Kira Stoll

A natural gas burning plant currently generates 90% of UC Berkeley’s energy. But for the past several years, campus has been evaluating the idea of transitioning to a cleaner energy source.

Campus community members gathered to observe a UC-wide Earth Day Climate Rally Friday, also World Earth Day, and called on the UC to be proactive on climate-friendly policies.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ranked the UC system as No. 1 on its list of the top 30 colleges and universities in terms of green power use.

Out of the 40 universities in the United States that were included in the ranking, campus only fell behind Stanford University with a score of 73.4.  

Environmental organizations on campus have spent the COVID-19 pandemic spearheading several sustainability initiatives, including a focus on single-use plastics. 

A team of international researchers published a set of eight recommendations for recalculating the social carbon cost, an estimation of the future cost of each ton of carbon dioxide emitted.

With lab spaces taking up 25% of campus buildings, mitigating the negative environmental impacts of research in labs is a necessary step to achieving some of campus's long-term sustainability goals.

Both UC Berkeley and the city of Berkeley have announced initiatives to reduce and, to some extent, eliminate all single-use plastics by 2030.

UC Berkeley was named one of the most environmentally responsible colleges, according to a recent Princeton Review survey.

The last time campus offered an energy saving program, it saw a 3 percent reduction in electricity use as a result of people choosing conservation options.