The Green Initiative Fund at UC Berkeley awknowledges that campus sustainability is not possible without the meaningful involvement of those most impacted historically and currently by environmental harm, both in the East Bay and beyond.
TGIF addresses the urgent need for increased financial and institutional support of environmental justice efforts through the following initiatives:
Environmental Justice Themeatic Project Focus
Since its inception, TGIF has organized its diverse projects by themes, adjusting and refining theme names as the needs for sustainability at UC Berkeley and beyond have been changed through policy, direct action, and institutionalization.
After the Spring 2018 environmental justice thematic pilot, Environmental Justice was added as an official theme to the TGIF Project Archive, identifying projects who seek to spread awareness about environmental issues that have inequitable outcomes for communities, create opportunity for underepresented environmental scholars and activism on campus, or otherwise broaden our collective awareness of more just environmental futures.
As of Spring 2024, 25 projects have been funded under this theme, totalling $695,882 in funding for these projects. The projects who have been identified as environmental justice-themed projects, can be viewed in our Funded Project Archive under "Theme: Enivronmental Justice".
Environmental Justice Grant Consideration
In addition to funding grants within the Environmental Justice theme, the TGIF Committee voted in 2018 to continue the goals of the Spring 2018 environmental justice thematic grant cycle by continuing to give priority to Environmental Justice projects through our Environmental Justice grant consideration. Each Fall and Spring semester, all projects, whether they fall in the Environmental Justice theme, may apply for priority consideration through the submission of an environmental justice supplement, which asks 1-3 questions about how their project meaningfully includes and prioritizes environmental justice in all aspects of their project, from project leadership, to outreach targets, educational outcomes, or direct service to environmental justice communities.
As of Spring 2024, 72 projects have received funding that were reviewed within the environmental justice consideration, totalling $1,271,034 in funding for these projects. All projects that have received Environmental Justice grant consideration can be viewed in our Funded Proejct Archive under "Environmental Justice Projects".
History of Environmental Justice within TGIF
In Summer 2017, then TGIF Coordinator Brian Gialketsis facilitated a series of summer workshops to begin assessing TGIF as a program and provide recommendations for future consideration. One thread to come from these conversations was the need for more direct avenues to address equity and inclusion more directly within sustainability and environmental initiatives. In coordination with the TGIF Committee, a new Environmental Justice Student-at-Large Voting Committee member position was created. Throughout Fall 2017 and into Spring 2018, the TGIF Committee worked alongside SERC's Environmental Justice Associate to pilot an environmental justice thematic grant cycle for Spring 2018, where the TGIF Committee would give priority, through first review, to projects who submitted an Environmental Justice Statement of Intent and who were determined to meaningfully address environmental justice issues at UC Berkeley.