Bright Green Projects
Travel-Free Meeting Grant Program
With funding from the Climate Action Fund, the Office of Sustainability is awarding grants of up to $100 to promote travel-free meetings with a goal of reducing UC Berkeley's business air trips by up to 10% within the next two years. Grants may be used to either 1) host a ReadyTalk Web meeting 2) host a video-conference in an ETS facility or 3) purchase a computer camera for web-conferencing. This grant program will run through June 2012 (or until the grant funds are expended).
Archived training events:
- ReadyTalk Training - March 24th - See the archived video - View the slides.
For more in depth information see ReadyTalk's training page. - Skype Training - April 6th - See the archived video.
Sustainability Forum
The Sustainability Forum is intended to be a space for members of the campus community to become more informed about how various campus entities are working towards sustainability and to provide networking opportunities. We have so many organizations on campus implementing creative and meaningful sustainability projects. Improving communication among these entities has been a concern of student activists for some time. The Sustainability Forum is open to all and intended to bring everyone up to speed with what initiatives are already well under way on our campus and what areas still need additional resources. This is also an opportunity for new students interested in sustainability to find internships and organizations to join. Forums are sponsored by the Office of Sustainability and TGIF.
WORKbright green - Staff Sustainability Training
Are you interested in gaining the knowledge and tools necessary to implement green practices in your job and help campus meet its climate and sustainability goals?
The Office of Sustainability is excited to introduce WORKbright green - UC Berkeley's new and free Staff Sustainability Training! Training begins Tuesday, November 8th. Click here to learn more and apply.
Streets Alive! A Call for UCB Artists
Earth Island Institute in collaboration with UC Berkeley and the City of Berkeley is sponsoring a project – Streets Alive! - to make 60 utility boxes in the downtown Berkeley area works of art. The Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund has provided funding to place artistic treatments on 7 of these boxes on the campus edge that reflect UC Berkeley’s actions and visions of sustainability. The call for artists for these 7 boxes is now open to UCB faculty, staff, students and alumni. Interested Cal artists are asked to submit design concepts and portfolio samples by November 7, 2011. Click here to learn more and submit.
CalCAP - Cal's Climate Action Partnership
The Cal Climate Action Partnership (CalCAP) is a collaboration of faculty, administration, staff and students working to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at UC Berkeley. CalCAP's focus is to develop a strategy and implementation methods for significantly reducing UC Berkeley's GHG footprint without compromising the operations and mission of the University.
Green Labs
Teaching and research laboratories on the UC Berkeley campus are key to our core mission, but can also consume more energy, water, and other resources than commercial or residential buildings, in part due to more energy intensive ventilation and higher plug loads in labs. In fact, labs are estimated to use 43% of the total campus electricity usage and at least 20% of the water consumption. There are, however, multiple strategies and best practices to reduce resource use while maintaining mission and research excellence.
A small ad hoc working group has already begun work on the Green Labs initiative. With the help of a student intern, the group plans to conduct 2-3 initial laboratory assessments to catalog existing practices and areas for possible improvement, focusing on energy and water usage, waste reduction, and chemical management. The assessments will focus on best practices that yield labor or time efficiencies, as well as those that reduce out of pocket costs for labs or the campus.
UC Berkeley Sustainable Foodservices Working Group
The UC Berkeley Sustainable Foodservice Working Group was formed in the Spring of 2009 to work with campus foodservice operations and the campus at large to increase the sustainability of food purchases and operations. The Working Group will also implement elements of the new policy on sustainable foodservices practices adopted by the University of California system and set campus-specific policies and guidelines in the same area. The Working Group will explore partnerships on campus to coordinate work on health and wellness and other related initiatives.
In December 2009, the Working Group submitted an Action Plan to UCOP.
Sustainable Copy Paper Guidelines
The University of California, Berkeley has adopted guidelines related to sustainable paper use on campus. These guidelines are consistent with the University of California's "Policy on Sustainable Practices" (March 22, 2007) and will help us achieve our broader sustainability goals.