UC Santa Barbara Joins the U.S. EPA SmartWay® Transport Partnership

UC Santa Barbara has joined and received the SmartWay® Transport Partnership, as an Affiliate. EPA’s SmartWay Transport Partnership is a market-driven initiative that empowers businesses to move goods in the cleanest, most energy-efficient way possible to protect public health and reduce emissions. Demonstrating a commitment to environmental responsibility and freight efficiency through SmartWay provides for a more sustainable and competitive business environment.

As a SmartWay Affiliate, UC Santa Barbara will educate its suppliers and stakeholders on the benefits of the SmartWay Program and its accomplishments. Since 2004, SmartWay Partners have avoided emitting more than 134 million metric tons of harmful air pollution, while saving 279 million barrels of oil and $37.5 billion in fuel costs – equivalent to eliminating annual energy use in over 18 million homes. SmartWay partners also help protect clean and healthy air by significantly reducing pollution that contributes to smog, including fine particulate matter and nitrogen oxides. For information about the SmartWay Transport Partnership visit www.epa.gov/smartway.

You can read the full press release here.


Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council’s 2019 Summit

www.splcsummit.org

UCSB will be speaking at the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council 2019 Summit May 20 & 22 in Portland, Oregon, alongside an impressive list of leaders in sustainability and procurement. As a speaker, UCSB is pleased to share with you the opportunity to register for 10% off using this special discount code SPEAKERREFERRAL. Join us there!
 
This Summit will bring together 500+ leading sustainable purchasing experts and practitioners from a wide variety of sectors and regions for two days of best practice sharing, training, and relationship building. This year's Summit will feature a robust program, with over 100 inspiring speakers, as well as dozens of interactive workshops and networking opportunities. You might also be interested in SPLC Connect, a unique matchmaking event for sustainability-oriented buyers and suppliers, which will take place during the day on Monday, May 20. We hope to see you in Portland!

The Secret Lives of Plastic Conference (2019) 

Check out this website for an incredible abundance of resources about plastics, developed as part of an ongoing series on Sustainable Science Communication, co-sponsored by the Arthur N. Rupe Professor in the Social Effects of Mass 

Communication (https://www.comm.ucsb.edu/news/annual/arthur-n-rupe) and the Mellichamp Academic Initiative in Sustainability (https://sustech.ucsb.edu/).


Third Annual Sustainable Procurement Summit!

WHAT: Third Annual Sustainable Procurement Summit
WHEN: Thursday, April 18th, 2019 (9:00 am – 4:00pm; breakfast available at 8:15am)
WHERE: UC Berkeley
 
The UC Sustainable Procurement Working Group held its third annual Sustainable Procurement Summit – a UC-wide event to bring together interested stakeholders from Procurement and Sustainability to learn about sustainable procurement practices, available resources, current initiatives and more. Summit presentations and workshops covered current innovative practices within the UC as well as from external partners in the area of sustainable procurement. This year’s event was largely dedicated to interactive mini table group sessions focused on themes of education/training, and issue assessment/solution development activities. Topics included: Best Practices for Supplier Engagement; Adapting to a Changing Recycling Market; Intersections between Waste and Procurement; Integrating Sustainability into your RFx; Services and Sustainability; and more. 

University Climate Change Coalition ("UC3") Releases First Progress Report

UC3 is a group of 17 distinguished research universities throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico committed to leveraging their research and resources to help communities accelerate local climate action. Conceived by UC's President Napolitano, UC3 launched the initial cohort of 13 schools on February 6th at the 2018 Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit in Tempe, Arizona. Focusing on their strengths as knowledge generators, convening entities, and anchors within their respective communities, UC3 brings together local stakeholders to galvanize local and regional climate solutions. UC3 also combines their research expertise to develop best practices and shares knowledge across institutions in a peer to peer network of professionals, academics, and administrators from across their schools.
 
Coalition members have pledged to reduce their institutional carbon footprints, with commitments ranging from making more climate friendly investments to becoming operationally carbon neutral, in line with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and the Under2 MOU for subnational climate leaders.

Join the Million Light Bulb Challenge Now! 

Everyone in the UC community can participate! UC students, staff, faculty and alumni can purchase light bulbs via the secure Million Light Bulb Challenge website and have them shipped directly to their home. 
 
The website features a number of educational resources to help consumers understand their options and support their lighting purchases. Users also will be able to see the total number of light bulbs purchased, estimated energy savings and estimated reduction in CO2 emissions.
 

Efficient Equipment Rebates up to $1,000! (Ongoing)

Looking to purchase new energy or water efficient equipment and save up to $1,000? Apply for a rebate through The Green Initiative Fund by filling out the application form found on this website: https://sustainability.ucsb.edu/tgif-equipment-rebate-program


UC Santa Barbara Awarded for Leadership in the procurement of sustainable IT productsPhoto Source: https://greenelectronicscouncil.org

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – On May 14th, the Green Electronics Council (GEC), the organization that manages the EPEAT ecolabel, announced its 2018 EPEAT Purchaser Award winners at a ceremony in Minneapolis, MN. The awards program honors organizations that show leadership in the procurement of sustainable IT products. This year's awardees include national and local governments, financial institutions, healthcare organizations, K-12 schools, institutions of higher learning, and businesses from around the globe. Award winners were recognized for their purchases in four IT product categories: PCs and Displays, Imaging Equipment, Mobile Phones, and Televisions. Award winners earned one star for each product category in which they committed to purchasing EPEAT registered products. UC Santa Barbara received a two star award for its purchases in PCs and Displays, and Imaging Equipment. 

Over their lifetime, compared to products that do not meet EPEAT criteria, the 1,365 EPEAT-registered IT products purchased by UC Santa Barbara in 2017 will result in environmental impact reductions including:

  • Reduced use of primary materials by 128 metric tons, equivalent to the weight of 4 semi-trucks
  • Avoided disposal of 1 metric ton of hazardous waste, equal to the weight of 8 refrigerators
  • Elimination of the equivalent of 2 U.S. households’ solid waste for a year—4 metric tons
  • Avoidance of 727 kg of water pollutant emissions

Additionally, EPEAT’s requirement that registered products meet, and often exceed, the latest ENERGY STAR specifications means these products will consume less energy throughout their useful life, resulting in:

  • Savings of 429,800 kWh of electricity—enough to power 34 U.S. households for a year
  • Reduction of 71 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions— equivalent to taking 51 average U.S. passenger cars off the road for a year
  • $44,380 in lifetime cost savings

Photo: Heather Perry accepting the Two-Star EPEAT Purchaser Award award on behalf of the University of California, Santa Barbara


University of California Awarded for Leadership in Sustainable Purchasing

MINNEAPOLIS MN – On Wednesday, May 16th, the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC) recognized the University of California for its leadership in the sustainable purchasing movement, a growing trend in which organizations are using their purchasing power to advance the long term health and vitality of society, economies, and the planet. The UC received an Outstanding Case Study Award in recognition of its contribution of a valuable case study to the online library of case studies in SPLC's online Community. These awards recognize organizations for documenting their sustainable purchasing efforts in detailed case studies that enable others to follow their lead, and are published in SPLC’s Case Study Library.

Read more about the award 

University of California: University of California – Sustainable Procurement Policy updates, quantitative metrics, governance structures and approval 

PLC’s Leadership Awards recognize organizations that have demonstrated or actively supported the kind of leadership envisioned in the SPLC’s Principles for Leadership in Sustainable Purchasing. The Principles state that an organization demonstrates leadership in sustainable purchasing through:

  • Understanding the environmental, social, and economic impacts of its purchasing.
  • Taking responsibility for the environmental, social, and economic impacts of its purchasing by committing to an action plan.
  • Delivering on its commitment to improve the environmental, social, and economic impacts of its purchasing.
  • Actively promoting internal and external innovation that advances a positive future.
  • Soliciting and disclosing information that supports a marketplace of innovation.

“The winners of these Awards have each demonstrated their commitment to leadership in sustainable purchasing,” says SPLC CEO Sam Hummel. “Collectively, they focus the powerful purchasing influence of organizations — in public and private sectors alike — to advance a socially just, ecologically robust, and economically prosperous future. The winners of SPLC’s Leadership Awards exemplify, encourage, and support a constructive cycle of innovation that will define the global marketplace of tomorrow.”

SPLC's Summit brought together 400+ leading procurement and sustainability professionals, suppliers, and NGO experts from diverse sectors and regions to share, simplify, and spread the best sustainable purchasing practices across the whole economy. Heather Perry (UC Santa Barbara) and Stephanie Lopez (UC Office of the President) had the opportunity to present during the session: Developing a Sustainable Purchasing Policy for Your Organization. Other excellent sessions included Delivering on the SDGs: Procurement's Role, Strategies for Specifying Sustainable Products & Services, and Making the Business Case: Measuring the Economic Outcomes of Sustainable Purchasing.

About the Council:
Founded in 2013, the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council convenes buyers, suppliers, and public interest advocates to develop programs that simplify and standardize sustainable purchasing efforts by large organizations. The Council has quickly attracted, from a wide variety of sectors and regions, more than 180 members with over $200 billion in collective purchasing power. In 2015, SPLC released Guidance for Leadership in Sustainable Purchasing v1.0, which has been called the “most comprehensive literature to date” on sustainable purchasing. Hundreds of organizations are now using SPLC’s Guidance, resources, and online community of practice to create strategic sustainable purchasing programs, or enhance existing ones.

About the Awards: https://www.sustainablepurchasing.org/awards
About the Principles: https://www.sustainablepurchasing.org/principles/
About the Guidance: https://www.sustainablepurchasing.org/guidance/
About SPLC’s members: https://www.sustainablepurchasing.org/members/


Procurement Supports UC's #MyLastTrashCampaign 

UCSB's Procurement Services supports the UC Zero Waste initiative and #MyLastTrash Campaign. Help support #MyLastTrash and Green Labs by re-using centrifuge tube racks instead of buying new ones, or purchasing new tubes in bulk or with recyclable racks, to minimize solid packaging waste. If you have questions about #MyLastTrash, Green Labs, or would like assistance searching for foam-free or sustainable alternatives, please contact one of the following: