UC receives “˜green’ award
By Christina Brown
Jan. 20, 2009 9:51 p.m.
The University of California received the Excellence in Sustainability Showcase award from the California Sustainability Alliance last Wednesday.
Laurie Park, program manager of the California Sustainability Alliance, said the UC system was chosen because students pushed the administration to make changes, allowing the UCs to be at the forefront of sustainability efforts at universities nationwide.
“We selected the University of California because we think it represents a great example of a customer-initiated effort, and an inspiring collaboration between an organization, the UC, and its customers, the students,” Park said.
The UCs were honored for their policy for clean energy, green building, sustainable transportation and waste reduction programs.
Many universities in the UC system have also ranked among Princeton Review’s most “green” universities, according to an Alliance statement.
“With 220,000 students and 170,000 faculty and staff, the UC system has the ecological footprint of a large city,” according to the California Sustainability Alliance Web site.
The changes to increase sustainability save the UCs an estimated $12 million annually, according to a UCLA statement.
As part of the UC sustainable policy, all the campuses were asked to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 2000 levels by 2014 and to 1990 levels by 2020.
UCLA has worked to reach these targets and will be the first campus to do so, said Nurit Katz, UCLA sustainability coordinator.
UCLA will meet the goals eight years earlier than expected, Katz added.
She said the UC system began working on sustainability in 2002 by developing sustainable policies.
Students pushed the Board of Regents to act further and in 2003, the Regents adopted the Sustainability Policy and Principles, which has served as a model for other campuses, according to the Web site.
“The purpose of the award is to inspire other organizations to become sustainable. Students on their own initiated this and that is very inspiring,” Park said.
The California Sustainability Alliance was founded by the California Public Utilities and honored three California organizations, including the UCs.
Park said the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and the Thomas Properties Group also won the award for the work they do in water and waste management and green building.
