Theme: Environmental Justice

These projects emphasize the disproportionate impacts of environmental injustices on historically marginalized communities, the ways in which communities impacted by environmental injustices organize to protect their community's health and well-being, or otherwise education our campus community about environmental justice topics. 

Please note that not all Environmental Justice themed-projects may be funded as Environmental Justice projects. 

Island Justice Fellows Program II

Project Description

The Island Justice Fellows Program at the Critical Pacific Island Studies Collective (CPISC) enables UC Berkeley students to contribute to environmental justice practice, research, and campus community engagement opportunities concerning issues facing Pacific Islander (PI) communities, both residing in the Pacific Island region and in the diaspora in California. This year-long fellowship program supports a team of graduate and undergraduate students to address multiple gaps on the UC Berkeley campus: (1) the lack of institutional support for scholarship on the PI region...

People of Color Sustainability Campaign

Project Description

The People of Color sustainability campaign aims to facilitate sustainable and environmental justice education for POCTH residents and Berkeley Student Cooperative students of color. Targeted outreach will be led by a paid resident from POCTH who will facilitate conversations, coordinate workshops and conduct outreach. The campaign will host a series of eight workshops in Fall and Spring, four per semester, devoted to topics of: indigenous food systems and sovereignty, zero-waste and compost, urban agriculture, and decapitalizing your health. Activists, students...

Equity & Inclusion in Campus Gardens and Land Use Decisions

Project Description

UC Berkeley is home to a growing network of gardens that capture student interest in urban agriculture and greening and respond to urban sustainability, food security, environmental health, and climate change resilience. Many of these gardens are student led and maintained with specific functions for food production, education, research, and/or cultural representation. In 2016-2017, a strategic plan for campus farms and gardens was conducted across campus that revealed challenges of equity and inclusion in gardening spaces that...

Carbon Crew: A Diversified Approach to Carbon Neutrality

Project Description

Carbon Crew was established in Fall 2018 to redefine the role of carbon neutrality in campus engagement through the work of three teams: Food Team, Campus Engagement Team, and CO2RE (CO2 Reduction and Education Team). Focused on institutionalizing plant-forward dishes that are healthy, cheap, and less carbon intensive than regular meals, Food Team hosts regular plant-based sampling events geared towards redefining Cal Dining’s menu cycle by incorporating student interest, chef experience, and Cal Dining leadership to lower our carbon emissions. The CO2RE team is working...

Earth Action Initiative

Project Description

Our vision is to foster a community of people on and around campus to take direct climate action, and help reduce the barrier to action for others. The goal is to demonstrate meaningful climate action is possible, especially for students and community members, and provide a roadmap of how that can happen. To execute the Earth Action Initiative vision, EAI will organize a variety of events and actions that build community, leverage existing efforts, inspire new plans, and find innovative ways to communicate with each other.

Project Links...

Increasing Diversity in the Environmental Workforce Through Education and Training

Project Description

Despite an increase in the amount of students receiving a Bachelor’s degree, underrepresented students are still underrepresented in the fields of Science and Engineering. This disparity can be due to a couple of reasons: guidance, resources, and mentorship. This project aims to increase diversity in the environmental sector and STEM fields by providing first generation and underrepresented students technical environmental training often needed for jobs in environmental fields.

Project Links

...

Phase II: Decolonize the Environment: A Series of Workshops on Environmental Intersectionality

Project Description

A Series of Workshops on Environmental Intersectionality is an educational project created to introduce and explore systems of oppression that creates both environmental racism as well as social injustices.

Project Links

Project Application

...

Environmental Education for Students of Color

Project Description

This grant application primarily aims for a renewal of this grant to launch SCECon 2020. The secondary aspect of this application is a proposal to fund an outdoor retreat for students of color. 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...

Mapping EJ

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...

Decolonize the Environment - A Series of Workshops on Env Intersectionality

Project Description

Our goal is to engage a large audience with the intersections of social justice and environmental justice. Mainstream environmentalism often does very little to address this intersection, which alienates those that are at the forefront of environmental degradation and calls for a restructuring how we view climate change and the solutions for it. We want to introduce and explore the systems of oppression that creates both environmental racism as well as social injustices. This series of workshops hopes to address these gaps and give the environmental community a...