Student leaders, city, campus and community stakeholders, and UCOP sustainability staff recently took part in the Diversity-Equity-Inclusion-Justice (DEIJ) Centered Climate Change Resiliency Planning Workshop. The participatory, two-and-a-half-hour workshop was the second in a series and provided an opportunity for diverse stakeholders to begin to define a climate change resilience vision for UC Berkeley and next steps for planning and action. It is part of the UC Carbon Neutrality Initiative and is part of a UC-wide set of workshops, planning, and implementation activities. Vice Chancellor for Administration Marc Fisher was among campus leadership who participated. He provided a background on the evolution of sustainability work on campus, which has progressed from an initial focus on green buildings to the current, more inclusive and holistic DEIJ framework. Marc credited student activists with these improvements and pointed to models of inclusive, resiliency policies designed by the cities of Oakland and Berkeley, as well as the 2021 LRDP, which provides a strong starting point for this work. The campus core planning team — which includes Chief Sustainability & Carbon Solutions Officer Kira Stoll, AVC Division of Equity & Inclusion Fabrizo Mejia, RSSP Sustainability Coordinator Sam Lubow, Director of Office of Emergency Management Alicia Johnson, and UC President’s Bonnie Reiss Carbon Neutrality Student Fellow Rohith Moolikatt — provided engaging presentations, kept the activities moving, and consistently brought the focus back to Berkeley’s diverse communities, and the intersectional impacts of climate change on Berkeley’s vulnerable populations. To learn more, check out workshop materials and resources and browse our website, sustainability.berkeley.edu.
