University of California, Irvine
EN-11: Inter-Campus Collaboration

UCI is an active member of several national and international sustainability networks, in which UCI collaborates and shares information with other higher education institutions.

-- APPA: Leadership in Educational Facilities - https://www.appa.org/index.cfm

-- Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) - https://www.aashe.org

-- Environmental Peacebuilding Association - https://www.environmentalpeacebuilding.org/

-- Second Nature's Climate Leadership Network - http://secondnature.org/who-we-are/network/

-- U.S. Department of Energy Better Buildings Alliance (Higher Education Sector) - https://betterbuildingssolutioncenter.energy.gov/alliance/sector/higher-education

UCI also participates in national and international sustainability networks that have members from higher education institutions as well as other organizations, such as non-profits and corporations.

-- American College Personnel Association - https://www.myacpa.org/

-- Arbor Day Foundation - https://www.arborday.org/

-- Association for Commuter Transportation (ACT) - http://actweb.org/

-- Irrigation Association - https://www.irrigation.org/

-- International Association of Emergency Managers - https://www.iaem.org/

-- International Society of Arboriculture - https://www.isa-arbor.com/

-- Just Transition Lawyering Network - https://communityresilience.uci.edu/2021-just-transition-movement-lawyering-institute/

-- National Association of Climate Resilience Planners - https://www.nacrp.org/

-- Professional Grounds Management Society - https://pgms.org/

--U.S. Green Building Council - http://www.usgbc.org/

UCI is an active member of regional, state/provincial and local sustainability networks, in which UCI collaborates and shares information with other higher education institutions.

-- California Higher Education Sustainability Conference (CHESC) - http://chesc.org/

-- The Center for Ecosystem Climate Solutions (CECS) - https://california-ecosystem-climate.solutions/

-- Environmental and Climate Change Literacy Projects (ECCLPs) - ECCLPs (google.com)

-- University of California Master Gardeners of Orange County - http://mgorange.ucanr.edu/

-- University of California (UC) - California State University (CSU) - Investor Owned Utilities (IOU) Energy Efficiency Partnership - http://www.uccsuiouee.org/

UCI also participates in regional, state/provincial and local sustainability networks that have members from higher education institutions as well as other organizations, such as non-profits and corporations.

-- California Resource Recovery Association - https://www.crra.com/

-- OC Health Equity COVID-19 Community-Academic Partnership - https://communityresilience.uci.edu/oc-health-equity-covid-19-partnership/

-- Resilience Orange County - https://resilienceoc.org/

UCI has presented and shared information at the following higher education sustainability conferences:

AASHE CONFERENCE (July 2020):
-- "Community-Academic Collaboration to Support Worker Cooperatives," presented by Abby Reyes and Ana Urzua
-- "Student Leadership Institute for Climate Resilience: A Just Transition Introductory Curriculum," presented by Rachel Harvey and Udara Abeysekera - https://www.aashe.org/conference/ GCSHE

CALIFORNIA HIGHER EDUCATION SUSTAINABILITY CONFERENCE(CHESC) (July 2020):
-- “Commodifying Absence: Carbon Offsets and UC Irvine,” presented by Brenna Biggs
-- ”Lessons Learned in Completing AASHE’s STARS Assessment,” presented by Carrie Metzgar, https://chesc.org/2020-presentations-2/

CLIMATE JUSTICE SYMPOSIUM FOR TRANSFORMING EDUCATION (APRIL/MAY 2021)
-- “Why We Have to Transform Curriculum: A Student and Recent Alumni Keynote Panel Discussion,” presented by Neda Ibrahim, Student, Community Resilience Co-Lab, https://vimeo.com/544030364
-- “Applying Student Measures of Success to a Climate Change and Disaster Management Course,” presented by Miryha Runnerstrom, Associate Professor of Teaching and the Associate Director for the Undergraduate Program in the Program of Public Health, https://vimeo.com/544109504
-- “Teaching Holistic Perspectives,” presented by Oladele Ogunseitan, Presidential Chair, Professor in Public Health, https://vimeo.com/562564163

NOTRE DAME ENERGY RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM (June 2021):
-- “Commodifying Absence: Carbon Offsets to Achieve Carbon Neutrality by 2025,” presented by Brenna Biggs

UC WILDFIRE RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM (June 2021):
-- “Center for Ecosystem Climate Solutions,” presented by Michael Goulden during the “Modeling, Visualization, and Big Data to Inform Risk Assessments and Decision-Making” session, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS0jb_HanVw&t=4s

UCI also presented and shared information with other higher education institutions at the following conferences:

AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION (AGU) FALL MEETING (December 2019):

-- “Linking Statistical and Hydrodynamic Modeling to Map and Communicate Compound Coastal Flood Hazards,” presented by Brett Sanders, Hamed Moftakhari, Jochen Schubert, Amir AghaKouchak, and Richard Matthew

UC-NATIONAL LAB FEES RESEARCH PROGRAM WORKSHOP (May 2021):

--Fees Research Program Workshop in the thematic area of “Clean, Renewable Energy and Decarbonization.” This included researchers from the 10 UC campuses and the Department of Energy National Laboratories. The morning session included research lightning talks, and the afternoon session had working groups (zoom breakouts) for UC faculty and researchers from National Labs to discuss different topics related to energy and decarbonization, to stimulate collaborations and communication between the UC and National Labs and ultimately generate proposal ideas for the UC-Lab Fees research program. For more information, please visit https://sites.research.uci.edu/cred/.

CAMPUS RACE TO ZERO WASTE CASE STUDY COMPETITION

In June 2021, UCI Facilities Management submitted a case study to the 2021 Campus Race to Zero Waste Case Study Competition (https://recyclemania.org/resources/learn-from-your-peers/). Campus Race to Zero Waste is a college and university waste reduction competition to promote waste minimization, especially plastics reduction, and recycling activities on college campuses and in their nearby communities.

UCI submitted a case study under the food waste reduction category. The focus of the case study was UCI’s food waste reduction program and the campus food waste to biofuels program in the post-consumer process. View the case study here: https://recyclemania.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/UCI-CR2ZW-2021-Case-Study-formatted.pdf

PLAZA VERDE: STUDENT HOUSING BUSINESS INNOVATOR AWARDS

During the summer of 2020, UCI and American Campus Communities (ACC) submitted a case study to the Student Housing Business Innovator Awards (https://www.studenthousingbusiness.com/10th-annual-innovator-awards-honor-best-in-the-industry/) for the Plaza Verde student housing project. The case study was submitted for the category “On-Campus: Best Use of Green & Sustainable Construction/Development.”

UCI and ACC partnered to develop, own, and manage Plaza Verde, UCI’s first all-electric student housing project. The housing opened in Fall 2019 and is home to more than 1,400 students. View the case study here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17BKjozV0H4Coa4ve104OBGytNfhceznG/view?usp=sharing

Wendell Brase, Associate Chancellor for Sustainability, serves on the following boards and committees pertaining to sustainability in higher education as well as within other organizations and corporations:
-- Co-chair - University of California Global Climate Leadership Council, https://www.ucop.edu/carbon-neutrality-initiative/global-climate-council/index.html
-- Member, University of California Energy Services Governing Board
-- Member - University of California Carbon Neutrality Financial and Management Task Force
-- Member - University of California Sustainability Steering Committee, https://www.ucop.edu/sustainability/policy-areas/sustainability-steering-committee.html
-- Member - TomKat Natural Gas Working Group, https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/featured/auston
-- Member - National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) Sustainability Advisory Committee
-- Member - U.S. Department of Energy Better Buildings Smart Labs Accelerator Partner, https://betterbuildingsinitiative.energy.gov/accelerators/smart-labs
-- Member - Technical Advisory Committee for CEA's plug load grant with the CA Energy Commission
-- Member - California Collaborative for Climate Change Solutions, https://californiaclimatesolutions.org
-- Member - SoCalGas Community Advisory Council (advising on carbon neutrality issues)

Abby Reyes, Director of UCI Community Resilience Projects
-- Advisory Group Member - Vision, Power, Solutions (a project of National Association of Climate Resilience Planners),
https://sites.google.com/facilitatingpower.com/vision-power-solutions/home
-- Co-Convener - National Just Transition Lawyering Institute (institute runs August 2021 - April 2022; co-convener role began January 2020 through present), https://communityresilience.uci.edu/2021-just-transition-movement-lawyering-institute/

Carl Norlen, UCI Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
-- Planning Committee Member for the Climate Solutions Conference at Orange Coast College (February 2020), supported by the UCI Ridge 2 Reef Program and the Newport Bay Conservancy, https://r2r.bio.uci.edu/climate-solutions-online-resource-hub/

Carrie Metzgar, Sustainability & Planning Analyst, UCI Campus Physical and Environmental Planning
-- Institutionalizing Sustainability Committee, California Higher Education Sustainability Conference (CHESC) (July 2020) - http://chesc.org/

Ellen Kern, Administrative Specialist of the UCI Blum Center
-- Planning Committee Member for the 1st International Conference on Environmental Peacebuilding hosted (October 2019), https://www.environmentalpeacebuilding.org/conferences/2019-conference/

Paul Lange, Associate Director of Operations at UCI Arroyo Vista Housing, served on the following committees pertaining to sustainability in higher education:
-- Member - 2020 UCOP RFP for Systemwide Flooring Sustainability Committee
-- Member - 2021 UCOP RFP for Systemwide Mattresses and Dorm Furniture Sustainability Committee

Richard Arum, Dean and Professor in the UCI School of Education
-- Co-Chair - Environmental and Climate Change Literacy Projects (ECCLPs) Steering Committee

Richard Matthew, Director of the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs and Director of the UCI Blum Center for Poverty Alleviation
-- Vice-President of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association founding Board of Directors, https://www.environmentalpeacebuilding.org/association/leadership/

Ruth Gyllenhammer, Associate Director of the Blum Center
-- Planning Committee Member for the 1st International Conference on Environmental Peacebuilding hosted (October 2019), https://www.environmentalpeacebuilding.org/conferences/2019-conference/

Shane Coffield, UCI Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Earth System Science
-- Planning Committee Member for the Climate Solutions Conference at Orange Coast College (February 2020), supported by the UCI Ridge 2 Reef Program and the Newport Bay Conservancy, https://r2r.bio.uci.edu/climate-solutions-online-resource-hub/

Several UCI employees serve as members and/or co-chairs of several University of California Systemwide Working Groups: https://ucop.edu/sustainability/policy-areas/index.html
-- Sustainability Officers (Richard Demerjian, Matt Deines, Carrie Metzgar)
-- Water Resources (Matt Deines, Fred Bockmiller)
-- Green Building (Matt Deines)
-- Climate Planning (Matt Deines, Fred Bockmiller, Carrie Metzgar)
-- Climate Resilience Planning (Matt Deines, Carrie Metzgar)
-- Sustainability Staff (Matt Deines, Carrie Metzgar, Rachel Harvey)
-- Sustainable Operations & Labs (Carrie Metzgar)
-- STARS/Metrics Coordination (Carrie Metzgar)
-- UC Climate Change Communications Network (Carrie Metzgar)
-- Carbon Offsets (Richard Demerjian, Matt Deines, Carrie Metzgar)
-- Herbicides/Safer Chemicals (Richard Demerjian, Matt Deines)
-- Procurement (Lily Zaprianoff)
-- Transportation (Erika Hennon)
-- Waste (Anne Krieghoff)
-- Wellbeing Policy (Carrie Metzgar, Liz Mascarena)
-- Food Services (Liz Mascarena)

SMART LABS INITIATIVE
UCI mentors a variety of higher education institutions, both national and international, about its Smart Labs Initiative. The Smart Labs Initiative is a proven, comprehensive energy-savings program that involves re-engineering building control systems in already-energy-efficient laboratory buildings from bottom to top to safely reduce energy consumption by an average of 60 percent. The program is the cornerstone of UC Irvine's partnership in the U.S. Department of Energy's “Better Buildings Challenge.” A key focus of this ongoing program is the sharing of best practices with other institutional entities.

UCI holds an annual Smart Labs workshop, with fifty-two universities attending the 2021 workshop. The UCI Associate Chancellor of Sustainability and UCI Energy Manger have continued mentoring several of these institutions, in addition to ongoing mentorship from universities that have attended the Smart Labs Workshops in the past. UCI has also been invited to various institutions to speak with their leaders and make presentations to their staff. Smart Labs has provided the foundation for the Department of Energy's (DOE) Smart Labs Toolkit, jointly developed by the DOE under leadership of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories. The Smart Labs Initiative is now being implemented at seven United States National Laboratories.

WASTE DIVERSION MENTORSHIP
Over the past year, the UCI Facilities Management Sustainability Program Manager has mentored several institutions in waste diversion tactics on an ongoing basis. This includes four out-of-state universities, a local California college, a local California city, and a medical center. During this mentorship, the UCI Facilities Management Sustainability Program Manager shares the UCI campus waste diversion plan, along with customizable signs the fellow institutions can use for their own campuses. Over the following months, mentees and the UCI Program Manager exchange emails and calls to check in and provide updates.