Small Projects (>$10K)

These projects received less than $10,000 from TGIF.

Supporting Essential Operations at SOGA and UC Gill Tract Community Farms

Project Description

The project has three main sections. (1) Part of the grant would go towards covering a portion of the Student Organic Garden Association’s water bill. Currently, the Department of Environmental Sciences, Policy, and Management (ESPM) covers half the bill and Professor Tim Bowles’ Berkeley Agroecology Lab covers the other portion. Having the Agroecology Lab help cover this expense has become a financial burden on them with their increasingly limited budget. Increasing SOGA’s economic self-sufficiency is the only way they can continue to distribute agroecological...

UC Berkeley Botanical Garden Crops of World Internship

Project Description

As a senior studying Conservation with a focus on agroecology and rural development, I would like to incorporate the knowledge I have acquired from the past several years of classes on environmental justice as well as conversations from within the agroecology community on campus. 1. Garden for Ohlone foods and other Bay Area/Northern California indigenous foods would be added to the North American section. 2. There are various agroecological methods that could be replicated on a smaller scale within the garden as a display, including intercropping, no...

THIMBY: Richmond Backyard Home

Project Description

Tiny House in My Backyard (THIMBY) is an interdisciplinary team of 27 UC Berkeley graduate and undergraduate students designing and constructing affordable, ecologically sustainable, tiny homes. THIMBY 3.0, the third home constructed by the THIMBY organization, will be piloting Richmond’s “Tiny House on Wheels Pilot Project” ordinance, which the team recently helped renew, by constructing and leasing an affordable, net-zero-energy 240 sq ft. house in the backyard of a predetermined single-family residence in Richmond. In collaboration with the City...

Community Climate Healing Circle

Project Description

The vision of Mobilize Berkeley is to lead an intergenerational citywide sustained mobilization towards stopping climate destruction and participating in a just transition toward sustainable, more equitable and healthier ways of living and working. SERC has been in partnership with Mobilize Berkeley for the last three years, and we hope to continue our partnership with them for many years to come. QTPOC students and community members organize and facilitate the circles. Within the Healing Circles QTPOC students' healing and voices are centered and...

Food Relatives Conference by the Food Institute Graduate Council

Project Description

By bridging academics, community leaders, consumers, and other vital actors within our food system, FIGC seeks to reinforce the goal of the Berkeley Food Institute (BFI): to understand and transform food systems in a cross-disciplinary manner in order to build a more resilient and equitable future within and beyond academic institutions. In 2022, FIGC ran a free-to the-public hybrid 2022 Conference, “Food Relatives: Decolonizing and Indigenizing the Global Food System” to connect scholars, community members, artists, and policy makers through varying...

UC Berkeley Green Labs Program Research Community Trainings

Project Description

Our goal through organizing this project is to be able to close a gap between the research community and zero waste efforts. By educating undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers using My Green Labs Accredited Professionals training modules, we hope to achieve sustainability within research and teaching lab spaces at the community level. Using the My Green Labs materials that have already been created by professionals and that are available on a digital platform will allow the Program Associate and Intern to focus on disseminating...

Biofuel Technologies Club: Algae Solar Panel Project

Project Description

The Biofuels Technology Club (BTC) is a College of Chemistry club, whose committed mission is to achieve a zero-waste campus. By making biodiesel from waste cooking oil in the campus dining halls, the club has the goal of eventually powering campus fleets. Though CalDining continues to provide an excellent source of oil for feedstock, we have launched an experimental team to look into other potential sources if increased scale is needed. One key area of exploration is microalgae; as it produces lipid content, accumulates in biomass rapidly, and requires low-...

Greening Kroeber Art Studios and Bathrooms

Project Description

Develop a design/marketing campaign to create awareness in Kroeber Hall about sustainability.

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Electric Cargo Bike for ReUse Stations

ReUSE and Cal Zero Waste are requesting funds to purchase an electric cargo bicycle to transport materials from the Cal Zero Waste office to each ReUSE station, rather than moving items on foot.

ASUC Sustainable Campus Food System Designathon

Project Description

This designathon aims to empower students to share their voices on decisions about the campus food system, because it should be catered to their needs and values. The Pour Out Pepsi campaign pressures the UC Berkeley administration to end the exclusive pouring rights contract with PepsiCo due to its unsustainable and inequitable practices. There are currently discussions in the UCOP about establishing a UC system-wide exclusive pouring rights contract, likely with PepsiCo or Coca-Cola, demonstrating that they value profit over students. The food and beverage...