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With the publication of the College Sustainability Report Card 2010, more than 1,100 school survey responses from over 300 institutions are now available online. In total, these surveys offer more than 10,000 pages of data collected from colleges and universities during the summer of 2009. To access surveys from other schools, go to the surveys section of the website. To see grades, or to access additional surveys submitted by this school, please click the "Back to Report Card" link at the beginning or end of the survey.
Name: Jessica Zenger
Position (in student organization): Team Manager/Treasurer/Intern
Date survey submitted: 6/2009
STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS
1) Please describe the student-run campus environmental/sustainability organization in which you have a leadership role.
Name of organization: Alliance to Save Energy’s Green Campus
Number of active members: 7
Website: www.greencampusucm.com
Date of last meeting: 5/2009
Frequency of meetings: weekly during academic year
Key issues addressed and programs implemented since August 2008: Energy efficiency and awareness of consumption by students and staff are Green Campus’ main focuses. 2 main projects were undertaken in order to meet these goals: LED Retrofit and Dorm Energy Competition.
Progress made on each issue/program since August 2008: The Dorm Energy Competition encouraged on-campus students to reduce their energy consumption for 2 weeks. The hall that reduced energy consumption by the largest percentage was awarded a plaque placed in predominant buildings around campus (3 buildings total). The LED retrofit is a controlled experiment that will look at not only energy savings from replacing T8 fluorescents with LED tube lighting, but also the difference in light quality as noticed by students using the rooms. The installation of the LED’s will happen 6/2009, with student surveys to happen at the start of the Fall 2009 semester.
SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGES AND COMPETITIONS
2) Does your group organize any sustainability challenges/competitions for your campus and/or with other colleges?
[ ] No
[ x ] Yes. Please list details for each competition.
#1 - Name of competition: Dorm Energy Competition
Year initiated: 2009
Frequency of competition: Semesterly (planned)
Participants: On-campus students
Incentives: Plaque of Award in notable buildings around campus
Goal of competition: The students in 8 different halls on campus compete against each other to see who can use the least amount of energy. Hall energy consumption is tracked daily, and at the end of the competition the differences in energy are computed. The winner is then found be the lowest energy consumed, and the percentage reduced is relative to the largest energy consuming hall (the biggest loser).
Percent of energy/water/waste reduced: 34% energy reduced in winning hall compared to most energy consuming hall
Lasting effects of competition: On-campus students are better equipped to make energy efficient choices outside of competition, as throughout the duration of the competition habits will have been formed or changed to become more sustainable.
Website: www.greencampusucm.com
#2 - Name of competition:
Year initiated:
Frequency of competition:
Participants:
Incentives:
Goal of competition:
Percent of energy/water/waste reduced:
Lasting effects of competition:
Website:
SUSTAINABILITY IN STUDENT GOVERNMENT
3) Does your student government include a specific position or committee dedicated to campus sustainability issues?
[ ] No
[ x ] Yes. Please describe: 1.) Sustainability Commissioner: Currently held by active Green Campus intern. This position works with Student Housing and Student Life to try to instill a community of sustainable thinkers on campus. Community outreach and education are the positions main focuses. 2.) Student Body Government Representative to Sustainability Committee. Currently held by active Green Campus intern (myself). This position bridges the gap between student efforts and administrative efforts to promote communication about sustainable advances on campus as well as a way to brainstorm new ideas.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
4) Please describe any additional campus sustainability activities or projects that you or your group has initiated at your school: 1.) “Green Campus Presents” – a lecture series that gives students and staff the opportunity to see what UC Merced and the community at large are doing in the field of energy efficiency and sustainability. 2.) “CFL Exchange / Recycling” – gives students, staff, and the community a CFL bulb in exchange for an incandescent, and for those who which to dispose of their used CFL’s a place to recycle them for free. 3.) ESS 199 Course – independent study course that has students working with faculty/staff on energy efficiency projects.
5) Please list and briefly describe any other student-run organizations related to campus sustainability at your school, and provide URLs if available (e.g., student groups; student government committees; student-run food co-ops, gardens/farms, bike co-ops) and provide contact information of the student leaders, if possible:
1.) Green Club: Green Club organizes UC Merced’s Earth Day, Coastal Clean Up for Yosemite Lake, and helps to host America Recycle’s Day.
2.) Recycling Program: Recycling program at UC Merced was initiated by Emily DeCramer in 2005 and now helps to orchestrate campus-wide recycling efforts, including putting recycling bins in every room on campus, to e-waste recycling programs, to hosting America Recycle’s Day.
3.) Cycling Alliance: Interest group at UC Merced that encourages student to pledge to consistently ride their bikes to school and around the community.
4.) UC Merced Receratuion’s Eco-Bike Card: Program coordinated by Student Rec/Wellness, hands out cards to be stamped when students ride their bikes to school. If a student has 20 consecutive rides to campus, a free overnight locker is given to them.
5.) Yosemite Leadership Program: This program partners with UC Merced students and Yosemite National Park/Sequoia Park to build a relationship between community preservation and environmental awareness. Leadership skills in both a personal sense and environmental sense are taught through this program.
6.) Service Learning “Daylighting” : Service Learning is an engineering course that allows the community to have their engineering’s problems solved by UC Merced students. One such client is the California Mineral Museum, who has asked UC Merced students to replace standard indoor lighting with sustainable daylighting techniques. Led by world-renown professor Roland Winston, UC Merced students have won awards for their progress with the clients’ needs.
Questions 6 is for informational purposes only; your response will NOT be included in the Report Card evaluation process.
6) Please list any regional or national networks with which your group is affiliated (e.g., Energy Action Coalition/Campus Climate Challenge, Sierra Student Coalition, a state PIRG, a state student sustainability coalition): -Alliance to Save Energy
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Name: Kristen Presleigh
Position (in student organization): Co-President 2008-2009
Date survey submitted: 7-20-09
STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS
1) Please describe the student-run campus environmental/sustainability organization in which you have a leadership role.
Name of organization: Green Club
Number of active members: 20
Website:
Date of last meeting: 5-4-09
Frequency of meetings: once a week
Key issues addressed and programs implemented since August 2008: Club camping trips, UCMs Earth Day Festival, Farmer's Market
Progress made on each issue/program since August 2008: The camping trip trip to Yosemite National Park was designed to trade services, which included a invasive species or trash clean-up, for the provision a camping site. For the publicity, and small funding in our club account we are able to provide for our club members an adequate transportation to the site, however, allowing that we can continue to build stronger contacts with the campus recreation, we can hope to
provide an even greater service to the rest of the school in the future. For the moment, we will continue to set up additional trips in the future, and will continue to try to accommodate every willing participant. The UCM Earth Day Festival was to celebrate Earth Day, where we had in the past, held a Fairy Shrimp Festival in celebration and awareness of the proximity of the species. The change to UCM Earth Day allowed for us to better direct the attention to Earth Day,
where we were able to provided for a "green week" of various events. This year we were able to showcase the pre-consumer waste compost that the recycling assistants had created in an herb and flower planting session, the attention to buying local with the first farmer's market held on campus, and gave attention to each individual efforts provided by students, staff, faculty, and departments for a more sustainable campus from tabling events. These types of events we would like to continue to provide on campus,including another environmental film festival that was shown during the "green week."
SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGES AND COMPETITIONS
2) Does your group organize any sustainability challenges/competitions for your campus and/or with other colleges?
[ X ] No
[ ] Yes. Please list details for each competition.
#1 - Name of competition:
Year initiated:
Frequency of competition:
Participants:
Incentives:
Goal of competition:
Percent of energy/water/waste reduced:
Lasting effects of competition:
Website:
#2 - Name of competition:
Year initiated:
Frequency of competition:
Participants:
Incentives:
Goal of competition:
Percent of energy/water/waste reduced:
Lasting effects of competition:
Website:
SUSTAINABILITY IN STUDENT GOVERNMENT
3) Does your student government include a specific position or committee dedicated to campus sustainability issues?
[ ] No
[ X ] Yes. Please describe:
Sustainability Committee will begin in Fall 2009 in ASUCM.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
4) Please describe any additional campus sustainability activities or projects that you or your group has initiated at your school: Events that we organize include environmental clean-ups, tabling, annual organic luncheon, film festivals, farmers market, Focus theNation Event. We closely support other green organizations by volunteering for and partnering with other green organizations for events including energy and recycling competitions, and America Recycles Day and have had many club members involved in campus positions for either Green Campus or Recycling Assistants. We also advertise for any upcoming classes relating to a similar focus, such as environmental literature. Some of our members are involved in the Chancellor's Advisory Committee for Sustainability, and last spring worked in sub-committee participating in the discussions for solar energy possibilities for the recreation facility, as well as
participated in applications for green grants. The history of the club started with the initiation of better recycling on campus, and helped start up carpool parking permits and campus bus stops within student housing communities, as well as brought attention to various environmental politics. The overall commitment of the remains to encouraging people to make green lifestyle changes, and urging leadership at UCM and in Washington DC to fight global warming.
5) Please list and briefly describe any other student-run organizations related to campus sustainability at your school, and provide URLs if available (e.g., student groups; student government committees; student-run food co-ops, gardens/farms, bike co-ops) and provide contact information of the student leaders, if possible: Club: Cycling Alliance - The newest to the campus sustainability team is the cycling alliance. This student run organization is bringing the attention back to reducing transportation emissions, and has provided events for free help and education on the maintenance of bikes.
Questions 6 is for informational purposes only; your response will NOT beincluded in the Report Card evaluation process.
6) Please list any regional or national networks with which your group is affiliated (e.g., Energy Action Coalition/Campus Climate Challenge, Sierra Student Coalition, a state PIRG, a state student sustainability coalition): We are not affiliated with any national network
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