Briefly speaking: Students drive sustainability

UC Davis student Brian Seaby caught the recycling bug two years ago during an internship with the space waste management team at NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. Impressed by that experience, Seaby now encourages other UC Davis students to help create a more sustainable campus and global community.

In his final year as a chemical engineering major, Seaby serves as president of the California Student Sustainability Coalition (CSSC). Organized in the fall of 2002 by students from UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC Davis, the coalition urges UC and other universities to become more environmentally responsible.

“Through education, students are becoming more involved and aware of their environmental responsibility,” said Seaby, who also serves as the only student representative for the UC systemwide sustainability advisory committee.

Academic course

The student coalition also provides financial support for the Education for Sustainable Living Program, a student-run course for credit at UC Davis. Students hear from guest lecturers on sustainability and form action research teams that focus on greater sustainability in areas such as transportation, food systems and energy efficient equipment purchases. (Last spring, the course was offered as a series 198 variable unit course.)

“In a way, everything we’re doing on campus toward greater sustainability is the result of student efforts that lead to setting goals for the entire UC system,” said Sid England, the newly appointed assistant vice chancellor for environmental stewardship and sustainability at UC Davis.

Bus and recycling program

England said the major student-run sustainability projects on campus include the R4 Recycling Program and Unitrans, a bus system serving campus and the city of Davis. Through R4, UC Davis diverts as much as 60 percent of its trash from landfills into recycling and composting. The aim is for UC Davis to become a zero-waste campus by 2020.

Student Housing has become a strong leader in helping the campus reach that challenging goal. When students move into residence halls in the fall, they receive a canvas bag and metallic water bottle along with information on how they can practice sustainable living in the residence halls. Students are encouraged to use the canvas bags when shopping at campus convenience stores, which have eliminated the use of plastic and paper bags.

“Students make up the largest percentage of the campus population and have a real voice in getting faculty and administration involved in sustainability projects,” England said. “The action that students take makes a big impact here and once they leave campus, they go into society and effect behavior there.”

To learn more about practices that support ecological, human, social and economic vitality for the campus and the global community, visit UC Davis Sustainability.