| Overall Rating | Platinum |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 85.72 |
| Liaison | Kira Stoll |
| Submission Date | March 4, 2021 |
University of California, Berkeley
EN-5: Outreach Campaign
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 4.00 |
Mikayla
Tran SDG & OS Engagement Fellow Office of Sustainability |
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?:
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?:
Name of the campaign:
A brief description of the campaign:
2019 Cool Campus Challenge
From April 1 through April 26, the 10 campuses across the University of California system participated in a competition to see which UC location can do the most to reduce its carbon footprint. The challenge was open to faculty, staff and students and marketing and communication around the campaign was extensive. Contestants also spread the word about the importance of going carbon neutral. These collective efforts have helped advance UC in its goal of carbon neutrality by 2025. The first Cool Campus Challenge was held in 2015, and the second was held in 2019.
Students, staff, and faculty signed up to participate in the challenge, took sustainability-focused pledges to act in ways that would reduce their carbon footprints, and in turn received points for their efforts. Sustainability areas addressed included transportation, food & waste, purchasing, water, and energy. The challenge was repeated again in 2019 with UCB coming in first for participation points out of the ten campuses. Contestants also spread the word about the importance of going carbon neutral. These collective efforts have helped advance UC in its goal of carbon neutrality by 2025.
News of the challenge also was posted via social media, campus websites, and paper newsletters. During and after the challenge, the office followed up with every participant through email, social media, and newsletters to participate in the cultural assessment. Marketing channels were developed specifically to promote the Cool Campus Challenge, including Facebook pages, Facebook events, and Twitter accounts. Together, these marketing channels likely reached almost everyone in UC system.
PLEDGES TO DETERMINE SUSTAINABILITY CULTURE & BEHAVIOR:
COMPREHENSIVE OF SUSTAINABILITY TOPICS:
- Take the cool climate calculator
- Review the carbon neutrality initiative
- Start green office certification
- Be a cool ambassador
TRANSPORTATION:
- Get transportation savvy
- Get outside your vehicle
- Fly more sustainably
- Take public transit
- Go virtual with next meeting
WASTE, RECYCLING & FOOD:
- Reduce and reuse
- Go meatless at your events
- Eliminate single use items
- Go paperless
- Eliminate personal printer
PURCHASING:
- Purchase EnergyStar or EPEAT
- Conduct an equipment audit
ENERGY & WATER:
- Understand my energy use
- Turn down monitor brightness
- Manage computer power
- Turn off monitor when away
- Turn off that overhead
- Use cold storage efficiently
- Curtail that energy use
- Reduce vampire loads
- Turn off common area lights
- Unplug unused equipment
- Lower the fume hood
- Make the switch to LED
- Power strip it
- Wash in cold water
- Eliminate mini-fridge
- Keep sensors accurate
- Keep heat away from freezers
- Close doors and windows
MISC:
- Dress for the weather
https://www.coolcampuschallenge.org/about
https://sustainability.berkeley.edu/engage/cool-campus-challenge
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign:
From taking small steps like washing laundry in cold water to larger ones like reducing single-use lab items, Cool Campus Challenge participants took more than 190,000 actions resulting in over 21,650,000 pounds of carbon dioxide saved, demonstrating that even small actions can add up to a significant positive impact. Individual activities earned points that contributed to participants’ personal, team and campus scores, which were displayed in real time on an online scoreboard.
Highlights from the 2019 Cool Campus Challenge:
- UC engaged over 22,000 participants, engaging 7.6% of the entire system-wide population.
- Participants on average took 9 actions each, for a total of 200,000 completed actions.
- Roughly two-thirds of participants were students.
- UC reduced 10,220 metric tons CO2e in self-reported actions, equivalent to taking 2,170 cars off the road for a year.
UC Berkeley was crowned the Coolest UC Campus in 2019 Cool Campus Challenge
- Berkeley racked up the top carbon reducing score 9.5 million points
- Berkeley engaged over 4,215 participants, engaging 7.5% of the campus.
- We reduced 2,026 metric tons CO2e in self-reported actions, equivalent to taking about 500 cars off the road for a year.
Name of the campaign (2nd campaign):
A brief description of the campaign (2nd campaign):
During the month of February, the Housing and Dining Sustainability Advocates (HADSA) ran an unplugged energy savings competition, which challenged residents to save as much energy as possible in the dorms through changing simple daily habits. Signage and tabling encouraged promoted the competition to residents. The campus energy interactive dashboard (https://engagementdashboard.com/ucb/ucb) showcased the ongoing results of the competition. Students were asked to take a pledge at the tablings to conserve energy. They were offered prizes like LED reading lights, to encourage them to turn off overhead lighting.
The competition includes Units 1, 2, 3, Foothill, Stern, Clark Kerr, Channing Bowditch, and Martinez Commons. Together, the 6,000+ students living in university housing come together to make a huge impact on our environment. HADSA staff organize kickoff events and activities such as organic laundry detergent giveaways to engage with residents.
A brief description of the measured positive impact(s) of the campaign (2nd campaign):
238 pledges were made from students living in the residence halls. Residents saved an average of 353 kWh in each Unit compared to December 2019. As a result of the student conservation efforts, 952 kWh were saved. Organic Laundry Detergent Giveaways motivated residents to purchase eco-friendly laundry products, and these events were hosted at Units 1, 2, and 3, reaching 4000+ students.
A brief description of other sustainability-related outreach campaigns:
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.
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Information for this section was provided by Housing & Dining Sustainability Advocates (HADSA) and the Office of Sustainability.
Information for this section was provided by Housing & Dining Sustainability Advocates (HADSA) and the Office of Sustainability.
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.