University of California, Santa Barbara
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

Through an internship which involved one-on-one mentorship and work with the Campus Sustainability coordinator, a UCSB student (Lindsey Sarquilla) at the Bren school of environmental science and Management investigated the role of our campus's landscape and vegetation in the carbon cycle. Through the internship project, she gained a general understanding of our landscapes here at UCSB and, specifically, the role of their vegetation as a carbon sink and source. Lindsey used the information and knowledge acquired through the internship to develop best management practices and recommendations of climate mitigation specific to the UCSB campus. Her report has since been incorporated into the Campus's 2014 Climate Action Plan.

UCSB has worked to retro-commission aged buildings, using wireless sensor information through the Center for Energy Efficient Design at the Institute for Energy Efficiency. Outcomes of the research include the following. The Student Resources Building reduced hot water use by 44%, and its total building energy savings were 16.5% . The Student Health building saved $75K in equipment replacement and $36K in operation costs. Pollack Theater mitigated 20F oscillations and increased occupant comfort. Lastly, in the Engineering Sciences Building clean room, operations and natural ventilation control strategies were assessed. Overall, it was found that using cheap wireless sensors can give sufficient information about old buildings to improve comfort and save vast amounts of energy. Current research on this front is focused on finding the best and most efficient ways to create energy models that could potentially be used to further study buildings on campus.

Another project focused on bridging the energy performance gap, or the failure to achieve predicted performance, for green buildings in the US and China through the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. The study was created in collaboration with students at the Nanjing University School of the Environment in China, and case-studies were conducted in the Suzhou Industrial Park in China, as well as in green buildings on UCSB's main campus. The results of the study identified large system issues, such as heating system failures, as substantial factors contributing to the performance gap.

Six undergraduate students participated in a project to document and analyze the sustainability of the Santa Barbara County agrifood system and to analyze student food-related decision making on campus. The student participants in the project documented positive synergies between human (improved nutrition and community) and environmental health (reduced greenhouse gas emissions, GHGE). They also performed an experiment in which foods in the UCSB Residential Dining Commons were labeled, based on their GHGE. With this approach, they were able to successfully engage and educate their peers about greenhouse gas emissions related to food production. Based on the collected data, they completed a report that the Dining Commons continues to use for planning their future goals. Lastly, the students prepared and organized content for a conference held in the McCune Conference Center, which considered research, action, and policy related to localizing agrifood systems.

Students performed an experiment to test whether providing feedback to consumers and comparing their behavior to that of their peers alters their power use. Weekly e-mails were sent to 95 randomly selected apartments, and the result was an average reduction of 5.1% electricity consumption. Overall, the Santa Ynez community electricity consumption was lowered about 3,500 kW-hrs, and the complex carbon footprint was reduced by approximately 2,500 lbs of CO2.

One way that UCSB has worked to improve the sustainability of its campus landscaping is through an undergrad-lead project entitled Rethinking Campus Landscaping (RCL). The goal of the project was to improve the sustainability of campus landscaping by both surveying campus landscaping and educating the campus community about sustainable landscapes. The project aimed to analyze landscapes for maintenance practices, ecological make-up, and human-values. It additionally sought to advance the educational capacity at UCSB on functional landscapes and define what a “sustainable landscape” actually is. Students looked at whether converting landscapes from their original grass and ivy form into foundation beds would be economically and ecologically beneficial. The objective was to reduce carbon emissions through implementing landscapes that are not machine intensive. The students found that decreasing human labor costs of high diversity plant beds would make ecologically beneficial landscapes an economically more attractive choice. Another way to lower the cost of human labor would be to create programs on campus that involve the student body. This would provide ecological benefits and opportunities for students to get involved in the process of how their school is run.

As part of a report that was submitted to The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF), four students through the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management carried out a project entitled “Sustainable Supply Chain Management”. The goal of the project was to develop a framework to assess and reduce environmental impacts that result from UCSB procurement. The students evaluated the current state of purchasing on campus using data analysis, life cycle assessment, and a behavioral survey. With these tools, the purchases with the greatest environmental impact where identified based on effects associated with greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and energy consumption. The final project included a recommendation that UCSB shift toward purchasing products with lower environmental impact and by doing so enhance the sustainability of its supply chain.

As part of LeeAnne Kryder’s course “Writing for the Environment”, a student named Stephen Read conducted a project on landfill diversion at UCSB and efforts to find affordable, relatively simple measures to help reduce waste on campus. The report, entitled “Zero Waste: Landfill Diversion at UC Santa Barbara”, evaluated UCSB’s waste and found that upgrades to waste receptacles provide significant improvements in landfill diversion, thus contributing to UC Santa Barbara’s goal of zero waste by 2020. In addition, improved signage can help guide the flow of waste into the proper bins. The report furthermore found that a few simple modifications could solve several problems with the “Big Bertha” garbage bin sets available on campus without the need for complete replacement. And the newer “BigBelly” solar compactors can reduce trash volume by a factor of 4. Lastly, the report found that a transition to compostable bags in restrooms could keep hundreds of pounds of paper towels out of landfills every week.

UCSB is the first UC campus to develop a Water Action Plan that evaluates water use and provides strategies for reducing water consumption. UCSB staff collaborated with students from the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management to produce the Water Action Plan. The project doubled as the students' master's thesis. They collected and analyzed water data to help shape recommendations, giving them the opportunity to implement their academic experiences in the field. Another academic dimension of the Water Action Plan is the inclusion of goals to embed an understanding of the watershed into the curriculum, as well as new demonstration projects that could be used by researchers and by the campus.

Positive outcomes of the project include the discovery that potable water use on campus in 2012 decreased for the fourth year in a row. Water consumption for the 2011/12 academic year is the lowest on record, with a 51% reduction from UCSB’s three-year baseline. This enabled UC Santa Barbara to surpass the 2020 policy goal of 20% reduction in potable water set by the University of California Office of the President (UCOP) nine years earlier. Through its many proactive conservation practices, it appears feasible for UCSB to reduce potable water consumption by an additional 20% over the next 15 years, averaging close to a 7% reduction at each Five Year Water Action Plan Assessment.

A project was conducted for the course Environmental Science and Management (ESM) 280: Organizations and Environmental Leadership. The project's goals included picking an organization and analyzing environmental leadership opportunities and challenges within the organization. The analysis was centered on topics such as values and leadership, decision making, communicating for results, and leadership challenges. The project focused on the Chancellor's Campus Sustainability Committee on campus. The results of the analysis included strengths, weaknesses, and impact recommendations for the committee. Examples of recommendations include increasing involvement through campus events and prioritizing innovative ways to reach the 'non-subscribing' audience in order to close the performance gap.

As part of a senior thesis submitted to the Environmental Studies Department, research was carried out to determine the "effective financial harm" (EFH) attributed to UCSB due to its investment in the coal industry. This was done by conducting literature reviews on the external costs associated with coal production and utilizations. It was found that UCSB has a medium EFH of $181,287 per year, with a range of $98,270 to $301,458. Though these numbers are not substantial when compared to the total external costs associated with the coal industry, they are impressive when considering the small percentage of the companies owned by UCSB. The project concluded that it is important to decide whether or not investments of a university are under the jurisdiction of the university's mission statement and ideals.

A sociology and communications double-major worked with the UCSB Sustainability Internship Program as a student intern to engage local environmental organizations in working together to encourage volunteerism in the local environmental movement through a collaborative approach. This project was started in Winter 2013 with the launch of a community-based partnership meeting organized by the student intern. At this meeting, goals and a variety of strategies for collaboration were discussed. Several community meetings later, a Director's pledge was developed, along with a plan for further ongoing collaboration efforts. The student intern completed all of the recruitment of local organizations and relationship building, learned to develop agendas and facilitate meetings, researched what other cities were doing, and developed the final pledge document. The intern attended a retreat with other student leaders, as well as community meetings held by other groups locally. The student's mentor met with the student weekly to discuss the project and offer advice.

We offer an internship program called PACES (Program for the Assessment and Certification for the Environment and Sustainability) which also doubles as our Green Office Certification Program. Students in the program receive mentorship through weekly meetings with their staff adviser and additional meetings as necessary. They also attend retreats throughout the year and occasional formal trainings. During the program, they learn energy auditing, environmental consulting, waste auditing, professionalism, and more. Through this program, campus departments identify ways that they can conserve resources in their offices and gain knowledge of campus sustainability policies and resources. This is an ongoing program.