Category: Seeing Sustainability

The Common Experience program – designed to create community and inspire activism at UCLA, and run by the First Year Experience office – has selected The Intersectional Environmentalist by SoCal native, activist, and eco-communicator Leah Thomas for the Bruin community to read.

Each year, a committee of students, staff, faculty, and alumni select a title for Bruins to take in, with a mission to ignite campus-wide discussions and inspire action on compelling social issues.

This academic year’s selection, The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet by Leah Thomas, examines the inextricable link between environmentalism, racism, and privilege to promote awareness of the fundamental truth that we cannot save the planet without uplifting the voices of its people — especially those most often unheard.

The Intersectional Environmentalist highlights how forces systematically influence both human-caused climate change and the marginalized populations that it affects most, speaking on how we are all stakeholders in the challenge of healing and sustaining our shared Earth. The book is simultaneously a call to action, a guide to instigating change for all, and a pledge to work towards the empowerment of all people and the betterment of the planet. 

Author Leah Thomas uses her passion for writing and creativity to explore and advocate for the critical yet often overlooked relationship between social justice and environmentalism.

In 2020, she launched a resource hub and platform, Intersectional Environmentalist,  with the aim to advocate for environmental justice, provide educational resources surrounding intersectional environmentalism, and promote inclusivity and accessibility within environmental education and movements. The book was published in 2022.

Visit Common Experience at UCLA to acquire an edition or access the audio or ebook. Explore the Common Experience page further to learn more about this year’s selection and to take a deeper dive to spark your curiosity and to get involved.

Back-to-school season is upon us, Bruins! Less than a month, to be exact. Making sustainable choices right at the start of the fall quarter can set the tone for a greener academic year ahead.

Here are nine ways to pull off an environmentally friendly move-in and have a more sustainable college experience. These actions will protect the environment and save money, time, and space. Sustainable practices you get into on campus at UCLA can last a lifetime.

1. Pack with items you need to bring anyways: backpacks, duffel bags, suitcases, laundry bins, and other containers. Wrap breakables and delicate stuff in towels, sheets, and clothes instead of bubble wrap or packing peanuts. Used newspaper works too. If you use cardboard boxes, be sure to break them down and recycle them using UCLA’s centralized waste bins.
2. Only bring essentials. Coordinate with roommates to share items, wait on big purchases till you arrive, and buy used. Check out UCLA’s Surplus Stop for free new-to-you, pre-loved items like office supplies, kitchenware, furniture, and more. Also, consume more consciously shopping at the UCLA Thrift Shop, which carries quality merchandise at bargain prices and gives back to the community.
3. Stock up on reusables like a refillable water bottle, travel coffee/tea mug, and reusable utensil set. Include reusable shopping bags, food containers, and a reusable straw.
4. Decorate your space —and purify the air—with plants. The snake plant, spider plant, peace lily, and succulents all green up your living area and make it homey.
5. Power up right. Use better for the planet LED bulbs instead of incandescent and CFL bulbs. Opt for a power strip to reduce energy consumption and easily switch off devices when not in use. And when shopping for appliances like a monitor and laptop, microwaves, minifridges, and coffee makers, look for ENERGY STAR labeled products.
6. Don’t forget the environmentally friendly cleaning products and detergents as well to keep it green and clean.
7. UCLA Dining’s award-winning eateries feature lots of vegetarian fare. Eating less meat is something individuals can do to help the environment. Westwood Village also hosts a Farmers’ Market every Thursday on Broxton Ave for all your in-season fruit and veggie needs.
8. Go green by walking, borrowing or bringing a bike, and taking public transit.
9. Join UCLA’s sustainability community! Get involved through a student club or organization, study sustainability by taking a class on the subject, attend a green event, and follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram for news and other resources.

By Karen Hallisey

For Michelle Barton, Kyle Graycar, and Austin Park, working towards a sustainable future started in college, then blossomed into full-blown careers. With commencement on the horizon, hear from these three UCLA alumni about how their passion for sustainability as students turned professional.

The spark of interest

Austin Park took a sustainability course during freshman year that cemented his interest. He joined E3 (the student sustainability advocacy group), helped organize Coastalong (the bike-powered eco-friendly festival formerly called Ecochella), and worked to raise awareness of the UC Carbon Neutrality Initiative.

For Kyle Graycar, the undergraduate experience was pivotal in his decision to work in sustainability.

“My science classes taught me how climate change worked and how urgent the problem is, while my club involvement showed me how to actually effect change and inspire the UCLA community to act more sustainably,” said Kyle.

Michelle Barton’s experiences at UCLA also spurred her interest in sustainability. As a fourth-year student, she joined the Undergraduate Students Association Council specifically to work on sustainability issues.

“Plus, as a biology major, the idea of a career in the applied sciences that would allow me to protect nature while promoting sustainable practices had huge appeal,” said Michelle.

Sustainability at work

Today, Michelle is the City of LA’s first-ever Biodiversity Program Manager with LA Sanitation & Environment. In her role with the City’s Biodiversity Program and Healthy Soils Program, she delivers public presentations, coordinates events, like the LA Bioblitz Challenge, oversees experts and City staff working on biodiversity initiatives, performs data analysis, produces technical reports, like the LA Biodiversity Index Baseline Report, and brainstorms projects, strategies, and programs the City can implement.

“Promoting and enacting sustainable practices that protect habitat, utilize nature-based solutions, provide equitable access to nature and parks, and mitigate the urban heat island, will both protect wildlife and ecosystems and help mitigate climate impacts, keeping neighborhoods cool and livable,” she said.

Eventually focusing on climate and energy, Austin earned an M.S. in Energy Resources Engineering at Stanford. He said, “My goal was to harness the power of nerdy math for emissions reductions.”

Marrying machine learning with climate solutions, a brief internship at Google connected him with Matt Wytock, CEO and Founder of Gridmatic, which he joined as a Machine Learning Engineer after graduating.

“I now spend about 80% of my time coding. I do my best to apply AI research to our wind, solar, and load forecasting models. I’ve also become very involved in developing our battery storage schedulers,” said Austin.

Kyle is now the co-founder of Decarbon, a carbon accounting and climate action app for individuals and businesses.

“Decarbon works to demystify climate change for everyday people with an experience that’s not unlike a financial budgeting tool; except, instead of tracking dollars and cents, users track carbon emissions,” said Kyle.

Advice for Bruins

Michelle advises to hone public speaking and technical writing skills, request informational interviews with individuals holding jobs of interest, accept new challenges, and take initiative.

Austin said, “The field of sustainability should include nothing less than the entire economy. As sustainability picks up momentum across sectors, there will be a need for nearly every skill set. Get involved!”

“Fundamental resources—air, water, and food—depend on healthy natural systems. For our wellbeing, sustainability work is essential.”

Kyle said, “Find a close community of friends and mentors who can both inspire you and keep you motivated. Acting on climate change is so much easier and effective when we act collectively.”

His parting words for the Class of 2023 and other Bruins?

“Climate change is an emergency. As daunting as that sounds, it’s important for us to get creative, stay motivated, and build the future we want to live in.”

February begins under less stormy conditions than the torrential rain that pummeled L.A. and other cities across California in January, causing mudslides, flooding, and road closures. But with extreme weather events more likely with human-induced climate change, the forecast ahead isn’t sunny. Recognizing this climate crisis, UCLA is reducing emissions through energy efficiency and renewable energy and developing a pathway to decarbonization.

When carbon emissions run amok, it leads to extreme weather events worsening. Rising emissions are associated with changes in weather patterns. Scientific studies indicate that large storms, like the ones that hit across our state, are expected to worsen in frequency, intensity, and impact with human-induced climate change. With this critical challenge affecting California today—and the potential to further cause damage, with the worst impacts felt by our most vulnerable communities—UCLA is taking action.

While UCLA’s base of operations has grown, adding millions of square feet to the campus footprint, the equivalent of thousands of houses, there has not been a parallel increase in greenhouse gas emissions. By using less energy and renewable sources, combined with other efforts, including greening the campus fleet, UCLA lowered its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels almost a decade ago in 2014, achieving this goal set for 2020 six years ahead of schedule.

The climate section of UCLA’s Sustainability Plan delves into decarbonization efforts on campus in the area of energy, from solar panels on campus to a major Renewable Rate agreement with our utility, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). Energy conservation is crucial for reaching carbon neutrality and a very effective way to achieve carbon reductions.

An example climate project setting UCLA on the path to a clean energy future is Facilities Management’s Smart Buildings & Labs Program. The program was created to improve energy conservation in campus spaces. Retrofitting light fixtures with LEDs that require less energy to operate than incandescent, fluorescent, and other types of lighting is one way this initiative is expanding energy efficiency. Other program efforts include modifying outdoor air to meet the temperature and humidity requirements of indoor environments to reduce energy use, and in laboratories, one of the highest energy use spaces on campus, replacing older, less efficient equipment with newer models.

The UCLA Sustainable LA Grand Challenge tries to set the tone through campus wide, interdisciplinary action that meets the needs of our external partners and surrounding communities in fair and equitable ways. For example, the initiative continues to coordinate researchers and LADWP to work toward equitable solutions to reach 100% renewable energy in Los Angeles, and it just recently launched its Transformative Research and Collaboration (TRACtion) programming. The first two years will focus on Transportation, in partnership with the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, marshalling a roadmap forward for the region by the effort’s conclusion.

Bruins looking for bright ideas to save energy can start here. Other energy-saving tips include switching to energy-efficient appliances and unplugging devices you aren’t using. Using less hot water also reduces energy consumption.

Students, faculty, and staff can also aid in energy conservation on campus by alerting Facilities Management to any issues they spot. These could be flickering lights indoors or outdoor lights on during the day, leaking water fixtures, and rooms in campus buildings that are too hot or cold. All Bruins can report issues using the UCLA 311 Mobile App or by filling out a Facilities Service Request online.

Starting this year, in collaboration with other UC campuses and with funding support from the state, UCLA will undertake a major decarbonization study and address climate resilience through a UC-wide justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion-centered resilience planning project. Stay tuned for opportunities to provide feedback on these efforts and weigh in on updates to the climate section of the UC-wide Sustainable Practices Policy. And if you’d like to join us in engaging in sustainability, drop an email to sustainability@ucla.edu.

Many Bruins will start 2023 resolving to take better care of themselves. But what about our planet’s well-being? Environmental health and human health are intrinsically linked, in obvious ways like air, soil, and water pollution, and other ways, like emerging infectious diseases.

Human health depends on flourishing natural systems and wise stewardship of those natural systems. Environmental hazards like chemical contamination, poor water quality, and extreme weather and temperature events pose risks to people.

Climate change threatens health and well-being, aggravating illnesses like respiratory issues and causing anxiety-related responses to disasters like flooding or prolonged drought. Its impacts also trickle down to the most vulnerable, particularly disadvantaged communities disproportionately hurt by negative actions against nature.

Our planet needs to be in good shape — for the present population and future generations.

Recognizing that sustainability is the key to improved planetary and human health, UCLA and UCLA Health are taking action through several initiatives, including setting health-specific goals in the UCLA Sustainability Plan.

With professional schools in medicine, nursing, and public health, and centers like Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center and Center for Healthy Climate Solutions, UCLA is in a unique position with several outlets for advancing planetary and human health.

The Center for Healthy Climate Solutions, located in the Fielding School of Public Health, produces research to inform policy changes to benefit communities: for example, the creation of a heat risk map to help the City of Los Angeles target resources to the most vulnerable areas exposed to extreme heat.

Within the UCLA Health system are several efforts: to reduce waste, conserve water, and even green operating rooms. Already an energy efficiency program implemented in 2015 at the Ronald Reagan and Santa Monica hospital facilities is decreasing carbon emissions by 22%.

And at the Geffen School of Medicine, planetary health topics are part of the curriculum. Future health professionals are engaged in coursework on the changing geography of vector-borne diseases, the health consequences of air pollution, environmental health inequities, and disaster response principles.

UCLA is invested in making Earth a healthier place to live, and every Bruin can be too. Start 2023 off on a good (and smaller!) carbon footprint. Some ways to take action include bringing your own shopping bags and shopping locally, getting a reusable water bottle, eating less meat, recycling and upcycling, and carpooling and taking public transportation. Find more ways to get involved in sustainability on campus here.