this transition, but several others have since followed suit. After noticing Chancellor's sleek, tech-savvy appearance at meetings, at least six other UC Chancellors have gone paperless at meetings.

In addition to eliminating binders at his meetings, Chancellor Blumenthal and his staff make conscious efforts to reduce paper usage. "We rarely print anything out anymore," says Maurene Catto, Executive Assistant to Chancellor Blumenthal.

PROPS and the Sustainability Office commend the Chancellor's commitment to sustainable behavior change, and encourage the office to keep up the good work!

To learn more about the Green Office Certification Program (formerly PROPS), visit the website.

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.

Introducing: PROPS PLOPS - Sustainability stories from offices in the Program Recognizing Offices Practicing Sustainability (PROPS).

This week, students of PROPS, UCSC's own green office certification program sat down with representatives of the Program's most recent participants located off campus at 2300 Delaware: Enterprise Financial Systems and Extra Mural Funds. In the meeting, PROPS witnessed another example showing that UCSC's commitment to sustainability is not limited to campus boundaries. 

Written by Rebekah Jamison, a green liaison of Extra Mural Funds, below is a description of a great initiative that EMF has taken to reduce paper towel consumption.

"I noticed we had one towel in our kitchen area that seemed to get a lot of use. I use to be in charge of washing the reusable hand towels for my daughter's kindergarten class and thought I should do that for work. During Bring Your Towel to Work Week, I thought I would start doing just that. I put a pile of hand towels in the kitchen area and then got the idea to put a bucket that says "dirty towels" also in the kitchen area. I then decided that I would be responsible for bringing the towels home weekly and washing them with my towels at home. 

PROPS Interns Assessing the Cantu Center

"Another staff member and I started talking about this one day and she said she also had a bunch of old towels she could bring in. Since then, we go through a bucket of towels about every two weeks. I take 
them home to wash them, and my colleague has also volunteered to take them home from time to time. The towels are being used daily and I really think it has made a huge difference in how many paper towels we use in our kitchen area."

This is not the only example of an office kicking the paper towel habit - UCSC's Purchasing Department recently coordinated an entire week devoted to reusable towel usage. More news on this event coming soon!

PROPS and the Sustainability Office commend all offices that take innovative initiatives like this to improve the sustainability of their daily operations. We challenge all offices to show UCSC how sustainable they can be!

For more information on the Green Office Certification Program (formerly PROPS) and a list of its certified offices, visit the website!

March 2012 Sustainability Profile: Campus Sustainability Internship Program

The Campus Sustainability Internship (CSI) program is a year-long course and internship designed to engage students in campus sustainability work. CSI provides students with trainings and resources to enable their success as future environmental professionals and leaders. The program pairs students with staff mentors to work on campus projects related to green building, waste reduction, energy conservation, and more.The application deadline is approaching quickly--staff applications are due March 16 and student applications are due April 4. Click here to apply now!

To give readers a first-hand account of the program, Student Newsletter Coordinator Melissa Ott interviewed two of the participants in the program to learn about their experiences in CSI. Kathryn Cunningham is a Strategic Sourcing and Sustainable Procurement Manager in Procurement and Business Contracts (P&BC) and CSI staff mentor to CSI Intern and Environmental Studies Senior, Christian Frederick (pictured below).

Melissa: What is the project that you’re working on, and why it's important for sustainability efforts and for the UCSC campus?

Christian: I am working with Procurement Department on creating a training program to education staff about “greenwashing,” which refers to false or misleading marketing claims aimed at promoting a product for its sustainability or environmental friendliness. By creating this training program, campus buyers can teach their on-campus clients how to identify environmentally preferable products more effectively and steer clear of marketing schemes geared toward misleading customers. This work will further campus sustainability by improving our green purchasing efforts and increasing the number of sustainable products at the university.

Kathryn: We want the program to use current products purchased by UC Santa Cruz personnel to explain and illustrate green washing tactics, and then offer alternatives that are better choices for the environment and society as a whole. Developing and delivering a green washing training program for P&BC will provide a better understanding of how marketing strategies can cloud good purchasing choices. With this understanding and the training program generated P&BC personnel can carry this to their campus clients. Once the campus clients—those making daily purchasing decisions—have the same knowledge, it is expected they will make more sustainable purchasing choices thereby improving UC Santa Cruz’s environmentally preferable purchasing metrics.

Melissa: Christian, the CSI program requires you to participate in class lectures and professional development trainings in addition to your internship work. Why has CSI been beneficial for you?

Christian: It allows me to take an active role in sustainable efforts within my (campus) community. I gained appreciation for sustainability through various classes here at UCSC but never truly felt I had any impact in matters until I started this program. This program has not only shown me how to take an active role in green purchasing but in all aspects of environmental awareness on campus. Through the class, we learn about institutional change and how students play a huge role as long as they participate. Through this class, and my work so far, I have become involved in multiple organizations on campus, including the Sustainability Office and the Green Purchasing Working Group. My involvement in these areas has provided me with an extraordinary level of experience developing professional skills in just the first half of the quarter. The experience has also helped me learn how to organize effective meetings, create project plans which help guide long-term work objectives, and polish my public speaking abilities. I receive this education both at the office with my staff mentor (by actually working in a professional environment) and in the classroom (through professional skills trainings and discussing ideas with my peers).

Melissa: Kate, what is useful about having student support for projects you are working on?

Kathryn: P&BC Buyers have been asking for this training for some time but our resources available for developing such a program have been limited. Now, through the Campus Sustainability Internship program we have that needed resource. This is Christian’s only project—we get fifteen hours each week focused on research, data analysis, supplier practices, and program development—it is going to be a great training program for buyers to share. Being located at 2300 Delaware, P&BC does not interact much with students so when we do have the opportunity, as with the CSI program, we get a sense of the energy on the hill.

Melissa: What made you want to participate in the CSI program?

Christian: I applied for the CSI program because I wanted to learn more about real-world efforts for sustainability outside of the classroom. I saw the internship as a great opportunity to take what I had been learning in the classroom and use it to make our campus more sustainable. I was also attracted to CSI because of it introduces student applicants to various staff and their projects on campus. Within the program, there is also overlap on projects, and I already have collaborations with about three other interns. This aspect is special to me because it resembles a real work environment. Each of us has a common goal for campus sustainability, but we are able to understand how cooperation from different areas is the key to making change.

Kathryn: The CSI program has given our department another format for communicating the work we do and the policies and procedures that govern that work. In addition to finally having a resource to put together a green washing training, we have used the CSI program as a chance to recruit for our Green Purchasing Working Group (GPWeG). While we have enjoyed some outstanding student members in the past, we’ve not attracted more than one at a time. Our last GPWeG meeting roster included five students. These student voices help us shape the work we do.

Melissa: What is the value of students and staff working together to foster a culture of sustainability at UCSC?

Christian: As a student it is easy to get caught up in the ideologies of change and sustainability without having the knowledge of how to act on them. Staff members provide the know-how and guidance required to make effective change on campus. Collaboration between the two groups is essential because it utilizes the drive and passion of students with the dedication and knowledge of staff members. We all want to make change for the better, and we all need to work together to make a difference.

Kathryn: Students have access to faculty and administrators in a very different way than most staff. When staff can share with students “how things work” at UC Santa Cruz, we all begin to make connections and form ideas that can lead to collaborative change in favor of sustainable business practices.

Want to talk to Christian and find out more about green purchasing? Interested in zero waste efforts? Be sure to attend the Zero Waste/Green Purchasing workshop this Saturday, March 3 at Earth Summit in the Colleges 9/10 multipurpose room from 12:45-1:45 PM. Learn how to reduce waste and green your campus with the power of purchasing, and if you’re interesting, speak with Christian about the CSI program. If you are interested in getting involved with the Campus Sustainability Internship Program as a staff mentor or as a student intern, find out more and apply here. Questions? Email Shauna Casey.

January 2012 Sustainability Profile: American Indian Resource Center's Green Team

Last winter, the American Indian Resource Center's Green Team began working on encouraging sustainable practices in the campus community. This fall, they put on an event to raise awareness for the environmentally conscious belief systems of indigenous peoples, and they plan on continuing to bring sustainable practices to upcoming resource center events.

Compiled from an interview with Michelle Neumann, Green Team Vice President:

"The Green Team is a student-run subdivision of the American Indian Resource Center (AIRC). Our mission is to instill green practices in AIRC events, as well as create an awareness of how indigenous people have led sustainable lives for thousands of years. For example, we held an event this fall 2011 quarter called Heal the Earth. At this event we had lectures and workshops intended to teach students how to incorporate indigenous belief systems and lifestyles into their daily lives, therefore creating a deeper understanding of traditions and acceptance of emerging knowledge.

"The Green Team started as an idea that both Carolyn Rodriguez (AIRC intern) and I [Michelle Neumann] wanted to revive through Heal the Earth 2011. The AIRC did have Heal the Earth before the Green Team was created, but we really wanted to add our own little tweaks to it by making it a student-run event and include both old and new sustainable practices or ideas. After our first project, Heal the Earth, we started to really evolve into something greater trying to play a part in AIRC events. Currently, the Green Team is working on an the AIRC's upcoming UCSC powwow scheduled for this spring quarter. The Green Team intends to handle all aspects of trash created at this event as well as raise money through selling items made out of recyclable materials."

"The goals of Heal the Earth are to target our consciousness and support our community in an effort to instill a commitment to sustainability. Relational and holistic thinking is often central to indigenous worldviews; therefore, this event aims to target individual, community, social, and environmental relationships and perspectives."-- From the Heal the Earth 2011 Proposal

The Green Team Members:

• Carolyn Rodriguez - Green Team President
• Michelle Neumann - Vice President
• Madana Cast - Secretary
• Lucio Ramirez - Treasurer, AIRC Program Coordinator and UCSC Grad student
• Chelsea Hawkins - Green Team member
• Blanca Farjardo - Ethnic Resource Center staff member
• Carolyn Dunn - Fiscal Liason and Director of the AIRC

Find out more about the AIRC's Green Team on their website here.