Associated Students Bike Committee
Website: https://bikes.as.ucsb.edu/
Email: bikecomm@as.ucsb.edu
The AS Bike Committee is a unique component of the Associated Students community; it is a place where passionate advocacy for bicycle safety and a clear voice for consideration of bicycles in campus planning have come together. We fund bike improvements on campus, and participate in social and outreach events throughout the year with our $2.96 per student per quarter lock-in fee.
Associated Students Bike Shop
Website: https://bikeshop.as.ucsb.edu/
Email: bikeshop@as.ucsb.edu
Serving the students, faculty, staff, and alumni of UCSB since 1974, the Associated Students Bike Shop is a student-funded non-profit organization dedicated to education, service, and safety. We have everything needed to get your bike running safely and smoothly. You bring your ID card, your bike, your time, and an inclination to learn. We provide the tools and the advice. Anything else you need, we offer at the lowest possible prices.
Associated Students Coastal Fund
Website: https://coastalfund.as.ucsb.edu/ Facebook
Email: coastalfund@as.ucsb.edu
The Coastal Fund is a student initiative to enhance the UCSB campus coastline. The Coastal Fund provides funds to the local community to enhance, protect, and restore the shoreline through preservation, education, open access, research, and restoration.
Associated Students Department of Public Worms
Website: https://worms.as.ucsb.edu/ Facebook
Email: asdpw@as.ucsb.edu
The Associated Students Department of Public Worms turns food waste into compost to be used to grow fresh produce for fellow students at the University of California Santa Barbara, thus creating a closed-loop food system on campus. We practice and promote sustainable agricultural techniques while educating the community about the importance of composting and gardening.
Associated Students Recycling
Website: https://recycling.as.ucsb.edu/
Email: recycling@as.ucsb.edu
Our mission is to reduce waste at UCSB both through direct collection and through education and information sharing. We believe that true environmental progress requires direct, hands-on action and personal responsibility, not just ideals and slogans. We, therefore, are deeply committed to the day-to-day recycling, composting, and electronic waste collection services that have helped make UCSB a state and national leader in waste reduction. At the same time, we recognize that teaching students and staff how to recycle, compost, and reduce waste can have a huge impact both on and off-campus, and is the only way to achieve lasting change. Recycling and composting are great ways to decrease not only the amount of waste being sent to landfills every day, but also to reduce the need to harvest new materials from environmentally destructive processes like mining and timber collection. E-waste is another concern that AS Recycling addresses, as more and more electronic devices are replaced and discarded. All e-waste from a UC campus is recycled with the strongest environmental standards. We value our campus and community, and are committed to a goal of zero waste at UCSB!
Edible Campus Program
Website: https://www.sustainability.ucsb.edu/edible-campus Facebook Instagram
Email: kcmaynard@ucsb.edu
The Edible Campus Project aims to address local food insecurity by repurposing underutilized spaces for food production, turning waste into food, and engaging students as growers and producers. Co-led by the AS Department of Public Worms, AS Food Bank, and the UCSB Sustainability Program, this project empowers the campus community, especially students, to be responsible stewards and leaders of our food system. We train students in practices that address social, economic, and environmental aspects of sustainability and help them to reclaim their personal connection to the land and their food.
Current Projects
The following three different projects, which have been previously established, continue to be nurtured and sustained, producing 25,000 pounds of food a year that will be given to UCSB students through the AS Food Bank or other direct venues.
LabRATS (Laboratory Resources, Advocates, and Teamwork for Sustainability)
Website: https://www.sustainability.ucsb.edu/labrats
Email: jewel.persad@ucsb.edu
The Laboratory Resources, Advocates, and Teamwork for Sustainability (LabRATS) Program at UCSB assists researchers on campus in reducing their impact on the environment while also improving safety, encouraging good laboratory management practices, and promoting communication and resource sharing. Our program is uniquely prepared to adapt campus recycling, energy management, and sustainability practices to the unusual materials used and processes implemented in laboratories.
Program for the Assessment and Certification of the Environment and Sustainability (PACES)
Website: https://www.sustainability.ucsb.edu/paces
Email: kcmaynard@ucsb.edu
PACES recognizes leadership in campus sustainability and assists departments, event coordinators and sports teams in identifying new opportunities where they can further reduce their impact on the environment. We focus on empowering individuals to make changes towards sustainability and engage their direct community, whether that be department members, event coordinators and attendees, or athletic teammates, to do the same. PACES offers departments an office assessment, climate and sustainability action plan write up, and presentation for department members. A similar consultation service is offered to athletic teams. We also work with event coordinators to reduce costs and implement sustainable practices in efforts to certify them as Green Events. Participants in PACES receive advice regarding energy usage, waste disposal/reduction practices, office health, sustainable procurement, transportation, and more.
The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF)
Website: https://www.sustainability.ucsb.edu/tgif
Email: jewel.persad@ucsb.edu
The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF) provides funding for projects which “green” our campus and reduce the University’s impact on the environment. TGIF allocates funds to projects that increase the amount of renewable energy used on campus, increase energy efficiency, and reduce the amount of waste created (GHGs) by our University. Portions of the fund will support education initiatives, student aid (via return to aid), and internships. TGIF is administered through a student-majority governance board. TGIF was the first green fee in the UC system. It was created by students in the spring of 2006 with a charge to “reduce the University’s impact on the environment.” Students voted with an overwhelming majority to pay $3.47 per quarter, contributing approximately $170,000 a year towards TGIF. The same fee was renewed in the spring of 2010, 2014, and 2018 for another four years each.
UC Carbon Neutrality Initiative (CNI)
Website: https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/impact/climate-leadership
In November 2013, President Napolitano announced the Carbon Neutrality Initiative. The initiative commits the UC buildings and vehicle fleet to emitting net zero greenhouse gases of Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions* by 2025 to help mitigate the UC contribution to global climate disruption and end its reliance on fossil fuels. The initiative calls upon climate research, improving energy efficiency, increasing renewable energy, and implementing related strategies to reduce carbon emissions.
President Napolitano had formed a Global Climate Leadership Council composed of scientists, administrators, students, and experts to advise the UC on energy services, applicable research, medical center climate action, sustainability policy, faculty and student engagement, health sciences and services, financial strategies and communications to achieve the 2025 goal. Find out more about the initiative here.
With partnership with Vox, the University of California also created a video series, Climate Lab, to conceptualize climate change solutions and methods of thinking about it.
Videos include:
• Why humans are so bad at thinking about climate change
• Going green shouldn’t be this hard
• Why your old phones collect in a junk drawer of sadness
• Food waste is the world’s dumbest problem
UC Carbon Neutrality at UCSB
Over the last couple of years, our campus has been successful in advancing the goals of the initiative through improvements in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and outreach and education.
UCSB had already achieved the 2014 and 2020 goals to reduce GHG emissions first to 2000 then 1990 levels. Chancellor Henry Yang signed a pledge in accordance with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Conference of Parties (COP 21) and many staff, students, and faculty have been working towards carbon neutrality through engagement, research, and project implementation.
UCSB is currently installing over 5 megawatts of solar on campus. This will account for about 11 percent the university’s energy needs.
*Emission Scopes
• Scope 1- Direct Emissions: on-site natural gas, diesel and propane combustion; campus fleet emissions; marine vessel emissions; and fugitive emissions
• Scope 2- Indirect Emissions: purchased electricity
• Scope 3- Indirect Emissions (Other): University-funded business air travel and student staff and faculty commuting
UCSB Sustainability Internship Program
Website: https://www.sustainability.ucsb.edu/ucsb-sustainability-internship-program
Email: kcmaynard@ucsb.edu
The UCSB Sustainability Internship Program offers a wide array of opportunities for current undergraduate and graduate students to participate in campus and community based programs and initiatives. We serve as a launching point for new internship projects, much like an incubator for start-up companies. These opportunities include paid, academic credit, and volunteer-based internships and volunteer activities. Our home office is based in the Department of Geography.