UC Santa Barbara embarked on its efforts to explore decarbonization in late 2023 with the formation of a Campus Decarbonization Project Study Committee, co-chaired by Susannah Scott, chair of the Academic Senate, and Renée Bahl, associate vice chancellor of Design, Facilities & Safety Services.

The committee hosted three town halls and two workshops to develop the Clean Energy Master Plan, which defines a strategy to reduce scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions by over 90% while accounting for environmental justice and equity. It also identifies a roadmap for additional living laboratory opportunities.

Read More about Sustainability at UC Santa Barbara

UC Santa Barbara also continued its work toward climate resilience with a dynamic team of Climate Action Fellows, Environmental Health & Safety, Campus Planning and Sustainability. The campus developed and piloted a Climate Hazard Vulnerability Assessment for the UC system. UC Santa Barbara’s Campus Emergency Manager and Climate Action Fellow also relaunched the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program after a hiatus during COVID-19 to equip students with essential emergency preparedness skills, promote helping the community during natural hazards, and increase climate resilience.

UC Santa Barbara continues to increase LEED projects on campus. The UC Santa Barbara Associated Students Bike Shop received a LEED Platinum certification. The new Interactive Learning Pavilion, designed as an all-electric facility, received the U.S. Building of the Year award from World-Architects and is a recipient of the Green Schools Honor Award by the Central Coast Green Building Council.

UC Santa Barbara also renewed its Gold certification under the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System and Platinum Level Bicycle Friendly University certification.

Stories

California Coasts. Water Splashing on Rocks

Securing the Future of California’s Coasts

Dr. Charles Lester is the director of the Ocean and Coastal Policy Center in the Marine Science Institute at UC Santa Barbara. Lester is leading a team of researchers from five institutions and organizations to develop the California Beach Resiliency Plan. The plan will cover beach resiliency from the community level up to the state for the entire Californian coast. UC Santa Barbara sociology professor Summer Gray is also involved and is working with local communities to understand the human aspect of coastal use and access.

Santa Barbara Campus

Don’t Listen to the Doomers

Michael E. Mann, Presidential Distinguished Professor of Earth & Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, visited UC Santa Barbara to give a lecture and help kick off UC Santa Barbara’s Campus Decarbonization Study Project as part of a fossil-free initiative across all UC campuses. Mann has over 25 years of experience on the front lines of climate science and policy.

EMISSIONS

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*Interim goals for 2030, 2035 and 2040 to be developed through fossil-free planning that is underway at each location

**90% direct reduction of total emissions from 2019 levels with residual emissions negated by carbon removal

In comparison to calendar year 2022, scope 1 and 2 emissions increased slightly. Scope 3 emissions also rose due to an increase in University-funded air travel.

ENERGY – RENEWABLE ENERGY USE

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ENERGY USE INTENSITY (EUI)

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UC Santa Barbara saw an increase in its EUI in the calendar year 2023.

FOOD

A plate of fruits and vegetables
11%

of food and beverage purchases met sustainability criteria ($1.4M)

37%

of food and beverage purchases were plant-based ($4.8M)

Compared with the past two years, UC Santa Barbara’s plant-based and sustainable food spend numbers did not change significantly. The campus’s spend on sustainably sourced products declined this year due to sustainable products no longer being available by manufacturers. Attention and resources were focused on establishing the food recovery program. As UC Santa Barbara begins to plan for fiscal year 2024–25, the campus is exploring ways to source more sustainable and ethically produced products. UC Santa Barbara will also work to incorporate more local, organic produce from small vendors.

Green building

The Associated Students Bike Shop received a LEED Platinum certification in fiscal year 2023–24. UC Santa Barbara has not built any new parking lots in years and therefore has not pursued Parksmart certification.

16 Platinum, 42 Gold, 15 Silver and 2 Certified

Total number of LEED certifications

procurement

Icon of monitor and cell phone
$475K

green spend on electronics (75%)

Icon of office furniture
$1.3M

green spend on indoor office furniture (97%)

Icon of cleaning supplies
$234K

green spend on cleaning supplies (42%)

Icon of office supplies
$139K

green spend on office supplies (53%)

The University reports on green spend, as defined in the Sustainable Procurement Guidelines, and reached out to suppliers for spend data in four product categories for this year’s report.

Green spend is defined as meeting preferred or minimum criteria in UC’s Sustainable Procurement Guidelines.
Suppliers reporting: Electronics (8), Furniture (5), Cleaning supplies (3), Office supplies (2).
UC Systemwide Spend Analytics category data provided by CalUSource.

Sustainable Building & Laboratory Operations

Last year UC Santa Barbara’s green labs team certified one lab and provided thousands of dollars in incentives for freezers, fridges and other sustainable lab equipment.

61

total assessed green laboratories

Transportation

A bus and a bicycle.
83%

of students and employees are utilizing sustainable commuting methods

An electric car.
42%

of all vehicles and 100% of sedans and minivans acquired in 2024 were electric (zero-emission), plug-in hybrid or clean transportation fuel

An electric vehicle charging station.
116

EV charging ports

Eighty-three percent of students, staff and faculty commute to and from campus using sustainable commuting options. Commute mode split stayed relatively the same compared with the previous year, however distance traveled decreased slightly. UC Santa Barbara increased the number of active charging points from 105 in fiscal year 2022–23 to 116 in 2023–24.

WATER

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*Based on a 3-year average of fiscal years 2005-08

**2025 goal is a 36% reduction from baseline.

Two new campus buildings — the Associated Students Bike Shop and the Interactive Learning Pavilion — and a new baseball stadium came online, contributing to an increase in potable water use.

ZERO WASTE – GENERATION

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*These numbers might include a small amount of incineration that is being phased out.

**In 2021, waste generation per weighted campus user spiked due to pandemic-related closures as base-level operations continued but the number of users on campus decreased.

Waste generation held fairly constant in fiscal year 2023–24 compared with fiscal year 2022–23.

ZERO WASTE – DIVERsion

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*Waste incineration was counted as diversion prior to July 2022.

UC Santa Barbara’s waste diversion rate decreased from 66% in fiscal year 2022–23 to 63% in fiscal year 2023–24. UC Santa Barbara is subject to one waste hauler and a relatively new material recovery facility. Unfortunately, the new material recovery facility did not operate as anticipated and did not recover a high percentage of divertable material before it entered the landfill. The county is actively working on correcting this. Other factors, such as the recycling market and stagnation in some of the campus’s diversion programs, led to the decrease in waste diversion.

Single-Use Plastics Phase-Out

Complete Phase-out*

  • Plastic bags

Partial Phase-out

  • Foodware in UC dining facilities
  • Foodware in third-party dining facilities
  • Beverage bottles in UC dining facilities
  • Beverage bottles in vending machines

Starting Soon

  • N/A

*Complete phase-out of single-use plastics may include exemptions where reasonable alternatives to plastic do not exist.

UC Santa Barbara Campus Dining is working to reduce existing stock of single-use plastics in retail locations, catering, concession and to-go dining facilities.

Awards

UC Santa Barbara won two building awards for the Interactive Learning Pavilion. Additionally, the campus achieved a Platinum Bicycle Friendly University rating. UC Santa Barbara was also ranked the 7th most sustainable university in the world by Sustainable Magazine.

A full list of awards is featured on the UC Office of the President’s website.