Zero Waste Fellow
Project Lead: Julia Sherman
Sponsor: Kira Stoll, Office of Sustainability
TGIF Grant: $11,725.92
Project Theme: Waste Diversion
Project Description: At UC Berkeley, over a dozen organizations (both departmental and student-led) work on waste-related issues. Until 2019, collaboration and communication among them was minimal and ineffective. The Zero Waste Coalition was established in Fall 2019 to allow for successful collaboration among organizations and to mobilize educational campaigns reaching over 5,000 students. Strong leadership within the zero waste community is vital to its continued progress, and the creation of the Zero Waste Fellow position (similar to Carbon Neutrality or Engagement Fellows) will allow for institutionalized leadership that will continue to build upon and expand zero waste work. This position will effectively institutionalize the Zero Waste Coalition, Zero Waste October, Compost Week, and Move Out programming.
Goals: 1) To perpetuate collaboration and communication within the zero waste community on campus.
2) To stimulate progress toward meeting the campus goal of Zero Waste by 2020 and Beyond.
3) To build up and enforce UC Berkeley’s newly adopted Non-Essential Single-Use Plastic Ban by 2030.
4) To create a point person on campus for communication and collaboration between students and administration on zero waste initiatives.
5) To institutionalize the Zero Waste Coalition and its related programming by ensuring there will always be a student leader available to lead it.
6) To educate and engage the entire student body on waste sorting and waste reduction.
7) To divert thousands of pounds of material from the landfill through Move Out programming