Individual Building Styrofoam Collection Now Available

Does your building produce styrofoam waste? Physical Plant is now willing to start collecting styrofoam in individual buildings! To identify a collection location for pick up, talk to your building manager and contact Bill Alderson at walderso [at] ucsc [dot] edu.

New Sustainable Transportation Class this Winter

Transportation projects at UC Santa Cruz are really rolling this year, with a number of new projects taking shape in addition to the continuation of past programs. With all of the exciting work happening regarding how we get from place to place, students are seeking ways to collaborate, network, and stay better connected so that projects can support one another and have collectively greater impacts in the UCSC and Santa Cruz communities.

New Sustainable Transportation Course 
To bring together the many student projects related to transportation on and off-campus for this increased communication, a hands-on class with an internship component titled "People Power: Engaging Sustainable Transportation Solutions" is being offered through the Common Ground Center in Kresge College that will meet weekly for discussion, sharing of project ideas, and updates. The occasional walk or bike ride across campus will be part of opportunities to reflect on barriers and opportunities to encourage more students to use these methods while getting around campus instead of busing or driving. Community and campus leaders working on transportation initiatives, including representatives from People Power of Santa Cruz County, Ecology Action, Transportation and Parking Services, Fleet Services, health organizations that promote walking, and public transportation groups like Santa Cruz Metro will be invited to speak and answer questions in the class throughout the quarter.

Two undergraduate students, Alex Hoffman (third year Physics) and Melissa Ott (fourth year Literature), will be designing and facilitating the class with the guidance of David Shaw, co-founder of the Common Ground Center and Kresge College faculty member. The 2-unit class has 20 spots open for any students who are interested in sustainable transportation solutions, as well as students who are already working on projects related to transportation on or off-campus. Students who are not currently part of a project will be matched up with a project of their choice from a list of ideas, including some generated by People Power of Santa Cruz County and one of its programs Green Ways to School. People Power is a bike advocacy organization in the Santa Cruz community, and Green Ways to School is a program with a mission to get more youth on bicycles for getting to school and around town.

The course will also have time set aside each week for ideas sharing and brainstorming together, which is open to the public and to students who aren't able to commit to enrolling in the class. Each week's class will have a theme for discussion, including diverse topics like social justice, feminism, accessibility, environmental sustainability, community building, and place making.

All students are invited to apply for this hands-on class. Because of the limited number of spaces, there is an application that can be submitted here. Applications will be reviewed as they are received, and it is recommended that you submit your application by December 30. The class will be held Friday mornings from 8 AM - 10:40 AM, complete with breakfast potlucks and Community Agroecology Network coffee to get the innovative thought wheels turning at the start of the day.

Campus Transportation Projects 
Here's a snapshot of some of the transportation projects taking place on and off-campus by UCSC students. The hope is that these students will participate in the class in order to create more community and connection among the various programs:

• A walk-to-class competition being planned by the Provost's Sustainability Intern for Transportation and Parking Services
• The Rock the Bike energy-generating bike project through the Student Environmental Center's Transportation Campaign (currently seeking a coordinator and interns for winter and spring)
• The Bike Library, managed by a student working with TAPS
• The Bicycle Transit Planning Team's Santa Cruz bike ridership counting, mapping, and outreach project through the Impact Designs: Engineering & Sustainability through Student Service (IDEASS) program
• An electric vehicle charging station analysis project in Santa Cruz and the Monterey Bay area, also through IDEASS
• The Bike Co-op
• OPERS free bike maintenance
• Interns working with Ecology Action's Transportation Programs, like Bike Smart and Bike to Work Day
• Any other projects, programs, or student initiatives related to transportation or any of the topics covered by the class are invited to participate in whatever capacity they can!

Find Out More

If you are interested in learning more, know about transportation resources or programs not mentioned here, or want to get involved in the class in any way, please email Melissa Ott at mott [at] ucsc [dot] edu. To apply, please submit your application here.

New Bottle Filling Station at Porter

If you've visited the lobby above the Porter Dining Hall recently, you may have noticed a new drinking fountain that is designed to fill up water bottles. As part of campus-wide efforts to reduce the use of single-use plastic water bottles, Dining installed the new water filler in the lobby in addition to one located downstairs by the soda machine. Now you can easily refill your water bottle in the lobby, as well as in the Porter Slug Cafe and downstairs in the dining hall.

In past years, a student-led initiative called Take Back the Tap, installed a number of water bottle filling stations around campus. They continue to work on projects to reduce our campus's dependency on plastic water bottles. To learn more, visit their Facebook page.

Financial Affairs - A Year in Waste

In response to the Chancellor’s Sustainability Challenge to reduce waste in 2013-14, the Financial Affairs Green Team kicked off this effort by presenting “A Year in Waste.“ This event was promoted to build awareness of waste generated by Financial Affairs and to encourage more sustainable and ecologically friendly practices. “A Year in Waste” was held October 23 to a standing room-only group of employees and included a skit by the Financial Affairs Actors Pool, a raffle of donated “green items," a debut of the Dimeo Lane Video (featuring a guest appearance by Chancellor Blumenthal), food, and an informative presentation and call to action by Director of Sustainability, Lacey Raak.

The Dimeo Lane Video shown at this event was created in an attempt to better understand what happens to the waste Financial Affairs generates and to explore avenues for diverting waste from the landfill wherever possible. As part of this endeavor, the Dimeo Lane project team donned hard hats to tour the landfill and interviewed the management about waste diversion opportunities for UCSC. This video offered an opportunity to share what was learned from this project and to create greater awareness within Financial Affairs about trash management and sustainability.

Another “Year in Waste” project, the Financial Affairs Waste Reduction Initiative, is currently underway. Collaborators on this four-week pilot waste stream project included Waste and Recycling, Grounds Services, Custodial, Financial Affairs, and 2300 Delaware Facilities Managements. During this pilot program, a baseline measurement of waste was collected. Six waste streams were identified: white paper, mixed paper, compost, garbage, cardboard and containers. The data recovered in this pilot program will be used to compare against future waste measurements to be taken at year end. In addition, this information can be extrapolated to other similar environments to help identify resource and infrastructure needs to achieve zero waste.

The Financial Affairs Green Team looks forward to continued efforts in environmental leadership, collaboration, education and meeting the Chancellor’s Challenge by reducing waste, improving sustainability practices and implementing environmental solutions.

Innovative Approaches to Sustainability at Other Campuses

Here are a few selections of the innovative approaches to sustainability taking place on other college campuses. Each of these examples was chosen because they represent ideas that UCSC could potentially implement in some form, or in some cases, already has begun to. If you see something here that you want to make a reality at UCSC, contact the Sustainability Office at, sustain.education [at] ucsc [dot] edu and we will help you direct your ideas toward fruition!

U Maryland Uses Houseplants to Aid Indoor Air Quality
Helping staff and faculty members achieve silver status for its green office program, students from the University of Maryland's Institute of Applied Agriculture assist in the production of potting and maintaining plants for distribution. The program is even used as a teaching opportunity and they have a plant science class where students pot the plants and grow until distribution day. We also have Green Office Certification Program that works to empower our campus offices to implement sustainable practices in their everyday operations, but what if we too had a class that grew plants to distribute to offices?

U Maryland Celebrates 'Park(ing) Day'

Students from the University of Maryland's chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and the Arboretum and Botanical Garden recently converted two parking spaces into a public park in an effort to raise awareness of the importance of green spaces in urban areas. In celebration of the international environmental movement “PARK(ing) Day,” this university’s chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and the UMD Arboretum and Botanical Garden converted two parking spaces in front of Cole Field House into a public park. Re-imagine East Remote Parking lot with a celebration of different uses for that space!

Griffith U Creates Climate Change App

A university in Australia has newly released Coastal Ecosystems Response to Climate Change Synthesis Report app, which provides critical information for anticipating how climate change may impact on coastal Australia, will help the public navigate through science and make decisions about the growing climate change threat. With our proximity to the coast here at UCSC, it would be useful to have an app like this here to warn us of future climate change issues.

Western Washington U Students Pilot Rentable Mug Program
Each time a student enjoys a latte, tea or other hot beverage on campus, they are confronted with a choice: to use a single-use disposable cup or a reusable mug. In an effort to reduce waste and money spent on handling that waste, students from a Campus Sustainability Planning Studio class at Western Washington University initiated Project MUG this fall using grant funding from the university's green fee. Project MUG enables students to rent a reusable mug for beverages. Here, UCSC Dining has implemented a system that utilizes a FREE mobile phone application to track drink purchases with reusable mugs at Perk Coffee Bars. It is called GVING and it's really simple to use.

December 2013 Sustainability Profile: Chancellor George Blumenthal

Each month, our newsletter features a person or group on campus that is working toward a more sustainable world. This month features UCSC Chancellor George Blumenthal, who has been making great sustainable decisions both in his own life and for our campus. We’d like to thank him for all that he has done to support our sustainability vision and goals.

Chancellor George Blumenthal

We asked the Chancellor what he thinks about sustainability and how it relates to his work at UCSC. 

Academic Background:

• Bachelor of Science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• Ph.D. in Physics at the University of California, San Diego
• In 2011, he was awarded an honorary Ph.D. in Astrophysics and leadership in higher education from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

What does "sustainability" mean to you? Sustainability, to me, is a collaboration between everyone to preserve our planet so that our children and our children's children can enjoy the land that we were so blessed to live and learn on.

Favorite Green Tip: Don't print. I never print...well, almost never. There are only a couple situations where I find printing necessary - boarding passes and for speeches. But aside from those occasional prints, I do a good job of never printing. When I became Chancellor, I set the standard for avoiding printing and now people know not to bring printed materials to meetings with me.

How does sustainability relate to your role at UCSC? What is one cool thing you've done to make UCSC a more sustainable place?
Being the head Banana Slug, I support student initiatives and sustainability as a deeply held value at UCSC. Years ago, a group of students came together with the idea of making UCSC a more sustainable campus; they passed student fee measures that now fund student internships and jobs, allowing sustainability actions to flourish throughout campus. I try to take the students’ actions on our campus and use that to help initiate action at a system-wide level, by raising the issue at University of California Office of the President meetings and among my colleagues on other campuses.

I also initiated the development of the Chancellor's Sustainability Challenge; this Challenge is an opportunity to make significant progress towards reaching our sustainability goals, by collaborating around one sustainability topic. The Challenge for this year is to reduce campus waste so that we can achieve our Zero Waste Goal by 2020 (Pledge here!).

I am also a role model to students, staff, and faculty here at UCSC. I have made many changes to my everyday life like never printing and using a reusable water bottle and mug in order to model living a sustainability life.

How do you practice sustainability in your own life?
I recycle; I don't print unless absolutely necessary and when I do print, I print double sided; and I use a reusable water bottle and travel mug.

Have you had a favorite sustainability moment at UCSC?
There are actually two moments that I can think of. The first one was when I was given this mug, the mug I use everyday. A group on campus, passionate about sustainability, gave it to me and I have used it so much that the label has worn off! My second favorite moment was over the summer when I had a photo shoot with a group of students. We were taking photos that will be used in support of the Chancellor's Sustainability Challenge and the Zero Waste Goal by 2020. I was so impressed by the students that I met at the photo shoot because they were, themselves, sustainable. Most of them brought their own reusable water bottles to the shoot and, after speaking to a lot of them, I knew that they were all there because they were passionate about sustainability.

A lot of people involved in sustainability have brought up the question of how to have challenging conversations with friends, family members, and roommates that may not be as aware or interested in sustainability. How do you deal with those challenging conversations?
Leading by example is one way to begin that conversation. For example, Allison Galloway, the Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, gave me a reusable hand towel, which made me think about not using the paper towels in the Kerr Hall restrooms. Portraying a good example, like she does, is a great way to get people thinking.

It is also important to think about the different ways people take sustainable action. For instance, my wife does not follow my example; she loves to print hard copies of papers because she takes in more information that way. However, she does many other sustainable things like composting and recycling. Keeping the different actions and priorities of others in mind is important when trying to have that challenging conversation with people. It is also good to ask questions that raise awareness and, more importantly, include others in the decisions being made; that way, you are including them in the change and not forcing change.

In addition, as a leader it is often important for me to get out of the way - to allow for an environment that promotes creativity, collaboration and innovation to flourish. Often sustainability challenges are challenging enough without having unnecessary bureaucratic barriers - so I try to remove myself as a barrier by allowing students, staff and faculty to do what they do best. In the case of sustainability, what they do best is benefiting our campus, our community and our world.

December 2013: Internships, Employment, & Volunteering

Winter Quarter Internships with the Common Ground Center
The Common Ground Center is currently seeking 2- and 5-unit interns for winter quarter! They are seeking students with skills and/or interest in videography, social media, newsletter and press release writing, and event planning and hosting support. If you are interested in getting involved with the Center in any of these or in other ways, please email them at commonground [at] ucsc [dot] edu. The Center also has a number of courses that provide internship opportunities as part of the class (read more about classes here).

Opportunity for Students Interested in Sustainable Transportation
The Student Environmental Center's Transportation Campaign is seeking a coordinator and 2- or 5- unit interns for winter and spring quarters. The Campaign promotes sustainable transportation at UCSC, including walking, biking, busing, etc. They collaborate with the Bike Library to rent bikes to students each quarter, manage the "Rock the Bike" bike generators, and the possibility of future projects is as expansive as your imagination can explore! For more information, please contact Melissa Ott at mott [at] ucsc [dot] edu or visit the website.

Stevenson Garden Internships
Do you have a passion for gardening and farming? Are you looking for a hands-on rewarding internship? Stevenson Garden is accepting applications for prospective interns for next quarter. For details about the internships offered, please email bredding [at] ucsc [dot] edu.


Arboretum Volunteer Gardening Opportunities
Have an interest in gardening, but don't have time for a gardening internship? The Arboretum has volunteer gardening hours throughout the week. Visit their website for details.

Green Labs Certification Program Seeks New Labs
In the coming weeks, the Green Labs program is outreaching to laboratories on campus that may be interested in becoming 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 at greenlabs [at] ucsc [dot] edu. The certification process has become more efficient and is a highly rewarding undertaking for laboratories interested in being recognized for their commitment to sustainability. Learn more about the program here.

Environmental Studies Internship Office
Internships are a great way to dip your toes in the water of a field that interests you. Apply beginning winter quarter for internships with the Environmental Studies Internships Office. Email the office at ckrohn [at] ucsc [dot] edu to find an internship that's right for you! Any majors are welcome to get an Environmental Studies Internship. They placed students in more than 400 internships this past year, so there is probably one waiting for you!

Implement Student-Led Sustainable Projects with IDEASS
Do you want professional experience or an opportunity to fulfill senior exit credit through an innovative sustainable design project? Impact Designs: Engineering and Sustainability through Student Service (IDEASS) is looking for a few more passionate and hardworking student leaders to join project teams that are already working to implement projects related to waste reduction, water systems, renewable energy, life cycle analysis, urban planning and more!  Winter admissions to IDEASS requires a winter - spring (2 quarter) commitment. Students can expect to work in interdisciplinary teams with a professional mentor. For more information, or to apply email ideass [at] ucsc [dot] edu and check out the IDEASS website.

Recycling Specialist Position in Livermore, CA
The City of Livermore, California, is seeking a full-time Recycling Specialist who can assist in the development, monitoring, and implementation of the City’s recycling and waste diversion program; research, gather, and interpret data; conduct program outreach; perform inter-disciplinary policy related research; prepare written and verbal reports; represent the City to citizens’ advisory committees or governmental agencies; and more! Learn more and apply online here.

Gaia Environmental Magazine Looking for Interns and Volunteers
Interested in putting together UCSC's environmentally focused magazine next year? The UCSC Environmental Media Project (EMP) offers many quarterly internship and volunteer opportunities. Volunteers help with fundraising, outreach, and the creation of Gaia magazine. Interns take on positions like photographer, editor, and graphic designer for 2 units. For more information about applying, email the team at environmentalmediaproject [at] gmail [dot] com and check out their Facebook page and website.

Volunteer with Take Back the Tap
Water is the life-source and scarcity is our reality. Take Back the Tap (TBtT) is an educational campaign with the goal of removing all single use plastic water bottles from UCSC as a way to combat the commodification of water! Like their Facebook page and learn how you can get involved by emailing takebackthetapucsc [at] gmail [dot] com.

Bike Smart! Youth Bicycle Safety Program Volunteering Opportunity
Bike Smart! encourages youth to bicycle for fun, transportation and health through hands-on bicycle education at local schools. Bike Smart’s bicycle skills "rodeos" (obstacle courses) inspire and empower kids to hop on a bike and leave mom and dad's car at home. Youth of all ages learn essential bicycling knowledge and skills, such as helmet fit, traffic laws, being visible and riding predictably. If you're interested in volunteering with this program for the quarter, please contact Elise at eehrheart [at] ecoact [dot] org.

Apply to Volunteer with Sprout Up
Sprout Up is a non-profit program that looks for undergraduate volunteers to help bring lessons of environmental science and sustainability to local elementary school classrooms. They are college student founded and operated non-profit that is always seeking new instructors. For more information about potential volunteering opportunities with them check out their website.

Internships with WaterLab Research Facility
The WaterLab Research Facility studies wastewater recycling and how to use recycled water to conserve unused water reserves. Though still in progress of becoming a full-fledged research facility, internship opportunities exist and will be expanding as the facility grows. UCSC students can learn more about WaterLab and internships by contacting Eli Weintraub at etweintr [at] ucsc [dot] edu and via the Center for Integrated Water Research website.

Participate in a Field Study with California State University Monterey Bay Wildlands Program
The Wildlands Studies Program offers a series of environmental and cultural ecology field studies this winter/spring. You can choose among six wildlife, wildland and cultural ecology field studies searching for solutions to environmental and cultural challenges. Each program grants 12 upper division transferable units credit. Field studies take place in wildland locations throughout Hawaii, Peru, Thailand, Chile, New Zealand and Costa Rica. All of their programs are described at their website, or their catalog can be sent in the mail. If you have questions about any of their programs, please feel free to email them at wildlands [at] wildlandsstudies [dot] com.

Find or Upload Projects to Sustainability Project Clearinghouse
Interested in getting involved in a campus sustainability project, but don't know how? Are you looking for partners for your current project? Have you completed a project that you would like others to learn from? Visit the Sustainability Project Clearinghouse, a centralized database of UCSC sustainability projects, today! You can view published projects or upload your own projects and ideas. For training on how to upload a project, please contact Shauna Casey at scasey [at] ucsc [dot] edu.