In an attempt to bridge the gap between society and the ecosystem we reside in, the Student Environmental Center’s Green Building Campaign is dedicated to exploring the sustainable planning possibilities that can be integrated into the built environment, especially that of our own campus.

       Always open to new ideas, projects, and participants, involvement with the campaign is a great way to get out of your natural realm of study and focus on hands-on projects that stress the importance of lessening the impact of the built environment on the natural environment.  Contact Carson Watts for more information. 

Past projects the Green Building campaign has worked on:

• Workshop guidelines and specific elements designed for and installed at the PICA Green Kitchen
• Developing sustainable guidelines for existing buildings at UCSC with staff from the Green Building and Facilities working group and auditing various buildings according to these guidelines. 
• Analysis of UCSC Long Range Development Plan: This project identified points of student intervention in the campus's plans for growth. Members of the campaign became familiar with the campus plan for development in order to determine how and where students can be most effective in influencing the evolution of the campus’s built environment. 
• If you are interested in learning more about sustainable planning and ways to integrate green building techniques into campus life as well as getting connected with staff, faculty, and other students with the same interests, the Green Building Campaign is for you. There are opportunities available for general membership positions as well as 2 or 5-unit internships!
  

The Green Building campaign is currently working on:

• A solar powered constructed wetland that will replicate the native ecology of our campus' Moore Creek Watershed to be built at the Thiemann Greenhouse. If you are interested in getting involved with the constructed wetland project please contact Elaine Ponce-Dick. 
• Sustainable Living Spaces Audit Program: From an analysis of LEED standards, the Green Building Campaign is creating standards for evaluations and renovations of existing residential buildings.  The development of a student run audit program for the existing buildings on campus is still in the formulation phase concentrating on selecting a pilot building with faculty collaborators. There will be an Education for Sustainable Living Program (ESLP) course offered in the Spring that will conduct the first round of audits.
  

• Cob Oven construction workshops at PICA: The latest agroecology construction project is a cob oven to compliment the up-and-coming Green Kitchen in the Sustainable Living Center. Cob, an alternative building material, is made of clay-rich earth, sand, and straw mixed together with human energy. Not only a sustainable building material in use for thousands of years in Central America and England, but an incredible insulator and material for an outdoor oven. The oven is intended for PICAns and UCSC campus community members alike to bake the most delicious foods their hearts and minds can come up with. The oven, a symbol of collectivity, is shared from the building process, to the stoking of the fire to heat it up, to the baking and eating of the earth’s bounty. This community building project is sponsored by the Student Environmental Center’s Green Building Campaign in collaboration with PICA. If you have any questions, please RSVP to Carson Watts, the workshop facilitator and Green Building Campaign Coordinator.                                                                                                                                     Campaign Resources:
  

            Weekly Meeting for Winter 2012: Monday 9:45-10:45am @ Thimann Labs                                Rooftop Greenhouse! Please email Carson if you plan on attending.
             To see our weekly campaign meeting notes, click HERE!