Sustainability Annual Report 2024
At UCLA, sustainability was woven throughout 2023–24, from environmental justice welcome events through the Common Experience to a new sustainable move-out program.
In spring of 2024, the two-year anniversary of UCLA’s Sustainability Plan, the campus shared a new public dashboard for tracking progress.
Read More about Sustainability at UCLA
Highlights were shared, including new native plant landscaping to replace turf, medical resident training about health and the interconnection of climate and environmental harms, and 30–50% reductions in building energy use achieved through Facilities Management’s Smart Buildings and Labs program. In recognition of the growing climate crisis, UCLA completed a major decarbonization study, which will inform new targets and an updated Climate Action Plan.
UCLA’s new Strategic Plan emphasizes deepening engagement with Los Angeles. A multidisciplinary group of researchers completed LA100 Equity Strategies, which will guide the city in implementing its transition to renewable energy in a way that benefits all Angelenos. To address current challenges, a UCLA study analyzed the most severe climate-driven public health risks in California and offers dozens of adaptations that address challenges such as wildfires, extreme heat, extreme precipitation and more. UCLA will lead a project to help L.A. County cope with extreme heat through a multiyear public health campaign, and the Luskin Center for Innovation will be a founding partner of the Center of Excellence for Heat Resilient Communities, a knowledge-sharing hub to identify and evaluate policies, protocols and lessons for heat resilience.
Stories
L.A. Asks How To Equitably Achieve 100% Clean Energy by 2035 — and UCLA Answers
More than 20 UCLA researchers provide strategies that center equity and justice in Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s transition to completely renewable electricity. The multidisciplinary group of UCLA researchers worked for two years to produce LA100 Equity Strategies, a report that will guide the city in implementing its plan in a way that centers social and environmental justice and benefits all Angelenos. The UCLA team will continue to work closely with the city as the transition to 100% renewable energy progresses.
Supporting Sustainable Move-out
UCLA departments, student groups, volunteers, community members and city staff came together for UCLA’s first move-out collection event for on- and off-campus students. Collected items were donated to various partners or saved to be distributed to students during fall move-in.
EMISSIONS
*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
Scope 1 emissions decreased almost 5% due to a reduction in cogeneration gas consumption. Scope 2 emissions decreased nearly 1%, primarily due to lower emission factors from cleaner electric grids for Los Angeles Department of Water & Power and Southern California Edison.
ENERGY – RENEWABLE ENERGY USE
ENERGY USE INTENSITY (EUI)
UCLA saw a decrease in its EUI in the calendar year 2023.
FOOD
of food and beverage purchases met sustainability criteria ($5.2M)
of food and beverage purchases were plant-based ($12.1M)
UCLA’s main food service operations are run by two entities: ASUCLA and UCLA Dining. UCLA’s overall sustainable food spend increased, which reflects ASUCLA operations significantly exceeding the 2030 targets for sustainable and plant-based spend percentage, at 42% for each, due to an intentional focus on more sustainable purchasing of food items. UCLA Dining’s sustainable spend increased while its percentage of total spend decreased, mainly due to availability as procurement overall increased at a greater rate. These data do not include third-party food licenses, leases or franchise agreements.
Green building
UCLA’s portfolio expanded to 64 LEED certifications with three additions in fiscal year 2023–24: the Medical Plaza Pharmacy Suite, the Southwest Campus Apartments and the Nimoy Theater, an all-electric LEED Gold historic renovation of a classic movie house. Several completed projects are pending certification, including the Botany building and Rosenfeld Hall, and various off-campus and lab remodels are in process to certify during the coming academic year, continuing a tradition of rehabilitating historic resources in Los Angeles to retain their embodied carbon and extend their life cycles.
17 Platinum, 35 Gold and 12 Silver
Total number of LEED certifications
procurement
green spend on electronics (71%)
green spend on indoor office furniture (95%)
green spend on cleaning supplies (47%)
green spend on office supplies (19%)
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 (9), Furniture (6), Cleaning supplies (5), Office supplies (3).
UC Systemwide Spend Analytics category data provided by CalUSource.
Sustainable Building & Laboratory Operations
The UCLA Green Labs program has been on hiatus due to lack of staffing and resources; however, this year the Office of Sustainability identified researchers in neurobiology who may assist in restarting the program. While no new labs were certified this year, UCLA earned 66 certifications from the LA City Green Business Program, including departments from a variety of divisions: Anderson School of Management, Asset Management, Facilities Management, Graduate Division, Health, Meyer & Renee Luskin Conference Center, UCLA Wilshire Center and more.
total assessed green laboratories
Transportation
of students and employees are utilizing sustainable commuting methods
of all vehicles and 75% of sedans and minivans acquired in 2024 were electric (zero-emission), plug-in hybrid or clean transportation fuel
EV charging ports
Historically, employee absentee rates were approximately 15-18%, but post-COVID, the absentee rate dropped to 11%. The average distance of employee residences from campus increased to 18.5 miles. Changes in methodologies for calculating transportation metrics included switching from full-time equivalents as the employee population base to headcount. Next, given the growth rate in electric vehicles (EV) used for commutes, EV commutes are no longer de minimis and UCLA accounts for their emissions. Last, UCLA now calculates greenhouse gas emissions from public transit commutes, no longer assuming that those emissions are owned by the transit agencies.
WATER
*Based on a 3-year average of fiscal years 2005-08
**2025 goal is a 36% reduction from baseline.
Includes UCLA Health
UCLA reduced potable water use per capita by approximately 1%, however overall progress was significant as UCLA added 5,200 beds to campus since 2019 and decreased total water use by over 76 million gallons per year since pre-pandemic. Per capita water use decreased over 15% since before the pandemic, bringing the campus to 31% below baseline and closer to the 2025 target. Continued water reclamation efforts and landscape transformations to native plants have had a significant impact.
ZERO WASTE – GENERATION
*These numbers might include a small amount of incineration that is being phased out.
Total municipal solid waste generated increased by about 1,000 tons, including approximately 100 tons of excluded organics and 300 tons of diverted materials. This aligned with the increase of users on campus and return to on-site work. There were also multiple instances of cleanup from large protest encampments, potentially leading to an excess of waste not typically found on campus and contributing to the increase of waste generated per capita.
ZERO WASTE – DIVERsion
*Waste incineration was counted as diversion prior to July 2022.
The diversion rate decreased slightly, from 54% in fiscal year 2022–23 to 52% in fiscal year 2023–24. Tonnage of diverted materials increased by around 300 tons, however so did the amount of municipal solid waste overall. No large changes to diversion occurred during the year.
Single-Use Plastics Phase-Out
Complete Phase-out*
- Beverage bottles in UC dining facilities
- Beverage bottles in vending machines
Partial Phase-out
- Plastic bags
- Foodware in UC dining facilities
Starting Soon
- Foodware in third-party dining facilities
*Complete phase-out of single-use plastics may include exemptions where reasonable alternatives to plastic do not exist.
UCLA reduced plastics in a number of areas, due largely to a campus Single-Use Plastics Policy. This policy has been phased in to varied levels of compliance across UCLA entities (UCLA Dining, ASUCLA, etc.) and third-party operations. UCLA-owned retail and food locations have reduced and replaced most single-use plastic stock, while third-party operators have largely not done so — only eliminating polystyrene and some non-bioplastic food and drink ware.
Awards
UCLA received a range of awards in fiscal year 2023–24, including a national Honor Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects for the campus’s new Landscape Plan, a Gold-level Green Grounds Certification, Gold-level Bicycle Friendly University, a Green Fleet Award and multiple green building project awards. UCLA also received a Civic Portfolio Award at the 2024 California Green Building Conference in recognition of the second largest LEED-certified portfolio in California and numerous green business certifications, and received fifth place for green buildings in the AASHE 2023 Sustainable Campus Index.
A full list of awards is featured on the UC Office of the President’s website.
