University of California, Los Angeles
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Faculty and students are currently doing applied biodiversity work on campus, both at Sage Hill, studying native CA plants, and through a study of reptile life using boards placed across campus.
https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/project/biodiversity-landscaping/
https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/project/13503/
https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/project/biodiversity-sage-hill/

CALPIRG is a statewide, student funded and student directed, public interest advocacy organization. UCLA's organizers and advocates train students on how to run effective campaigns to solve some of society's most urgent problems. Our primary mission is to encourage student power and activism and to serve as a resource to all student organizations. Current projects include raising awareness about the damages of single use plastics, helping the campus to adopt a single use plastics ban and moving the campus toward bee friendly practices.

https://calpirgstudents.org/ucla

The Sustainable LA Undergraduate Research Scholars program engages students in a three quarter stakeholder project. https://grandchallenges.ucla.edu/sustainable-la/sla-gc-ursp/
A project team from the 2019-2020 cohort partnered with the Office of Sustainability to assess urban heat island impacts in different settings around campus.

MBA students working with the Chief Sustainability Officer as a client/advisor did a project examining the feasibility of LEED EB at the Anderson School of Management. The data from that project has been useful in developing a plan for LEED EB on campus.

In addition, one Student Action Research (SAR) team of undergraduate students continued and broadened that study, working with a Principal Planner and LEED lead from Capital Programs to look at campuswide credits for LEED EBOM, and design outreach materials for Green Buildings.
https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/project/leed-certification-residential-buildings/

Another SAR team (2017) used the LEED rating system to build the foundation of knowledge that will expedite sustainable improvements to Pauley Pavilion, with the ultimate goal of completing LEED re-certification.
https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/project/energy/

UCLA Department of Electrical Engineering and the Institute of Environment and Sustainability collaborate with UCLA Housing & Hospitality Services' University Village apartments to investigate how real-time energy consumption feedback can be used as an effective tool for energy conservation. The research group has equipped apartments with appliance-level metering and provides detailed, target consumer messaging to residents.

Multiple undergraduate student teams in our Action Research Team program have done projects related to energy- including corridor lighting studies and measuring the savings from behavioral change of people taking the stairs rather than the elevator.
https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/project/campus-energy/
https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/project/john-wooden-energy-audit/
https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/project/energy-efficiency-education/

Students in the Powersave Green Campus intern program have led fume hood energy competitions leading to significant energy savings. The students get training in efficiency and audits through the program.
https://www.ase.org/sites/ase.org/files/powersave_campus_general_info.pdf

Student groups such as Bruins for Animals and E3 (Ecology, Economy, Equity) are studying the environmental impacts of diet and dining choices. They aim to quantify the amount of water saved indirectly through the Beefless Thursday program in all of the residential dining halls. In the process, they hope to educate the student body about making sustainable dining choices.
http://bruinsforanimals.org/veg-food-campaign/

Several student organizations partake in regular food waste audits on the Hill to collect data and analyze the best solution to reduce waste and maximize diversion.

In addition, the 2017 Sustainable Food Systems Action Research Team worked to help UCLA Dining Services make progress towards the University of California goal of 20% sustainable food purchases by 2020. Students surveyed dining hall guests on their eating habits in order to determine some of the reasons behind post-consumer food waste. Following the surveys, messaging was developed to encourage sustainable behaviors. Results were tracked by performing food waste audits before and after the messaging was implemented.
https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/project/sustainable-food-systems-food-waste/

An undergraduate team of students in our Sustainability Action Research Team (SAR) program is conducting a study on the impact of compost for healthier landscape and another team is conducting a study to enhance our community garden. With recent past projects looking at ethically sound landscaping.
https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/sar/our-work/

One Student Action Reseach (SAR 2019) Sustainable Purchasing team is aiming to improve the sustainability and ethicality of UCLA’s promotional product supply chain. They are researching products of licensed promotional product suppliers and creating a criteria system to categorize their respective sustainability and ethicality. This information will then be presented in a user-friendly and accessible way to the different departments of UCLA, encouraging them to purchase sustainably and ethically.
https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/project/sar-sustainable-purchasing-team/

The 2020 Sustainability Action Research Team course has a team currently working with the Transportation Office to assess emerging transportation options for the campus.
https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/sar/our-work/

Professor Rajit Gadh and the UCLA Smart Grid Research Center have installed smart EV charging stations across campus, increasing EV charging and assisting UCLA in meeting transportation goals, while contributing to important research.
http://smartgrid.ucla.edu/

Multiple undergraduate student teams in the Sustainability Action Research Team course have focused on waste and recycling, measuring food waste in the dining halls, mapping which bins are over-impacted, coming up with plans for switching the campus to commingled bins, and other projects. These projects have had a significant positive impact on UCLA's diversion rate. winter/spring 2019 include a team focusing on creating a Zero Waste platform for Pauley Pavilion - UCLA's basketball stadium, and launching the zero waste platform in Powell Library, one of the largest libraries on campus.
https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/sar/

Other student clubs, such as the Renewable Energy Association and Clean Consulting work regularly with sustainability executives on campus to help achieve UCLA's 2020 goals by conduction wast audits (of buildings, dorms, and dining halls) and using the data to implement the best waste diversion strategies.
http://rea.seas.ucla.edu/projects/#1516850263998-ff80b49e-5aa7
https://cleanconsulting.org/projects

The UCLA Water Technology Research Center and UCLA Facilities Management partnered on a pilot of a smart water system to treat blowdown water from the campus cogeneration plant cooling towers. Soon a permanent installation of that technology will save the campus 17.3 million gallons a year.

Undergraduate students in the In the Sustainability Action Research Team course have done multiple water-related projects, including water audits of the showers in the gym, resulting in a low flow shower retrofit, a study of water timing on faucets that the plumbing shop integrated into their decision making on faucet timers, and building water audits. While these are past projects, a current winter/spring 2020 project team is investigating the value of utilizing compost on increasing water retention of campus lawns.
https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/project/resilience-2/
https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/project/water-conservation-campus-buildings/

Student organization Bruin Home Solution also conducts regular water audits on campus restrooms to assess building water usage to identify opportunities to replace fixtures and improve efficiency.
http://www.bruinhomesolutions.com/index.php/home/featured-projects/water-audits/

UCLA's Sustainable LA Grand Challenges Project includes an undergraduate research scholars program. Students are selected for a three term class conducting stakeholder projects on campus. For the 2019-2020 cohort, a team is investigating permeable paving for the campus, as well as assessing locations for future bioswales. https://grandchallenges.ucla.edu/happenings/2019/04/18/sustainable-la-grand-challenge-undergraduate-research-scholars-program-accepting-applications-for-2019-2020-academic-year/

The Undergraduate Sustainability Action Research team course conducted a team project as part of the 2019 cohort to support the university in beginning to develop a resilience plan - https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/project/sar-resilience-team/

UCLA's Center for Diverse Leadership in Science creates opportunities for underrepresented people to gain education and experience that empower them to become the leaders we need now and in the future, and address problems in their communities.
https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/diversity/
An example of a recent project in this area includes: https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/project/diversitea-courageous-coffee/

Students from the Center are coordinating with the Office of Sustainability on a number of applied sustainability projects.

UCLA’s Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center, prioritizes the health and wellness of students, faculty, and staff. It is a campuswide effort to draw upon UCLA’s world renowned research and teaching, to find new and innovative ways to promote living well on campus. Since its inception, Semel HCI Center has acted as a sparkplug and home for health-related work, helping to leverage the strengths of individuals and institutions on and off campus. Semel HCI Center promotes the “healthy choice as the easy choice” through its seven major thematic areas, called pods: BEWell, BreatheWell, EatWell, EngageWell, MindWell, MoveWell, and ResearchWell.
https://healthy.ucla.edu/
Students participate in research projects and engagement activities that support these efforts.
https://healthy.ucla.edu/students/participate/

Student Action Research (SAR) is a student-initiated, student-designed, and student-facilitated research program offered through the Institute of the Environment & Sustainability (IoES). In the winter and spring quarters of each academic year, students on Sustainability Action Research Teams are partnered with a campus stakeholder to research, rethink, investigate, and tackle UCLA’s greatest sustainability issues. Every year, new teams take on new projects.

https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/sar/our-work/?fbclid=IwAR3EKskHC7a4jUWc_j-nPJJKgUh8z_cicu1SHQ6Yer7h6w2ph1DOc3jURO4