Dressed in schoolgirl uniforms with report cards in one hand and bowls of organic oranges in the other, members of the student group Ecology, Economy, Equity acted out a skit last Friday to illustrate the letter-grade standings released by the Sustainable Endowments Institute last month.
The Institute is a Cambridge University-based organization that evaluates 100 leading universities on 26 categories including green-building initiatives, food and recycling.
According to the college sustainability report card, Stanford University and Harvard University lead the way in campus sustainability with the highest letter grade of A-. UCLA squeaked by with a C+ overall, while USC received a D. UCLA received an A in categories such as administration, climate change and energy and green building, but received failing marks in endowment transparency and shareholder engagement. With greater access to endowment information, there can be increased opportunities for clean energy investments.
Schools that made investments in renewable-energy sources and vehicles received the highest marks.
Members of E3, the group performing the skit, said they hope to educate students about what they can do to make UCLA a more environmentally savvy campus.
E3 performed the skit and passed out fliers in Bruin Plaza to wrap up the weeklong nationwide movement, Campus Climate Challenge, which encourages climate neutrality policies at schools.
LaKretz Hall on the UCLA campus was named the greenest building in the entire UC system because it was built with low-emitting and renewable materials that reduce energy consumption and a displacement air system to reduce electricity usage.
The UC Board of Regents voted to allow 10 percent of new and renovated buildings’ energy to come from clean energy sources. E3 members said they hope that by 2017, this number will be increased to 20 percent.
E3 member Jeff Dhungana, a fourth-year anthropology student, said he hopes UCLA will move forward as a leader in campus sustainability.
“Global climate change is the challenge of our generation as young people and change really starts from universities. Universities tend to be the model for change for the rest of the community,” Dhungana said. “We not only want to highlight that students care about sustainability but also want to send the message to the administrators that they have been doing a wonderful job in the past years.”
A panel of international scientists recently released a report stating that global warming was “unequivocal” and a direct result of fossil-fuel burning by humans. The report also predicted average temperatures may rise up to 11.5 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2100 as a result of global warming, which was one of the main concerns of E3 members.
But with UCLA’s C+ grade, E3 members said they believe there is much room for improvement.
Some groups hold opposing beliefs about environmentalism.
The objectivist student organization, L.O.G.I.C., hosted a showing of “Mine Your Own Business” last week to show a darker side of environmentalism from the point of view of impoverished people whose development projects are stopped by environmentalists.
But E3 members hope to encourage students and the administration to take action against global warming.
“We’re supporting this campaign because we believed UC students could do a lot better in reducing waste, reducing emissions and making the air cleaner all around campus. We think this is a good way to push the regents to adopt a climate-neutral policy,” said E3 member Elaine Long, a fifth-year Spanish and psychology student.
Third-year political science and history student Julia Gomez said she believes it is important for student groups to inform students of environmental issues.
“On campus we waste a lot of paper. I feel people print out 30 pages of lecture notes that they don’t even read. It’d be a great idea to have limits on things we can print to conserve paper resources,” Gomez said.
Long also offered some suggestions for helping out the environment.
“The best thing to do is to keep informed and get involved. Small things make a difference in climate change like using less napkins in the dining halls or turning off your computer and lights. Even getting on Facebook and checking out groups to get involved in will make a difference,” she said.
With reports from Bruin wire services. Click here to download a PDF of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis report.