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Advancing Sustainability on our Campus

The Campus Sustainability Council, the Student Environmental Center, the Blueprint for a Sustainable Campus, and the Campus Earth Summit

The mission of the Student Environmental Center at the University of California Santa Cruz is to organize student involvement to collaborate with the University to find ways to implement environmentally sound practices on-campus. As a fully registered student organization founded in summer 2001, the Student Environmental Center (SEC) serves as a central space for existing student environmental organizations, encouraging the development of appropriate projects.

In the Spring of 2003, the SEC was instrumental in getting Ballot Measure 9: Campus Sustainability Programs Fee passed. This ballot measure created the Campus Sustainability Council (CSC), ensuring the institutionalization and long term viability of efforts towards campus sustainability, funded through a $3.00 per quarter fee paid by every undergraduate student. In Spring of 2005, Ballot Measure 22 was passed, with an additional $3.00 per quarter fee added, bring the total allocation to campus sustainability movements to $6.00 per quarter, per student.

The CSC distributes funds from this fee on a bi-annual basis to UCSC student organizations for programs and events that facilitate collaboration between students, the administration, faculty, and the community to create, implement, and monitor environmentally sound practices on campus, established through the protocol to be outlined in a Blueprint for a Sustainable Campus, a living document which is updated each year at the Campus Earth Summit.

In the last decade, many institutions have made crucial changes in their approach to ecological stewardship, social equity, and economic vitality. These changes are motivated by the realization that it is not enough to comply with environmental regulations, but that a forward-looking commitment to dramatically reducing environmental impacts through life-cycle economic benefits with positive externalities over time, both for the individual institution and for society as a whole. There are currently a number of opportunities for us to advance the values of sustainability here at UCSC.


How You Can Help

The successes of the Campus Sustainability Council, Student Environmental Center, The Campus Earth Summit, and the Blueprint for a Susainable Campus are made possible through the advice, mentorship, and guidance of many experienced and committed members of our community. We are always looking for assistance with organizational development, media and marketing, fundraising, grant writing, and web design and information management. Furthermore, we seek qualified and knowledgeable individuals to provide support in all areas of sustainability implementation. The Education for Sustainable Living Program, in particular, offers a means for the community to become involved. Please contact the Student Environmental Center if you would like more information on how to be involved:

Program Manager/Sustainability

The CSC has granted funding to 6 student organizations from the 2003-04 budget.
  • Education for Sustainable Living Project (ESLP)
    ESLP is working to bring sustainability into the curriculum of UCSC by organizing a sustainability lecture series in the spring quarter of 2004. Visit the ESLP website for more information, http://www.eslp.net.

  • Foundational Roots Food Co-op
    The Foundational Roots Co-op will be working to revitalize the network of campus gardens as a tool for educating students in sustainable living. They will be working in conjunction with several other campus groups to construct new gardens and improve facilities at existing gardens.

  • Comercio Justo
    Commercio Justo is working to bring Fair-trade products to UCSC through educational outreach and collaboration with the administration and community groups. Visit their website at http://www.soar.ucsc.edu/cj/website/.

  • Homes on Wheels (HOW)
    Two members of Homes on Wheels will be attending a conference this coming summer on Eco-psychology. They will both be teaching student directed seminars in the 2004-2005 school year on this important subject.

  • Santa Cruz Center for Appropriate Technology (SCCAT)
    SCCAT is working with students, administrators and community members to promote the use of appropriate sustainable technologies at UCSC. Their current project aims to educate the community regarding the benefits of recycling waste oil into Biodiesel as well as research the feasibility of a full scale Biodiesel production facility on campus. Visit the SCCAT website at http://www.santacruzcat.org

  • The Student Environmental Center (S.E.C.)
    The SEC works in collaboration with faculty and staff to bring sustainable policy and practice to UCSC through several different Campaigns. Visit the SEC website for more info http://soar.ucsc.edu/enviroslug/.

UC Santa Cruz Student Union Assembly
Student Union, 2nd Floor • 1156 High Street • Santa Cruz, CA 95064
(831) 459-4838 • fax (831) 459-5187