Chancellor's Sustainability Challenge

The Chancellor's Sustainability Challenge is a year-long coordinated campaign focusing on one topic of sustainability, and for 2013-14, our challenge is to "reduce waste" at UC Santa Cruz. The Challenge will bring together waste reduction efforts already happening on campus, build awareness, and encourage personal action, and it will lay the foundation for continued reductions in the coming years to ensure the campus reaches its waste reduction goal of zero waste by 2020.

Our campus currently diverts about 64% of its waste, meaning 36% of the waste produced on campus goes to the landfill. We want 100% of our waste to not go to the landfill.

You can make a difference! Take the pledge and make a commitment to reduce waste. To find out more about the campaign and what others are doing, visit the Chancellor's Sustainability Challenge website. Like us on Facebook to learn about how others are rising to the challenge.

Individuals--you, me, your teacher, the person driving your bus, the person sitting in front of you in class, the lady that processes your expense reports, the person sitting next to you in a boring meeting, the cute boy on the second floor of your dorm--each of us plays an important role in reducing waste. So please, take small actions by separating your recycling, printing double-sided, bringing a reusable mug or using a reusable water bottle. If you already do these things, then stretch yourself--bring reusable utensils when you have food to-go, enroll in direct deposit, and get others involved and help make others aware of what they can do. Small acts can have big impacts!