UCLA Sustainability

Plastic Pollution Toxic Tour
2023-06-13 09:00 - 15:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | USC Kerckhoff Hall, 734 West Adams Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 90007, United States
Join Hollywood, Health & Society and Plastic Pollution Coalition for a toxic tour exploring the issue of plastic pollution, its toxic impacts, and solutions. Like your elementary school field trips, but better! Featuring a fresh, garden-to-table, plastic-free lunch.
REGISTER HERE

Climate At Work: Building impactful workplace sustainability communities
2023-06-13 09:00 - 10:00 | Online
Join for an extraordinary event bringing together the visionaries behind two of the most influential workplace climate communities in the world—Anthropocene at Google and Microsoft’s monumental 10,000-member employee sustainability community. They will delve into the art of building and sustaining grassroots movements within companies, and learn how to ignite change from the ground up.
REGISTER HERE

Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) Mandates Workshop: Research for Effective, Efficient, and Equitable Policy Implementation
2023-06-13 08:00 - 11:00 | Online
California and New York recently adopted the Advanced Clean Cars II rule, requiring all new light-duty vehicle sales to be electric by 2035, and the Advanced Clean Trucks rule, which requires a ramping up of medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicle sales to 75 percent by 2035. Achieving and requiring such a rapid transition to an electric transportation sector raises a number of questions, such as:

What will happen to the used gasoline vehicle market, new vehicle sales (both electric and gasoline), and vehicle imports?
How can we ensure that this transition will be equitable?
What is the optimal pathway for charging station investments?
How will this expansion of new ZEV sales affect the electricity sector, and what rules and regulations within the electric sector can help support this transition?

There are multiple avenues to explore and lots of new research that can be done in this space to help the states effectively, efficiently, and equitably achieve their ZEV goals. To that end, we will host a two-half day virtual workshop with leading researchers and policymakers in the ZEV space to examine the state of research on zero-emission transportation, identify new researchable questions, and explore the data still needed to answer these questions. Following the workshop, we will create a written communication summarizing the findings from the workshop and laying out a new research agenda related to the ZEV mandate.
REGISTER HERE

GRID Talks | People, Planet, and PRIDE
2023-06-12 11:30 - 12:30 | Online
F﻿REE ONLINE WEBINAR
Join the conversation about how LGBTQ+ rights and environmental justice intersect. In this month’s Pride GRID Talks, three LGBTQ+ environmental expert panelists look within the climate crisis and answer the question, why is queer liberation an environmental justice issue?
Climate change compounds the struggles of trans and queer people worldwide. Join to unpack how climate policy, environmental injustices, and geography can lead to LGBTQ+ disparities. But also, how can renewable energy be a part of the solution?
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A conversation with Nancy Sutley
2023-06-11 18:30 - 20:30 | Online
Join a conversation with Nancy Sutley, the newly-appointed L.A. City Deputy Mayor for Energy and Sustainability.
Come with your questions and comments!
REGISTER HERE

30x30 Webinar: Increasing Voluntary Conservation Easements
2023-06-08 10:30 - 12:00 | Online
Partners across the state are working to advance progress toward the 30×30 goal by implementing strategies and actions along the ten pathways identified in the Pathways to 30×30 report.
Join a webinar highlighting successes, challenges, and lessons learned on Pathway 3: Increase Voluntary Conservation Easements. Learn how partners are:
(1) Working together to amplify and accelerate the role of voluntary private land conservation to advance the 30×30 goal
(2) Pursuing multi-benefit outcomes that benefit agriculture, Tribal heritage, equity, and access
(3) Providing new tools and resources to advance shared work.
REGISTER HERE
Learn more and stay up to date at californianature.ca.gov.

Clean Vehicles: Greening the Transportation Sector
2023-06-08 10:00 - 11:00 | Online
Clean vehicle standards represent an opportunity for the acceleration of clean energy transition and decarbonization. With new heavy and light duty standards officially announced, many of you may be asking, “what’s next?”. This briefing will provide the public and industry stakeholders with an overview of proposed rules, how the changes could impact the clean energy industry, and how our community can engage in the public comment period to ensure the final rules set us on the strongest possible path towards a net zero transportation sector.
REGISTER HERE

Startup UCLA 2023 Innovation Fellows Demo Day
2023-06-07 16:00 - 17:30 | Online
Join us as we celebrate UCLA’s Innovation Fellows pitching their projects to entrepreneurs, investors, and, the UCLA community!
Six faculty were selected to participate in UCLA’s Faculty Innovation Fellows fourth cohort, a program designed to support and amplify faculty entrepreneurship at UCLA.
Ferrobotic Group, Sam Emaminejad, Associate Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering
Storyfairy, Xiang ‘Anthony’ Chen, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
Nlighten, Sergio Carbajo, Assistant Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering, UCLA, Assistant Professor, Physics & Astronomy, UCLA
Rarity, Paul Ayoub, UCLA Molecular and Cellular Biology, Lab of Donald B. Kohn, M.D.
Quantitative Lung Fibrosis Score, Grace Hyun Kim, Professor-in-Residence, Co-director, Center for Computer Vision and Imaging Biomarkers, Department of Radiological Sciences David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Department of Biostatistics Fielding School of Public at UCLA
Satellite-based information on water use, Mekonnen Gebremichael, Professor, Step I
eyeHERFI, Akanksha Prasad, Fellow, Ophthalmology
The Vice Chancellor for Research & Creative Activities, Roger Wakimoto, and Associate Vice Chancellor of TDG, Amir Naiberg, will also say a welcome to the virtual audience.
The Faculty Innovation Fellows program is a collaboration between Startup UCLA, UCLA Technology Development Group, and, the Office of the Vice Chancellor of Research and Creative Activities. Through Startup UCLA, Fellows collaborate with program leaders, venture consultants, and colleagues across the university to hone and advance their ideas.
The mission of Startup UCLA is to promote the development of the entrepreneurial mindset on campus, to connect participants with the entrepreneurship community, to provide learning opportunities that include an inquiry-based and experiential approach to developing ideas, and to advocate for the entrepreneurial community at UCLA, partnering with students, faculty, staff, and alumni to achieve that end.
The mission of UCLA Technology Development Group is to promote UCLA innovation, research, teaching and entrepreneurship to benefit society; create economic value to support UCLA’s scholarly and educational missions and the State of California; and, to lead UCLA’s research community to bring innovation to market.
The mission of the Office of the Vice Chancellor of Research and Creative Activities is to provide logistical support, policy guidance, strategic advice, and assistance in building relationships in furtherance of the UCLA research enterprise.
If you have any questions about the program, please email TDG at InnovationFund@tdg.ucla.edu.
REGISTER HERE

The Future of Climate Tech: Advancements, Challenges, and Opportunities (LA #TechWeek)
2023-06-06 14:00 - 15:30 | UCLA Anderson School of Management, 110 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, 90095, United States
This event is a part of #TechWeek – a week of events hosted by VCs and startups to bring together the tech ecosystem.
​Zubin Davar (’09 ’15), VP, Confirm & Advisory Council, LACI (Moderator)
​Shomik Dutta, Overture VC and Venture Climate Alliance
​Frank Bryan (’16), Halftone Investment Partners
​Zora Chung, Rejoule
​Prof David Jassby, Associate Director, UCLA Institute for Carbon Management
Your registration is subject to approval by the host. To join the event, please REGISTER HERE.

Livestream - Critical Minerals in Latin America: a Bridge or a Bottleneck for the Energy Transition?
2023-06-05 09:30 - 11:00 | Online
The Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs will host a panel of experts to discuss what needs to be done to accelerate sustainable copper and lithium extraction in Latin American countries. This event will focus on the challenges and opportunities that governments and industry face to turn these mineral reserves into a bridge for the energy transition globally.
REGISTER HERE

The Fire Circle: Volunteer Day in the Survivor’s Healing Garden at the Reverence Project
2023-06-03 10:00 - 2023-06-04 13:00 | The Reverence Project, 1673 East 108th Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90059, United States
After our spring weeding, seeding and rain, the Survivor’s Healing Garden at the Reverence Project is in full superbloom! We hope you’ll join us among the poppies (and California lilac, and globemallow, and verbena…).
Our next four volunteer days will focus on building seating for our fire circle. This sacred space will host healing and community circles, harnessing the power of fire to amplify connection and joy. The love you bring to the work you do here will serve as a foundation for healing.
This is a free, hands-on opportunity to learn how to build SuperAdobe structures, a low-tech, low-cost, long-lasting, sustainable and increasingly popular architectural strategy. It’s fun! It’s easy! It’s dirty! The time it takes will depend a bit on the number of hands contributing, temperatures and precipitation. Here is what we expect:
Saturday, June 03: We may add more cobb mid-layer as needed. If the structure is ready, we’ll mix a lime/cement finish plaster, and trowel it on over the cob.
Sunday, June 04: We’ll mix a lime/cement finish plaster, and trowel it on over the cob. We’ll set some decorative tiles on the sides at this time.
If work in the blooms is what calls you, we’ll also continue weeding and seeding. We’ll provide light refreshments, some work gloves and tools, and great joy for your contributions to our space and work.
What to Bring
We need nothing beyond your hands and your hearts. If you are so inspired, we invite offerings of peace and light that can be integrated into the fire circle seating to honor the Watts community and support survivors’ healing. In keeping with the aesthetic and inspiration of our iconic Watts Towers, we would be particularly happy to give a permanent home to rocks, seashells, crystals, ceramic, or metal that is beyond its first use.
What to Wear
Please consider wearing a sun hat, sunscreen, and work gloves along with shoes and clothes you don’t mind getting dirty. Water bottles are recommended! Your weeding and planting tools are also welcome.
REGISTER HERE

UCLA AUD Spring 2023 Events: Dana Cuff presents "Architectures of Spatial Justice"
2023-06-01 18:00 - 20:00 | Perloff Hall Courtyard, 1317 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Join us to celebrate AUD Professor Dana Cuff and her latest book, Architectures of Spatial Justice — a field-defining work that demonstrates how architects are breaking with professional conventions to advance spatial justice and design more equitable buildings and cities.
As state violence, the pandemic, and environmental collapse have exposed systemic inequities, architects and urbanists have been pushed to confront how their actions contribute to racism and climate crisis—and how they can effect change. Establishing an ethics of spatial justice to lead architecture forward, Dana Cuff shows why the discipline requires critical examination—in relation to not only buildings and the capital required to realize them but privilege, power, aesthetics, and sociality. That is, it requires a reevaluation of architecture’s fundamental tenets.
Organized around projects and topics, Architectures of Spatial Justice is a compelling blend of theory, history, and applied practice that focuses on two foundational conditions of architecture: its relation to the public and its dependence on capital. The book draws on studies of architectural projects from around the world, with instructive case studies from Chile, Mexico, Japan, and the United States that focus in particular on urban centers, where architecture is most directly engaged with social justice issues.
Emerging from more than two decades of the author’s own project-based research, Architectures of Spatial Justice examines ethically driven practices that break with professional conventions to correct long-standing inequities in the built environment, uncovering architecture’s limits—and its potential.
Learn more about the book via AUD News.

Heather McGhee Book Talk
2023-06-01 17:30 - 19:00 | California NanoSystems Institute, 570 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Join in welcoming Heather McGhee to our beautiful campus for a thought-provoking evening, including a discussion of her book, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. This New York Times Bestseller, longlisted for the National Book Award has been called “One of today’s most insightful and influential thinkers offers a powerful exploration of inequality and the lesson that generations of Americans have failed to learn: Racism has a cost for everyone—not just for people of color”.
The book talk will be followed by Q & A with the author and then a reception.
REGISTER HERE
In preparation for this book talk, the Center for Education Innovation and Learning in the Sciences (CEILS) is hosting a book club to discuss The Sum of Us.

Opportunities for Enhanced Near-term U.S.-China Climate Action: Industrial Decarbonization
2023-06-01 17:00 - 18:15 | Online
Registration is free, but required. Register here.
Industrial emissions are responsible for approximately 60% of China’s greenhouse gas emissions, and 30% of U.S. emissions. Taking action to reduce emissions from industrial sectors like iron & steel, cement, and the chemical industry will be critical to helping the U.S. and China meet their mid-century carbon neutrality goals. What technological innovations and policy tools are available to the U.S. and China, particularly within this current decade? Join us to hear from issue-experts on opportunities in energy and materials efficiency, electrification, and the circular economy, including sharing insights from a new report, Decarbonizing Industry in the U.S. and China.
Agenda
5:00 PM Discussion is opened by Moderator, Jenn Perron, Senior Climate Policy Fellow, California-China Climate Institute
5:05 PM Reducing Industrial Emissions in the U.S. and China

Hongyou Lu, Senior Scientific Engineering Associate, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Qi Zhang, Professor in the Department of Thermal Engineering, Northeastern University of China

5:35 PM Commentary and Reactions

Jackie Wong, Director, Industry, Hydrogen, and Innovation Group, Climate & Clean Energy Program, Natural Resources Defense Council

6:00 PM Moderated Audience Question and Answer
6:15 PM Event Closes

Semel HCI Celebration 2023: Cultivating Community
2023-06-01 16:00 - 18:30 | Tipuana Teaching Kitchen, 900 Weyburn Place, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, United States
Please join for a magical evening to celebrate the 11th year of Semel HCI, featuring live music and dance performances from talented UCLA student groups, the jane b semel HCI Appreciation Award ceremony, a display of student research projects, and of course, fantastic food catered by UCLA Dining and a live teaching kitchen demonstration!
Special guest, Director of Fantastic Fungi and Gratitude Revealed Louie Schwartzberg, will be presented with the Eudaimonia Lifetime Achievement Award for his ground-breaking work as a visual artist using time-lapse photography to depict the beauty of nature. He has enhanced the knowledge and appreciation of Mother Nature and created an unstoppable movement to protect our planet and build empathy for others. We look forward to honoring his awe-inspiring work.
REGISTER HERE

Solutions in Our Soil - Building Sustainable Supply Chains
2023-06-01 10:00 - 11:15 | Online
Sustainable Conservation’s Solutions in Our Soil series has focused on what soil health means and why it’s so important for increasing drought resilience, improving water quality, boosting biodiversity, and nourishing healthy farmlands and communities. But, what does this look like in practice and how can we ensure soil health is prioritized throughout the food system?
REGISTER HERE

Sustainable Aviation 101: Decarbonizing the Aviation Industry
2023-06-01 10:00 - 11:00 | Online
The aviation industry represents one of the hardest to decarbonize sectors of the economy. But with new technologies and breakthroughs in sustainable fuels, emissions reductions, and CO2 utilization, real progress is underway. This event will provide a high-level overview of new aviation decarbonization technologies and their potential, funding opportunities available, and how to best deploy and accelerate adoption of the technology. The target audience will be a mix of clean energy community members, Congressional staff, and other key allies.
REGISTER HERE

How Science Can Help Protect Birds and Their Habitat
2023-05-31 19:00 - 20:00 | Online
The Conservation Science (ConSci) committee of Santa Barbara Audubon Society (SBAS) meets formally once a month to discuss local issues, including recent species observations, situations affecting habitat, environmental policy, upcoming opportunities to comment during the public process, and more.
An important tool developed recently by ConSci members is the Breeding Bird Study (BBS).
The BBS is a public-access database of bird breeding records for Santa Barbara County. These records are a critically important tool in SBAS’s work to advocate for habitat preservation and can also be used to inform forward-thinking restoration efforts.
In this talk, SBAS will give some background on interesting birds and bird habitat within SB County south coast, highlight some recent conservation work that has used BBS data, and discuss how that data can help guide restoration efforts into the future.
REGISTER HERE

ICARP Extreme Heat and Community Resilience Program - Listening Session: General Audience
2023-05-31 18:30 - 19:30 | Online
The Extreme Heat and Community Resilience Program funds and supports local, regional, and tribal efforts to reduce the impacts of extreme heat. The Program coordinates the state’s efforts to address extreme heat and the urban heat island effect.
The Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program (ICARP) team is hosting a series of listening sessions for the Extreme Heat and Community Resilience Program from May 9-31, 2023. These listening sessions will help ensure that stakeholders’ needs and perspectives are being considered from the beginning of the grant guideline development process.
For more information visit this website: https://opr.ca.gov/climate/icarp/grants/extreme-heat-community-resilience.html.
REGISTER HERE

IUSSC Sustainability Research Summit 2023
2023-05-31 18:00 - 20:00 | Kaplan Hall 169, 415 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
The International Urban Sustainability Student Corps (IUSSC) is an interdisciplinary think tank at UCLA that participates in student-led sustainability research projects. We are hosting our first annual summit here on UCLA’s campus open to anyone who would like to learn more about pressing sustainability issues and engage in greater discussions with peers. It will feature presentations from each of IUSSC’s research divisions, other sustainability organizations at UCLA, and other guest speakers. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out if you have any questions via email at iusscexec@gmail.com or via Instagram @iussc_ucla.
REGISTER HERE

Geoengineering and Human Rights: The False Promise of Techno-Salvation
2023-05-31 14:00 - 16:00 | IoES Conference Room, La Kretz Hall - Suite 300, 619 Charles E. Young Drive East, Los Angeles, AR, 90095, United States
Geoengineering promises to mitigate the climate crisis. From a human-rights based perspective, however, it currently causes more harm than good.
Patrycja Sasnal will provide a glimpse into the contents and drafting process of the first United Nations report on geoengineering and human rights before its publication in the fall of 2023.
Dr. Patrycja Sasnal is a political scientist, Arabist and philosopher. She is a visiting professor at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA and professor of migration at College of Europe. She also works as head of research at the Polish Institute of International Affairs. She is an expert of the Advisory Committee of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, member of the European Council on Foreign Relations’ council, and the Polish Ombudsman office’s expert commission on migration. She was previously a Fulbright scholar at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington and an associate researcher at the American University in Beirut. She specializes in Middle Eastern politics, migration and political violence. She has written for The Guardian, Le Monde and Polityka. Her latest book is Arendt, Fanon and Political Violence in Islam (Routledge, 2019). Sasnal holds a PhD in political science.
At IoES, she is working on a report for the UN Human Rights Council regarding the impact of technologies for climate protection on the enjoyment on human rights. In the Spring quarter 22/23 she will teach a class on Geoengineering and Human Rights.

UCLA on-campus Farmers Market
2023-05-31 13:00 - 19:00 | Bruin Plaza, 308 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Every few weeks, the Farmers’ Market at UCLA descends on Bruin Plaza with a smorgasbord of fresh produce to provide healthy, sustainable nourishment.

LIVESTREAM EVENT: Advancing the Bold Decadal Vision for Fusion
2023-05-31 11:00 - 12:00 | Online
In March 2022, the White House held a Fusion Summit that laid out a Bold Decadal Vision for Commercial Fusion Energy. One of five priorities in the White House Net-Zero Game Changers Initiative, commercial fusion energy has the potential to deliver abundant, clean, reliable electricity and many other benefits. With strong support from Congress and the Biden-Harris Administration, the Department of Energy (DOE) is following through on this vision with bold steps forward in our support for fusion energy science and technology.
Please join Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, White House Office of Science and Technology (OSTP) Director Arati Prabhakar, DOE Under Secretary for Science and Innovation Geraldine Richmond, and DOE Office of Science Director Asmeret Asefaw Berhe as we announce the first selections for the new Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program. This innovative new public-private partnership brings together the vibrant U.S. fusion private sector community and the nation’s solutions department to resolve key scientific and technological challenges that must be overcome to realize fusion pilot plants in the next decade.

Bruinwalk Basic Necessity Bundles
2023-05-30 12:00 - 15:00 | Bruin Walk, 308 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Need a couple more hygiene products to last you til the end of the quarter? Looking for new pieces for your wardrobe? Stop by our Bruinwalk Basic Necessities Bundles event on Tuesday, May 30th! We’ll be on Bruinwalk from 12-3PM with our hygiene refill station and some clothes from our center. All completely FREE! Please bring your own bottle for refills of hygiene products, such as shampoo, body lotion, hair conditioner, and more. Plus, grab a bundle of clothing!

Clothing Swap and Refillery Event on the Hill
2023-05-26 12:00 - 16:00 | Sunset Village, 330 De Neve Drive, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, United States
ONE MORE Clothing Swap and Refillery Event – the Bruin community will have a chance to swap out clothing they no longer wear for other pieces of clothing available!
This Friday, May 26th, come to the Sunset Village Plaza Stage from 12PM-4PM to participate in a clothing swap! Don’t forget to bring your own bottles and containers to fill it with FREE conditioner, shampoo, body wash, laundry detergent and more.
There will also be an educational component where you can learn more about zero waste practices and be entered to win free UCLA MERCH!

Pollinator Palooza
2023-05-26 12:00 - 14:00 | Bruin Plaza, 308 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Join UCLA CALPIRG’s Pollinator Palooza to learn more about how we can save our bees from harmful pesticides called neonicotinoids that are killing them! There will be postcard making, trivia to win cool prizes, and you can make your very own seed bomb! You don’t want to miss out on learning how YOU can help our pollinators!

Book Club - Heather McGhee's The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
2023-05-26 12:00 - 13:00 | HYBRID: Terasaki Life Sciences Building 1100 and Zoom, 610 Charles E Young Dr S, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
The Center for Education Innovation and Learning in the Sciences (CEILS) is hosting a book club to discuss The Sum of Us. We will read and discuss the book in four sections. Please feel free to drop in as your schedule allows.
REGISTER HERE

Free Food from the dining halls
2023-05-25 22:00 | Conference Room 1 in the Student Activities Center Basement, 220 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Bruin Dine is a student-run organization founded in 2018 that works to bridge the gap between food waste and food insecurity by recovering food from the UCLA dining halls that would have otherwise been thrown away and redistributing it. Open to everyone, bring your own container and utensils.

On the Sustainability of Games
2023-05-25 15:00 - 16:30 | Powell Library Building, CLICC, Classroom B, 10740 Dickson Ct, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Professor Alenda Chang (UC Santa Barbara) will present her talk “On the Sustainability of Games.”

Art Reception - Nature Always Wins: A Photography Exhibit
2023-05-25 14:00 - 17:00 | Kerckhoff Art Gallery, 308 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States
Nature is active in conquering us not only through the occasional earthquake or flood, but in the subtleties of vegetation that turn every settlement into an ongoing archaeological site. What do we see when we look down? Grass growing in the cracks of freeway pavements, and plants taking root in the little crevices of buildings and alleys.
Monica L. Smith, an archaeologist and member of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, takes us on a photographic journey to the world of vibrant and resilient vegetation underfoot. She shows us how an artist’s eye resides within all of us, enabling us to see what we usually filter out of our perception as we traverse the streets of Los Angeles.
The exhibit coincides with the release of her edited volume, The Power of Nature, published by the University Press of Colorado and featuring a number of UCLA authors.
