The Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Sustainability (CACS) Awards was held on March 15th, 2024 to celebrate Berkeley’s achievements in sustainability this academic year. Located in the Chancellor's Conference Room at California Hall, the awards ceremony featured awards to staff and students that have done impactful work in the area of sustainability on the UC Berkeley campus.
The Haas Food Recovery Team earned the team award for diverting thousands of pounds of food in the last year, redistributing it to Hass students as well as the Dorothy Day House, a nonprofit supporting our Berkeley community. The team is composed of Evening and Weekend MBA Students Melissa Little and Kevin Cheng, and undergraduate students Trisha Thontepu, Kaya Richardson, and Phoebe Chen.
Jen Loy, Assistant Director of Government & Community Relations, was honored for her guidance and facilitation efforts as the main staff lead of the Cooperative ReUse program which allows students to give (and receive) household goods that would otherwise end up in the landfill.
Tatum Hurley received an award for dedicating much of their time at Berkeley to their work in Zero Waste. They are the current Chair of the Zero Waste Coalition, Zero Waste Fellow with the Office of Sustainability, and leading a team of over 20 students for Cooperative Reuse. Brisa Alvarez received recognition for her roles within SERC's Zero Waste Green Team, Zero Waste Lab, the ASUC Eco-Office Environmental Justice Department, the STeam Team's EJ and Education Project, and as the Housing Waste Reduction Coordinator where she trained 300 Resident Assistants on sustainability.
Arnaud Paquet, a full-time MBA student at the Haas School of Business, was awarded for his work as the Co-President of the Berkeley Energy & Resources Collaborative (BERC), which is the largest student-run organization of its kind. He also spearheaded the first “Women in Climate” event at UC Berkeley among his many other achievements and contributions to sustainability on campus.
See the Ceremony Read-out for more on the awardees.
Learn more about the CACS Sustainability Awards here.
Photos by Kwabena Owusu Sarfo.