University of CaliforniaRiverside

This year, UC Riverside has made significant progress toward achieving the goals set forth in the systemwide Sustainable Practices Policy.

This included meeting two goals five years early:

• A reduction in per capita waste generation to 0.74 pounds, well below the 2025 target of 1.04 pounds.
• A reduction in per capita water use, to just over 45% from the baseline against the goal of 36% from the baseline by 2025. 

Overall, the campus saw a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of just over 13.5%, largely driven by a reduction in commute emissions by over 39% over the last four years and the work of the local public utility provider to find cleaner sources of energy. This year, solar generation provided close to 9% of UC Riverside’s total electricity usage, and plans are underway to add additional solar photovoltaics to campus rooftops in the coming year. This year also marked the start of construction on Riverside’s first all-electric building, the North District. 

UC Riverside’s campus food service efforts have continued to improve. In fiscal year 2019-20, about 6% of the campus’s food procurement was sustainable, a 1% increase over last year, and 20% of spend was on plant-based foods. Additionally, Dining Services on campus recovered 17,720 pounds of food for donations this year, with distribution to the R’Pantry, the campus food pantry, and to a local nonprofit.

The transportation sector has seen significant reductions due to initiatives like a vanpool program that recorded nearly 1.3 million miles driven, with an average of 4.7 passengers per trip. Another initiative, the U-PASS program with the Riverside Transit Agency, which allows students, staff and faculty to ride public transit for free, saw an increase of 18% over the past year, with a total of 626,699 boardings.