University of California, Berkeley
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

Launched Oct. 6 and running through Dec. 10 of 2015, the first Cool Campus Challenge aimed to get everyone across UC campuses on board with the carbon neutrality effort. During the 10-week contest, UC faculty, staff and students were challenged to take steps to reduce their carbon footprints using an online tool to track their activity and earn points for their campus. Modeled on the Cool California Cities Challenge, which gives Californians the tools they need to take action to protect the climate, the Cool Campus Challenge focuses on actions that individuals can take to put their campus on track to reach carbon neutrality.

Over 19,000 University of California students, staff and faculty came together in the fall to take action against climate change. Together, the UC community pledged to take steps that will save over 20 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions annually. That’s equivalent to taking nearly 2,000 cars off the road for a year.

Since 2013, campus sustainability leaders have run Refills Not Landfills as UC Berkeley’s campaign to promote reusable products instead of single-use disposable products. Priority products addressed by the campaign include single-use disposable cups, plastic bottles, food containers and service wear. Refills Not Landfills originated from a 2013 grant from The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF) and has since aligned the efforts of other campus campaigns such as: Bring Your Own Mug (BYOM), I Heart Tap Water and Chews to Reuse. Refills Not Landfills is a partnership between TGIF, the Student Environmental Resource Center (SERC), the Beverage Alliance, Cal Dining, I Heart Tap Water and Cal Zero Waste.

The Refills Not Landfills team has identified the distribution of reusable Klean Kanteen insulated mugs as an upstream strategy for addressing campus waste, particularly single-use disposable cups and bottles. Free Klean Kanteen mugs were distributed to campus staff and students at select 2015-2017 campus events; mugs are now also sold daily at Cal Dining locations.

Once a semester, Cal Zero Waste hosts a road show event to showcase and promote environmentally preferred alternatives for common office supplies. At the roadshow, products that produce less waste than their counterparts or are made out of recycled content are showcased. Ten to 12 vendors are selected for each events, after all products being displayed have been carefully vetted to ensure that they align with zero waste product standards. For example, Pilot’s B2P (Bottle to Pen) is a pen made out of recycled plastic water bottles, which means it is a #1 PET plastic and is readily recyclable. It is also refillable which allows for the continual use of the pen while only throwing away the empty ink. During the event, samples of the products are distributed and building occupants are educated on waste reduction and why the selected products are environmentally preferred. Thus far, EPP Road Shows have been held at the Campus Shared Services Center, California Hall, Wurster Hall, the Haas School of Business, the Valley and Life Sciences Building and Li Ka Shing and Stanley halls.

Information from this field was provided by the programs and the UC Berkeley Student Environmental Resource Center.