The journal Science recently focused on sustainability and featured UCSB’s Sustainability Program which is coordinated by our own Katie Maynard (Science, 318, [5847], 39-42). The article, “This Man Wants to Green your Lab,” homes in on the campus program known as Laboratory Assessments for Research Sustainability (LARS) and its Laboratory Research and Technical Staff (LabRATS) network which was co-founded by Katie and Allen Doyle, the lab manager of the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology.
The UCSB Sustainability Working Group is a logical extension of the UCSB Associated Students Recycling Program (ASR) which began in 1992: “With over 20,000 students, UCSB generates as much waste as a small city. In response to this massive amount of waste, 79% of which has the potential of being recycled, students at UCSB voted on April 1994 to finance a comprehensive recycling program on campus. As a result of this student lock-in fee, students now pay $0.75 per quarter to aid AS Recycling in the collection of glass, newspaper, aluminum, and plastics numbered “1” and “2” around campus. The money from the student lock-in-fee is also used within the program to increase recycling awareness through outreach. Green ‘Witt’ containers for recycling within the buildings have been purchased to increase the amounts of paper captured and recycled. Furthermore, AS Recycling staff members are working to educate departments on campus regarding ways to improve their recycling practices, while encouraging the purchase of recycled products.”
In 2005, Chancellor Henry Yang asked the Campus Planning Committee to create a comprehensive sustainability outline for the campus. A group of approximately 75 individual “change agents” comprised of students, staff, and faculty were trained in the sustainability framework known as The Natural Step in fall 2005. These individuals collaborated with campus sustainability staff to produce the Campus Sustainability Plan () and the following mission statement: “The University of California, Santa Barbara is committed to global leadership for sustainability through education, research, and action.” The process has brought together students, staff, faculty, and community members, it has generated a great deal of energy and momentum, and it has fundamentally increased awareness of UCSB’s sustainability potential and the steps necessary to achieve this goal.
Katy and Allen co-founded the LARS program in 2006, and already it has saved UCSB departments thousands of dollars by shutting down unused utilities, encouraging recycling, and helping researchers to trade surplus materials. But not all labs are eager to be assessed by LARS, citing loss of research time and possible problems resulting from using recycled reagents or from modifying equipment and/or procedures. But the program is winning more and more converts. Indeed, Katy was recently contacted by a Chemistry professor who said he was interested in participating and had just found out about the program by reading the article in Science! And, as the AAAS author of the article stated in a letter to Katy: “As I told Allen, being with you guys has made me more conscious of sustainability in my own life, so you have already won a convert on the east coast! Once again, many thanks for your help. I wish you the best of luck with the program at UCSB and with getting your ideas out to a larger audience.” The Department of Geography is proud to provide a physical home for the Sustainability Program. For more about it, see www.sustainability.ucsb.edu/LabRATS/.
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