Green Department Certification Program
Environment, Health, and Safety (EH&S) and the Residential and Student Services Program (RSSP) are UC Berkeley's first official "Green Departments." They each met the requirements to be certified under a new program developed by the Office of Sustainability and the Green Campus program - with measures ranging from a departmental bike fleet to composting to using recycled content copy paper.
Green Department Certification recognizes campus departments that have taken extra steps to conduct greener operations and lower their environmental footprint. The program identifies a set of conditions and actions - some optional and some required - that departments can follow in order to be certified as a Green Department. The certification process is designed to provide resources, guidance, and recognition to faculty, staff, and students as they take steps to decrease their environmental impacts at work.
Departments earn points and achieve pre-requisites for relatively easy tasks and programs that any department can implement - like having adequate recycling bins or using rechargeable batteries. Other points can be earned for department-specific initiatives, such as offering task lighting or designing a water conservation campaign.
Green Certified departments will be issued a certificate and will also be eligible to apply for limited funds from the Office of Sustainability to implement one additional sustainability initiative.
For more information, contact Lisa McNeilly, UC Berkeley Director of Sustainability, at (510) 643-5907 or lmcneilly@berkeley.edu, or the UC Berkeley Green Campus Program at berkeleygc@googlegroups.com.
Green Department Resource Guide