California Polytechnic State University
EN-3: Student Life

Students at Cal Poly care about sustainability, they take initiative outside the classroom to organize, take action, and make a difference. As of Summer 2019 there are 33 student clubs and organizations at Cal Poly actively involved in a wide variety of sustainability fields and specialties. Adventure Club Association of Environmental Professionals Biomimicry Club Engineers for a Sustainable World Environmental Nanothechnology Student Association Environmental Outreach and Education Environmental Sciences Club Fisheries Club, Cal Poly Forestry Honor Society Future Fuels Garden Club, The Global Brigades Green and Sustainable Structural Materials GrowCrew Hiking and Backpacking Club Mustang Map Lab Mycology, Cal Poly Net Impact Pi Alpha Xi Plant Medicine Club Plant Science Club, Cal Poly PolyHemp: Cal Poly Industrial Hemp Club PolyPonics Rainworks, Cal Poly Real Food Collaborative Society of American Foresters Society of Environmental Engineers Sprout Up Student Climate Coalition Surfrider, Cal Poly Wildlife Club, Cal Poly Yoga Zero Waste This list can be found here https://clubs.calpoly.edu/clubs-directory Use the "Club Type" search function to sort into "Environmental" groups.

Organic Farm- A 9 acre production unit in the Horticulture and Crop Science Department that is certified organic by California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) with the primary mission of providing undergraduate students a place to experience hands-on learning in organic and sustainable farming and gardening practices. The farms vegetable production includes dozens of varieties of produce that are marketed in several local direct sales events like farmer’s markets, a campus farm market and to local vendors and restaurants; produce not sold is donated to the campus Food Pantry. The organic farm also serves as a classroom and laboratory to other Cal Poly courses and research programs. Faculty, staff and students jointly manage and steward the farm. The organic farm is supported by the Horticulture and Crop Science Department, the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences, and also by grants and private donations. http://aeps.calpoly.edu/cal_poly_organic_farm.html Real Food Collaborative CSA- Since the fall of 2016, a dedicated group of Cal Poly students - The Real Food Collaborative - has been gathering local and sustainable produce for students and community members and selling quarterly vegetable box subscriptions. https://realfoodcollaborative.squarespace.com/ Food Pantry garden- The 1,200-square-foot Food Pantry Garden, sponsored by Cal Poly’s Campus Health & Wellbeing Department along with the Honors Program and Facilities’ Energy, Utilities, and Sustainability Department is open for any student, staff or faculty member interested in a garden space. The garden will provide the campus community a space to grow vegetables while also allowing the gardeners to donate freshly picked produce to the Cal Poly Food Pantry, supporting food-insecure students. https://calpolynews.calpoly.edu/news_releases/2019/may/campus_garden

Poly Canyon Ventures is a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded and managed by Cal Poly students. PCV provides high-impact Cal Poly student-led startups with funding, consulting, and other resources to help them grow and thrive. PPCV is accelerating cleantech innovation and entrepreneurship at Cal Poly through the Climate Changer's Fund in partnership with SLO Mayor Heidi Harmon and the Cal Poly Department of Energy, Utilities, and Sustainability.

Hosted by Cal Poly’s Energy, Utilities and Sustainability Department, Earth Week is an annual series of events to allow participants to network with sustainability professionals, try new foods and learn the best ways to protect the planet.

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion partnered with Academic Affairs to host the second annual “Inclusion Starts With Me” Teach-In. With an array of topics ranging from “The Day Rihanna Turned Black: Race, Creolity, and Contemporary Popular Culture” to “Building a Community of Active Bystanders to Prevent Sexual Violence,” students had the opportunity to attend more than 25 workshops. One of the interactive workshops was “Art as Activism: ARTIVISM” and featured Papel Picado with the Chicanx/Latinx Faculty & Staff Association, Watercolor with Kennedy Library, Zine Making with the Cross Cultural Centers, Guerrilla Screen-Printing with Elizabeth Folk and the Art Department, Button Making with the Office of University Diversity & Inclusion and Aerosol and Screen-Printing with Self Help Graphics and Arts.

Poly Escapes offers about twenty low-cost trips per quarter with no experience necessary. Trips vary from one-day local journeys to full weekend excursions. Leave No Trace knowledge is a mandated part of Poly Escapes Trip Leader Training. The program implements the LNT principles on over sixty trips of fourteen students annually, including several volunteer based back country environmental maintenance trips.

The goal of the Green Room Certification is threefold: to serve as a mechanism to continue increasing sustainability awareness, to bring together already sustainable minded students, and to bring in as many non-green students as possible into the community. The lifestyle choices of on campus residents impact their peers, campus, as well as the greater San Luis Obispo community and the Green Room certification aims to teach campus residents tips and tricks to live more sustainable while they live on campus. The program tracks individual residents consumption behaviors through a voluntary scorecard and provides them ratings based on how sustainable they live.

The Cal Poly Green Campus program, originally established in 2007, was funded by Investor Owned Utilities and administered by the Alliance to Save Energy. Upon termination of utility funding in 2015, Cal Poly took the program in-house. The Green Campus team now works from a student led model with oversight from the Energy, Utilities, and Sustainability department in Facilities. With these resources, Green Campus students are better able to focus on the 2014 CSU Sustainability Policy goals related to energy, water, and Zero Waste, and support of student clubs. Every year the team six positions are open for renewal and offer opportunity to students from all five colleges to apply for a sustainability focused position on campus.