University of California, Berkeley
IN-16: Green Athletics

UC Berkeley became a member of the Green Sports Alliance in May 2014 through the sponsorship of the Beverage Alliance. The Pac-12 Conference is the only NCAA conference to have all member institutions also be members of the Green Sports Alliance. To this end, the Pac-12 Conference members and the Green Sports Alliance established the Pac-12 Sustainability Group in October 2014. The Student Environmental Resource Center and Cal Zero Waste serve as the UC Berkeley representatives in the Pac-12 Sustainability Group.

UC Berkeley’s football stadium, Memorial Stadium, is designated a zero waste stadium and is also LEED-certified Silver. To that end, the Athletics Sustainability Fellows and Cal Zero Waste partnered with Cal Athletics to ensure the stadium has the necessary zero waste bins and signage.

Zero waste education, outreach, and fan engagement are critical strategies deployed by ZWRC to promote upstream behavior changes in community members. ZWRC, CRRS, and SERC have partnered on UC Berkeley’s participation in the annual RecycleMania Game Day Challenge since 2013 and the Green Sports Alliance Pac-12 Game Day Challenge since 2015.

Pre-game best practices include collaboration with concessions to ensure all items sold are compostable or recyclable, developing an educational video to be show during the game and an educational game to be played by fans during halftime, and installing zero waste reduction bins and signs throughout the basketball Pavilion. Game day best practices include student “trash talkers” assisting fans with waste diversion and sorting, educational tabling through the Pavilion and Stadium, and providing bins to collect used pom-poms and fan items for reuse at future games.

Public transportation is highly recommended on football game days. Game day shuttles offer transportation to Memorial Stadium from the downtown Berkeley BART station and nearby campus locations. The UC Berkeley campus has a limited number of parking spaces available so the school encourages public transportation.

During each football and basketball season, Pac-12 campuses compete with each other in pursuit of a zero waste home game in each season. Zero Waste is an effective tool to fully engage the athletes, faculty, staff, students, fans, and the community at the athletic venue to show active commitment to zero waste and sustainability. So far, Cal is the 5-time champion (2015-2019) of the Overall Winner category in the PAC-12 Road to Zero Waste Competition. In the most recent season (2019), Cal also received the Student Athlete Engagement award as well.

https://pac-12.com/team-green/pac-12-zero-waste-challenge
https://facilities.berkeley.edu/zero-waste-athletics

Sustainable food and beverage purchasing
Eat Well Berkeley aims to ensure the availability of healthier food and beverage options throughout the UC Berkeley campus and campus community to support students, staff, faculty and visitors. Eat Well Berkeley includes all things related to a healthy food environment on campus, and version 2.0 now includes the new Food and Beverage Choices Policy. The Food and Beverage Choices Policy establishes nutrition standards for retail foodservice and markets, dining commons, vending machines, Athletic concessions, and University-sponsored meetings and events to ensure accessibility of whole and fresh foods, provide healthier alternatives to sugar-sweetened beverages, and engage positive communications promoting healthier choices.

Eat Well Berkeley: https://uhs.berkeley.edu/faculty-staff/wellness/healthy-campus/eat-well-berkeley/what-eat-well-berkeley

Food and Beverage Choices Policy: https://uhs.berkeley.edu/foodbeveragepolicy

Information in this field was provided by the UC Berkeley Office of Sustainability and Energy.