Humanities Division Green Team Receives Sustainability Grant

Campus Sustainability Plan Grant to Improve Zero Waste Infrastructure

The Humanities Division Green Team has received a 2018-2019 Campus Sustainability Program (CSP) grant to expand the Zero Waste infrastructure in Humanities Plaza (in front of the Humanities Lecture Hall). The goal is to increase recycling and waste diversion on campus, especially in high traffic areas. Humanities Plaza sees a lot of foot traffic by students, faculty, staff, and visitors on campus tours. The new exterior “zero waste” bins will match the new bins that were recently installed in the Quarry Plaza: green bin for compost, blue bin for container recycling, gray bin for paper, and black bin for landfill.

The UC Santa Cruz Sustainability Office hosts the CSP Grant Program, which serves as a funding mechanism to support campus partners’ implementation of projects and programs that forward the Goals, Strategies, and Actions identified in the 2017-22 Campus Sustainability Plan.  In the 2018-19 funding cycle, the CSP Grant dispersed $80,322 towards 12 projects from ten academic, college, and operational units.

“We are really excited that the new zero waste station will offer composting!” said Kim Hwe, Humanities IT Specialist. Evin Knight, Program Manager of The Humanities Institute, added, “We’re grateful to receive this grant and will use this opportunity for the Humanities Green Team to provide additional education for staff, faculty, and students about sustainability and zero waste.”

The Humanities Division was the first academic division at UCSC to be Green Office Certified. All departments in the division, including the Humanities Dean’s office and The Humanities Institute are green certified.