UCLA environmental organization looks to make sustainability more financially viable
Clean Consulting, a student environmental consulting group founded in 2018, received more than 250 applications during its fall 2019 hiring cycle. The group worked with UCLA during its Zero Wast by 2020 initiative. (Dhruv Singhania/Daily Bruin)
By Pamela Rayburn
Jan. 17, 2020 12:50 a.m.
A UCLA student organization wants to help businesses run clean and green.
Clean Consulting, a student-led environmental consulting group, examines and suggests ways on-campus and off-campus organizations can be more sustainable.
The group, composed of more than 50 members, has worked with Powell Library to add recycling and compost options, helped UCLA Dining attempt to limit grease in dining halls and helped Hillel, a Jewish group on campus, to switch over to more sustainable products, among other projects.
Although Clean Consulting began in 2018, it received over 250 applications in fall 2019. It remains a small organization, however, accepting only 12 of those applicants.
The organization aims to bridge the gap between sustainability and finance for businesses, said Cole Norton, director of finance for Clean Consulting and a third-year environmental science student.
“Businesses account for the vast majority of greenhouse-gas emissions and waste,” Norton said. “So, we approached environmental consulting with the three E’s in mind: environment, social equity and economics, because that’s the only way that you’re going to be able to convince a business to become more green.”
Norton said in 2018 and 2019, Clean Consulting worked with UCLA’s chief sustainability officer to help UCLA meet its Zero Waste by 2020 goal.
Clean Consulting took on Powell Library as a primary client in winter quarter 2019, helping it replace traditional trash cans with three-section cans that divert trash into categories: compost, recycling or landfill.
Its goal is for 80% of garbage at Powell Library to be diverted to compost and recycling facilities, Norton said. He added it plans to conduct an audit this quarter to determine how successful the project has been so far.
The organization also started a project in 2018, called the Grease Pit Project, to limit the amount of fats and grease that accumulate in the grease pits of UCLA’s dining facilities in order to reduce food waste.
The grease pits are giant tanks under the residential restaurants connected to various parts of the kitchen, said Schuler Small, director of human resources for Clean Consulting and a fourth-year geography student.
Solid food particles, along with grease, end up in these pits, Small said. A larger amount of solids in the grease pits takes up more space and causes the pits to fill up faster, meaning they must be emptied more often, creating more waste.
UCLA is fined based on the amount of solids in its grease pits, and if it reaches over capacity, Small said.
“(In the dining halls) I think the systems that are set up are directly opposite to the goal of sustainability,” said Dhruv Chakraborty, director of external affairs at Clean Consulting, and a third-year cognitive science and computational math student.
The amount of food that students waste contributes to the amount of grease that ends up in the pits in the first place. Clean Consulting attempted to decrease the amount of grease being produced on the Hill by educating students and staff.
“I feel like we need to create actionable solutions that are going to fit in with the current system,” Small said.
Clean Consulting also works with off-campus organizations, such as Hillel at UCLA, to become more sustainable.
Hillel has Shabbat dinners every Friday with 50 to 100 students, and sometimes several hundreds on big weekends, Small said.
Before Hillel began working with Clean Consulting, it barely recycled, Small said. It also relied entirely on single-use products for its large dinners, such as paper plates, plastic cutlery and plastic tablecloths.
Clean Consulting began by auditing a Shabbat dinner and documenting the amount of waste produced, said Ben Greenberg, the director of student life for Hillel. It then researched and recommended Hillel purchase environmentally friendly products, specifically compostable products.
Hillel plans to shift from using paper and plastic goods to compostable utensils, Greenberg said. It is also using a more environmentally friendly printing paper comparable in price to what it was previously paying.
The need for sustainable consulting at UCLA is extensive, but UCLA provides a practice ground for aspiring environmental consultants, Norton added.
“UCLA has been amazing for us, because it really allows our junior consultants the ability to practice and hone their skills here on campus where they kind of have a safety net,” he said.
