Sustainability Awards

2026 Campus Advisory Committee on Sustainability’s Annual Sustainability Awards

This year's awards were held at the Campanile Esplanade on April 24, 2026, as part of the UC Berkeley Campus Sustainability Showcase. The Showcase included sustainability-themed activities, interactive poster presentations from The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF) grantees, Housing & Dining Sustainability student teams, and the inaugural TGIF Environmental Fellows Cohort. The CACS Awards committee gave two staff awards, two team awards, and four student awards.

Staff Awards

• Carli Baker: Carli serves as the Associate Director of the Student Environmental Resource Center and the Sustainability Operations Manager for The Green Initiative Fund, or TGIF. TGIF organizes grant cycles that provide over $500,000 to 30+ innovative sustainability projects annually. Carli is a remarkable manager of this program, providing ongoing guidance to 60+ active projects and ensuring grantees are getting the support they need to complete their projects. Since 2023, Carli has also served as the main staff supervisor for UC Berkeley’s Cooperative ReUse program, which is a student-led furniture and household item recycling initiative. Carli is a critical partner, supporting the planning efforts all semester. Last year, Cooperative ReUse collected nearly 200,000 pounds of household items and saw at least 3,000 visitors.
• Bruce Chamberlain: Bruce serves as Campus Energy Manager, working out of Facilities Services, and plays a central role in a number of key programs. For instance, Bruce has been the driving force behind UC Berkeley’s ULT Freezer Rebate and Replacement Program, leading its implementation and long-term success. Over the past three years, more than 20 ultra-low temperature freezers have been replaced with high-efficiency ENERGY STAR models. He is also a strong collaborator with units across campus, including working with Residential Services to support research into clean energy transitions within Housing and Dining facilities and playing a significant role in supporting the Office of Sustainability in its Climate Action Plan process and annual GHG emissions inventory. Bruce’s combination of technical expertise and sustained commitment to clean and efficient energy systems on campus have made him an important figure on campus.

Team/Organization Awards

• ASUC Eco-Office (Maddie Chesebro, Anna Kathawala, Maya King, Bella Santos): With over 13 years of institutional history and currently organized by more than 60 student leaders, the Eco Office operates as a student-run implementation engine for campus sustainability. This past year, the Eco Office contributed to meaningful progress across a number of critical areas, including supporting the Berkeley Clean Energy Campus project through research, stakeholder coordination, teach-ins, and town halls in partnership with the Office of Sustainability; analyzing air travel emissions from Athletics teams and proposing an EV-charging feasibility study that secured $15,000 in external funding; and organizing and funding Eco Lobby Day, bringing 30 students to Sacramento to advocate for statewide environmental legislation alongside other organizations and high school students.
• Green Labs Program (Vivian Li, Keshwanth Puligulla): The Green Labs Program recognizes laboratories for their implementation of practices that increase sustainability and efficiency. Labs can achieve Blue-, Gold-, or Green-tier certification, based on points earned in the areas of energy efficiency, water efficiency, waste reduction, chemicals, purchasing, and education. For three years, Keshwanth and Vivian collaborated and consulted with researchers, administrators, vendors, and other student groups, always maintaining exemplary poise and professionalism while advancing the cause. They maintained a newsletter, hosted semesterly meetings to engage the community, collaborated with student groups like Cal Zero Waste, and organized and facilitated vendor showcases. In addition, they led and supported initiatives on sustainable purchasing systems, rebates for energy-efficient equipment, and partnerships to recycle lab materials. 

Student Awards

• Celese Basken: Celeste is a fourth year student studying Environmental Science and Political Science. She serves as a Supply Chain Data Analyst at Housing and Dining Sustainability and as a UC Office of the President Global climate leadership council food Fellow. Tackling the complexity of food procurement head-on, Celeste built a procurement database spanning ten UC campuses and created an interactive Python dashboard to make sustainability data more accessible. To cap this off, she developed a 50-page procurement toolkit now used to train students system-wide.
• Maddie Chesebro: Maddie is a third year undergraduate double majoring in Environmental Economics & Policy and Sociology with a minor in Public Policy. She co-teaches the Berkeley Clean Energy Campus deCal, co-authored UC Berkeley’s Green New Deal, and is the newly elected ASUC Eco Senator for 2026-2027. She has written and unanimously passed over 15 ASUC Senate resolutions. She was the previous Green New Deal Director, the founding Clean Energy Campus Director and Chief of Staff for the ASUC Eco Office, and served as a Co-Chair in the Single Use Plastic Elimination Working Group.
• Alina Halstenberg: Alina is a fourth year undergraduate studying Society & Environment and Global Environmental Politics. She is a Bonnie Reiss Climate Action and Resilience Fellow and a Berkeley Clean Energy Campus fellow, both under the Office of Sustainability. She is also the President of the Berkeley Environmental Economics and Policy Society. During her time at Cal, Alina has conducted meaningful hazard vulnerability studies on campus resilience that included the assessment of residential hall heat wave risk as well as campus emergency planning. Additionally, she spent countless hours supporting our new Climate Action Plan and engaging the student body on sustainability initiatives. She is also a member of the Campus Advisory Committee on Sustainability, a founder and judge for the Green Bowl Competition, an Environmental Justice and Sustainability Deputy Executive in the ASUC Office of the President, and the president of her Kathak dance group.
• Ava Wang: Ava is a fourth year majoring in Conservation and Resources Studies and Music, and serves as the Director of Legislative Affairs for the ASUC Eco Office as well as the Environmental Justice Coordinator at Housing and Dining Sustainability. Ava built an Environmental Justice framework that is now embedded into Housing and Dining Sustainability operations, and introduced it into other departments on campus. She has also supported the American Cultures Environmental Justice initiative, contributed to menstrual equity efforts through education in the residence halls, and shown up consistently for fossil fuel dissociation organizing on campus.