Sustainability 2.0

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Welcome to UC San Diego, where sustainability comes alive in education, research, and campus operations.


Our Approach to Sustainability: Practicing What We Teach

Environmental sustainability is in UC San Diego’s institutional DNA, inherited from our forebears at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

In 1957, Scripps Oceanography Director Roger Revelle warned that greenhouse gases from industrialization could endanger the planet.

The following year, Scripps geochemist Charles Keeling began his precise measurement of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and the “Keeling Curve,” named for him, is “the most important geophysical measurement of the 20th century.”

As part of that tradition, and the unmistakable link between climate change and higher levels of greenhouse gases and heat-absorbing particles in the atmosphere, the senior leaders of UC San Diego have made sustainability a top academic, research and campus-operations priority.

Students are becoming sustainability leaders in their own right, opting for majors and minors, classes, internships and research projects that emphasize environmental sustainability.

Our faculty members’ research also is increasingly focused on projects with significant potential environmental benefits, and students who work on those projects will be the driving force in the green economy of our region.

  

UC San Diego practices what it teaches. Our buildings are being designed or retrofitted to conserve energy, water and other resources. The campus purchases everything from paper to dining hall food from sustainable-practice suppliers.

Our solar photovoltaic arrays, ultra-low-emission, high-efficiency gas-fired cogeneration plant, and energy-efficiency projects have significantly reduced our emissions of greenhouse gases and now save the campus more than $8 million annually.

As UC San Diego marks its 50th anniversary, we can also celebrate its transformation into a living laboratory of sustainable solutions. Our students, faculty and staff are enlarging the legacy of Revelle and Keeling through their commitment to sustainable practices, education and research, and by targeting zero waste by 2020 and climate neutrality by 2025.

Chancellor Marye Anne Fox

Marye Anne Fox
Chancellor

Vice Chancellor Gary Matthews

Gary C. Matthews
Vice Chancellor, Resource Management and Planning

UC San Diego Students Excelling as Sustainability Leaders

As UC San Diego has transformed itself into a living laboratory of sustainability solutions, students aren’t waiting to graduate to become leaders.

Student interns are involved in a variety of green internship projects across the campus, student “econauts” provide peer-to-peer education about ways students can reduce their carbon footprint, and more undergraduates are opting for majors and minors, classes and research projects that emphasize environmental sustainability.

State, national and international environmental-policy decisions require a solid understanding of the science involved. UC San Diego students with rigorous educational backgrounds and hands-on experiences are prepared to play important roles.