Interns: Rachel Balmy, Nik Crain, Zara Fernandez

Sponsor: Office of Sustainability

TGIF Grant: $6,500

Project Theme: Education & Behavior Change

Project Location

2011 Application Submission

Status: Complete

Project Description: The Office of Sustainability is granted funds for five communication internships over the next two years. The current student communications team will mentor and train the next generation of outreach coordinators, who will take full reign in year two. This project will continue the efforts begun in the 2009 TGIF Grant Talking Louder About Campus Sustainability.

2011-2012 Accomplishments

• The Office of Sustainability hired three Next Generation interns: Nik Crain, Zara Fernandez, and Rachel Balmy.
  • The interns received training from Communications intern Joanna Wong.
• The Next Generation interns organized and ran the Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 Sustainability Forums.
• The team made new connections with the resident hall sustainability coordinators and the Greening the Greeks members.
• The interns assisted the Office of Sustainability with bright green news and signed up over 200 new readers to the newsletter listserv. Be sure to read the monthly issues!
• The Next Generation interns also assisted OS with green department certifications and green event certifications.
• The Next Generation team  tabled at various events including PLAYgreen, the Green Jobs Fair for high school students held at MLK Student Union, and at the 2012 Earth Week events.
• Check out the sustainable fashion blog created by Next Generation interns.
• Be sure to watch the latest video/photo montage from Next Generation interns, entitled “Students in Action- UCB Campus-wide Sustainability 2012”

Next Steps: The Next Generation interns will continue to work with the Office of Sustainability’s Talking Louder About Sustainability campaign during the 2012-2013 academic year, contributing to the monthly issues of bright green news, tabling at campus events, and planning the fall and spring sustainability forums.

2012-2013 Accomplishments

• Helped organize and host the Fall 2012 Sustainability Forum on September 12th.
• Rachel Balmy and Nik Crain remained with the project to help implement 2012 TGIF Mini-Grant Campus Sustainability Photos and Video for UC Berkeley’s Public Affairs Digital Gallery.
• The Next Generation team wrote for and published the October, November and January bright green news, assisted with various outreach activities, and met with student environmental groups.

Results
This outreach campaign worked meet the near-term initiatives to advance campus sustainability in areas of energy and climate, water, transportation, food, waste reduction, and purchasing. To do so, the Next Generation Communications Team undertook maintained several existing initiatives as well as begun new initiatives including:

• Biannual Student Sustainability Forum (Fall, Spring).
• Contribute to and format the campus monthly sustainability newsletter, The Bright Green News.
• Expansion of social media outreach, including the UC Berkeley Office of Sustainability official Facebook page.
• Visualizing Sustainability mini-grant: Addition of sustainability folder with photos to showcase campus efforts on the online digital gallery through Public Affairs.
• The Office of Sustainability YouTube Channel.
• Creation of a short video, highlighting the work of green student groups on campus.
• Coordinating international Skype conference with the University of Manila, Philippines to facilitate a dialogue about campus sustainability
• Represent the Office of Sustainability at monthly ECO student forums.
• Lead sustainability tours.