University of California, Los Angeles
EN-1: Student Educators Program

Team Green is a student education and leadership program focused on sustainability on The Hill (on-campus housing), at UCLA, and beyond. The team consists of 16 Outreach Representatives, 3 Green Coordinators in graduate student housing and the sustainability director for the On-Campus Housing Council (OCHC). Team Green’s mission is to promote sustainability and foster consciousness of environmental justice through education, advocacy, and community involvement. The OCHC's Director of Sustainability leads Team Green, which - together with Green Coordinators and OCHC Outreach Representatives - coordinates with sustainability operations on The Hill, serves as a resource for all residents on topics from waste management to energy conservation, and reviews and recommends policy to advance economic, ethical, and environmental sustainability.

Students living in residence halls on campus.

The Garden Oversight Committee (GOC) educates plotholders and the wider UCLA community on best practices for gardening. They host weekly workdays that provide plotholders an opportunity to ask a GOC member questions about gardening and meet other plotholders. Workshops they have hosted in the past include: Fermentation, Seed-saving, Fundamentals of Fruit Tree Pruning, and Integrated Pest Management. The GOC regularly leads tours of the community garden to student groups and classes. They have also partnered with Farmers Market at UCLA and FITTED to outreach to the UCLA community through a seed-starting activity and information sharing. The UCLA Grow LA Victory Garden Certificate Program, in partnership with DIG, and the University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Program, is a 3-part workshop series that educates attendees on the basics of gardening. The GOC members are trained by the sharing of knowledge from previous GOC members through a shared document, weekly garden planning meetings, and attending the workshops themselves. As an entity under the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center at UCLA, GOC members are required to attending an orientation and onboarding in the Fall and regular undergraduate and all-staff meetings.

UCLA undergraduate and graduate students, staff, faculty, community members, and anyone else interested

These students (ZWAs) deliver targeted waste education and programming to their peers. They work with UCLA's Zero Waste Manager and other campus sustainability professionals to host secondhand materials swaps and giveaways (for clothing, school supplies and more). ZWAs also produce informational content to inform and inspire other students to generate less waste and otherwise live more sustainably.

Undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff

Bonnie Reiss Climate Action Fellowship Fellows and Ambassadors - This program began in spring 2015, and is open to both undergraduate and graduate students. It is supported by the UC Office of the President (UCOP), and administered at all 10 UC campuses, plus the UC Office of the President, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, to ensure that student efforts align with local needs.

Fellows are hired with UCOP funding to provide a platform for student education. Fellows complete personal projects and engagement activities each week.

Bruin Environmental Leadership Team (BELT) - BELT is a club for UCLA student athletes dedicated to promoting sustainability through education, service, and action. They have organized beach clean ups and hosted a zero waste basketball game, and pushed for the use of more sustainable practices in the Acosta facility, including removing single use utensils and wasteful snack packaging.

Undergraduate Student Association Council (USAC) Facilities Commission (FAC) and The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF) - FAC is UCLA’s only student government office that works on sustainability, disability access, infrastructural enhancement, and providing and creating space on campus. In terms of sustainability projects, FAC has Bruin Bazaar to raise awareness and combat fast fashion, by promoting self-made fashion items on campus and holding clothing swaps; as well as Sustainagoals, a committee to promote waste reduction through reusable pilots, as well as increase plant-based meal options and procurement of local produce within UCLA Dining and ASUCLA catering. TGIF supports and provides much needed funding for projects that promote the mission of UCLA sustainability.

Total number of students enrolled and served excludes distance education students, and is an average for the 2022-23 academic year, when the student educator programs are active.

Learn more about OCHC work to engage The Hill's residents at https://www.hillcouncil.com/. See examples of outreach and education efforts at https://www.instagram.com/uclaochc/.

Access more on Zero Waste Ambassadors programming at https://linktr.ee/zerowasteucla.

View more about Bruin Environmental Leadership Team at https://uclabruins.com/sports/2021/5/25/ucla-sustainability-get-involved.aspx and https://www.instagram.com/uclabelt/.

See more on the Bonnie Reiss Climate Action Fellowship Program at https://www.ucop.edu/leading-on-climate/student-involvement/index.html.

Learn more about USAC FAC and TGIF at https://community.ucla.edu/studentorg/5230, https://tinyurl.com/fac-staff-descriptions and https://tgif.ucla.edu/.

Examples of written content by ZWA and CNI students may be viewed on the UCLA Sustainability blog page: https://www.sustain.ucla.edu/tag/zero-waste/.