VOLUME 3 Bright Green News

February 2009
October 2008 The Campus Sustainability Newsletter

IN THIS ISSUE Service Learning at UCB

• The Office Update Building Sustainability at Cal waste audits, taking building occu-
(BS@C) was created by under- pant surveys, and creating sustain-
•• Building
Building Sustainability
Sustainability at
at Cal
Cal –
–
Service Learning graduate students Laura Moreno ability action plans for individual
Service Learning
and Desirae Early in spring 2008 in buildings and units. Student led
• Chancellor’s Advisory Commit- close collaboration with staff and projects have included organizing a
• Green
tee on Activities & Events
Sustainability—Green
faculty. The goal of BS@C is to “What is Sustainability?” meeting
Fund Grants
• Water & The Itty Bitty Fruit
educate and engage students in with custodial staff, reducing the classes have a variety of projects to
• Water & The Itty Bitty Fruit educational and operational activi- campuses’ water usage by replacing choose from. Projects under con-
Label Alert
Label Alert ties that reduce environmental some sink aerators to the most sideration include sponsoring de-
•• TGIF Grants- Callfor
TGIF Grants-Call forProposals
Proposals impacts of campus buildings. efficient flow (saving the campus partment brown-bag sustainability
$14K annually), and beginning an meetings, collaborating with cam-
The program began as two service
• Berkeley Energy Resources inventory of T12 bulbs in College of pus cafes to reduce waste, and
learning classes offered by Profes-
Collaborative
Collaborative Events
Events Natural Resources buildings to be conducting a refrigerator inventory
sors Bill Berry and Dan Kammen:
replaced by more efficient T8 bulbs. to determine which can be replaced
Environmental Science 84 and En-
BS@C has grown to include seven for energy efficient models as part
ergy and Resources 199, respec-
year-round interns and two cam- of the campus Strategic Energy
tively. ES 84 focuses on general
The sustainability topics like waste and
pus-wide projects. Plan.

water use reduction and increasing At the end of the semester stu- If you have any questions or would
Office use of alternative transportation, dents compile reports – see the like to get involved, email sustain-

Update
• How can you make your depart-
ment more green? Contact us to
talk about ideas and simple steps
you can take.
• Welcome to our newest student
intern. Joanna Young has
joined the Office as the new
TGIF Forum and Communica-
tions Associate.
• Please encourage your friends
and colleagues to join our list
serve.
Contact us:
Lisa McNeilly:
lmcneilly@berkeley.edu
Kira Stoll: stoll@berkeley.edu
Check out our Office website
and the CalCAP website
and ER 199 focuses on energy effi- Spring 2008 report on the Facilities abilityatcal@gmail.com
ciency strategies. Services Green Buildings website.
The fall 2008 report will be avail-
Students apply their knowledge by
able soon on the same website. Article By, Irene Seliverstov, BS@C –
conducting lighting, water, and
This spring, students in the BS@C Student Lead Program Coordinator
C h a n c e l l o r ’s A d v i s o r y C o m m i t t e e o n S u s t a i n a b i l i t y
The Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Sustainabil- Sustainability Assessment for the cam-
ity (CACS) first met in 2003, with the mission to: pus and playing an instrumental role in
the formation of Cal’s Climate Action
Engage the campus in an ongoing dialogue about
Partnership and the Office of Sustain-
reaching environmental sustainability ability.
Integrate environmental sustainability with exist- CACS is still going strong, as the 2009
ing campus programs in education, research, year starts, managing on-going programs and identifying
operations, and public service new initiatives to take on to benefit campus sustainability.
Instill a culture of sustainable long-range planning Campus and community members are welcome to partici-
and forward-thinking design pate in the meetings and projects. CACS meets on the
fourth Thursday of each month from 3:30pm to 5:00pm in
Highlights of the work of CACS include the hosting of Stanley Hall, Room 177.
an annual sustainability summit during Earth Week, an
annual Green Fund Grants program (soliciting To learn more about CACS, to find out about meetings,
and to get involved check out the CACS website and/or
proposals NOW for the 2009-10 year), funding
contact CACS Administrative Intern.
student environmental internships, producing the first
 Bright Green News VOLUME 3 February 2009

Wa t e r & T h e I t t y B i t t y Fr u i t L a b e l A l e r t
pumps and hoses, attached to screens and filters,
or even worse, in San Francisco Bay. Some plas-
Who knew that tics neither float nor sink, making it difficult to
little plastic capture them in the treatment process. Unfortu-
nately, they may end up where we don’t want
stickers placed them.
on fruit could
In this case, there’s an easy solution. Prevent
be such a big pollution by always removing plastic stickers and
problem? wrappers and placing them in the garbage before
washing and peeling your fruits and veggies.
Surprisingly, those little stickers and myriad
other plastics, such as plastic food wrap and Remember the plastic shouldn’t go into garbage
bags, are washed down home drains all too disposals, which waste water and energy and send Article and graphics courtesy of East Bay
frequently. And they can end up in a variety of even smaller bits of plastic down the drain; nor do Municipal Utility District, Illustrations by
places – stuck on wastewater treatment plant they belong in your compost or green bin. Kimiko Chan.

S u s t a i n a b i l i t y G r a n t — S e e k i n g P ro p o s a l s N ow
The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF), a
sustainability grant supported
through UCB student fees, is now
accepting applications to fund
environmental projects for 2008-
09.
In April 2007, students resound-
ingly voted to create TGIF through
a $5 per semester self assessed
student fee. “The goal of TGIF is
to fund projects which demon-
strate the greatest reduction in
environmental impact on the cam-
pus for the least cost,” said Mor-
gan Wallace, chair of the TGIF
Grant-Making committee. “We
look for projects which are highly
quantifiable, have strong student
involvement, can be large-scale
projects, and will most directly
address sustainability at UCB.”
Grant awardees are selected by a
cross-disciplinary grant-making
committee consisting of students,
staff, and faculty in which students
have the majority. This year the
fund will award about $250,000.
Support for Earthweek events, a
native plant garden, and the “I
Heart Tapwater” campaign were
some of last year’s grant recipients.
Nine of the twenty-eight submitted
grants received funding in 2007-08
for a total of $168,615. The Cam-
pus Dashboard, a website being
developed by two graduate students
that will display resource consump-
tion data from all the buildings on
campus for anyone to view, was
granted the largest amount award of
$76,750.
All students, staff, and faculty are
eligible to apply for a grant. Infor-
mational sessions will be held bi-
monthly until the submission dead-
line (March 31st at midnight);
awardees will be announced in April.
This Water Campaign is
For more information about
supported by a grant from
TGIF and to download the ap-
plication, visit http://
The Green Initiative Fund
tgif.berkeley.edu.

Berkeley Energy Resources Collaborative Events

Wednesday, February 11:
BERC 2nd Annual Lecture:
Van Jones and the Green Col-
lar Economy
As climate chaos and soaring fuel
costs batter the U.S. economy,
Van Jones brings a unique perspec-
tive to the color green. He argues
that a green economy that rescues
the polar bears can also rescue the
U.S. economy -- putting America
back to work; driving down energy
and food prices; creating green
collar jobs and new chances to
underserved groups; and forever
ending the need for resource wars.
Bancroft Hotel (2680 Bancroft
Way, near College Ave)
6:00 Doors open & book sales
6:15 Lecture & discussion
Book signing to follow
Monday, February 23: The
third annual UC Berkeley En-
ergy Symposium – "Bold Ideas
for a New Energy Landscape"
will explore the cutting edge sci-
ence and policy that will craft the
future energy landscape in Amer-
ica. This all day event is being held
at the MLK Student Union and
includes a morning keynote ad-
dress by Mary Nichols, Chair of
the California Air Resources
Board.
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