PPC Webinar | Plastic Bottled Water: The Poison We Pay For
2025-08-27 14:00 - 15:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Online
*Note* – This is an external event, not hosted by UCLA, which may be of interest to our community.
Plastic bottled water is the most consumed beverage in the U.S. and worldwide. It has become the default option when communities distrust their tap, lack safe water access, or are looking for a “convenient” drink. Yet this reliance on plastic bottled water puts human and environmental health at risk while actually undercutting safe, accessible, public drinking water—which is an internationally recognized human right.
On Wednesday, August 27, Plastic Pollution Coalition (PPC) will host a webinar to address how plastic bottled water connects to issues of water injustice, undermines investment in safe drinking water infrastructure, and contributes to the growing global water and climate crises. We will hear how activists, communities, and cities are taking action to envision a world of safe drinking water access without plastic bottles.
Joining the discussion will be: Mary Grant, Public Water for All Campaign Director at Food & Water Watch; Daniel Jaffee, Professor of Sociology at Portland State University; and Amira Odeh-Quiñones, Hydrologist and Community Organizer at 350.org’s Caribbean Climate Network. The webinar will be moderated by Sofia Johansson, Campaign Coordinator at Plastic Pollution Coalition.
REGISTER HERE

Clean Air Conversations: Extreme Heat, Air Quality and Healthcare
2025-08-28 10:00 - 11:00 | Online
*Note* – This is an external event, not hosted by UCLA, which may be of interest to our community.
Join the next edition of the Clean Air Conversations webinar series, Extreme Heat, Air Quality & Healthcare! This essential conversation will explore how climate-driven challenges in California are reshaping healthcare utilization, drawing on the recent joint study by Milliman and Blue Shield of California titled How extreme heat and poor air quality impact healthcare utilization among insured Californians. Speakers will explore alarming insights into the real-world effects of extreme heat and deteriorating air quality on insured populations across the state.
This webinar will walk you through the study’s rigorous methodology, its data sources, and the key findings on how extreme heat and poor air quality are affecting healthcare utilization in California. Speakers will discuss the broader implications of these trends for healthcare planning, policy development, and climate resilience. You’ll also hear actionable recommendations, grounded in actuarial and healthcare expertise, that can help guide solutions at the intersection of health, climate, and policy.
REGISTER HERE

Guided Botanical Garden Drop-in Tour – September 6
2025-09-06 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.

Stunt Ranch Reserve Santa Monica Mountains California Biodiversity Day Bioblitz
2025-09-13 09:30 - 13:00 | UCLA Stunt Ranch Reserve, 1201 Stunt Rd, Calabasas, CA, 91302, United States
Celebrate the state-wide event, California Biodiversity Day, at UCLA Stunt Ranch Santa Monica Mountains Reserve for its annual Biodiversity Bioblitz! Enjoy a fun-filled morning to explore the reserve and document the diverse plants and animals along its trails. This event is open to all ages and the public is welcome!
Citizen scientists of all ages are invited to participate in California conservation by hiking at Stunt Ranch Reserve to collect photos of plants and animals so they can be uploaded to the on the iNaturalist application. Wildlife observations ultimately help inform a variety of conservation programs such as the the state’s “30×30 initiative” – a goal to conserve 30 percent of California’s lands and coastal waters by 2030. No prior experience as a naturalist is necessary — just bring a smart device or camera and access the iNaturalist app to join in! This Bioblitz is supported by the University of California’s Natural Reserve System.
REGISTER HERE

Live Webinar: From Procurement to Disclosure: How the Construction/Real Estate Sector Shapes Supplier Reporting
2025-09-17 09:00 - 10:00 | Online
Presented by UCLA Anderson Center for Impact, UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate
Everyone is someone’s Scope 3. Whether you’re a contractor, developer or service provider, one of your biggest clients may soon ask you for your greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data, or how you’re assessing climate risk. As regulations tighten and disclosure requirements expand, supplier engagement is becoming critical to manage risks, reduce costs and build resilient supply chains.
This webinar series examines this global market dynamic by looking at the state of public sector procurement and how these actions are rippling across the entire economy and into the private sector. View the previous webinars here.
This upcoming live webinar will explore how the construction and real estate sectors are preparing for climate disclosure mandates. Building on a study of the state of California’s supply chain and sector disclosures, this session will share actionable strategies for implementing supplier engagement programs that deliver measurable sustainability outcomes.
Key takeaways include:
-> How sector benchmarking can unlock performance improvements on both price and emissions.
-> Why leading institutions are prioritizing supplier engagement and how you can join their efforts.
-> The trade-offs between requesting simple, verifiable data versus lengthy qualitative disclosures.
-> How to design a supplier engagement program that is cost-effective, scalable, and delivers quantifiable emissions data over time.
Don’t miss this opportunity to gain insights and practical tools to strengthen supplier relationships and accelerate climate action in the built environment.
REGISTER HERE

Third Thursdays: Twilight in the Garden – September 18
2025-09-18 17:30 - 19:30 | UCLA Mildred E Mathias Botanical Garden, La Kretz Garden Pavilion, 707 Tiverton Dr, Los Angeles, CA, 90095
You are warmly invited to join the Garden for their special after-hours event series this summer! From July to September, the Garden will host an evening of great company complete with live music and a wine bar! Picnics are encouraged!
See the sunset from the Garden at Third Thursdays. Twilight Hours will be hosted on July 17, August 21, and September 18, with entry on Hilgard and La Kretz. Meet new friends, then kick back and enjoy live music!
Admission for each event is $10. Purchase tickets online, and skip the line by buying tickets ahead of time!
REGISTER HERE
Cash not accepted. If you are paying at the door, you will need a card number that you can enter into an online storefront.
Free admission for ages 12 and under. No refunds.

Inaugural Installment of The Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine Kaye Foundation Lecture Series
2025-09-25 17:00 - 19:30 | UCLA Luskin Conference Center, 425 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Join Michiel Bakker, President of the Culinary Institute of America and former Director of Google’s Food at Work program, as he delves into ongoing challenges and strategies for change in the American food system. A pioneer of transformative food programming, Michiel led the development of Google’s renowned food culture—celebrated for its emphasis on community, sustainability, and the promotion of joy, health, and well-being. Drawing from his extensive expertise working with leaders across sectors, Michiel will discuss the complexities of systemic change, its elements, and actionable strategies for creating lasting impacts.
Michiel’s talk will be followed by a conversation with Pete Angelis, Associate Vice Chancellor, UCLA Housing & Hospitality; Paula Daniels, Executive Director, Los Angeles County Office of Food Systems; and Mary Sue Milliken, James Beard and Julia Child Award-winning Chef and Co-owner of Mundo Hospitality Group. Pete, Paula,and Mary Sue will share their strategies as changemakers. The conversation will be moderated by UCLA’s Dr. Amy Rowat, the Marcie H. Rothman Presidential Chair, Professor of Integrative Biology and Physiology, and Faculty Director of the Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies; with remarks by Jack Bobo, Executive Director, UCLA Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies.
REGISTER HERE BY FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19

Up in the Air: Climate Policy Without the Endangerment Finding
2025-09-29 12:15 - 13:30 | Online
In late July, the Trump administration proposed to revoke the “endangerment finding” — a determination by the Environmental Protection Agency that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse endanger public health and welfare under the Clean Air Act. Removing such a foundational piece of U.S. climate policy is aggressive, based on a drastic revision of the underlying science supporting the original finding of endangerment.
In this discussion, leading experts will cover the administration’s possible motivations and legal justifications, as well as the pushback from the scientific community, and what lies ahead in the process. They will also look at the options for states looking to regulate climate pollution.
Could the fight over the endangerment finding end up at the Supreme Court? What will it mean for the EPA’s work in the short- and long-term? And what are some of the surprising unintended consequences for state policy?
REGISTER HERE
Panelists:
Ann Carlson, Shirley Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law and founding Faculty Director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA School of Law; former Acting Administrator of NHTSA
Joseph Goffman, Former Asst. Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation at US EPA
Kate McKinnon, Associate Professor, UCLA, Statistics & Data Science, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Institute of the Environment & Sustainability
Moderated by:
Cara Horowitz, Executive Director, the UCLA Emmett Institute

Affinity Talk Series: Dr. Mindy Fullilove, "Exploring the Relationship Between Disaster, Nature and Restoration"
2025-09-30 16:00 - 17:00 | HYBRID: Online and UCLA Semel Institute B8-225, 760 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, United States
Speaker: Dr. Mindy Fullilove, MD, DLFAPA, Hon AIA
Professor of Community Health and Co-Founder, University of Orange
Professor Emeritus, Urban Policy and Health, The New School
From the rebuilding of the South Bronx burned in the 1970s to the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, societies face disaster and rebuild. The elapsed time can be agonizingly slow and painful or it can be thrillingly fast and thorough. The Cities Research Group, led by Dr. Mindy Fullilove and Dr. Robert Fullilove, has followed the process of urban restoration in many places. This talk will describe the elements and timelines of restoration and the factors at work.
REGISTER HERE
Dr. Mindy Fullilove is a pioneering social psychiatrist whose interdisciplinary work bridges public health, urban policy, and community development. Her scientific contributions include early identification of the link between the crack and AIDS epidemics, research on trauma among women in recovery, and the development of key concepts such as “root shock” and “serial forced displacement.” She also identified nine essential elements of urban restoration. Dr. Fullilove has led innovative social interventions, including adapting educational and family support models to urban settings, co-founding the University of Orange, and proposing the CLIMB trail to connect Manhattan’s cliffside parks. Her work has been featured in major publications like The New York Times, and she has authored over 100 scientific papers and eight books. She is the recipient of numerous honors, including two honorary degrees, honorary membership in the American Institute of Architects, and Distinguished Life Fellow at the American Psychiatric Association.

Free Food from UCLA Dining Halls!
2025-10-07 22:00, 2025-10-08 22:00, 2025-10-09 22:00, 2025-11-13 22:00, 2025-11-19 22:00, 2025-11-20 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!

The 2025 Pritzker Lunch & Learn - A conversation with this year’s Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award finalists
2025-10-08 12:00 - 14:00 | UCLA Faculty Club, 480 Charles E. Young Drive E, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Join a special Lunch & Learn with the finalists of the Ninth Annual Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award. This event offers a rare opportunity to hear directly from three innovators reshaping how the world approaches conservation, sustainability and human–wildlife coexistence.
A complimentary lunch will be provided.
REGISTER HERE

The 14th Annual La Kretz Center Public Lecture: Biotechnology for Conservation Success
2025-10-11 15:00 - 17:00 | Boyer Hall (Room 159), 611 Charles E Young Dr., Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
The UCLA La Kretz Center of California Conservation Science is excited to be hosting the 14th Annual La Kretz Center Public Lecture on Saturday, October 11th, 2025, at Boyer Hall on the UCLA main campus. This year’s topic is Biotechnology for Conservation. For its 14th Public Lecture, the Center is honored to have Ben Novak to speak about the work he does as a lead scientist at the revolutionary wildlife conservation organization: Revive and Restore.
Conservation science and the biotech industry have had a sometimes-fraught, but ultimately powerful partnership for decades. Since 2012, the conservation non-profit Revive & Restore has been building the “Genetic Rescue Toolkit”, a suite of biotechnologies from genomics to gene-editing that enable new opportunities to save species. Although many biotechnology tools and applications are in nascent phases of development, they are no longer science fiction. Work to clone the endangered black-footed ferret has achieved a feat never accomplished before – the restoration of lost genetic diversity in an endangered species. Research is now underway to ensure that such options are possible for some of the world’s most endangered organisms, including amphibians and coral reefs. More ambitious yet, passenger pigeon de-extinction is on the horizon, bringing with it a revolution for avian conservation. Can biotechnologies save any species and ecosystem in the face of human-induced threats? Join to hear from Ben Novak and participate in the conversation.
Following the lecture, attendees will have the chance to enjoy refreshments while meeting La Kretz-funded student researchers and learning about their research in California conservation science.
This free event is open to all ages and is sponsored by the UCLA Institute of the Environment & Sustainability. Metered parking can be found at numerous parking facilities around campus, with Parking Structure 2 being the closest to the venue.
The La Kretz Center for California Conservation, managed by UCLA, connects a diverse network of UCLA faculty, postdoctoral scientists, and students with various conservation groups that work to protect and restore California’s biodiversity.
Please direct any questions related to the Public Lecture to lakretz@ioes.ucla.edu.
REGISTER HERE

Environmental Graduate Student Networking Reception 2025
2025-10-14 17:00 - 19:00 | Luskin School of Public Affairs, Third Floor Commons and Patio
All UCLA graduate students interested in environmental justice, sustainability, and climate resilience are invited to this free, cross-campus mixer!
What to Expect:

Discover student funding opportunities, jobs, internships, and campus resources
Connect with peers who share your passion for the environment
Enjoy appetizers and drinks in a relaxed setting
Meet professionals and experts offering insights to support your academic and career journey

RSVP: Eventbrite registration is required to attend. This event is free and open to UCLA-affiliated students, staff, and faculty.
REGISTER HERE
Hosted by: UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation in collaboration with partners across campus
Campus Partners:
UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
Center for Impact (UCLA Anderson School of Management)
Graduate Student Water Resources Group (IOES)
Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (UCLA School of Law)
UCLA Campus Sustainability

Closing the Circle 2025: From Excess to Access
2025-10-17 08:00 - 19:00 | 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

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

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.
