University of California, Los Angeles
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Education and Research:
The Climate Action Plan sees UCLA as playing “an important leadership role in supporting and advancing research and educational efforts to accelerate behavioral change and bring new energy technologies to the global marketplace.” It is therefore no surprise that UCLA offers over 200 courses focused on or related to climate change and sustainability. This includes courses such as the Global Environment Freshman Cluster, a 3-course sequence that annually teaches over 170 first year students about ecology, water quantity and quality, air quality, climate change, energy, policy, and regulation in one integrated program. Majors like Atmospheric, Oceanic, & Environmental Sciences, Environmental Science, Earth & Environmental Science, and Geography/Environmental Studies show UCLA’s deep commitment to educating a new generation of environmentally conscious leaders. This commitment is reflected in the student body, as in 2008, undergraduate students overwhelmingly passed a referendum to increase student fees $4 a quarter to create a fund of over $200,000 a year for student sustainability projects. The Graduate Student Association established the Sustainable Resource Center, which includes a lending library, and a variety of programs, as a resource for the campus community. The groundbreaking interdisciplinary graduate program- Leaders in Sustainability, brings graduate students from Management, Law, Policy, Engineering, Urban Planning, and other departments together to work on critical issues in sustainability.
UCLA has one of the nation’s largest and most comprehensive continuing higher education programs, UCLA Extension, and in recent years it has offered an increasing number of courses on sustainability related topics. In June 2008, it hosted a full day conference titled “The Business of Green: What’s the Payoff” that featured a number of panels related to climate change. UCLA Extension is also launching a Global Sustainability Certificate program, which will encompass multiple disciplines including; architecture and design, business, education, landscape architecture, law, marketing, public policy, real estate, science, technology and urban planning.
UCLA is also home to over twenty different research centers on the cutting edge of research across the sustainability spectrum, and there are currently over 160 faculty researching climate change or sustainability issues in areas as diverse as atmospheric science, solar energy, and ocean research. For example, the Emmett Center is the nation’s first law school center focused exclusively on climate change, while the Nano Renewable Energy Center focuses on the research and development of the latest renewable energy technologies. Housed in UCLA’s first LEED Silver building, the Institute of the Environment employs innovative, cross-disciplinary approaches to address critical environmental challenges with the goal of achieving stable human coexistence with the natural systems on which society depends, and hosts a variety of research centers including the new Center for Corporate Environmental Performance and the Center for Climate Change Solutions.
UCLA is spearheading CleanTech Los Angeles, a collaboration between CRA/LA, Caltech, DWP, JPL, Mayor's Office, Port, UCLA, and USC to establish Los Angeles as the global leader in research, commercialization, and deployment of clean technologies. The goals of the initiative are to create green job opportunities and facilitate growing demand and development of clean technology.
Campus Operations:
The UCLA Climate Action Plan dictates that UCLA embrace its "responsibility to be a leader in addressing climate change and sustainability." The plan sets a goal of bringing greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels by 2012, eight years before the UC and State target, without purchasing offsets. UCLA is able to lead through current dedication and early action in past decades. UCLA's cogeneration plant, completed in 1994, generates 70% of the electricity used on campus with natural gas, 7% of which is landfill gas, and supplies almost 100% of campus heating and cooling through steam and chilled water. Early implementation of energy efficiency measures reduced campus energy consumption per square foot 16% from 1997 to 2007. Over the next four years, UCLA will convert older HVAC systems to the latest technology, reducing UCLA’s carbon footprint by approximately 17,000 tons of CO2 per year. Other stationary initiatives include additional lighting retrofits and motion sensors.
La Kretz Hall, home to the Institute of the Environment and UCLA’s first LEED Silver certified building, will soon have company, as all new construction or major renovation must now be at least LEED Silver. UCLA looks for sustainability in everything from new purchases to old waste. UCLA’s buyers look for the “green” factor in everything from janitorial products to lab equipment. A significant portion of new dormitory furniture has FSC certified wood. All of UCLA's computers are Energy Star rated and standard configurations for desktop computers and notebooks/monitors are EPEAT certified gold and silver respectively. UCLA Document and Bulk Mail Services purchases all FSC certified paper. Through a variety of programs, 58% percent of our waste stream is diverted from landfill. UCLA aims for 75% in 2012 and 100% diversion or Zero Waste by 2020. An additional 32% of UCLA's waste stream is diverted from landfills thanks to waste-to-energy recycling.
Bucking the infamous car culture of Los Angeles, a city with a drive-alone rate of 75%, the UCLA employee drive-alone rate is 55% and the student rate is just over 30%, thanks to a variety of Transportation Demand Management programs. These programs include transit pass subsidies, an on-campus car-sharing program, a growing bicycle program, vanpools, carpools, and CNG-powered campus shuttles. The campus also aggressively pursues the turnover of fleet inventory towards zero emissions vehicles (ZEVs), partial zero emissions vehicles (PZEVs), advanced technology partial zero emissions vehicles, and other alternative fueled vehicles (AFVs). By 2014, the fleet will consist of 40 percent PZEV/ZEV vehicles and 50 percent AFVs. By 2020, the Fleet mix will increase to 70 percent PZEV/ZEV vehicles and 75 percent AFVs.
In Southern California, water is a critical issue issue, and the Governor recently declared a state of emergency due to ongoing drought. UCLA's water conservation efforts have reduced water consumption over 7% since 2000, a reduction in annual consumption of over 71 million gallons, despite an 18% growth in campus square footage. This was accomplished through recycling water, irrigation management, and plumbing retrofits.
Administration and Finance:
This year was a landmark year for institutionalizing sustainability at UCLA. The university adopted a Climate Action Plan that details how UCLA will meet UC and State emissions reduction targets, eight years early, in 2012, without purchasing offsets. UCLA Chancellor Gene Block believes that the "Climate Action Plan is a major step in UCLA's commitment to addressing global climate change and sustainability...Accomplishing the identified goals and projects in the next decade will require the participation of the entire university community. All of us have a part to play in addressing global climate change and creating a sustainable future for our children and grandchildren." UCLA is a signatory of the American College and University President's Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), and was one of the first campuses to submit a Climate Action Plan to ACUPCC. UCLA was also granted the status of Climate Action Leader by the California Climate Action Registry (CCAR).
In 2008, UCLA established a full-time Sustainability Coordinator position to work with the UCLA Sustainability committee to foster partnerships among academic, research, and operational departments and further the goals and initiatives of the campus sustainability program. UCLA Housing and Hospitality Services (H&HS) also created a separate full-time Sustainability Coordinator position focused on the residence halls, dining halls, catering, and other areas of H&HS. The campus Sustainability Coordinator is spearheading a campus-wide sustainability assessment and planning process, beginning with an assessment based on the AASHE STARS system. The Sustainabilty Coordinator has also created a Sustainability Ambassadors program and is recruiting representatives from each department across campus to serve as liasons and help educate staff. The Sustainability Coordinator for H&HS has created a strategic plan for H&HS that includes peer-to-peer staff sustainability education programs.
The UCLA Sustainability Committee was established in 2005 and consists of high level administrators from a variety of campus departments, including Student Affairs, Capital Programs, Purchasing, General Services, Housing and Hospitality Services, Staff Assembly, Events Management, ASUCLA, External Affairs, and the Chancellor's office, along with staff, faculty, and graduate and undergraduate student representatives. The committee has three subcommittees- Operations, Communications, and Academics. An additional committee on Events Sustainability has created an online guide to event sustainability, and has successfully diverted waste from many campus events through an Event Sustainability Volunteer Program. This year new taskforces have been created to address specific operations areas- Water, Recycling and Waste, Material Management, Transportation and Planning, and Behavioral Change. Additionally UCLA Administrative Information Systems (AIS) created a Green IT Taskforce that launched a campus-wide campaign to educate staff about sustainable IT practices. Additionally, there are an increasing number of department-specific committees working on campus sustainability, including at the UCLA Anderson School of Management and in UCLA Recreation. The Anderson Green Commission hosted a case competition focused on sustainability at the Anderson School, and is in the process of implementing the winning strategies. Also this year, through the UCLA Professional Development Program, a team of staff created a Staff and Faculty Sustainability Handbook to help staff implement sustainability in their departments.
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