University of California, Santa Barbara
PRE-2: Points of Distinction

The newly completed Interactive Learning Pavilion (ILP) opened in Spring of 2023. The building provides roughly 2,000 seats of classroom space, increasing the university’s capacity by 35%. The facility includes parking for roughly 1,700 bicycles and racks where students can lock up their skateboards and scooters. It also features gender-neutral restrooms and a lactation room. The most noteworthy sustainability feature is that it is UCSB's first major all-electric carbon neutral building. The power supply comes from campus PV systems as well as from the power supplied by the UC Clean Power Program. The new building also has a unique energy efficiency design. It receives cooling from the campus chilled water loop and extracts its heating from the high-temperature side of the loop using a water-source heat pump. The HVAC controls maximize energy efficiency by setting back when classrooms are unoccupied. The new building was also designed with water efficiency and indoor air quality in mind. The surrounding landscape uses 100% recycled water for irrigation and to reduce indoor water use, aerators were installed on sinks, and high efficiency, low consumption toilets were installed. 100% of flooring, composite wood and furniture used for this project were made of low-emitting materials. The ILP is composed of two large structures with a central corridor open to the exterior. This open air space brings in air and light to the building, creates opportunities for outdoor studying and gathering, and connects the building to the surrounding environment. The building design reflects the color palette of the natural environment and the structure of the sea cliffs and geological formations in the mountains surrounding the campus.

The Equitable Charging Access for Renters in the 805 region (E-CAR 805) Project is a collaboration across three counties, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura, to expand electric vehicle charging access to low income multifamily housing along the Central Coast. We will install 379 charging ports at 67 locations. The University of California, Santa Barbara is the lead agency and will subcontract with the County of Ventura, City of Santa Barbara, and Community Environmental Council. Key implementation partners will also include the City of San Luis Obispo, City of Ventura, San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control District, 3C-REN (Tri-County Regional Energy Network), and five affordable housing providers, the Housing Authority for the Cities of San Buenaventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo, People's Self Help Housing, and El Camino Homeless Organization (ECHO). 98.4% of these charging ports will serve residents of multifamily housing properties which are either located in a low-income community (LIC) and/or disadvantaged community (DAC) according to the California Climate Investments Priority Populations 2023 Map. 167 or 44.1% are also at sites of local housing authorities and other affordable housing providers. 78.5% of the chargers will be located within a LIC and/or DAC.
Through our outreach program, our goals are to 1) engage MFH and offsite site hosts to support EV charging project implementation, increase EV adoption, and EV charger use among the MFH residents served by the project; 2) increase EV adoption among MFH residents by sharing information about available EV models, relevant incentives, and free EVs purchase guidance services and 3) increase EV charging use among MFH residents by sharing information about the benefits of accessible EV charging and relevant consumer information about charging stations installed through the project.
This is a Reliable, Equitable, and Accessible Charging for Multi-family Housing 2.0 (REACH 2.0) funded project through the California Energy Commission.

The UCSB Sustainability Internship program houses 70 - 80 student interns each year in internships where they work on real-life sustainability challenges on campus and in the region. Students work in collaboration with staff, faculty, and community members to identify issues to work on, innovate solutions, develop feasibility plans, and implement their ideas. Students learn skills in data collection and research, problem solving, feasibility assessment, relationship building, project management, and professionalism.