Tour of Physical Plant

On the morning of Thursday, February 28, the Student Environmental Center hosted a tour to UC Santa Cruz's Physical Plant, which provides services for the school in facilities & infrastructure operations, building maintenance, custodial services, grounds & road services, and refuse & recycling services. It was an opportunity for students to see what happens to campus waste and recycling behind-the-scenes.

Students and staff who attended the tour were first given a presentation about what streams of waste are sorted. The locations where waste is collected include the main campus, the marine campus at Younger Lagoon, as well as campus construction and demolition sites. The waste collected by Physical Plant includes cardboard, mixed paper, office paper, containers, compostable materials, metal scrap, construction and demolition diversions and organics (wood chips, grass, trimmings).

Student Environmental Center Waste Prevention Campaign Coordinator Darya Soofi and Intern Alexandra Corvello present about campus waste to students and staff who attended the tour of Physical Plant.

One thing that we learned during the tour was that 34% of residential waste from campus is from soiled paper, or used paper towels, alone. Stevenson College is the first college at UCSC to remove paper towels from the residential dorms in an effort to reduce this huge contributor to waste. Read more about the project at Stevenson here, and find out about how Cowell College is also making the switch here.

Food scraps and compostable items from the Dining Halls are trucked to a Marina composting site, but sometimes students take compostable containers from cafes on campus and dispose them in trash and recycling bins, where they are unable to be composted. If you take a container with you that says it's compostable, find a compost bin (cafes like Global Village Cafe and the Owl's Nest have them) to dispose it in.

Physical Plant also sorts recycling. UCSC receives money for recycling items by sorting out CRV (California Refund Value) containers from other recyclables and waste. This income helps fund operations and improvements to their recycling program.

Waste that cannot be diverted to recycling or compost is trucked to a landfill in the City of Santa Cruz called Dimeo Lane, where it costs $75 per ton to dump waste. A typical load of waste is 7-10 tons.

After the presentation, we were able to walk around the grounds and see all of the different types of trucks. The most exciting part was being able to see the conveyor belt that is used for sorting out all of the containers from the recycling.

How can you get involved with waste prevention?  Contact Elida Erickson about getting involved with the Zero Waste Team in the Sustainability Office or find out about the Waste Prevention Campaign at the Student Environmental Center by emailing Darya.

April Green Tips

We've got some really important tips for you this 1st Day of April, 2013. Enjoy!

1. Stop washing dishes and let them pile up. You'll save water, and the growth that appears on the dishes over time will bring some greenery into your kitchen!
2. Hold your breath all day to avoid releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which contributes to global warming.
3. Turn the water heater down to freezing when a wasteful friend or housemate is taking their hour-long shower.

And in all seriousness, though, unplug, log off, and get outside and enjoy the Spring sunshine! Happy April Fool's Day!

April 2013: Contests & Funding

The Human Face of Sustainability Deadline: May 31

Creative Nonfiction and Arizona State University’s Global Institute of Sustainability are looking for remarkable true stories that illuminate and present the human side of environmental, economic, ethical, and/or social challenges related to the state of the planet and our future for the $10,000 Walton Sustainability Solutions Best Creative Nonfiction Essay Award. They welcome personal essays or stories about extraordinary individuals or communities and stories about innovative solutions to sustainability. They seek essays on topics that range from global to local, from “big” (e.g., Resilience after natural disasters; New technology solutions vs. common sense; Energy harvesting) to “small” (e.g., Personal decisions about consumption; Reuse, recycle, up-cycle, bicycle?; Green, clean—what does it mean?; What can we learn from past generations?). Whatever the subject, they want to hear about it in an essay that blends facts and research with narrative—employing scenes, descriptions, etc. For more information click here.

Campus Sustainability Council 
Looking for funds for your sustainability project? The Campus Sustainability Council will be accepting applications this quarter. Deadlines and informational sessions are TBD, but please contact the CSC or visit their website for more information.

Free Spring Quarter Bike Library Rentals Deadline: April 5
Need A Bike? The UCSC Bike Library has a fleet of Kona Dew hybrid bikes available to be checked out for free to students, staff, and faculty. The bikes come with a helmet, lock, cable, and lights. There is a mandatory bike maintenance and safety workshop for recipients of bikes that covers how to take care of the bike, fix a flat tire, how to use bike resources in Santa Cruz such as the bike trailer and bike co-op, and the safest ways to ride. To apply for a bike click here.

The Disorientation Guide Seeking Submissions About LRDP debate 
This quarter, The Disorientation Guide at UCSC will publish GROWTH, a magazine containing a broad array of perspectives on issues relating to the UCSC Long Range Development Plan (LRDP). They are looking for analytical and creative contributions in the form of  articles, poetry, or illustrations/art. If you’re familiar with the ongoing debate that surrounds the LRDP,  then you already know that it is a complex issue, linked to struggles over water use, endangered species, quality of student life, and more.  For more information email the Disorientation Guide or call (707) 318-1760.

Zipcar "Students With Drive" Program

Zipcar has a Students with Drive program that allows all student groups to nominate themselves to win free driving credit for their group to use for their groups' needs.  Two years ago, one of our campus service fraternities won about $5,000 in driving credit to go to their service sites.

April 2013: Sustainability Profile - Carley Corrado

Each month, our newsletter features a person or group on campus that is working toward a more sustainable world. This month's profile features Carley Corrado, a Postdoctoral Fellow in Physics who is working on developing electricity-generating greenhouses that can produce solar energy while simultaneously producing agricultural crops. Read a detailed interview about this project here.

We asked Carley what she thinks about sustainability and how it relates to her work at UCSC.

Name: Carley Corrado
Title: Postdoctoral Fellow in Physics
Education: PhD in Chemistry (UC Santa Cruz), 2006-2011
Favorite Food: Thai food

Favorite Green Tips: Know that you will work toward a more sustainable world and hold that in your intentions. It will come to fruition, no matter what your passion is and what piece of the puzzle you hold.

What does "sustainability" mean to you? Not using this world up, but instead living holistically with it. Or should I say wholistically. Looking at the whole picture, how everything affects everything, and how we can find harmony living within it.

How does sustainability relate to your role at UCSC? My current project is in the development of electricity-generating greenhouses that can produce solar energy while simultaneously producing agricultural crops. The electricity will be the second-harvest. Our semi-transparent solar panel windows use concentration of light to enhance the power out of the solar cells, thus reducing the cost per Watt of the system, while absorbing predominantly in the green spectrum (where plants do not absorb) and emitting in the red (giving the plants the red light special which stimulates earlier flowering and more fruiting).

How do you practice sustainability in your daily life?

• Turning things off when not in use
• Reusing bags
• Buying in Bulk
• Believing that this world will become more sustainable and being ready to jump on any opportunity I have to encourage this shift

Have you had a favorite sustainability moment at UCSC? Attending the University Forum for Sustainability Education and learning the awesome work that the ESLP is undertaking to make this campus more sustainable. The event was so fun, and inspiring!

Get Free Drinks with GVING App at Perk Bars

UCSC Dining has implemented a new 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.

Started in San Francisco by a couple of students, most of the businesses utilizing the appliaction are in that area, but they are adding more and more Santa Cruz locations.

It is a loyalty program and offers a more sustainable way to earn free drinks! No need to print punch cards and no need to carry a card!

Go to gving.com/dowload to get the app. While you're at it, take this Bring Your Own Mug survey created by the Zero Waste Team in the Sustainability Office!

Put a Lid on It: Protecting Wildlife and Rainwater on Campus

Did you know? Every time a dumpster or garbage bin is left open outside, it affects wildlife and the quality of water in our tributaries and streams. Animals such as squirrels, raccoons, and various little critters climb into dumpsters looking for food only to find themselves trapped inside. When waste management comes to take the trash to the dump, they unknowingly take these trapped creatures as well. Noticed only at the dumping site, these animals are often severely injured or injured past the point of survival.

Also, rainwater collects in these dumpsters. The collected rainwater mixes with the garbage in the dumpster and leaks out into our environment in the form of runoff.

Because much of this runoff is only treated through the interaction with vegetation and soil media it is important for us to make sure the runoff is free of contaminants before it is discharged to the environment.

What can you do about it? You can help to preserve wildlife and increase rainwater quality on campus by remembering to Put A Lid On It! Always double check when throwing your waste away that the receptacle is properly closed. And do your part to close those that others have left open. 

Get Involved! Volunteer or intern with Storm Water Management Program. Questions or Comments? Contact UCSC Storm Water Manger at (831) 459 – 4520 or visit cleanwater.ucsc.edu

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.