Measures of Success

  • Approximately $500,000 each year is collected through student lock-in fees and distributed through student-run foundations (The Green Iniative Fund (TGIF) and the Coastal Fund.  In addition to these two funds, the Renewable Energy Initiative will generate nearly $3.4 million dollars through student lock in fees by the time it sunsets in 2020.

Ongoing Practices and Programs

  • Eco-Entrepreneurship Program of the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management and the Technology Management Program
  • Economics and Environmental Science (EES) PhD emphasis
  • Student-run sustainable businesses: Associated Students (AS) Food Bank and AS Recycling are established as a student-founded and student-run business services on campus.  The AS Publications, AS Ticket Office, and AS Program Board are also student-founded and -run business services.
  • Businesses designed by the campus to be sustainable from the ground up: Root 217, an award winning sustainable restaurant run by our own University Center.  This business was designed as a sustainable business from the initial planning stage.  The University Center has also received Green Business Certification for 8 of their locations.
  • Goleta Entrepreneurial Magnet (GEM): A Partnership between the City of Goleta, UCSB, and the Goleta Chamber of Commerce to encourage more faculty and researchers at UCSB to consider basing start-up companies that they are involved with in the Goleta area.
  • Student-led green philanthropy: Students have taxed themselves through student lock-in fees to create three green funds on the campus, The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF), the Coastal Fund, and the Renewable Energy Initiative.  In each of these students receive proposals for new projects and get to choose which to invest in.  Through these funds, students are empowered to be their own source of funding and to learn the value of community based fundraising and development.  There are a number of other green lock-in fees including the AS Environmental Affairs Board and AS Recycling Lock-in Fees.

Initiatives

  • Economic Development Research Project: Noelle Stelle of the UCSB Sustainability Internship Program is researching opportunities for sustainable economic development in Santa Barbara County.  She is researching possibilities for micro-finance, new industry development, and support for start-up companies.
  • Sustainable Food Cart: Students from the Associated Students’ Business Services and the Student Food Collective are designing a new student-run business that will serve sustainable food options on campus.

More Information

  • UCSB Economic Forecast Project: The Economic Forecast Project was established in 1981 by the Department of Economics at UC Santa Barbara to provide the community with information on economic, demographic, and regional business trends in the Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura Counties area.  Our primary research activity is the collection and verification of statistical data and other evidence about the changing business and economic environment in our county.  From the assessment of these data, the Economic Forecast Project monitors the status of the economy and provides projections of future economic activity in the local area.