2009 Green Campus End of Year Meeting at the UC/CSU/CCC Sustainability Conference

For the fifth year in a row, Green Campus Interns were featured prominently in the 8th annual Sustainability Conference, as two campuses were awarded with Best Practices in Student Energy Efficiency, and additional one received an Honorable Mention in the same category:

• Cal Poly SLO was awarded for their residence hall energy competitions. By incorporating creative marketing in the competition, interns at Cal Poly SLO were able to achieve energy savings of approximately 30% per building. Additionally, the team plans on expanding the competition to another housing complex to reach another 3,500 students.
• UC San Diego was awarded for their weighty involvement in their campuses first LEED for Existing Buildings project for their Campus Services Complex. The Green Campus team’s office is housed in this building, and they were able to work alongside a large group of campus staff, faculty and administrators to put together data and shepherd this project through to fruition. In the coming year, the team will leverage their lessons learned to pursue LEED certification for their Sustainability Resource Center and for a wet lab at Scripps Institute for Oceanography.
• Humboldt State (Honorable Mention) was awarded an Honorable Mention for their stadium lighting retrofit project. Working with representatives from the CSU Office of the Chancellor and the UC/CSU/IOU Energy Efficiency Partnership, they submitted an application for an approximately $15,000 rebate for their campus based on projected energy savings.

Supplemental to the Sustainability Conference, Alliance staff planned a Career Event Breakfast on the morning of June 23rd, featuring conference keynote speaker and Director of the University of Colorado Boulder Environmental Center David Newport and the following professionals:

• Heather Allen, Santa Barbara Redevelopment Agency
• Merrilee Harrigan, Alliance to Save Energy
• Janet Brunwin, SoCal Gas
• Carlos Hernandez, Southern California Edison
• Wes Morgan, CSU Office of the Chancellor
• Jamie Britto, Ryerson Masters, and Associates, Inc.
• Andy Coghlan, UC Office of the President
• Dennis Elliot, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

Facilitated by Alliance staff members is small breakout groups, these individuals spoke directly to the students about professional opportunities in the energy efficiency field.

During the Green Campus End-of-Year meeting, interns from across the state met as a group to reflect on a complete school year of energy projects, to share their accomplishments, and to plan for next near. Interns were awarded for accomplishments in team management, financial excellence, innovative energy savings projects, and outstanding marketing efforts.

Finally, the Student Convergence of the UC/CSU/CCC Sustainability Conference provided an opportunity for students from all campuses to come together, share best practices, and learn about opportunities for state-wide organizing. Alliance Green Campus staff and representatives presented four sessions.

• Renee Lafrenz presented a Sustainability Job Search session demonstrating best practices for seeking out and securing jobs in the field.
• UC Irvine Intern Max Broad facilitated a session about The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF), which is a student-approved fee for green efforts.
• Stanford Intern Katherine Heflin presented a case study on Stanford Green Campus.
• San Diego State Intern Robert Ellsworth presented on San Diego State’s Greeks Gone Green Initiatives.