University of California, San Diego 2007 Campus Sustainability Leadership Award Application
Category
Four-year and graduate institutions over 7,500 student FTE
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| VP Gore and Ellen Revelle (widow of Roger Revelle) looking at climate exhibit at Birch Aquarium at Scripps, showing the 650,000 year record of the Earth's CO2 levels. |
Contact
Lisa Shaffer
Exec. Director, ESI
9500 Gilman Drive, Mail Code 0446
la Jolla, CA
858-822-2489
lshaffer@ucsd.edu
Governance & Administration
UC San Diego established a campus-wide Environment and Sustainability Initiative (ESI) in June 2005, reporting to the Chancellor, chaired by a senior faculty member. (see http://esi.ucsd.edu) This initiative is the focal point for education, research, and outreach efforts for the campus. A campus-wide steering committee meets regularly to discuss progress and guide new efforts. External funding has been secured from a variety of individuals and foundations to seed new efforts. Chancellor Fox has attended international workshops and public forums organized by ESI. The campus also has an Advisory Committee on Sustainability chaired by a faculty member, with elected representatives from the faculty, graduate and undergraduate student associations, and staff. Principles of Sustainability are under discussion within the faculty, staff, and student bodies to become public, foundational principles for the campus. We are part of the University of California's sustainability policies and members of the ACUPCC and a founding member of the California Climate Action Registry. More significantly, in the last strategic planning effort for the campus, six faculty FTE were allocated for environment and sustainability recruitments in addition to the new positions provided to individual departments and schools. This was a significant commitment of campus resources to increase interdisciplinary, innovative research and educational capacity on the campus.
Operations
UC San Diego has been an innovator in campus operations for many years. As part of the UC system, we are active participants in developing and implementing system-wide sustainability policies and practices. UC San Diego produces about 85% of its electricity from a high-efficiency co-generation plant. Arrangements are underway to install a 1.2 megawatt fuel cell powered by biogas from the municipal wastewater treatment plant in San Diego through a power purchase agreement. Photovoltaic capacity is also being expanded through third-party arrangements. UCSD was a founding member of the California Climate Action Registry. We have an award-winning comprehensive demand-management system, which enables us to enjoy lower rates from the power company without disturbing critical research and facilities services. Reclaimed water is used for irrigation. In response to student initiatives, locally grown and organic food is available in campus dining facilities. A campus environmental sensor network is being established that will provide real-time high resolution information on wind, temperature, salt content in the air, and solar irradiance to enable better management of existing facilities and irrigation as well as to inform the design decisions for future construction. Being in a coastal environment with salt and fog, it is vital to collect micro-climate data so that design and operations are optimized to local conditions. UC San Diego has an environmentally preferred purchasing program and active recycling and waste management programs. Green Campus Interns work with facilities managers and residence hall staff to conduct regular energy conservation competitions in the dormitories and to provide educational information to students, staff, and faculty on energy conservation. Aggressive transportation programs encourage use of carpools and public transportation and offer a Flexcar option. Campus shuttles run on 20% biodiesel and one bus will be converted to 100% biofuel, with an associated interdisciplinary student research project to measure emissions and evaluate performance in terms of climate change impacts and human health implications. The campus provides free passes for the municipal bus system as well as an alternative to driving in individual cars. A full-time Sustainability Coordinator will be hired this summer and a contract is in place for a campus-wide sustainability assessment.
Curriculum & Research
UC San Diego offers hundreds of courses addressing issues related to sustainability, from basic science and economics to specialized seminars on energy policy and sustainable development. These courses are listed on the sustainability website http://sustain.ucsd.edu. Sixteen undergraduate majors and four undergraduate minors are available in sustainability-related fields, also listed on the website just cited. Beyond formal courses, majors, and minors, there is much informal education on the campus. Speaker series and seminars take place continuously. One example is a seminar organized by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Environmental Science and Policy group. Each quarter they pick a topic to explore, such as energy policy. Students prepare presentations, sometimes deliberately choosing to present a position they disagree with, to gain experience in seeing a subject from another’s perspective. In the fall 2007, this seminar will take the lead in preparing UC San Diego to participate in Focus the Nation. The campus-wide Environment and Sustainability Initiative funded a faculty workshop in the Spring 2007, inspired by participation in an AASHE workshop, on Sustainability Across the Curriculum, which will lead to integration of place-based concepts of sustainability into core undergraduate curriculum in a wide variety of disciplines. Faculty participants went on field trips to the Natural History Museum, the tidepools, and Torrey Pines state park, as well as hearing presentations from a variety of experts, and this has stimulated great enthusiasm within the faculty. During Earth Day week, ESI sponsored a student sustainability video competition, inviting undergraduates to present sustainability issues in a short video. This was intended to engage the humanities and arts students in the issues. Cash awards were also given to undergraduate and graduate students for their sustainability-related research projects, presented and displayed in the central campus plaza during lunchtime throughout Earth Week. Topics ranged from proposals for waterless urinals for homeless people in inner cities to research on fusion energy to new design of fuel injectors for classic cars to reduce air pollution. It is clear that the faculty and students are demanding relevance in their educational programs. By providing intellectual and financial focus and support, the campus Environment and Sustainability Initiative is ensuring substantial infusion of sustainability concepts and research through the campus educational and research mission.
Campus Culture
UCSD has quite a few student organizations interested in sustainability. In addition to local chapters of the California Student Sustainability Coalition, the Green Campus program, and CalPIRG, we have our own assortment of organizations including the Muir College Environmental Corps; the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Environmental Science and Policy Group (which is student-led, but open to faculty, staff, and students from other parts of UCSD); the International Relations and Pacific Studies Environmental Society; One Earth One Justice; a Food Coop; and the Biodiesel Awareness and Action Network. In mid-2007, the undergraduate Student Association established the Social and Environmental Sustainability Committee as a focal point for student activity. Students are actively involved with staff and faculty through the campus Advisory Committee on Sustainability, in planning seminars, speakers, and events, and especially in planning the week-long Earth Week celebrations that included in 2007 such activities as an alternative transportation panel, book signings, solar-powered smoothies, a dumpster dive to promote recycling, organic dinners in all the residence hall dining facilities, tours of the co-generation facility and the Area of Special Biological Significance at the Scripps ocean reserve, and a beach cleanup. Students serve as mentors and docents to younger children through the Birch Aquarium at Scripps, the Preuss charter school, and other volunteer programs. Students organized a program through the Education for Sustainable Living program, and the Green Campus program organizes regular educational efforts and residence hall competitions focused on reducing energy use. About 8 UCSD students participated in the annual UC/CSU sustainability conference held at UC Santa Barbara in June 2007. Discussions are now underway about a student fee referendum to support alternative transportation initiatives. UCSD is the home of the Birch Aquarium at Scripps, which just opened a major exhibit on climate change called “Feeling the Heat.” In May 2007 Vice President Gore cut the ribbon to open the exhibit and then gave a free public lecture to an audience of over 4000 students and community members.
Community Service & Outreach
UCSD’s sustainability leadership is committed to partnership with the community – we seek to build ivory bridges and not ivory towers. The Greenovation Forum is an example: UCSD showcases a faculty researcher, on a panel with representatives from industry, government, and/or the philanthropic community who are keys to moving innovative technologies and ideas out of the university and putting them into practice. For example, the last Greenovation Forum focused on green chemistry, highlighting work by Prof. Jan Talbott on creating computer screens that are non-toxic, thus avoiding the need for special handling in the manufacturing and in the disposal process. She was paired with a senior official from Dupont, and the head of toxic substances for the California Environmental Protection Agency, along with the UCSD Chancellor who is herself a distinguished chemist. In front of an audience of about 100 from the campus and the broader community, they discussed the challenges and solutions to greening of the IT industry. A Greenovation Fund is being established to provide seed funding to act on the ideas coming out of the Forum. ESI has a contract with the City of San Diego to evaluate the environmental impact of the Point Loma wastewater treatment plant which has a modified permit from EPA to enable it to discharge water with advanced primary treatment. The Mayor must decide by the end of the year whether to apply for a new waiver or to initiate planning for a $1billion-plus secondary treatment facility. The university’s independent scientific assessment will be one factor in that decision.
Two UCSD sustainability leaders (the head of our Environment and Sustainability Initiative and the Director of Scripps) are part of a new Clean Tech organization sponsored by the business and venture community locally to support the development of a clean tech industry cluster in San Diego. Students are actively encouraged to undertake service learning projects in a variety of academic programs including the Urban Studies major and Environmental Systems. One of UCSD’s six undergraduate colleges, Sixth College, has sustainability as one of its core themes and requires all the students to engage in some sustainability-related activities.