California State University, Chico

Campus Category

Four year and graduate institutions over 15,000 student FTE

Contact Information

Halli Bovia
Sustainability Coordinator
The Institute for Sustainable Development

Education and Research

  • Numerous co-curricular activities including “Scour and Devour;” “Take Back the Tap;”
  • Classes that focuses on helping students develop and pass resolutions to make the campus sustainable
  • Sustainable faculty learning community of 25 from all colleges, who link courses and focus on common learning outcomes for sustainability.
  • Faculty, student, staff sustainability projects, e.g., a project to reduce water use.
  • Staff development for sustainability provided by Sustainability Consultations of Office Operations (SCOOP), a student group.
  • 150 courses identified as a “sustainability course” in the course catalogue.
  • Research focused on local watershed and region, with an emphasis on the creation of green jobs.
  • Partnership with local community college to train a green workforce.
  • Adoption of a Strategic Plan for the Future with a priority of sustainable development.
  • Creation of an Institute for Sustainability in 2007 to support and focus campus energy across all divisions, to develop and support regional efforts on sustainability.
  • Development of a Sustainable Business partnership with the City of Chico and the Chamber of Commerce to educate about “green” business.
  • An organic garden, which sells its produce to the Associated Students Food Services was created in 2007. It is a collaborative effort among the University Farm, AS Recycling, AS Food Services and the Chico Food Network.
  • An organic dairy, the first at a university farm west of the Mississippi was created in 2006.
  • The Alliance to Save Energy’s Green Campus Program has received over $100,000 in energy rebates and provided opportunities for numerous students to develop new skills.
  • The Associated Students “Bike Cart” provides on-campus bike repair for students, faculty, and staff and recycles unwanted bicycles and bike parts.
  • The Environmental Action and Resource Center hires interns and provides an environmental library with their resources.
  • Earth Month on the Chico Campus has over 60 events, workshops, panels and discussions held.
  • A minor in sustainable business management has been created.
  • A Concrete Industry Management major has been approved to help educate future managers and builders about sustainable aspects of concrete.
  • A faculty member is reintroducing fire ecology practices of indigenous peoples, to support natural ecosystems and to protect homes and communities against wildfires.
  • A faculty member is working with the city to model the carbon sequestration of our local city’s parks and street trees.
  • In 2007 a team of 22 university manufacturing students took home the Western Tool Exposition and Conference Grand Prize for their automated biodiesal processor, which is now being used at the Meat Lab at the University Farm to turn animal fats and vegetable oil into fuel.
  • The university manages close to 4,500 acres of preserves, designed to serve as living laboratories for student research, and to introduce K-12 students to nature.
  • Chico was awarded the grand prize by the National Wildlife Federation in 2007 for its efforts to reduce global warming.
     

Campus Operations

  • The CSU Chico Associated Students, who run all of the auxiliaries on campus, have adopted a Zero Waste Goal aimed for the year 2015.
  • Three University projects received best-practices awards at the 2006 UC/CSU/CCC Sustainability Conference for the Diversion Excursion Program, the Associated Students Sustainability Program, and the demolition and waste diversion preceding construction of a new student activities center.
  • Chico State was the first campus in the CSU system to register a new building project under LEED. Of four new buildings, either completed or about to be completed, all will be LEED certified.
  • Facilities and Management uses Green Seal cleaners and waxes.
  • No pesticides are used in management of the campus trees, shrubs, and lawns.
  • As of July, 2009, over 20% of the campus energy comes from renewable resources, including on-campus solar panels.
  • Our University Farm has partnered with Sierra Nevada Brewing Company to use their spent mash in feeding cattle, which are in turn purchased by Sierra Nevada for use in their restaurant.
  • We host the largest student-run sustainability conference in the country, This Way to Sustainability. Last November (2008) over 1400 students, faculty, and members of the local community registered for the conference.
  • We partnered with Sierra Nevada this April to hold a community-wide event, EcoFest, which celebrated Sierra Nevada’s international reputation in sustainability, featured programs on campus, and the work of sustainability groups in the city.
  • We sponsored, with the Butte County Bicycle Coalition, Bike Week, which drew several thousand participants.
  • Student fees support free bus transportation in the county for all campus members.
  • The University sponsors the GreenDance Film Festival, designed to introduce community members, including K-12 students, to issues of the environment through film.
  • The students have adopted a resolution to assure that 30% of all food served on campus is local food.
  • The Associated Students Recycling Program recycles approximately 620,000 pounds of paper, beverage containers, food waste, and other recyclables each year, and employs close to 20 student staff focused on recycling education and waste reduction.
  • The community-focused Recycling and Rubbish Exhibit (RARE) features more than 20 hands-on interactive displays, including the evolution of trash and composting with worms.
  • The University awards the “Greenies” at the annual This Way to Sustainability Conference recognizing the contributions of individuals and organizations to the creation of a sustainable future.
  • The campus serves fair-trade, certified organic espresso beans and uses biodegradable, compostable, to-go containers.
  • The Associated Students initiated a “Take Back the Tap” campaign and installed carbon filters and spigot retrofits on campus water fountains and facilitated bringing reusable containers into the hands of faculty, staff, and students to reduce the consumption of bottled water on the campus.
  • The University Printing Services received the Forest Stewardship Council’s chain-of-custody certification, one of the first U.S. universities to do so.
  • The University purchased its first electric vehicle in 1989, and now has a fleet of electrical vehicles

Administration and Finance

  • All new campus buildings will be LEED certified or equivalent.
  • The new Master Plan for the campus has a sustainability component.
  • The Director for Sustainability works to integrate programs with the Director of Diversity and Director of Civic Engagement. (We are the only campus in the California State University system to have three such directors.)
  • We have a Cross-Cultural Leadership Center.
  • Our Upward Bound Program, with a new sustainability component, is the longest continuously funded program in the United States, with one of the highest rates of success.
  • The costs for tuition and fees at California State University, Chico are well below the national average. (It is less than $5000 a year for a full-time resident undergraduate for the year.)
  • Access is provided to all California high school graduates in the upper third of their graduating class.
  • We have an extensive diversity recruitment and retention program with continual progress in percentage of disadvantaged students enrolled.
  • Public engagement includes, but is not limited to:
         1.  A partnership with the City of Chico and Chamber of Commerce to educate for a sustainable future.
         2.  A partnership with the City of Chico to measure the city’s carbon footprint and work with the Chico to reduce that footprint, for which the university is partly responsible.
         3.  Partnership with the county and private organizations to advance the “green” economy in the region.
  • All new employees are provided with an orientation, which includes information about the University’s sustainability efforts, and how to become engaged.
  • The Employee/Staff Handbook has a new section on sustainability.
  • There is a student-lead effort to provide sustainability consultations to all offices on the campus and to follow-up with plans to reduce energy consumption and to help to create a sustainable university
     

 

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