Updated July 2023
Engagement Mission
Campus-wide UC Berkeley is working to improve the culture of sustainability. Committees and organizations, grants, newsletters, reports, and other initiatives serve to ensure that sustainability is institutionalized.
STARS gauges success in a number of engagement and inclusion categories. UC Berkeley earned perfect STARS scores in such diversity and equity fields as: Support for Underrepresented Groups, Student Life, and Participation in Public Policy.
Campus Performance Overview
The Office of Sustainability promotes engagement on Berkeley campus in the following ways:
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Lists both credit and informal classes
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Provides information on over 55 sustainability-related student groups
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Distributes sustainability grant funds for student and campus projects through TGIF
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Showcases real-time campus energy usage data using online Pulse dashboards. When energy consumption becomes tangible, students, staff, and faculty see the impact of conservation efforts.
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Supports the Student Environmental Resource Center
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Centers diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in all efforts including hiring, sponsoring the CACS Working Group on DEI in Sustainability, and the CACS Climate Change Resilience Working Group
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Cultivates a collaborative space and resources for students to actualize their visions of a more equitable, socially just, and resilient future.
The Office of Sustainability has developed:
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A Green Walking Tour of sustainable practices integrated into daily campus life.
A new students' guide to sustainable practices at Cal.
STARS Performance Overview
Engagement Category
According to STARS, "This subcategory seeks to recognize institutions that provide their students with sustainability learning experiences outside the formal curriculum. … Institution-sponsored, co-curricular sustainability offerings help integrate sustainability into the campus culture and set a positive tone for the institution. … Equipping employees with the tools, knowledge, and motivation to adopt behavior changes that promote sustainability is an essential activity of a sustainable campus."
Berkeley's STARS Performance
Campus Engagement Points Available: 21.00
Campus Engagement Points Claimed: 19.42
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UC Berkeley achieved 92% of available points in the STARS Campus Engagement category. The average among all research universities is 73%.STARS rates campuses on: Student Educators Program, Student Orientation, Student Life, Outreach Materials and Publications, Outreach Campaign; Assessing Sustainability Culture; Employee Educators Program; Employee Orientation; Staff Professional Development. Berekely received perfect scores in most categories.
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We earned a perfect score in the Student Educators Program credit, where our range and depth of peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education programs is particularly laudable.
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Berkeley also showed leadership in providing all campus employees with peer-to-peer sustainability outreach and education programs, such as the Zero Waste Building Program spearheaded by Cal Zero Waste.
Shake Up the Status Quo
Make some noise by getting involved!
The Student Environmental Resource Center (SERC) has created Anti Racist Eco Book Worms as a community resource to share and discuss books, art, poems, and other media forms that highlight the experiences of BIPOC in relation to environmentalism. The forum addresses issues such as environmental racism and the reductionism of marginalized communities in mainstream environmental spaces.
Email serc@berkeley.edu to receive more information about joining!