Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 78.00
Liaison Katie Maynard
Submission Date Feb. 29, 2024

STARS v2.2

University of California, Santa Barbara
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 4.00 / 4.00 Jewel Persad
Sustainability Manager
Administration
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Has the institution held a sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at students and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Yes

Has the institution held a sustainability-related outreach campaign during the previous three years that was directed at employees and yielded measurable, positive results in advancing sustainability?:
Yes

Name of the campaign:
Sustainable Office and Lab Assessment - LabSYNC & Green Office

A brief description of the campaign:
LabSYNC aims to help campus labs assess and document their sustainable laboratory practices and achieve recognition for the steps that they have taken to be environmentally conscious while conducting their research. During the LabSYNC process, a team of student interns and a professional staff member from the LabRATS Program interview the lab manager or defacto lab manager, complete a tour of the lab, perform an energy audit, and develop a set of recommendations. The recommendations will come in the form of a report, a presentation to be given at a lab group meeting, and a scoring sheet showing which actions are already occurring and which actions could be considered for the future. After the initial data collection, lab occupants are informed of which measures could easily be implemented before the end of the assessment, allowing the lab to get a higher score immediately. After any initial steps that the lab chooses to implement are put into action, the final report is developed, including potential future actions and resources to implement those actions.

Similar to LabSYNC, PACES (the Program for the Assessment and Certification for the Environment and Sustainability) Green Office program aims to help campus Departments assess and document their sustainable practices and achieve recognition for the steps that they have taken to be environmentally conscious. We benchmark a department’s current ecological practices, raise awareness about campus policies, prescribe new recommendations, and offer resources to help implement them. We also connect departments with knowledgeable stakeholders that can provide technical assistance to help implement new practices.

A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:
The impact of the LabSYNC and Green Office assessment changes with each department because we tailor our recommendations each time. That said, our best practices website for LabSYNC catalogs the impact of each action included in our standard recommendations: http://www.sustainability.ucsb.edu/labrats-best-practices/
Simply select any topic area, and then choose an action of interest. For each action, a page will appear that describes the problem, solution (including references to useful resources), benefits, and costs. We have found that by having several achievement levels, we can incentivize the labs we work with to take immediate action before the final report is even finished. Since launching this revision of our program, every lab that we have worked with has implemented at least two new measures.

Name of the campaign (2nd campaign):
CycleMAYnia

A brief description of the campaign (2nd campaign):
May is bike to work month for UCSB as we participate in CycleMAYnia. CycleMAYnia is a public/private collaboration using community resources and South Coast Measure A Bicycle and Pedestrian funds to organize activities for the community. During the month of May UCSB hosted 4 to 6 events directed at employees.

A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):
In May of 2023 more than 23 events and activities countywide were offered. Of the Events held, UCSB hosted 4 events, including a bike to work event, roughly ~40 employees participated.

A brief description of other sustainability-related outreach campaigns:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.