General Sustainability Announcements

APPLY FOR A WILD GIFT GRANT

Applications are now open for the Wild Gift, a program that grants up to
$15,000 to youth-led year-long projects that benefit people and nature.

The Wild Gift provides grants ranging from $10,000 to $15,000 to leaders who
wish to embark on a self-designed year long project to protect nature or
promote sustainability. The program is open to young leaders aged 21 to 30
worldwide and is provided at no cost to the recipient.

³Do you want to serve your fellow human beings and protect the earth? Do
you have a great idea you wish to realize? And are you ready to make that
dream a reality today? If so, then Wild Gift wants to honor your
commitment to make a difference,² said Wild Gift founder, Bob Jonas.

Past leader-designed projects that the Wild Gift has supported include a
documentary film on community farms, a nature writing program for urban
youth in southern California, and the founding of a solar construction
company that provides green technology to development projects in Ladakh,
India.

The Wild Gift program consists of four parts: mentoring to help refine
leader-designed projects, a 20-day wilderness trek, a year¹s support to
ensure the project¹s success, and a seven-day trek after one year to share
project results and strategize for continued achievement.

Please visit Wild Gift on the web at www.wildgift.org for more information
and to download an application. Applications are due on April 1, 2007.

Wild Gift is a five-year-old nonprofit organization based out of Sun Valley,
Idaho.

Re-USE's main materials exchange center is reopening!

It is located in the MLK parking garage. More specific directions can
be found on our website, by clicking on the 'location' link.
(recycle.berkeley.edu/reuse)

Starting February 26th, 2007, these will be our hours:

Monday 12-1pm
Tuesday 12-2pm
Wednesday 12-1pm
Thursday 12:30-1:30pm
Friday 12-1pm



We are also in the midst of a massive relocation effort, and as a
result, have two brand new satellite stations you can visit. Here are
the locations and hours:

1. 260 Mulford Hall, Student Resource Center
Open Monday thru Friday 1-12pm and 1-4pm

2. Unit 2 beside the Mail Room, opening March 12th
Open Monday thru Friday 4-6pm and 7-9pm


If you are interested in making a donation, or need more information
on any of these locations, please contact reuse_contact@berkeley.edu
or visit our website: recycle.berkeley.edu/reuse

Are you passionate about working toward a more sustainable world? Are
you 26 years of age or younger? We're looking for you! SustainUS, the
US Youth Network for Sustainable Development, is now accepting
applications for spots on its delegation to the 15th Session of the UN
Commission on Sustainable Development, which will be held at the UN
Headquarters in New York City later this spring.

The topics of this policy session will be Climate Change, Air
Pollution/Atmosphere, Industrial Development, and Energy for
Sustainable Development. Delegates will have the opportunity to
participate in official meetings of the Commission, lobby government
delegates for the causes they believe in, work with youth from around
the world, draft policy statements, and even have a chance to read a
statement on the floor of the UN!

International policy experience is not necessary to apply. Young
people who have been involved in local grassroots projects or are just
plain excited about the opportunity are encouraged to submit
applications.

Please see www.sustainus.org to download an application! The deadline
is March 11. Any questions about the program can be forwarded to
Agents of Change Coordinator Erin Kenzie at erin@sustainus.org .

Please help BEAN in finding an excellent intern to help us continue to develop! Please post this internship announcement far and wide!

Brief (for full details, click on link at the end of the announcement):
- BEAN Student Internship
- Goal is to increase participation in BEAN networking and outreach activities
- Deadline: March 9th, 2007
- Only open to current Cal students
- $12.50 per hour; 10-20 hours per month; 160 hours total
- Student should ask questions and send resume and cover letter to:
Garth Schultz
BEAN President
garth_schultz@yahoo.com
510-292-0853

Thank you very much for your help in posting this announcement - we have a very short time-line to turn this around before BEAN's Annual Meeting on March 15th. Everything you can do to make sure that students see this announcement would be much appreciated. If you have any specific students in mind for this position, please encourage them to apply.
BEAN%20Student%20Internship%20Announcement.doc

Come join us for a tour of our Green Demonstration areas!

Learn how you can live more sustainably while still on a college budget!

These demonstration areas are interactive showcases in the residence halls at UC Berkeley and are inhabited by students. The rooms are equipped with sustainable products and information that can help you have a lesser impact on the environment. They demonstrates how a typical college student can live more sustainably without drastically changing his/her lifestyle. These areas educate visitors on "conscious consumerism" and changes in behavior that lessen one's impact on the environment. They also showcase sustainable personal care products and Energy Star appliances.

The Green Apartment, located in Channing-Bowditch, focuses on apartment-type living situations, while the Green Room focuses on typical residence hall rooms. You are welcome to visit either one of them, or both! Our scheduled tour for the semester are listed below.

Green Room Tours
Thursday, March 1st: 2:15pm and 2:45pm
Thursday, March 22nd: 2:15pm and 2:45pm
Thursday, April 19th: 2:15pm and 2:45pm

Green Apartment Tours

Wednesday, March 14th: 4:00pm and 4:30pm
Wednesday, April 11th: 4:00pm and 4:30pm

Check out our website: http://www.OCF.Berkeley.EDU/~grc

Reservations are required for all tours. Visitors must have a UC Berkeley or University of California identification card and must present it at the beginning of the tour. Tour space is limited and will be allocated on a first-come-first-serve basis.

To Sign up for a tour, please e-mail greenroomUCB@gmail.com with your (1) name, (2) affiliation (student, faculty, staff, etc.), (3) SID (if applicable), (4) date and time of tour, and (5) which area you would like to visit (Green Room or Green Apartment). You will receive a confirmation e-mail letting you know if there is a space on the tour you requested.

If you would like to arrange a special group tour, please let us know and we will try to accomodate your group.

The Past, Present, and Future of Food
A talk by John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market, followed by a conversation with Michael Pollan, Knight Professor of Journalism

Tuesday, February 27, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Zellerbach Auditorium
UC Berkeley, Berkeley

For more information please call (510)642-9988
$10.00 / Free for Cal Students with ID
http://journalism.berkeley.edu/events/details.php?ID=371

Big Ideas @ Berkeley and the ASUC are sponsoring a $15,000 contest in Bio-Inspired Innovation as part of the $138,000 campus-wide Bears Breaking Boundaries Contests.

"Describe a new idea for a research project that is inspired by living systems."

To learn more about the Bio-Inspired Innovation contest, visit
http://contest.berkeley.edu/contest_pages/9

To learn about the contest as a whole, visit http://contest.berkeley.edu

To encourage plenty of new ideas, we are organizing a "speed dating" session for interdisciplinary research. Groups of interested students from a variety of backgrounds will meet, and will have a short period of time to generate ideas for potential research projects. For example, a biologist might describe some natural functionality that exists at the molecular, cellular, or organismal level, and a physical scientist, engineer, or MBA student might describe how this function might inform the design of materials, devices, systems, or services.

To participate in this session, send us an e-mail at bioinspire@gmail.com with your name, contact information, and a paragraph on your interests in bio-inspired innovation.

Tentative date & time:
March 15, 2007
6 pm - 8 pm.

Who may apply: UC Berkeley Students

Pay: $12/hr

Time: 5-10 hrs a week

Project Title: One-Side Clean (OSC) Bin Project

Project Description:

Interested in doing something positive for the community and for the environment? Here's your chance. Every day at UC Berkeley, thousands of pieces of "useable" paper are discarded instead of re-used, causing unnecessary waste and demand for new resources.

An exciting new bin specifically designed to facilitate paper re-use has been created. The overarching goal of this project is to make these new bins as widely and easily accepted as the blue bins are for paper recycling.

So far, almost 100 bins have been made and placed around campus. An assessment of their current success and overall impact at UC Berkeley, and potential for impact on a larger scale is required.

Help make UC Berkeley the first university in the nation to implement this type of bin and then help OSC bins become a nationwide phenomenon!!

Intern Responsibilities:

The intern would be integrally involved in assessing the design, impact, and success of the OSC bins. This will include interacting with bin "owners", compiling and analyzing paper data, predicting environmental impact and financial savings, assessing bin functionality, writing a report, and working on a proposal to make OSC bins widespread.

Desired skills: Seeking motivated individuals with an ability to work independently, and in a team environment. Must have excellent written and verbal communications skills, and be able to perform basic data analysis, internet research, report writing, and proposal writing.

For more information on the bins, go to http://sgb.berkeley.edu/osc.shtml

Interested? Please send resume to Gabe Harley. gharley@gmail.com . Application process will be open until filled. Posted 2/18/2007.

The 6th Annual Campus Earth Summit is going to be held Friday, March 2nd from 9am to 3pm at Stevenson Event Center at UC Santa Cruz.


Please RSVP at http://bas.ucsc.edu/events.

UC Alumni Melissa Nelson will be the Keynote Speaker at the Earth Summit. Her talk is entitled "Returning to our Foodsheds--Practical Sustainability Through Local Place and Taste.

Here is an opportunity to get support from DOE on solar projects.

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/news/progress_alerts/progress_alert.asp?aid=215

The journal Science released a special feature this week on Sustainability and Energy:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol315/issue5813/index.dtl?etoc

The ASUC Sustainability Team has started planning for this years Earth Week (April 16-20). To get involved e-mail nmcrum@berkeley.edu.

See link below to view the Earth Week Pamphlet which loosely outlines the mission statement and anticipated format for Earth Week 2007.


Earth%20Week%20Pamphlet.doc

The Green California Summit and Exposition has opened online registration. The summit is being held in Sacramento on March 13-14, 2007. Online registration services <http://www.iplanevents.com/cagreen> are now available to attendees of the Green California Summit and Exposition, which will take place on March 13 and 14, 2007 at the Sacramento Convention Center.

The exhibition and keynotes are free to government attendees. The event also includes a program of classes and concurrent training seminars. (Click here <http://www.green-technology.org/images/registration_brochure.pdf> for a registration brochure.)

Launched last summer at a meeting at California EPA headquarters, and guided by an Advisory Board <http://www.green-technology.org/gcadvisoryboard.htm> composed of senior state officials and environmental experts, the Summit will be a showcase for state and local government efforts to green the Golden state.

In addition, the Summit will include pavilions designed to provide
conference attendees an opportunity to focus in-depth on a specific subject
area and to see multiple product solutions from different vendors in an
integrated setting.

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), one of the nation's most
forward-looking and innovative publicly-owned utilities, will host the
Energy Pavilion. SMUD is actively engaged in research and development on
both the supply side and the consumer side, and the pavilion will highlight
topics ranging from lighting to energy efficient building design.

Another pavilion, sponsored by Hewlett-Packard, will focus on an important
emerging issue: the greening of Information Technology systems. The Pavilion
will provide an educational environment where state and local government
decision-makers can discover the full range of environmental issues
associated with Information Technology systems - toxic materials, energy
consumption, and e-waste - and learn about solutions that can help them meet
the challenge of greening IT systems.

Education Program

The Summit's education program is the outgrowth of months of discussion with
government officials, as well as focus groups and surveys. One- and two-day
classes begin on Monday, March 12. As requested by the Advisory Board,
classes and the concurrent training seminars that will take place during the
Summit provide training and information that relate directly to state and
local programs. Complete details can be found in the registration brochure.
Click here
<http://www.green-technology.org/images/registration_brochure.pdf> to
download

Register now! Click here <http://www.iplanevents.com/cagreen> .

For more information on the Green California Summit, click here
<http://www.green-technology.org/gcsummit> .

Questions? Call 323-936-7125

For more information, visit: www.green-technology.org

mtvU and GE have selected the top ten finalists for the first-ever Ecomagination Challenge. The finalists exhibited innovative and viable approaches to greening their campuses. Go to http://www.ecocollegechallenge.com/ to learn about the projects of the finalists and to vote for the winner.

Professor Arpad Horvath gave a talk at CITRIS entitled "Engineering and Management for Sustainability: Ideas for the Way Forward." An archived version of his talk and his slides can be found at http://www.citris-uc.org/CRE-Jan31-2007.

The UC Berkeley Bicycle Committee will be meeting:

Thursday, February 8, 2007
2:30pm to 4:00pm
UCB Parking & Transportation Offices
2150 Kittredge Street, 3rd Floor Conference Room

The meeting is open to the community.

For more information contact
Kira Stoll
643-9276
stoll@berkeley.edu

A coalition of Bay Area regional agencies wants your input on the best
regional strategies to protect our climate and help reduce global warming.
The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), the Bay Area Air Quality
Management District (Air District), the Bay Conservation and Development
Commission (BCDC), and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC)- working together as the Joint Policy Committee (JPC) - are developing a set of initiatives that the Bay Area, acting collectively as a region, can undertake to protect our environment.

Two ways to get involved:

1. Participate in a Regional Climate Action Workshop on Friday, February
16, 9 am to Noon in Oakland at the MTC/ABAG headquarters (Joseph P. Bort
Metrocenter, MTC Auditorium, 101 8th Street across from the Lake Merritt
BART station). We want to hear your ideas and get your reaction to a set
of strategies that are being explored.

2. Share your input with us via email (climate@abag.ca.gov).

We are interested in your thoughts on the following:

-What kind of leadership does the Bay Area need from the four regional
agencies (ABAG, Air District, BCDC and MTC) on climate issues?

-What are the most important climate protection actions these regional
agencies should take?

Below are examples of the some of the options being considered. For a
longer list based on the Air District’s 2006 Regional Climate Summit, go to:
http://www.baaqmd.gov/pln/climatechange.htm#whatiscc.

· Implementing a public education and involvement campaign, such as “Spare
the Air” or “Flex Your Power”
· Conducting research on climate impacts on the Bay Area
· Making climate protection an integral part of the Regional
Transportation Plan (the Bay Area’s long-range transportation plan)
· Accelerating “Smart Growth” development policies that will strongly link
transportation and land use planning
· Providing support and assistance to climate programs operated by local
governments, businesses and community organizations.
· Creating a regional information clearinghouse on climate protection
“best practices” for businesses, local governments and others

We want your feedback on these options and your suggestions for other
strategies by the four regional agencies that will improve the Bay Area’s
response to global warming.

Please email your ideas to climate@abag.ca.gov and/or attend the workshop
on February 16. For more information on the event, go to:
http://www.abag.ca.gov/jointpolicy/jpc_climate_change.htm.

For information on the four regional agencies:
ABAG: www.abag.org
Air District: www.baaqmd.gov
BCDC: www.bcdc.ca.gov
MTC: www.mtc.ca.gov

For directions to the workshop at the MetroCenter, go to:
http://www.mtc.ca.gov/about_mtc/directions.htm.

Thank you in advance for your feedback. We look forward to hearing from you.