University of California, Irvine
PAE-4: Sustainability Plan

Plan development involved establishing five stakeholder groups of faculty, students, and staff focused around specific sustainability topics (clean energy and climate protection, transportation, recycling and waste management, land use and water quality, and green procurement and dining). Each group investigated their topic areas, developed recommendations through a series of meetings and discussions, and presented and discussed their findings and recommendations with UCI’s campuswide Sustainability Committee. Each group’s findings were reviewed and adopted into the resulting plan.

Sustainability related goals include:
- Build all new construction (except laboratory and acute-care facilities) to achieve LEED Silver or higher
- New buildings will outperform the California Energy Code (Title 24) by 20 percent or more
- By 2014 reduce campus growth-adjusted energy consumption by 25 percent or more from the 2000 baseline
- Use 33% less electricity than our 2010 baseline by 2050
- By June 30, 2012, divert 75% of waste
- By 2020, achieve zero waste
- Increase on-campus housing percentage to 50% by 2020
- Reduce water consumption by 15% below the 2007 baseline by 2014
- Increase the role of sustainability in research, academics, and community outreach
- Increase awareness of sustainability initiatives

UC Irvine updates its Sustainability Report Card annually to track its progress toward achieving its goals. All new construction projects apply for certification for a LEED rating through the U.S. Green Building Council. Energy efficiency standards are measured based on building energy use data. Electricity use is measured based on campus energy consumption data provided by Southern California Edison.

UCI adopted a sustainability plan in 2008 titled "Achieving Net Zero: Climate Change and Sustainability Plan for UC Irvine." The plan provides an overall strategy, baseline data, goals and objectives, metrics, implementation strategy, and monitoring system for achieving UCI’s sustainability objectives. The plan addresses green building goals for new construction and existing buildings, energy reduction goals, renewable energy goals, greenhouse gas emission reductions, water use reduction, waste diversion and recycling objectives, zero emission vehicle deployment, and public communications and outreach.