The Biofuels Technology Club (BTC) is part of the College of Chemistry, and has a mission to help UC Berkeley achieve a zero-waste campus. By producing biodiesel from waste cooking oil generated by the campus dining halls, the club has a goal of eventually powering campus fleet vehicles with low-carbon, renewable fuel. While BTC is pursuing a high output production facility, initial treatment steps are required to purify the oil coming from the dining hall fryers so that the impurities do not interfere with the chemical conversion processes at our production...
The people of Bharog Baneri, a village in Himachal Pradesh, India, rely on several unreliable sources of freshwater. The nearest city to Bharog Baneri is located forty-five minutes away. Wells and handpumps in the village have dried out, while the government supplies limited amounts of water for the village. Unfortunately, these supplies of water can be very far from homes, some almost requiring some homes to walk over an hour up steep slopes to bring fresh water home. Due to climate change, Bharog Baneri has been experiencing more severe dry periods. It...
We are proposing to run a pilot program at Crossroads Dining Commons in which post consumer food waste will be weighed using a leanpath scale, affixed with a Spark device that displays real time information on a monitor within student view. This two phase pilot will include weighing waste with no spark display to gather a baseline, and then an intervention of spark display data during the second phase of the pilot. Survey data will be gathered throughout both phases to gather insights on student perceptions and habits relating to food waste. This data,...
Located at Lothlorien, one of the 17 Berkeley Student Cooperative houses, this project aims to foster healing connections between students and the land through a series of educational workshops and a habitat restoration project. This will be a collaborative project, involving the stakeholders (housemates) through every step of the process, emphasizing participatory design and knowledge sharing. The series of educational workshops will involve hands-on restoration, plant identification, medicinal plant uses, and creative archiving. Lothlorien houses 55 berkeley...
For the past decade, the Biofuels Technology Club has been collecting waste cooking oil from campus dining halls to convert it into biodiesel. This process has significant pitfalls such as waste glycerol production and variable diesel quality. This project aims to solve these issues by using algal biomass as a secondary source for both biodiesel and bioethanol. The waste glycerol serves as nutrient-rich feedstock for the algae boosting intracellular lipid content that can be converted into diesel. The leftover algal biomass after lipid extraction can be further...
The Vermicompost Implementation Project heightens the impact of our existing Continuous-Flow-Through Vermicomposting Bin by unifying our material flows and expanding our educational offerings. First, we will relocate our Bin to the Clark Kerr Campus (CKC) Garden, where we will continue processing CKC Kitchen food waste and producing nutrient-rich vermicast to benefit the CKC Garden. By tightening our project’s geographic scope we will become a clear educational example of organics resource circularity. Second, this new location will form the foundation of...
To develop a circular food system and advance internal sustainable procurement goals within Berkeley Dining, the Housing and Dining Sustainability (H&DS) Office is partnering with Berkeley Student Farms to procure local, organic produce, grown at Oxford Tract, for Berkeley Dining restaurants. The Oxford Tract is an on-campus farm managed by UC Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources. H&DS strives to pioneer a hyperlocal, circular food system in campus procurement by incorporating produce grown on-site. This furthers our sustainable procurement goal to...
“Building Student Capacity at the UC Gill Tract Community Farm'' is a partnership between the UC Gill Tract Community Farm and the Food Institute Graduate Council. The project will establish an undergraduate internship program facilitated by graduate students and Gill Tract Farmers to increase campus engagement with the Farm. The project will strengthen the UC Berkeley community's role in the local food system as both contributors to urban farming and consumers of local food by promoting volunteering at the Farm and utilizing the Farm's farm stand. Building...
The Zero Waste Coalition (ZWC) is seeking funding to expand their research from the initial pilot in Fall 2023, providing free access to eco-friendly, body-safe period products in the University Health Services wellness area and at community events. ZWC will hold best practices and care workshops, community events, and conduct outreach efforts to educate the UC Berkeley campus around the intersectional issues around environmental justice and menstrual equity.
