| Overall Rating | Gold - expired |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 67.87 |
| Liaison | Nurit Katz |
| Submission Date | March 6, 2020 |
University of California, Los Angeles
EN-6: Assessing Sustainability Culture
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
1.00 / 1.00 |
Nurit
Katz Chief Sustainability Officer Sustainability |
Does the institution conduct an assessment of sustainability culture?:
Which of the following best describes the cultural assessment? The assessment is administered to::
Which of the following best describes the structure of the cultural assessment? The assessment is administered::
A brief description of how and when the cultural assessment(s) were developed and/or adopted:
The University of California Cool Campus Challenge was adopted in 2015. The goal of the assessment was to create and assess the culture of sustainability on each of the 10 UC campuses, helping the UC system reach carbon neutrality by 2025. 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 UCLA coming in second for participation points out of the ten campuses.
A copy or sample of the questions related to sustainability culture:
A sample of the questions related to sustainability culture or the website URL where the assessment tool is available:
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
ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS:
These questions assess climate change in relation to sustainability. For example how sustainable actions contribute to meeting carbon neutrality goals.
- How sure are you that climate change is happening?
- If climate change is happening, do you think it is caused mostly by human activities, natural cycles, other, no answer, or none of the above?
- How worried are you about climate change?
- How much do you agree with the following - My actions can make a difference to help reduce climate change.
- What was your knowledge of the Carbon Neutrality Initiative before participating in the Cool Campus Challenge?
- Are initiatives like the carbon neutrality initiative important to you in your choice to work or
go to school at UC?
- How did you hear about the Cool Campus Challenge?
- How often do you participate in offerings/communications from your sustainability office
(newsletters, Facebook, trainings, etc.)?
- How would you rate the communication you have had with local program implementers?
- How long do you anticipate you will keep up the actions you pledged to take during the Challenge?
- Overall, how would you rate the Cool Campus Challenge program?
- Do you volunteer for an environmental non-profit organization?
The assessment tool is no longer active online now that the Challenge is complete.
A brief description of how representative samples were reached (if applicable) and how the cultural assessment is administered:
We reached different people through social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) along with newsletters (e.g. Staff Assembly Newsletter). We also held public registration events by tabling around campus and outreaching to people passing by.
Additional weekly emails and events promoted the program. Emails were themed according to sustainability topics, such as transportation, food & waste, purchasing, water, and energy. Participation was tracked through internal systems. The assessment was administered online at http://www.coolcampuschallenge.org/.
Students, faculty, and staff were also informed and received updates about the Challenge through the UCLA Sustainability Facebook page.
A brief summary of results from the cultural assessment:
UC Los Angeles ranked number 2nd in the UC-wide Cool Campus Challenge, with 3,086 students, staff, and faculty participating and making a pledge to live more sustainably. Of the participants, 1'477 were staff, 131 were faculty and 2657 were students.
Assessment results revealed the following:
- A majority of respondents said they agree or strongly agree that their actions can help reduce climate change.
- A majority of participants reported that UCLA's carbon neutrality goal and other sustainability goals were important or very important to them in choosing to attend UCLA.
- Some students indicated that they participate in offerings and communications from UCLA's sustainability office one or more times a month.
- over 4 million pounds of CO2 reduced in 2019
- of that 1'000'000 were related to scope 3 commute related emission
- 1.8 million pounds of CO2 scope 3 emissions reduction was pledged
- Approx 1 million pounds of CO2 scope 1 and 2 emission reduction was pledge
**The 2019 Cool Campus Challenge was a follow-up to the 2015 campaign in assessing UCLA's sustainability culture.
Website URL where information about the assessment of sustainability culture is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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.