UCLA Sustainability

Closing the Circle 2025: From Excess to Access
2025-10-17 08:00 - 19:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Hershey Hall, 801 Hilgard Ave, Los Angeles, CA, 90095
Join the Food Recovery Conference, part of Los Angeles Good Food Week. Presented in association with the UCLA Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies, FoodCycle, End Hunger LA, the Los Angeles Food Policy Council, and supported by the USDA SARE program, this gathering will bring together national speakers, local experts, and food recovery leaders to explore how surplus food can transform our food system. Learn innovative strategies to reduce waste, strengthen local food networks, and promote equitable access to nutritious food—while building the partnerships needed for a more sustainable, resilient future.
REGISTER HERE

UCLA Mathias Botanical Garden’s annual Fall Fest
2025-10-18 12:00 - 16:00 | UCLA Mildred E Mathias Botanical Garden, La Kretz Garden Pavilion, 707 Tiverton Dr, Los Angeles, CA, 90095
This event is completely free to attend, no RSVP required!
Spend an afternoon at the Garden with friends and family enjoying arts and crafts like weaving, button making, botanical illustration and more. Enjoy a talk from Assistant Director Allison Keeney about succulents and stick around to learn about basket weaving.
Learn more at https://www.botgard.ucla.edu/event/fall-fest-2025/.

Plant It and They Will Come: Supporting California's 1,600 Native Bees
2025-10-21 19:30 - 21:30 | Hammer Museum
Join National Geographic Explorer Krystle Hickman for a captivating talk on California’s native bee species and the plants they thrive on. In her new book, The ABCs of California’s Native Bees, Hickman describes 26 bee species—from the Agile Longhorn Bee to the Zone-tailed Banded-Mining Bee—through stunning photography and expert insights on identification, habitats, and conservation. Through stunning photography and expert insights, Hickman will introduce you to remarkable bee species from California. California is home to over 1,600 native bee species—one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth—but these vital pollinators face extinction from climate change and habitat loss. Learn how you can support them in your own backyard.
Following the talk, enjoy a conversation between Hickman and naturalist Michelle Fullner, host of the top-ranked podcast Golden State Naturalist. Stay after for complimentary coffee, tea, and cookies while you chat with fellow nature enthusiasts! Hickman will also sign copies of her new book.
This program is perfect for conservationists, citizen scientists, gardeners, photographers, entomologists, and anyone curious about California’s natural world.
Admission is free. Seating is first-come, first-served.
If you have questions or require accessibility accommodations, please don’t hesitate to reach out at info@hammer.ucla.edu or call (310) 443-7912.

The Aftermath of the Eaton Fire: Foster Care and Education Disrupted
2025-10-29 13:30 - 16:00 | Altadena Community Center, 730 E Altadena Dr, Altadena, CA, 91001, United States
At this event, the UCLA Pritzker Center will present a new brief outlining the impact of the Eaton Fire on children in foster care and their education.
Speakers include Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) Director Brandon Nichols and impacted community members. Refreshments from impacted Altadena restaurants will be served. Resources from Baby2Baby and the Book Foundation will be offered.
1:30pm Doors Open + Light Lunch from Altadena Restaurants
2-3pm Speakers + Report Briefing
3-4pm Resources
Please RSVP by October 15. For any questions, please email Taylor Dudley at dudley@gseis.ucla.edu.
REGISTER HERE

Botany Brown Bag with Dr. Pam Soltis
2025-10-30 12:00 - 13:00 | UCLA Mildred E Mathias Botanical Garden, La Kretz Garden Pavilion, 707 Tiverton Dr, Los Angeles, CA, 90095
Join a new Botany Brown Bag Public Lecture Series!
This Botany Brown Bag series is continued by Dr. Pam Soltis, who will give a talk titled “Using Natural History Collections to Address 21st Century Societal Problems.”
Make sure to bring your lunch!
This event is free and open to the public, no RSVP required!
Pamela Soltis is a Distinguished Professor and Curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida. She is also Director of the UF Biodiversity Institute and Director of Research for iDigBio, the NSF-sponsored National Coordinating Center for Biodiversity Collections. Her research addresses patterns and processes of plant evolution, including phylogeny and polyploidy. This work spans genomic to landscape scales, with applications for biodiversity assessment, conservation, and agriculture. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the US National Academy of Sciences, where she recently served as Secretary of Biological Sciences.

Guided Botanical Garden Drop-in Tour – November 1
2025-11-01 10:00 - 11:00 | UCLA Mildred E Mathias Botanical Garden, La Kretz Garden Pavilion, 707 Tiverton Dr, Los Angeles, CA, 90095
Join a Garden Guide for a tour of a living museum featuring collections of plants from around the globe!
You’ll hear the stories of selected plants in the Garden and their relevance to human society. All ages are welcome. Tours meet at the La Kretz Garden Pavilion at the northern end of the Garden and are given a grace period of 5 minutes.
Tours are free.

Día de los Muertos - Mourning & Remembering through Ecological Change.
2025-11-01 11:00 - 13:00 | Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden (North Entrance)
Día de los Muertos is a time to mourn, remember and celebrate those who have passed. This year’s gathering focuses on the intersections of memory, ecology and community, creating space to honor traditions while reflecting on environmental change.
Learn more at https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/event/dia-de-los-muertos-mourning-and-remembering-through-ecological-change/.
This event is co-sponsored by the Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies, the Radical Imagination Coalition, the Center for Developing Leadership in Science, the Environmental Humanities Reading Group, the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, and the UCLA Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden.

Panel Discussion: Fire, Land Stewardship, and Indigenous Conservancy
2025-11-01 14:00 - 16:00 | Fowler Museum
Presented in conjunction with the Fire Kinship exhibition at the Fowler Museum at UCLA, this panel will bring together Indigenous scholars, fire practitioners, and land trust leaders to explore the role of land conservancy in the broader Land Back movement.
Focusing on fire as both a cultural practice and an ecological tool, the discussion will examine how Indigenous-led conservancies are reclaiming stewardship through legal frameworks that support the return of land and the revitalization of ancestral care practices. Panelists will share case studies, community-led strategies, and the challenges of putting fire back on the ground in landscapes where cultural burns were once suppressed.
REGISTER HERE

Reading and Reception, Claire McEachern – Coyotes and Culture: Essays from Old Malibu
2025-11-13 17:00 - 19:00 | Kaplan Hall 193, 415 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Join UCLA English for a reading and reception to celebrate Claire McEachern’s new book, Coyotes and Culture: Essays from Old Malibu. This unique collection of essays offers a gripping exploration of the precarious beauty and peril of California’s iconic coastline. Through essays blending personal narrative, cultural analysis, and history, author Claire McEachern takes us behind the scenes of surf and celebrities to paint a vivid portrait of life on the edge —both literally and metaphorically. From the rugged Santa Monica Mountains to the shimmering Pacific, this work captures the paradoxes of Old Malibu: a place of luxury and risk, natural splendor and ecological vulnerability.
Light refreshments will follow the event.
REGISTER HERE

Free Food from UCLA Dining Halls!
2025-11-13 22:00, 2025-11-19 22:00, 2025-11-20 22:00, 2025-12-03 22:00, 2025-12-04 12:00 - 13:00, 2026-01-14 22:00, 2026-01-15 22:00 | Conference Room 1 in the Student Activities Center Basement, 220 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Join Bruin Dine for food recovery events every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 10PM in the SAC Basement (unless otherwise announced)! Please bring your own tupperware and utensils!
Follow https://www.instagram.com/uclabruindine/ for additional updates!

Animal Law Society presents: A Conversation with Damien Mander
2025-11-20 12:15 - 13:15 | UCLA Law School, Room 2448, 385 Charles E Young Dr E, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
The Animal Law Society at UCLA is proud to welcome Damien Mander to kick off their 2025/2026 conversation series. After serving as a diver in the Royal Australian Navy and a special operations sniper, Damien founded the International Anti-Poaching Foundation where he works with communities in Africa to fight poaching. View his TED Talk here.
Damien is a fierce and dedicated activist focused on ending poaching, committed to animal conservation and combatting climate change through community centered activism. He will be delivering a lecture on his experience and ethics in these spaces, and then having a discussion with attendees.
This event is open to the public. A vegan lunch will be provided.
REGISTER HERE

Livestream Panel: AI and the Politics and Extraction
2025-11-20 14:00 - 15:30 | Online
This is an external event, not hosted by UCLA, which may be of interest to our community
The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence has brought renewed urgency to questions of climate justice. The massive resource extraction required to build and power data center infrastructure is having profound impacts on local communities and ecosystems. At the same time, the large-scale monetization of data raises complex political and ethical issues, with far-reaching consequences for democracy, human rights, and the environment.
In this public discussion, Professors Naomi Klein (University of British Columbia – Vancouver, UBC-V), Stephanie Dick (Simon Fraser University), Wendy Wong (UBC-Okanagan) and Hamish van der Ven (UBC-V) will explore questions around the implications of AI for climate justice, the governance of AI and protection of users, and which beneficial models of AI could and should be explored. Moderated by Professor Carol Liao (UBC-V)
REGISTER HERE – Zoom link will be sent to registrants closer to event date

Double Feature: RISE and PAPA BUKA Film Screening
2025-11-25 19:00 - 21:30 | James Bridges Theater, 235 Charles E Young Dr E, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Join UCLA Theater, Film & Television (TFT) Professional Programs in James Bridges Theater for screenings of two Oscar qualifying films from two different TFT Professional Programs alumni: the short film RISE—the first Zimbabwean film to qualify for the Oscars, written and directed by Screenwriting and Writing for Television alum Jessica Rowlands; followed by a screening of the feature PAPA BUKA—the official submission for the Oscars from Papua New Guinea in the Best International Feature Film category, starring Acting for the Camera alum Ritabhari Chakraborty.
The evening’s screenings are for the Academy members, as well as friends and alum of TFT, and will be followed by a Q&A with actors and the creative teams.
REGISTER HERE
Please arrive early to this event. The screenings will begin promptly at 7pm.
Parking is located in Parking Structure 3 right next to the James Bridges Theater at UCLA.
PLEASE NOTE that although the screening is free, parking at UCLA is never free, even for TFT staff and faculty, so make sure to follow the parking payment instructions in Parking Structure 3 to avoid getting a ticket (make sure to park in visitor parking and pay at the pay station).
Contact professionalprograms@tft.ucla.edu with any questions.

Botany of the Holidays
2025-12-04 12:00 - 13:00 | La Kretz Garden Pavilion, 707 Tiverton Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
‘Tis the season for Botany of the Holidays! Join the UCLA Mathias Botanical Garden for its annual event exploring the botanical origins of holiday traditions. Delight in the Garden’s very own holiday tradition as you explore the fascinating stories of poinsettias, maize, and persimmons with speakers Jesse Gomez, Heidi Yang, and Sara Pedraza.
This event is free and open to the public, no RSVP required.

Guided Botanical Garden Drop-in Tour – December 6
2025-12-06 10:00 - 11:00 | UCLA Mildred E Mathias Botanical Garden, La Kretz Garden Pavilion, 707 Tiverton Dr, Los Angeles, CA, 90095

Evidence-Based Ecological Medicine: From Where We Are to Where We Must Go
2025-12-09 16:00 - 17:00 | HYBRID: Semel B8-225 and Online, 760 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
In this talk, Dr. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz brings together the evidence for mechanisms underlying the influence of temperature, light, barometric pressure, social proximity, and other ecological factors on our bodies and minds.
REGISTER HERE

WEBINAR - Policymaking Under Uncertainty: Zone 0 and Vegetation Clearance
2025-12-12 12:00 - 13:30 | Online
The Sustainable LA Grand Challenge invites you to join Living with Future Fire: Getting to Research-Informed Policymaking for Fire-Resilience, a series of three webinars featuring experts unpacking the complicated natural and institutional dynamics at play as we work toward a more fire resilient Southern California.
The first webinar is titled “Policymaking Under Uncertainty: Zone 0 and Vegetation Clearance.”
Moderated by Nurit Katz, UCLA Chief Sustainability Officer
Featuring:

Edith de Guzman, Water Equity and Adaptation Specialist, UC Cooperative Extension
Travis Longcore, Senior Associate Director, UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
Max Moritz, Statewide Wildfire Specialist, UC Cooperative Extension
Alessandro Ossola, Associate Professor, UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences

This series is made possible by a generous gift from the Anthony Pritzker Family Foundation.
REGISTER HERE

"Why Narrative Matters in the Fight Against Climate Change" - A conversation and live LENS podcast recording with Sammy Roth
2026-01-09 10:00 - 11:30 | Kaplan Hall 193, 415 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Please join the Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies (LENS), in collaboration with the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, for a conversation with Sammy Roth and live recording of a new episode of the LENS podcast “Changing Stories for a Changing Planet.”
REGISTER HERE
Presented by LENS, the Emmett Institute at UCLA Law, and the Liberty Hill Environment + Justice Donor Circle.

FAC Fest!
2026-01-09 17:00 - 20:30 | Sunset Village, 330 De Neve Drive, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, United States
IT’S TIMEEEE… FOR FAC FEST! In honor of the start of Winter quarter, the USAC Facilities Commission (FAC) is putting together a night of fun, activities, games, and more with a focus on our core principles: accessibility, sustainability, transportation, and environmentalism!
Come check out BruinDine and Swipe Out Hunger’s food recovery efforts, what UCLA Transportation and ITE are cooking up this year, and even what the Center for Accessible Education, Autism Advocacy, and Disabled Student Union have to offer! Peruse through our booths and fun games as you are serenaded by the performers of UCLA Radio and treated to some pumpkin spice chai (you are encouraged to bring your own mug)!
So come join FAC and so many more partners this Winter quarter to ring in the new year (sustainably and accessibly)!

Advancing adaptation: Mapping costs from cooling to coastal defenses
2026-01-13 08:00 - 09:00 | Online
The benefits of adaptation far outweigh its costs, yet the world today spends just one-third of what’s needed to protect everyone exposed to hazards to developed-economy standards. With warming projected to reach 2°C by 2050, new McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) research gives a pixel-level, geospatial look at what that warmer world really means, which regions are most exposed, and what adapting to extreme weather events would look like.

Join MGI for a virtual event to explore the findings of their new report, Advancing adaptation: Mapping costs from cooling to coastal protection, featuring a presentation by the report authors and a panel discussion with leaders on this topic.

The session will explore:
➢ How will a 2°C warmer world reshape the pattern of climate risks between today and 2050?
➢ Where is exposure to climate hazards largest, and how is it shifting over time?
➢ What adaptation measures offer the most cost-effective and scalable path to closing protection shortfalls?
➢ How much will it cost to implement adaptation measures? And what will it take—institutionally and financially—to accelerate the pace of climate adaptation?

Once registered, you will receive an email confirmation and can add the event to your calendar. Registrants who can’t attend live will receive a recording of the event.

REGISTER HERE

LA Fires One-Year Reflection: Workers in Action
2026-01-15 16:00 - 18:00 | UCLA James Lawson Jr. Worker Justice Center, 675 S Park View St., Los Angeles, CA, 90057, United States
Join a panel discussion with the UCLA Labor Center, UCLA Labor Occupational Safety and Health (LOSH) Program, Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA), UCLA Center for Developing Leadership in Science, and others.
Event format: In-person. Snacks will be provided. Street parking is available.
REGISTER HERE

January Drop-in UCLA Botanical Garden Tour
2026-01-17 10:00 - 11:00 | UCLA Mildred E Mathias Botanical Garden, La Kretz Garden Pavilion, 707 Tiverton Dr, Los Angeles, CA, 90095
Explore a living museum, featuring collections of plants from around the globe! Join a Garden Educator for a free guided 1 hour tour, and hear the stories of a selection of plants in the garden, and their relevance to human society. All ages are welcome.
Meet at the La Kretz Garden Pavilion at the northern end of the garden. Restrooms are available there.

2025 LA Wildfires: An Economic Update #2 - Hosted by LAEDC and LA County DEO
2026-01-21 11:00 - 12:00 | Online
Los Angeles County continues to grapple with the wide-ranging impacts of recent wildfires. Join the LAEDC Institute for Applied Economics and the Los Angeles County Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) for the second in a four-part public webinar series providing real-time insights into the economic impact of the fires and the region’s economic recovery.
This session will offer a current economic snapshot of wildfire recovery in Los Angeles County, with a focus on the Palisades and Altadena impact areas. These briefings will highlight early recovery trends and assess impacts on businesses, workers, industries, and communities—taking care to examine disparities across race, industry, and geography.
The webinar series is part of the broader Economic Recovery and Resiliency Initiatives, an effort funded by the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz). Led by LAEDC as the Regional Convener and the California Community Foundation as Fiscal Agent, this initiative provides economic analysis, recovery support, grant-writing assistance, community engagement, and targeted policy recommendations to strengthen resilience for wildfire-impacted communities.
Policymakers, community leaders, businesses, and stakeholders are invited to attend this free webinar to better understand how recovery is unfolding and what challenges and opportunities lie ahead.

REGISTER HERE

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:

Policymakers and government agencies
Community and nonprofit leaders
Businesses and workforce partners
Researchers and stakeholders engaged in wildfire recovery

Smart Gardening Webinar - Intro to Composting
2026-01-21 13:00 - 14:00 | Online
Join a free, live webinar on how to compost your yard clippings and kitchen scraps. Create a nutritious, organic, soil-like fertilizer for your lawn and garden. Webinars are approximately 45 minutes followed by a 15-minute period to answer questions and take orders for compost bins.
REGISTER HERE
