Category: Seeing Sustainability

UCLA Expands Dedication to Protecting Biodiversity, Joins International Nature Coalition

By Karen Hallisey

Against the backdrop of the biggest global summit for living things, the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, UCLA has pledged to further help Earth’s animals and plants by joining the new Nature Positive Universities Alliance.

Created jointly by the UN Environment Programme and the University of Oxford, the alliance aims to spur the world’s higher education institutions to do more work that halts and reverses damage to natural areas so species and ecosystems can flourish. Being “nature positive” encompasses everything a university does, from its teaching and research endeavors to the operations that keep it running.

“Universities have an important role in addressing the global biodiversity crisis through research and teaching, and also through the hands-on opportunity for restoration and access to nature on our campuses,” said Nurit Katz, UCLA’s chief sustainability officer.

Read the full story on UCLA Newsroom.

Sustainable By Design

By Karen Hallisey

Buildings have a significant impact on human health and the environment. Green buildings can reduce the negative impact on the natural environment by using less water, energy, and other resources. While sometimes referred to as “Under Construction Literally Always,” UCLA is keeping the future in mind when it comes to construction, integrating design and maintenance strategies that increase healthy spaces, while decreasing resource consumption. 

The UCLA Sustainability Plan has identified strategies to green new and existing facilities. Buildings have a large carbon footprint due to fossil fuel combustion and other factors. By developing, operating, and maintaining sustainable buildings, UCLA can keep thousands of pounds of emissions out of the atmosphere. 

The most common way of measuring sustainability in a building is achieving LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification — the U.S. Green Building Council rating system designating a facility’s environmental excellence. LEED certified buildings must prove they reduce carbon emissions and create healthier places for people, in addition to other criteria like water savings, energy efficiency, waste reduction, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. 

As of July 2021, UCLA has almost 60 LEED buildings and renovations, including 17 Platinum, the highest ranking. These sustainable buildings minimize energy demand, reduce water usage, and much more. UCLA has designated all new construction and major refurbishment projects meet a minimum LEED Silver rating and strive to achieve a LEED Platinum rating. 

Reporting repair needs and requesting services, either through the 311 Mobile App or Service Request Portal to Facilities Management is a way Bruins can assist in keeping UCLA running at its most efficient and eco-friendly. The upcoming Winter Holiday Closure, when most of UCLA facilities’ heating, ventilation, and air conditioning get reduced, is a good reminder of how responsible resource management in buildings contributes to a more climate-friendly campus. 

These efforts to build sustainably aren’t just the right thing to do, they’re also a smart financial move. Green buildings provide millions of dollars in savings due to better utilities management. LEED buildings have lower operational and maintenance costs because they are designed to use less energy and water while also creating an environmentally friendly and healthier space for occupants. 

Less Trash, More Good Cheer

By Karen Hallisey

The most wonderful time of the year can also be the most wasteful. Food consumption, decorating, and wrapping gifts add up in the bin. Especially during the holiday season, sustainability should be a priority.

Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, Americans throw away 25% more trash than the rest of the year, according to statistics from Stanford University. The extra waste amounts to 25 million tons of garbage or about 1 million extra tons per week!

Thankfully the simple solution is some straightforward actions Bruins can take to produce less trash over the next few months. On campus it is all about reducing, reusing, and sorting to help UCLA divert waste from the landfill.

Reduce: Use what you already have and only what you need. Think before you buy. 

Reuse: Use something again or more than once and buy secondhand, at the UCLA Surplus Shop or thrift retail stores, like the UCLA Thrift Shop.

Sort: Use the centralized waste bins on campus.

The UCLA Sustainability Plan released earlier in the year covers waste minimization efforts on campus. These include sourcing responsibly manufactured products, consuming consciously, reusing wherever possible, and recovering the value from products, packaging, and materials without sending them to landfill.

Bruins can easily adopt more sustainable habits to reduce and eliminate waste while on campus. These steps can be as simple as purchasing unpackaged produce, choosing a reusable bottle over a plastic one, buying secondhand and giving items multiple lives, and utilizing the centralized waste bins at UCLA.

Go into December and approach the rest of the season with sustainability in mind. Handling waste responsibly will reduce your personal environmental impact and protect our planet.
Bring good cheer — not heaping bags of garbage!

Learn more about UCLA’s waste diversion efforts and zero waste goal at www.sustain.ucla.edu/zero-waste.

Food For Thought in the UCLA Sustainability Plan

By Karen Hallisey

November, especially given Thanksgiving, is an ideal time to talk about conscious consumption and the impact of food on the environment. The month, and its holiday centered on cooking and eating, is an opportunity to highlight food systems practices at the university. UCLA supports food sustainability, and in its Sustainability Plan, outlines specific goals in this area. 

So why is this important? Let’s look at the very definition of sustainability first: maintaining or improving standards of living without damaging or depleting natural resources for present and future generations. How that applies to food systems and our campus is through the distribution and consumption of food products that keep the environment in mind. 

Non-sustainable food systems contribute to air pollution, create non-potable (undrinkable) water, and cause land erosion, among other consequences that contribute to the climate crisis. Through dining practices and dining consumption, Bruins can help curb climate change. 

The Sustainability Plan builds on work already being done to help preserve individual, community, and planetary health. These are the planned efforts to create a greener, healthier, and more resilient campus when it comes to food. 

  • Provide patrons and foodservice staff educational and training modules to support sustainable food choices. 
  • Reduce food’s greenhouse emissions through globally-inspired, culturally-acceptable, plant-forward menus. 
  • Strive to meet this topic area’s criteria in existing leased locations and incorporate language into lease requirements for new vendors and at renewal. 
  • Increase sustainable food procurement using Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System criteria. 
  • Increase sustainable food spending in UCLA Health using Practice Greenhealth criteria, which provides sustainability solutions for the health care sector. 

Review UCLA Sustainability’s food systems goals in greater detail and learn about the other sustainability initiatives outlined in the plan on UCLA Sustainability’s website.  

Sustainability in Cultures Art Gallery Highlights Student Voices

Karlie Hayes

2021-22 Zero Waste Ambassador

Sustainability wasn’t invented by the coining of the term “sustainable.” It means different things to different people, cultures, and communities: each has distinct sustainable traditions, and many groups have endured and shown resilience towards environmental injustices. And since Euro-centric and white perspectives often dominate the conversation around sustainability, it is essential to showcase how sustainability manifests across cultures. 

Inspired by this, Zero Waste UCLA and the Carbon Neutrality Initiative partnered to highlight these different perspectives. From April 25 – 29 in Kerckhoff Art Gallery, the Sustainability in Cultures Art Gallery featured art from the UCLA community in a variety of physical and non-physical mediums. Mediums ranged from clothing to paintings, and subject matter ranged from Los Angeles native plants to de-centering white male environmentalists, showcasing the intersectionality of sustainability across different communities. 

In addition to the general art gallery, which was open to the public throughout the week, the Sustainability in Cultures Art Gallery hosted an opening night event on April 26. Each artist spoke about the inspiration and meaning of their work, and later that evening, musicians performed during the open mic session. 

Following is a list of the artists and their work. 

  • Urban Weeds meet Sustainable Fashion: Tracing Los Angeles’ Global Horticultural History through Botanical Adornments by Amber R Sackett 
  • Age, the New Rage by Bernice Wang
  • Lens at Evening by Alexandra Roosnovo
  • Decommissioned to DRMO by Chaunti Hatchett and Jacob Ursua
  • Choices by Raluca Mocanu
  • A new era by Nancy Nan
  • What He Meant to Say by Cheryl Ma
  • Ocean Guide by Isabel Dawson
  • Art by Sustainability Action Research Students

To learn more about the art gallery and the wonderful work by these artists, we recommend visiting our website, you can see pictures of the art, descriptions of the art pieces, and background information about the artists. 

Recognizing a variety of perspectives is an important part of sustainability. UCLA Zero Waste aims to host this art gallery annually, so keep an eye out for future calls for submissions or information about the 2023 art gallery. In the meantime, feel free to check out this year’s art gallery website. And in a broader context, feel free to learn about how different backgrounds and cultures give people a myriad of perspectives on why sustainability is important, and how to incorporate it into our lives. 

Tips for an Eco-Conscious Holiday Season

Karlie Hayes

2021-22 Zero Waste Ambassador

As December begins and finals week comes to an end, many of us will take part in holiday traditions. From Kwanzaa, to Hanukkah, to Christmas, to Omisoka, to New Years’, winter is an opportunity to find joy and spend time with our families. 

Following are a few tips for how to make our holiday season more sustainable by reducing our waste impact and energy footprint. Feel free to use the tips that work for you!

Gifts

Gift-giving is a way to show our loved ones that we care, but sometimes we forget about our love for the planet. Across its life cycle, the average product results in carbon emissions 6.3 times its own weight. One way to reduce this impact is to focus on buying gifts of quality, not quantity. For example, consider asking your family and friends for a wish list to ensure you are buying a gift that they will truly enjoy. Not having to return gifts saves carbon emissions that would have been spent on transportation, packaging, and manufacture of a product that may never be resold.

Other low-carbon options include handmade, experiential, or locally-bought gifts. To avoid wrapping waste, consider reusing gift bags or wrapping items in recyclable wrapping paper, (avoid glossy or glittery paper, which isn’t recyclable). 

Tree

If you celebrate Christmas, choosing a sustainable Christmas tree can help you reduce your carbon footprint. According to the British Carbon Trust, an artificial tree used over many years (seven to twenty years, depending on the size and materials used) is better for the environment than a commercially-grown tree. If you buy a real tree, check for those that are Forest Stewardship Council-certified, slow-grown, or grown without fertilizer. To be even more sustainable, consider renting a potted tree with roots, which can be reused over multiple years until it reaches full maturity and is replanted in the woods. 

Disposing of your tree properly can also decrease its environmental impact. If a tree ends up in the landfill, it will decompose and release methane, leading to a hefty 35 pounds of emissions. However, Christmas trees that are chipped or repotted have a much lower carbon footprint of 7.5 pounds.

Food

Many of us look forward to traditional sweets and meals at this time of year, and it is unsurprising that as a population, we eat more during the holiday season than any other time. To prevent food waste from entering the landfill, consider freezing dinner leftovers. The type of foods you serve during this time can also make a significant impact – try buying fair trade chocolate gelt or focusing on mostly vegetarian dishes that have a much lower environmental impact than meat. 

Decorations

A home filled with lights and cozy decorations certainly sets the atmosphere for the holiday season. Make sure you are using LED string lights that use 90% less energy than incandescent lights. Since they are most vibrant at night, also try to turn off your lights during the day to save energy. To keep waste out of the landfill, only buy decorations that will be enjoyed for years to come and avoid any single-use plastics.

Travel

Seeing our loved ones is often the highlight of our holiday season, but traveling can produce a carbon footprint. Luckily, there are ways to travel in more sustainable ways. For example, since flights have a higher carbon footprint than ground travel, consider driving or taking a train between cities. Also, since many people are traveling around the holidays, see if you can share rides. Consider catching a ride home for winter break with a friend to save on carbon emissions and gas money.

We hope you have a wonderful, restful, and joyous winter break and holiday season!

Fighting Food Waste at Home

By Kristida Chhour

2021-22 Zero Waste Ambassador

Food is a hot topic at UCLA, with lots of exciting new events and programming going on. This month, the Zero Waste Ambassadors debuted the Zero Waste Kitchen Companion, a guide all about implementing sustainable practices in the kitchen, at the Food Day 2021 event. The event was held on November 10th by the EatWell Pod, UCLA Farmer’s Market, Teaching Kitchen at UCLA, jane b semel HCI Community Garden, and Zero Waste. 

The goal of the Kitchen Companion is to teach people about low-waste cooking and raise awareness about the environmental impact of food-related waste. Low-waste cooking is adapting our approach to cooking and grocery shopping to reduce the amount of food waste and packaging that goes to landfills. This could mean keeping veggie scraps to make a stock or buying package-free vegetables instead of pre-cut, packaged ones. Trying to make some changes in your habits to reduce your impact on the environment is a fun challenge that is often budget-friendly.

The Kitchen Companion also includes guides on foundational kitchen knowledge, skills, and how-tos to help our fellow students feel more confident in the kitchen. We cover the essentials, from explaining which knife to use for what job to buying seasonal produce and properly storing food. The guide also highlights food-related campus resources such as UCLA community cookbooks and the Community Programs Office Basic Needs Food Closet. With this guide, anybody can get a better grasp of kitchen skills and learn how to implement sustainable changes in their lifestyle.

Food is deeply intertwined with our livelihoods, culture, and social lives. The Zero Waste Ambassadors are addressing waste through the lens of food because of its universality. Food has no boundaries and is relevant to everybody. Our food systems, however, have a significant impact on the environment: about 8-10% of greenhouse gas emissions are associated with food that is not consumed (UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2021). We can help reduce this amount by raising awareness and making small changes in our kitchen habits. Our previous project, the Food Waste Recovery Implementation Guide, also provides resources about how to divert food waste through food recovery and redistribution, which helps out our fellow Bruins. Together we can help reduce food waste and make a positive environmental impact.

To connect with Zero Waste, you can reach us via zerowaste@ucla.edu or on our Instagram @zerowasteucla. 

Sustainable Thanksgiving Week

By Karlie Hayes

2021-22 Zero Waste Ambassador

This Thursday and Friday, we will gather with friends and family to give thanks and celebrate the beginning of the holiday season. However, the upcoming days can also take a toll on the environment. With this in mind, following are a few tips on how to make this Thanksgiving and Black Friday positive for both our loved ones and the planet. 

Preventing Food Waste

While many people will be traveling to spend time with loved ones and sharing a festive feast, this meal can have a larger environmental impact than most. For example, the traveling associated with Thanksgiving leads to extra greenhouse gas emissions. The average American can emits close to a pound of carbon dioxide per mile traveled, and traveling by airplane makes up 2% of all CO2 emissions. The resources used to produce and transport food also have an environmental impact: 46 million turkeys are consumed on Thanksgiving, and it takes 915,200 barrels of oil to produce and ship those turkeys. 

To minimize these impacts, we can take a few steps to celebrate more sustainably. 

Shift the proportions of food in the meal

Since turkey requires less feed per pound and emits less nitrous oxide in its waste than cows and sheep, turkey is definitely one of the more sustainable meats. However, turkey still has a higher environmental impact than plant-based foods. Buying a smaller turkey and emphasizing vegetables and sides is one way to decrease the environmental impact of your Thanksgiving meal.

Finish leftovers at home or with friends

Food waste is responsible for about 50% of avoidable household waste and since many people tend to eat or cook more food than is needed, we often end up with leftovers. Eating these leftovers on our own, or better yet, inviting friends to finish them up, can prevent some delicious food from going to waste. 

Freeze any remaining leftovers

In a similar vein, if we find ourselves with leftover turkey or stuffing that we simply cannot finish, we can freeze this food to enjoy later. By freezing it, we can keep food waste out of the landfill and save ourselves some tasty food for a later meal. 

Black Friday

Black Friday is considered the unofficial beginning of the holiday shopping season. While these sales can allow some people to buy things that they otherwise would not have been able to afford, it can also lead to overconsumption, which takes a toll on our planet. For example, each product requires material resources to produce and package and fuel to deliver. Also, buying more products leads to waste of both the products we are replacing and the products we are buying, which will likely eventually end up in the landfill. For example, only 20% of e-waste is recycled, and when electronics are placed in the landfill, they can leak toxic materials which impact human health. 

We have the ability to decrease our impact on the environment this Black Friday. Here are a few tips for how to buy thoughtful gifts for our loved ones while also being conscious of our planet.

Buy quality instead of quantity

There are many alternatives to physical gifts, and it is possible to decrease the amount of items we buy for our loved ones while still showing that we care. For example, we can gift them an experience like tickets to shows, sports games, or amusement parks. We can also buy a smaller amount of high-quality items so the item will last longer and will not need replacing. Another alternative is buying items from local, small business shops or make homemade gifts or baked goods.

Choose standard or bundled shipping

Delivery of products with two-day shipping leaves a bigger carbon footprint than slower options. Shipping items together can help reduce the environmental costs of item transportation. You can also shop in-store and support local businesses to remove deliveries entirely.

Buy sustainably and ethically sourced or used products 

Buying used items or items from companies with sustainable operations can decrease the amount of resources used and decrease waste. Consider looking for products with trustworthy certifications, such as 1% for the Planet, B-Corp Certified, Forest Stewardship Council Certified, or Fair Trade Certified. 

Bottom Line

As we head into this holiday weekend, each of these tips can make your gatherings and shopping more sustainable. It is important to be gentle with yourself. Try to make the changes that work for you and remember that the most impactful way for us to reduce waste is to make our long-term habits more sustainable. 

We wish you all a wonderful, safe, and sustainable start of the holiday season!

UCLA is Top Performer in 2021 Sustainable Campus Index

UCLA has been recognized as a top performer in the 2021 Sustainable Campus Index, achieving 5th place in the Buildings category and 4th place in the Wellbeing & Work category. A publication from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), the Sustainable Campus Index recognizes top-performing sustainable colleges and universities overall and in 17 impact areas, as measured by the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS).

With 56 LEED certified buildings, UCLA is a leader in building sustainability. This Buildings category achievement indicates that UCLA excels in designing, building, and maintaining buildings in ways that provides a safe and healthy indoor environment for inhabitants while simultaneously mitigating the building’s impact on the outdoor environment.

The Wellbeing & Work category honors universities that bolster the strength of their communities by promoting the wellbeing of the campus community and by offering worker benefits, wages, and other forms of assistance that serve to respectfully and ethically compensate workers. This achievement recognizes UCLA’s student and employee wellness programs and employee compensation, satisfaction, health and safety.

UCLA Recognized for Excellence in Zero Waste Efforts

By Kikei Wong

UCLA Zero Waste Manager

UCLA was recognized by the National Recycling Coalition (NRC) with The Outstanding Higher Education Program Award, given annually to an institution of higher education to recognize exceptional efforts in waste reduction, recycling, and building professional development opportunities for students with an interest in recycling technologies. 

The NRC is a non-profit organization that is focused on the promotion and enhancement of recycling in the United States, representing and advocating for every sector of the recycling industry across the country at the local, state, and federal levels. 

The NRC highlighted our efforts in boosting waste programs including standardizing infrastructure, implementing centralized waste collection, expanding the Zero Waste Ambassadors student program, developing a strong social media presence, and researching the barriers to zero waste on and off campus. These programs and initiatives strengthen our endeavors to reach UCLA’s Zero Waste Goals by increasing accessibility of waste infrastructure and creating programming that meets the needs of the campus while providing students with professional development opportunities that prepare them for post-graduation. Recent alumni involved in the programs now work in local government, the UC system, non-profit organizations, and waste haulers while others have entered graduate school.

We appreciate NRC’s recognition of our efforts to eliminate waste and to boost resource recovery. With the fast growing zero waste initiatives on campus, we strive to empower our entire Bruin community with not only foundational knowledge and skills, but with the resources for success to achieve our goals. UCLA continues to build upon zero waste efforts with the implementation of the campus-wide Single-Use Plastics Policy, adopted in October 2020. The Policy phases out single-use plastics such as plastic bags, plastic foodservice items, and beverage bottles and instead transitions to reusable or locally compostable alternatives. This applies to all foodservice facilities, events, fundraisers, and meetings that serve food or beverages on campus and requires campus-wide collaboration and cooperation from students, faculty, and staff. UCLA’s goals will be achieved with the support of every member of the UCLA community.

Any questions can be directed to zerowaste@ucla.edu