2018 Grant Awards

Autoclave Replacement

Project Description:Proposed funding for this project will aid continued student research throughout the following academic year. Through an in-depth evaluation of the outdated autoclaves housed in the Life Sciences Addition (LSA) building, findings have since spurred a broader discussion among other campus labs and a desire to continue research on behalf of future sterilizer upgrades based on their autoclave needs.

TGIF Award: $8,000

Berkeley Moves! Targeted Marketing Program

Project Description:UC Berkeley's Parking and Transportation plans to address educating and outreach to the students on campus by providing funding for a transportation handbook and a monthly TEDtransit talks to further develop an interest in transit, advocate for advancements for transit after-college, and to support future efforts on campus.

TGIF Award: $12,500.00

Browns Cafe Herbal Garden

Project Description: The team proposes that educational signage be created to transform the space into not only a productive edible green space but also an outdoor education space. The TGIF Funds would cover the cost of student garden interns, planter boxes, and gardening materials. Implementation of this project would be a two phase process.

TGIF Award: $13,717

Building Sustainability at Cal

Project Description: The Building Sustainability at Cal (BS@C) Program trains and utilizes students to help reduce the environmental impact of campus buildings by identifying structural and operational changes that can be made to buildings, as well as designing and implementing educational projects. This is accomplished by hiring student interns and working on case‐by‐case outreach and auditing projects.

TGIF Award: $14,015

Rentable Reusables

Project Description: The Rentable Reusables program is an effort made with the help of the ASUC to make affordable reusable dining materials available to all student groups, regardless of size. This is an attempt to eliminate both landfill and compost waste across campus, to therefore to reduce the energy inputs necessary for disposables, and the greenhouse gases that occur as a result of single-use plastics, paper, and compostable plastics.

TGIF Award: $4,516

Clark Kerr Rain Garden Community Garden

Project Description: Currently, because of poor landscaping and irrigation, water is constantly flooding directly into the entrance of the building and off into the street. Recently, an orchard was planted in the courtyard; however, when it rains, the water flows directly down the side of the building to the door, rather than to the newly planted trees. It is vital that this area be modified, not only for functionality, but for sustainability purposes as well.

TGIF Award: $3,386.88

Decolonize the Environment

Project Description: This series of workshops aims to involve the campus community to explore the intersectionality of the environment. These workshops aim to increase awareness of environmental justice to students, staff, faculty, and the community and connect them to community activists who do this work for a living.

TGIF Award: $6,180.00

Earth Action Initiative

Project Description: Our vision is to foster a community of people on and around campus to take direct climate action, and help reduce the barrier to action for others. The goal is to demonstrate meaningful climate action is possible, especially for students and community members, and provide a roadmap of how that can happen. To execute the Earth Action Initiative vision, EAI will organize a variety of events and actions that build community, leverage existing efforts, inspire new plans, and find innovative ways to communicate with each other.

TGIF Award: $16,000

Environmental Education for Students of Color

Project Description:This project, “Environmental Education for People of Color”, is divided into two parts: People Of Color Environmental Justice Conference and Outdoor Education for People of Color. The People Of Color Environmental Justice Conference aims to foster an intersectional environmental movement that inspires and empowers underrepresented folx in the environmental movement.

TGIF Award: $16,520

Equity & Inclusion in Campus Gardens and Land Use Decisions

Project Description: This project aims to respond to the equity and inclusion challenges related to campus gardens and land use planning with student leadership and voices from underrepresented communities. A paid student Outreach and Equity Fellow and two student Working Group Coordinators will coordinate and facilitate collaborative discussion with underrepresented communities to better understand challenges, brainstorm, and initiate cultural and structural challenges to improve inclusion, diversity and representation.

TGIF Award: $20,900

Ethical and Accesible E-Waste Recycling at UC Berkeley

Project Description: This project seeks to implement and institutionalize a streamlined e-waste recycling system on campus where none was accessible to students before. Student staff will spearhead an education campaign detailing the environment and economic impacts of e-waste, meant to support the campus-wide Zero Waste by 2020 goals. The recycling system is meant to be modular, and will be highly responsive to feedback from facilities, faculty, students, and other stakeholders. 

TGIF Award: $7,500

Fannie Lou Hamer Black Resource Center Garden

Project Description: This project will be the construction and maintenance of a student garden for the Fannie Lou Hamer Black Resource Center. This garden will provide free and fresh produce for students, initiate opportunities for self sufficiency and healthy living, and build unity and growth around the black community.

TGIF Award: $5,800

Focus 2020 Student Team

Project Description: This project adds two key graduate and undergraduate student leadership positions to the Office of Sustainability team, to help us reach the next level of campus sustainability by 2020, and beyond. This project will support funding for two years: the project will start in June 2018 and completed in 2020.

TGIF Award: $39,000

Integrated Plastics Recycling at UC Berkeley

Project Description: This research facility, located at the Richmond Field Station, north of Berkeley, will process the University's plastic and recycling waste through proper collection, sorting, and redistribution. This project will allow for the UC Berkeley to expand recycling and reuse programs, reduce its carbon footprint, and create research and education opportunities for students and the community of Richmond. The team is working to incorporate 3-D printing into the project by reprocessing our plastic waste into 3-D printing filament.

TGIF Award:$35,000

People of Color Sustainability Campaign

Project Description: The People of Color sustainability campaign aims to facilitate sustainable and environmental justice education for POCTH residents and Berkeley Student Cooperative students of color. Targeted outreach will be led by a paid resident from POCTH who will facilitate conversations, coordinate workshops and conduct outreach. The campaign will host a series of eight workshops in Fall and Spring, four per semester, devoted to topics of: indigenous food systems and sovereignty, zero-waste and compost, urban agriculture, and decapitalizing your health.

TGIF Award: $5,950

Promoting Student Engagement-Leadership on Sustainability

Project Description: The project supports three students’ experiences abroad in the summer of 2018 and their development as student leaders. One student will attend an international conference in Stockholm, Sweden in June 2018.

TGIF Award: $11,250

Repair for ReUSE Clinic

Project Description: The end goal of this project is to have Clinic staff work closely with ReUSE to plan how the repair clinic can eventually be incorporated as a volunteer-run service offered by the ReUSE store through the training of ReUSE volunteers in the necessary repair and sewing skills. To ensure that the Repair Clinic can be preserved after the completion of this project, there will be training workshops to train volunteers and biweekly meetings between Cal Zero Waste, ReUSE, and the Repair Clinic Staff.

TGIF Award: $13,620

Residence Hall Education Program

Project Description: This project will develop an educational program to aid students in beginning to understand the basics of the zero waste. This program will focus not just on how to live a zero waste lifestyle, but also why it is important from a regional and global lens. Education at the start of students’ UC Berkeley experience will set the stage for successful results of the zero waste movement throughout campus as these students go into their subsequent years at Cal.

TGIF Award: $26,820

Waste Diversion in University Village

Project Description: University Village will remedy the mismatch in messaging around the Zero Waste goal and public waste infrastructure by using TGIF funds to replace single-bin trash cans in the Village’s public spaces with three-compartment Max-R bins. These bins, which have prominent visual signage for each compartment and thus have high collective visual impact, will serve as a launch point for renewed and sustained educational outreach to improve waste separation and diversion.

TGIF Award:$29,997.00

Coastal Terrace Prairie Restoration

Project Description: UC Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station (RFS) contains the last intact, undisturbed native coastal terrace prairie adjacent to the San Francisco Bay shoreline. This prairie contains native bunchgrasses, “the old growth at our feet,” which are possibly thousands of years old.

TGIF Award: $16,000