Action Research Teams 2010-2011
Find out more about sustainability progress on campus undertaken by the 2010-2011 Action Research Teams.
ART Leaders
Janou Gordon is currently completing her double major in Political Science and World Arts & Cultures in her fourth year at UCLA. Her interest in environmentalism began after studying abroad in a "Sustainable Cities" program based in Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. Seeing the possibility of integrating sustainable practices into modern urban settings sparked her enthusiasm for sustainability. Janou gets her energy from yoga, cooking, and running. Upon finishing her undergraduate education, she hopes to further her education and experience in environmental policy and planning.
Varun Mehra is currently completing his major in Mathematics & Economics and his minor in Environmental Systems & Society in his 4th year at UCLA. He first gained interest in sustainability after working on an organic farm in rural Ecuador, and has been passionate about the environment ever since. Varun enjoys adventuring outdoors, mountain biking, tennis, golf, and traveling. After he completes his studies here at UCLA, he's looking forward to pursuing a career within renewable energy industries.
Uma Bhandaram
ART Teams
Hill Energy Metering:
The Energy Metering Action Research Team aimed to reduce energy consumption in the residence halls. By collaborating with UCLA faculty that are conducting research on behavior modification, the team monitored energy usage in select rooms and how users’ behavior was effected when their consumption rates are available to both themselves and to those in the same living community. To learn more click here.
Fair Trade:
The Fair Trade Action Research Team will study current beverage options at UCLA cafes and eateries, increase campus awareness of fair trade options on campus, and highlight the importance of consumer responsibility in supporting socially and environmentally sustainable business. To learn more click here.
Green the Greeks:
The Green the Greeks Action Research Team will work to appoint Eco-chairs in each house who will be responsible for actively engaging their house in sustainable practices. The team will install energy efficient light bulbs, aerators to faucets and shower heads, and provide recycling bins. To learn more click here.
Green Workshops:
The Green Workshops Action Research Team will organize and host two sustainability workshops during which student groups on campus can learn about the concepts of sustainability, how to implement processes that will increase the sustainability of their group’s operations, and the various resources and funding available on campus to help them to do so. To learn more click here.
Hospital Sustainability:
The Hospital Sustainability Action Research Team will work with UCLA Medical Center staff to examine feasibility and implementation strategies for a farmer's market at the hospital and will research the potential impact of sustainability initiatives on workers' health. To learn more click here.
On Campus vs. Off Campus Carbon Footprint:
The On vs. Off Campus Carbon Footprint Action Research Team will compile data comparing carbon footprints of UCLA students living on-and off-campus in terms of energy and transportation; this data will be used to make recommendations to Housing and Hospitality Services in regards to current and future housing developments. To learn more click here.
Campus Recycling:
The Recycling Action Research Team will perform audits to measure the effectiveness of the total amount of recycled materials of the new recycling campaign and will also generate an extensive education outreach campaign that will culminate around Earth Day in April. To learn more click here.
Sustainable Food Systems:
The Sustainable Food Systems Action Research Team will help UCLA's Dining Services and students make more informed food choices by providing more organic and locally grown food options in their dining hall offerings and increasing overall awareness. To learn more click here.
Tree-Mapping:
The Tree-Mapping Action Research Team will aim to compose a comprehensive map showing the distribution of trees on the UCLA campus by using handheld GPS devices; this information will be used to increase sustainable practices and improve the ability of the UCLA community to plan with an environmentally conscious perspective. To learn more click here.
Recreational Sustainability:
The Wooden Sustainability Action Research Team will focus on the potential of energy efficient appliances that will lower facility energy expenses and atmospheric carbon emissions, landscaping using drought-tolerant plants, and increasing sustainability awareness at the John Wooden Center through signage and other campaigns. To learn more click here.
Hill Energy Monitoring Results
UCLA’s On-campus Housing houses almost 10,000 students each school year with that number expected to grow in the future. With this in mind the Hill Energy Metering Project (HEMP) Action Research Team was formed to promote energy conservation and awareness in these residential communities. By focusing on UCLA’s On-Campus Community known as the “Hill” HEMP will make great strides in promoting a reduction in the amount and percentage of total emissions of UCLA’s campus.
Our key findings in this project were quite significant. Through the Engage Energy Metering Project, we found that public exposure of resident energy consumption can significantly reduce their usage and alter their behavior. In this experiment, rooms with publicly displayed information reduced their energy usage by 30%. Focus groups with the students involved confirmed that they did change their energy consumption behavior in response to the public display of results.
In addition to the Engage project we created educational videos on how to use the different thermostats and how to be more sustainable. These were highly effective in increasing awareness of those who participated, and we hope that similar informational videos continue to be provided for residents in the plazas.
We also placed reminder signs near light switches and thermostats in all the resident rooms in one building and recommend that these be implemented in all rooms on the Hill in the future. To assess thermostat behavior we issued a survey completed by 780 students, which showed that most residents want informative signage near these areas. In its first year of research, the Hill Energy Metering Project Action Research Team has been largely successful in achieving its goals. However, we have merely laid the framework for more energy focused action research teams in the future. Our team and our stakeholders would highly recommend continuing to post the energy reminding stickers as well as find a way to access the attention of the residents and effective ways to tap into their motivation to conserve energy and live sustainably. The Engage Energy Metering Project has expressed interest in having ART assist them in metering the energy consumed in University Apartments.
UCLA’s On-campus Housing houses almost 10,000 students each school year with that number expected to grow in the future. With this in mind the Hill Energy Metering Project (HEMP) Action Research Team was formed to promote energy conservation and awareness in these residential communities. By focusing on UCLA’s On-Campus Community known as the “Hill” HEMP will make great strides in promoting a reduction in the amount and percentage of total emissions of UCLA’s campus.
Our key findings in this project were quite significant. Through the Engage Energy Metering Project, we found that public exposure of resident energy consumption can significantly reduce their usage and alter their behavior. In this experiment, rooms with publicly displayed information reduced their energy usage by 30%. Focus groups with the students involved confirmed that they did change their energy consumption behavior in response to the public display of results.
In addition to the Engage project we created educational videos on how to use the different thermostats and how to be more sustainable. These were highly effective in increasing awareness of those who participated, and we hope that similar informational videos continue to be provided for residents in the plazas.
We also placed reminder signs near light switches and thermostats in all the resident rooms in one building and recommend that these be implemented in all rooms on the Hill in the future. To assess thermostat behavior we issued a survey completed by 780 students, which showed that most residents want informative signage near these areas. In its first year of research, the Hill Energy Metering Project Action Research Team has been largely successful in achieving its goals. However, we have merely laid the framework for more energy focused action research teams in the future. Our team and our stakeholders would highly recommend continuing to post the energy reminding stickers as well as find a way to access the attention of the residents and effective ways to tap into their motivation to conserve energy and live sustainably. The Engage Energy Metering Project has expressed interest in having ART assist them in metering the energy consumed in University Apartments.
One of our main focuses is to make sure that students know the benefits of Fair Trade, but also how easy it is to opt for Fair Trade products when ordering a beverage. In order to achieve this goal, we pursued a variety of innovative approaches.
To broaden our scope, we met with Greek fraternity and sorority groups and student groups during their weekly announcement period. We aimed to garner interest and support for Fair Trade by presenting Fair Trade facts and reminding them that not only are Fair Trade products available on campus, but also to say “Can I have Fair Trade” when ordering. We also made a brief announcement about the goals of our Action Research Team and the Education for Sustainable Leaders (ESLP) program.
To increase visibility and awareness of Fair Trade on campus, we designed a marketing campaign incorporating students onto a team-designed poster board. This design was to be placed outside of the coffee shops and replace the ineffective “Fair Trade” posters currently on display. The purpose of our new design was to be concise, informative, creative, and have a familiar face so students would be more inclined to pay attention. We recruited various students to be photographed and displayed on the posters in pursuit of a “relatable” marketing approach. Because of time constraints and mixed communication between our group and stakeholders, we were unable to put our posters up. The posters are stored at the IOES and will be available for future ART groups.
The Fair Trade team gathered a lot of support from different student groups and faculty. We were fortunate to have E3 and Bruin Democrats supporting our cause as well as the rest of the ART community. They assisted us in our tabling efforts, in which our educated staff was able to have interpersonal interactions with prospective Fair Trade purchasers, rather than only pursuing a more distant, poster-only approach. As a group, we created posters titled “Ask us about Fair Trade!” so students would be able to come to us with any questions they have. We realize many students aren’t familiar with Fair Trade certification at all, so we were happy to spread awareness and address how “change for us is change for them.”
After the approval of ASUCLA, we were able to put business card sized information cards at the registers of the five Fair Trade carrying coffee shops. These vibrant green and blue cards are available at the register when one is placing an order. The informational cards were meant supplement the posters outside with more concrete facts and Fair Trade values. Unfortunately, ASUCLA did not find it suitable for the posters to go up to supplement the information cards since the spring quarter was coming to a close. On another note, ASUCLA has decided to place “The Greater Good” stickers on Fair Trade products, with the hopes of increasing visibility of Fair Trade purchases among students.
The Green the Greeks Action Research Team has worked on efforts that include recycling, water usage, and lighting efficiency among the Greek community on campus. Our goals were to ensure all Greek houses not only had access to recycling, but also had the proper knowledge about how to recycle. For water usage and lighting efficiency, we strove to provide Greek members with the tools, which would allow them to decrease their energy and water usage, without making significant alterations to their everyday life.
Our team had many significant key findings throughout the two quarters of action research. First, we found that often times it is not necessarily a lack of motivation that leads to an unsustainable house; in our case, many people were excited to make environmentally efficient changes once they were provided with the proper tools. Second, making changes among Greek houses can be difficult due to restrictions placed by the house boards, despite the house member’s positive incentives. Thirdly, we learned the importance of accepting that plans don’t always go as expected; simply being able to adapt and create new actions are what will in the end prevail.
One main recommendation our team has towards future teams that are interested in taking on Greek sustainability is to take advantage of the newly installed eco-chairs that our team has put in place at each house. Each eco-chair that our team has contacted was extremely excited and motivated to make environmental changes within their own house; they can be an extreme aid to helping a team’s cause. The future ART team should also make a timeline of goals and plans; this would help the team figure out what objectives are actually realistic in the amount of time given. Finally, effectively utilize stakeholders. Mande Adams and Troy Bartels are extremely knowledgeable about what feasible environmental changes could be made within the Greek system; in addition to this, they have a lot of power within the Greek system that could make a team’s actions very successful.
Our project started out as a way to bring sustainability to a wider audience than just the Institute of the Environment or students that already had an interest in sustainability, such as the students in the Action Research Program. We decided that the best way to reach a wider audience was to begin by educating the student leaders on campus, who would in turn be able to educate the students in their respective student groups. We also estimated the amount of waste that the typical student group creates, and realized that together, the 800 student groups on campus use about 400,000 flyers, 16,000 posters and 240,000 sheets of paper per year.
USAC, the Undergraduate Student Association Council, holds thirteen student-run offices that not only count as student groups themselves, but also are involved with all of the other student groups on campus. We focused most of our efforts on bringing knowledge of sustainability to USAC.
We started with a survey of student leaders on campus. Our results showed that the main obstacle of student leaders in becoming more sustainable as a student group was their lack of funding. In order to change this, and publicize funding options, such as The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF), we decided to hold a workshop for student leaders called Being Green and Getting Green. At this workshop, we had presentations from a wide variety of resources on campus, including a presentation from Nurit Katz on general sustainability, presentations from funding resources such as the USAC Contingency Fund and TGIF and a case study of the Theta Xi fraternity, who utilized a TGIF grant for sustainable projects at their home. We had about 90 student leaders attend the workshop.
To gauge the success of our workshop, we conducted a post-survey of the attendees. Although the knowledge of funding greatly increased, we realized that motivation was still a huge issue in bringing more sustainable practices to student groups. To increase motivation, and truly make sustainability more of an applied proactive concept than just a personal value or knowledge, we planned and held a volunteer day for the USAC Student leaders at the Stone Canyon Creek on campus. The day was a moderate success, and is now institutionalized as a quarterly event put on by BGreen Consulting, USAC’s sustainability faction.
As a way to continue the work that our team completed during these two quarters, we created a Student Group’s Green Guide, which contains all of the resources we discussed in our workshop and other tips and easy changes to make student groups less wasteful and more proactively sustainable. We hope to get this guide institutionalized by next year, and will put it online as well as handing it out as a pamphlet.
Hospital Sustainability Results
The Hospital Sustainability Team’s purpose, implicit in its name, is to progress the Ronald Reagan Medical Center towards being a fully sustainable institution. Through researching other universities and their partner medical centers, in addition to large private hospitals (such as Kaiser Permanente) that are at the forefront of modern sustainability, we have been able to compare the sustainable practices implemented at other sites to those implemented at our own medical center. Potential projects included farmers’ markets, reusable sharps containers, and research of the efficacy of sustainability pledges throughout the hospital’s history.
In turn, we redirected our efforts toward the education of the hospital’s constituents about sustainability in hopes that the increased awareness will directly translate to more green-oriented practices. Invested with newly found vigor upon the recruitment of key figures Dr. Wendie Robbins of UCLA’s School of Nursing and a corresponding graduate student Kyle Hyman, our team swiftly moved forward. We configured multiple approaches to increasing education throughout the hospital. We decided it best to target and, soon, collaborate with the largest and most influential group in Ronald Reagan – the nursing staff. The nurses of Ronald Reagan are the fundamental gears that move the hospital day in and day out.
In order to begin raising awareness immediately, we met with two lead nurses from Ronald Reagan, Cheryl Lehuquet and Holly Phelan. Through collaborating with these two, and, in turn, their staffs, we formulated a two-pronged approach to raise awareness. The former involved raising awareness about concurrent, over-looked, sustainable practices through Nurse Huddles. Huddles are established weekly nurse meetings that serve as a forum for new information to spread throughout the staff quickly and efficiently. However, in hopes of improving sustainability awareness, we had to first gauge the baseline status of their knowledge. To do this, we created a survey that could accurately assess the extent of knowledge the nursing staff of Ronald Reagan has about hospital sustainability, and their successive interest in the topic. Once created, we passed the survey along to Doctor Robbins and Kyle, who together edited the piece, making it worthy of approval by the Education Board and their sister committees. Our second angle of approach involved establishing a recurring monthly meeting for the heads of the nursing staff, concurrent environmental advocates, and future ART team members. This will allow brainstorming of future sustainability practices and movements.
The approval of the survey marks the culmination of the ART Hospital Sustainability Team’s first year of existence. Through its continuation, the nurses’ survey and monthly meeting may serve as a base to build upon in the future, and can allow for implementation of future practices. Once it is completed and returned to us, we can begin to instill green practices and heighted awareness into the hospital through the nursing staff huddles. After six months, we will resend the survey, collect the data, and then analyze the difference in order to see the practical change our educational approach has made. If successful, future ART teams can provide this information as support for their efforts toward investing more time and money into hospital sustainability.
On Campus vs. Off Campus Carbon Footprint Results
Our first objective was to build and administer a specific survey to extend to our peers; we aimed to attain the utility (electric/gas) bills for multiple months of a statistically significant sample size of off-campus UCLA students, while concurrently utilizing stakeholders to attain energy data for on- campus undergraduate living scenarios. Our next objective included compiling, normalizing, and analyzing the gathered data to compare carbon footprints (transportation, electricity, and basic waste components) of both on-campus and off-campus students. Our final objective was to generate conclusions and recommendations based on the analyzed data from our survey.
Existing research including the UCLA Climate Action Plan (2007) and Student Master Housing Plan (2007) should benefit from a well-defined carbon footprint-based comparison between students living on- and off-campus. Current and planned housing developments on ‘the Hill’ intend to incorporate thousands of additional beds to accommodate increasing freshman and out-of-state admissions through 2020. The office of Housing and Hospitality Services Sustainability can incorporate the fulfilled objectives when deciding upon best management practices for current and future housing initiatives. Future action research teams will build upon our survey to increase confidence in results found and to simultaneously track student emissions.
By normalizing results using an environmental awareness and altruism index against students living on- and off-campus for minimum bias, we found that students living on campus have a slightly greater environmental awareness, and that the closer students live to campus, the more likely they are to walk. Also, students paying for utilities had a positive correlation with efficient behaviors including turning off appliances, recycling, and low-impact travel. We strongly recommend further promotion of low-impact living behaviors.
UCLA produces about 24,000 pounds of waste each year. The UCLA Climate Action Plan of 2007 laid out initiatives and goals to reduce this waste: the campus is aiming for 75% waste diversion by 2012 and zero waste by 2020. As the 2012 date approaches rapidly, our ART team has faced daunting yet rewarding tasks: to assess and evaluate the current waste situation, to implement change, and to educate, inform and inspire the entire student body.
We focused our initiatives on two target areas: outdoor recycling and indoor recycling. Last year’s Recycling Team redesigned the waste bins and helped to convert campus to single stream recycling. However, much confusion arose from their word choice on the bins. We conducted a survey to the student body and found that many people did not recycle correctly simply because they were not sure what to do. Our goal was to eliminate this unnecessary confusion caused by signage. To carry this out we designed new, clear signs to laminate and hang on the bins. Results from our survey and conversations with students on Earth Day showed us how essential outreach is to our project. We made posters and flyers and put them in eye-catching, public places such as Bruin Walk, a flyer in the bathrooms of Powell Library and the UCLA Jazz Reggae Festival. The convenience of information is crucial on a university campus. Future initiatives should focus on educating students in ways that will catch their attention and encourage them to remember how to act and why it is important. For example, next year’s action research team could put up signs in the dining hall or the Daily Bruin.
Our indoor campaign consisted of a recycling competition between the Bunche and Public Affairs buildings and was mostly directed towards UCLA staff and faculty. Our focus here was on increasing desk side recycling and encouraging faculty, counselors and researchers to take the extra second and make the right decisions. Though our team greatly values sustainability, one of our greatest challenges is to cultivate that same motivation in others. It is difficult to gauge the best method to develop this drive, but competition is one way to both introduce a new concept to people and inspire them to work towards a common goal. After a month long competition, our data shows a significant increase in single stream recycling in Public Affairs and an increase in white paper recycling in Bunch. Next year’s team could extend the competition to more buildings on campus.
We carried out several specific initiatives over Winter and Spring quarter, but our long term goal has more of a social concentration. Our action research team aspires to inform students and alter their behaviors to make recycling something valuable and natural for the student body. We are trying to implement an easy to follow and easily accessible recycling program so that students do not even have to bat an eyelash in order to make the right choices.
Sustainable Food Systems Results
Our main mission, which we worked through with our stakeholders, was to help UCLA Dining Services achieve their goal of 20% sustainable foods purchased by 2020. According to the Earth Policy Institute’s report on Oil and Food, 20% of all greenhouse gases in the world come from current agriculture practices. As a massive university system, disengaging ourselves from this system by increasing our local and organic food offerings would have a huge impact on carbon emissions in the university and state level. We approached our objective in three ways. Firstly, we worked with Patricia Reyes to begin to develop a guidebook of local and organic farms and processing plants that UCLA could potentially partner with in the future. Dining Service’s main concern was how to execute a sustainable food system while still maintaining resident satisfaction.
The second part of our project was an educational campaign for residents on the Hill about the importance of sustainable foods in their daily life. We developed Table Tents, which were deployed in three Residential Restaurants for a total of 2 weeks. Lastly, we planned a “FoodFest,” a day highlighting local and organic foods through a dinner and speakers. Our intent was to promote food consciousness within the student population in order to encourage them to advocate for increased sustainable foods offerings.
Key findings from our project show that while UCLA has many great intentions and a generally positive attitude towards sustainable foods, there is still much work that needs to be done. Students showed a threefold increase in their interest in sustainable foods after our FoodFest event, initial levels were only at 25.3%. Also, we found that many small organic farms are looking into forming distribution centers and exclusivity contracts that may prove useful to UCLA in the future.
UCLA is valued for its beautiful landscape and urban forest. Over the decades, the campus has been cultivated into a diverse urban park made up of tens of thousands of trees. Some of these trees predate many of the buildings themselves, while others stand as examples of rare or remarkable species. The UCLA Tree Mapping Team’s goal was to begin a comprehensive spatial database and inventory of the trees on campus. Using Project BudBurst Mobile, a free cell phone application developed by the Center for Embedded Networked Systems (CENS), we developed a method of data collection focused specifically on tree distribution at UCLA. This spatial data will be important to sustainable land and resource management at UCLA. It can be used in numerous applications of GIS based analysis, ranging from landscape design and management to capital programming and development planning.
Whether the problem is rescheduling irrigation patterns to minimize water waste or determining what trees will be displaced by campus construction, spatial data organized in a comprehensive, easily accessed format is an important tool. To ensure the continued expansion of this database, the data is available online as an interactive map and list that the public can freely download and use in any number of spatial analysis projects relating to tree distribution on campus.
We encouraged citizen science by promoting BudBurst Mobile to the UCLA community and inviting people to gather and submit their own tree information using personal cell phones. As GIS analysis becomes a major component to urban and landscape management, development and planning, we hope this added resource will become an integrated part of the campus information system.
As the Recreation Sustainability Team, our main focuses are sustainability, energy efficiency, and resource conservation at the John Wooden Center. Over the span of two quarters we implemented several projects focusing on sustainable efforts, and ultimately improving the well being for students and faculty at the gym. Our first project, the Collins Court Light Renovation, focused on reducing energy costs by switching to lower-wattage, more efficient light fixtures that not only improve the aesthetics of Collins Court, but ultimately have a high return of investment in utility costs. These longer lasting, low-wattage lamps will be installed in the gym summer 2011. The 78 bulbs we purchased with our funding will save the gym approximately $13,228.03 annually. Our second project, the Tanks 4 Towels Campaign, also focused on reducing utility costs as well as conserving water. Every Tuesday of Spring Quarter we offered students and faculty free tank tops in exchange for bringing their own workout towel to the gym.
The Tanks 4 Towels Campaign was a great way to reduce the amount of washer and drier loads, receive feedback for our survey, and ultimately spread the sustainable message to gym goers. Our calculated savings from this project are 25,000 gallons of water, 2,500 kWh of energy, and about $400 annually. For our final project, Green Well Being, we swapped out all the fake plastic plants located throughout the entire gym in exchange for all natural better looking plants that improve the air quality and the overall gym atmosphere. This is the third consecutive year having an action research team at the Wooden Center and we hope our projects have had a long lasting sustainable influence on students, faculty, and future action research teams to come.
Published: Thursday, February 24, 2011
Write to Us
The UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability welcomes your comments.
