2021 Grant Awards

Amplifying Sanctuary Voices: Climate Migration and Environmental Justice

Amplifying Sanctuary Voices (ASV) is a storytelling project centered around migrant communities in the Bay Area. Through storytelling workshops, interviews with climate migrants, participatory action research, and historical migration research, UCB graduate and undergraduate Fellows will work alongside migrants to produce advocacy research, classroom curricula, and innovative exhibits for the UCB campus and larger Berkeley community. 

TGIF Award: $30,000.00

Circularity

Environmental Justice at Cal has always been advanced by students before being adopted by the institution. Circularity Community, the app, aims to increase student power and give them a strong platform to share their knowledge and narratives. 

TGIF Award: $54,300.00

Housing and Dining Advocates (HADSA) COVID Relief

With reduced occupancy in the resident halls this year caused by the COVID pandemic, HADSA was cut from 11 funded positions to 1 funded position. Although RSSP expects to make a full recovery as the pandemic subsides, TGIF funding for five positions in the 2021- 2022 fiscal year will help HADSA continue providing much-needed outreach and sustainability initiatives for the housing & dining department.

TGIF Award: $46,842.35

Latinxs In Their Element

Latinxs in their Element will be a project funding eight (8) student fellows to conduct environmental research projects during the academic year. We will be hosting a series of workshops in order for research fellows to gain  an understanding of the elements prior to conducting their own research. Latinxs & the Environment has the intention of offering students this unique opportunity to explore their passions while allowing them to gain real research experience.

TGIF Award: $25,000.00

Scholarship for Environmentalists of Color

The Student Environmental Resource Center (SERC), aims to create a new scholarship for environmentalists of color. SERC hopes to open new pathways for environmentalists of color at UC Berkeley to engage in sustainability work and thrive as underserved students. 

Project Goals: a) Financially support 15 environmentalists students of color with a $2,000 scholarship for the academic year ; b) remove financial barriers for students of color to create space for them to participate in co-curricular activities and learning opportunities. 

TGIF Award: $36,000

Summer Agroecology and Sustainability Program at Berkeley Student Farms

This project seeks to maintain the functionality of Berkeley Student Farms during the upcoming summer, when volunteer will numbers likely fall drastically, and offer 5 paid positions for Agroecology Garden Managers. These managers will continue the essential farm work needed to maintain critical garden operations, including growing organic produce, leading student volunteers, coordinating food donations, and maintaining our compost systems, as well as renovating our greenhouse to support increased farm functionality.

TGIF Award: $23,232.00

BerkeleyMoves! Parking & Transportation Program and Data Evaluation Intern

The UC Berkeley Parking and Transportation Department (P&T) with this project, seeks with taking data from the charging stations, ridership data, and other data reporting aspects of the TDM unit to provide numerical, financial, and qualitative data between transportation and parking and sustainability; as well as reporting the findings as a way to address how Berkeley Moves can be able to evolve the Transportation Demand Management program beyond the return to campus in 2022.

TGIF Award: $13,445.00

Haas Rechargable Battery Program

In an effort to continuously make significant strides towards true zero waste and in line with the university’s “Non-Essential Single Use Plastic Elimination by 2030 Policy”,  Haas would like to implement a rechargeable battery program that would be available to all Haas students, staff and faculty.  

TGIF Award: $4,106.00*

*TGIF Spring Grants are a minimum of $5,000, but this particular project was able to cut some of the costs from their original budget amount.

Healing the Pavement on Campus

This project aims at wasted concrete recycling for campus infrastructure repairing, mainly focusing on the maintenance of cracked pavements through concrete self-healing technology. Project leaders also hope to host lab sessions and seminars to facilitate students' knowledge and hands-on experience in waste concrete recycling.

TGIF Award: $16,100.00

Heated and cooled chairs for comfort and energy efficiency on campus

The Center for the Built Environment (CBE) will build 10 Personal Comfort System (PCS) chairs, and will hire a graduate student researcher to demonstrate environmental benefits and effectiveness.

TGIF Award: $29,869.00

Project RISHI Rainwater Harvesting

ProjectRISHI (Rural India and Social Health Improvement) is a non-profit organization, registered in the United States and India, whose mission is to promote the sustainable development and growth of rural Indian communities. Most families in Bharog Baneri rely on subsistence farming for their food and income, so lack of water access is one of the main threats to the village’s wellbeing. The Rainwater Harvesting project group was designed to address this issue, and focuses on improving water availability through building Rainwater Harvesting (RH) systems.

TGIF Award: $9,373.57

Student Fellows Activating Campus Sustainability Plans

This project proposes a team of students in fellowship roles to develop and implement key priority strategies of the newly published UC Berkeley Sustainability Plan, UC Berkeley's first Green Labs Action Plan, as well as UC Berkeley's second STARS rating evaluation.

TGIF Award: $22,000.00

The role of the underground to realize a zero-carbon UC campus energy system

This project aims to determine the feasibility of underground heat/cold storage as part of the energy system strategy for meeting the UC carbon neutrality goal as well as advancing the understanding of geothermal as a climate and energy solution in a variety of settings.

TGIF Award: $74,850.00

Healing the Pavement on Campus

This project aims at wasted concrete recycling for campus infrastructure repairing, mainly focusing on the maintenance of cracked pavements through concrete self-healing technology. Project leaders also hope to host lab sessions and seminars to facilitate students' knowledge and hands-on experience in waste concrete recycling.

TGIF Award: $16,100.00

Zero Waste Coalition Vice Chair

UC Berkeley’s Zero Waste Coalition (ZWC) is comprised of over a dozen organizations, both departmental and student-led, focused on waste-related work on campus. Since its founding in 2019, ZWC efforts led by the Chair and Vice Chair have included a broad range of programs such as: supporting the implementation of the Single Use Plastic Elimination Policy by 2030, beginning of class presentations on composting and environmental justice, hosting and facilitating a Zero Waste Lab of 40+ student researchers per semester, and leading campus Move Out and Cooperative Reuse.

TGIF Award: $10,506.28

Vermicomposting by the Zero Waste Research Center

This project will purchase composting materials such as manure, worms, and gardening tools for project maintenance and so that community members can get involved in the existing Vermicomposting project hands-on. Furthermore, the grant will fund several hot compost bins, allowing expansion of composting scope while increasing the volume of food waste that can be processed on a weekly basis. Finally, the grant will be used to support  student interns, whose responsibilities include bin upkeep and educational initiatives for students from K-12 schools and colleges, and other community members

TGIF Award: $13,093.46