Spring Grants

These projects were funded during our Spring grant cycle, where projects receive more than $5,000 for projects that take between one to three years to complete.

Biofuels Technology R&D

Project Description

Started in 2015, Biofuels Technology Club (BTC) is a student-run organization whose mission is to engineer a pilot processing plant that will repurpose waste cooking oil produced by Cal Dining facilities into biodiesel for use as a cleaner alternative fuel for campus vehicles.

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Project Application (coming soon!)

Project Poster

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Connie and Kevin Chou Hall Zero Waste Certification

Project Description

In 2017, Haas unveiled its newest building, the Connie & Kevin Chou Hall, an 80,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility dedicated to student learning. The building embodies Haas’s defining principles: Question the Status Quo, Confidence without Attitude, Students Always, and Beyond Yourself. Designed for LEED Platinum and WELL certifications, Connie & Kevin Chou Hall will also be the first business school building registered to attain Zero Waste certification by Summer 2018. The building will serve as a model for environmental sustainability...

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Healing the Pavement on Campus

Project Description

Recycling concrete offers a sustainable path for pavement maintenance. Massive concrete wastes are generated in the civil and environmental engineering (CEE) structural laboratory every year because of undergraduate education and scientific research demand. The existing waste concrete disposal such as “landfill” is expensive ($400/ton) and unsustainable. This project aims at wasted concrete recycling for campus infrastructure repairing, mainly focusing on the maintenance of cracked pavements, to fulfill a win-win situation for both the CEE department and Berkeley...

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Electric Gem for ADA Loop Service

Project Description

The Disabled Students Program approached the Parking & Transportation Department in 2007 to assume primary role of operating the Loop service. The Loop service currently provides 120 rides per day. The program recently transitioned from two of three gas-powered golf carts to all electric, street legal Gem carts. Over the past few years, efforts have been made to implement new technologies to improve workflow, increase efficiency, safety and sustainability efforts. The TGIF funds will help cover the cost for the purchase of a new...

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Environmental Education for Students of Color

Project Description

This project overall aims to facilitate environmental education for students of color and increase minority access to the outdoors through immersive experiences. The first objective is necessary to diversifying environmental education that students of color receive on this campus at a level that is immediately feasible, inspiring, and desperately needed. ... This project will be aiming to foster an intersectional environmental movement by hosting a conference that inspires and empowers underrepresented folx in the environmental movement....

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Water Efficiency at the Goldman School of Public Policy

Project Description

The Water Efficiency at the Goldman School of Public Policy (GSPP) project will enable GSPP to save water, reduce waste, lower its water bill, and be recognized as a “Water Smart Business.” With an accompanying education component to encourage students to be conscious of resource use and keep their reusable water bottles, this project will increase water efficiency and conservation through the replacement of an aged fountain with a water bottle filling station, installation of waterless urinals, hosting educational student events, and achieving recognition...

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Strawberry Creek Ecological Stabilization Project Phase II

Project Description

The Strawberry Creek Ecological Stabilization Project was a student-initiated project to design and install ecologically-functional grade control structures for a degraded section of Strawberry Creek. In addition to increasing channel stability, this project was an ecological restoration effort to support local fish and riparian species by improving habitat conditions and planting native riparian vegetation.

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