University of California, Santa Barbara
PAE-4: Sustainability Plan

In 2002, the campus formed the Central Campus Sustainability Committee (CCSC). This group of administrators, students, faculty, and staff worked on campus-wide LEED strategies, developed the list of LEED core points, and developed a set of baseline indicators that were vetted through the proper points of campus. In the summer of 2004, the Associated Students Environmental Affairs Board, aided by UCSB staff, recommended that the Chancellor develop a Sustainability Plan as part of the effort to update the Long Range Development Plan (LRDP). During the following year, the CCSC group was morphed into the Sustainability Working Group, which included a much broader group of students, administrators, and staff to develop a list of goals for a sustainable campus. Building on the initial efforts of the Working Group, the Chancellor tasked the Campus Planning Committee (CPC) in 2005 to appoint a Sub-Committee on Sustainability with a charge to develop the first Sustainability Plan for UC Santa Barbara. During the spring of 2005, the CPC Subcommittee selected a consulting firm to help prepare the Plan and lead a series of four full-day workshops on the principles of the Natural Step. A group of approximately 80 individual “change agents,” comprised of administrators, students, staff, and faculty, were trained in fall 2005, in the sustainability framework known as The Natural Step. These same individuals collaborated with campus sustainability staff to produce the components of a Campus Sustainability Plan and associated working plan for implementation. The process brought together students, staff, faculty, and community members; it has generated a great deal of energy and momentum and increased fundamental awareness of UCSB’s sustainability potential and the steps necessary to achieve this goal. The stakeholders who developed the plan are called our "change agents" and are still invested today in the ongoing implementation of the plan.

The Sustainability Plan includes measurable short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals across nine categories of sustainability: academics; built environment; energy; food; landscape/biotic environment; procurement; transportation; waste; and water. Since originally approving the plan, we have developed two new categories: labs/shops/studios and communications. These two new categories will be in the next version of the sustainability plan (2012). The measurable goals embedded in the plan are too numerous to list in full here. We recommend visiting our website for the full text: http://www.sustainability.ucsb.edu/planning-for-the-future/campus-sustainability-plan/ Some highlights of our measurable goals include: certify 25 buildings through the LEED EB process, utilizing the LEED Portfolio Program, by 2012; by 2020, reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels; increase organic produce purchases in the university center to 20% of total by 2013;increase certified sustainable meat, poultry, fish and dairy purchased by the dining commons by 10% by 2013; water intensive plantings on campus will be reduced by 20% by the year 2015; 100% phase out of hard copy purchasing catalogs where feasible; 75 percent of campus fleet purchases will be fueled with alternative fuels or ultra efficient vehicles; and zero waste campus by 2020.

Each Change Agent group has developed several indicators that will accurately reflect the progress of their goals and showcase their achievements. Since the Campus Sustainability Plan is a living document, the progress in these indicators and development of new ones will help guide the evolution of Change Agent group goals. The plan strives to provide the most accurate and up-to-date information for these indicators. All updates will be performed annually where possible or as regularly as the nature of the data collection allows. A group of graduate students at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management is also working with the Sustainability Program at UC Santa Barbara to create a prototype of a Geographical Information System (GIS)-based environmental monitoring system that will track indicators at designated temporal and spatial scales. This is unique in that most campuses track indicators by time, lumping numbers into a value for the entire campus. By utilizing a GIS, indicator data will be disaggregated to show both spatial and temporal patterns of resource use. This will then allow UC Santa Barbara staff to better monitor and report campus sustainability performance, as well as make more informed decisions linked to specific sustainability goals.