Applications must be completed and submitted by 11:59 PM on Sunday, December 1st. Feel free to contact the Student Directors with any questions or concerns: Brooke Shimasaki at bshima@g.ucla.com and Lea Le Rouzo at lealerouzo@gmail.com

Here are preliminary descriptions of SAR projects for 2019-2020:

Dining Services Purchasing
Recently, Athens, UCLA’s waste hauler, has transitioned the turnaround time for their compost facility from 90 days to 30 days, making it more difficult to compost PLA, a common bioplastic. As a result, the to-go restaurants on the Hill are looking to phase out bioplastics in exchange for materials with a shorter breakdown time. This Dining Services team will look at the inventory of materials currently used and research alternatives, taking into account pricing, waste impact, and consumer preference. Various research methods can be applied to select alternatives that match criteria.

Academic Waste Diversion
Kikei Wong is the Zero Waste Coordinator at UCLA. Last year, her SAR team helped implement compost bins in Charles E Young Library and supplemented the bin installation with a waste awareness campaign. Before and after the bin installation, the team performed waste audits to understand the impact of adding compost bins at the library. Kikei’s team this year will work on another waste diversion campaign on campus. Some of the ideas Kikei has for this year include diverting the waste generated from students ordering food external to UCLA, making academic supplies reuse stations around campus, and finding alternatives for decorations used at major events on campus. One of the toughest issues to tackle is engagement from the campus community, especially encouraging folks to reduce and properly sort their waste. She is flexible and aims to collaborate with her team in January to finalize their waste diversion project.

Green Games
Each year, Pac-12 campuses compete in a zero waste challenge as a way to engage fans in sustainability. Last year, a SAR team worked with Kayla Shirley‒the Assistant Athletic Director, Event Operations at UCLA‒to determine whether signage was a key factor for how people sort their waste at athletic events. This year, the Green Games team will continue to engage in the competition by exploring another component of waste reduction at athletic events. The team will have the opportunity to participate in the Zero Waste Challenge Basketball Game on February 15th. Kayla aims to help her team decide how they would prefer to engage with the Green Games concept, tackling topics from fan engagement to waste audit data collection.

Community Gardens
Since 2017, the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center has operated a community garden in the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center comprised of 31 raised beds open to students, faculty, and staff. The Community Gardens SAR team will work with co-stakeholders from Semel HCI and UCLA Recreation to develop a research question regarding the garden’s potential beneficial environmental and social impacts for the campus. A few sample research questions are: what is the maximum food production potential per plot in the jane b semel HCI Community Garden or how does the use of our biodynamically produced compost affect soil organic matter and carbon sequestration capabilities in a community garden environment? In alignment with UC President Janet Napolitano’s Global Food Initiative, these questions will help drive discussions on UCLA’s role in supporting localized food systems.

Green Labs
The Green Labs program at UCLA offers a certification after an 8 month assessment for labs that opt into the program. During the assessment period, the labs receive support to transition to more sustainable practices. The Green Labs SAR team will have the opportunity to work with pilot labs in the program to research which factors alter the efficacy of sustainability in labs. Some factors that could be tested include signage and waste talks. Waste audits may be used to measure the efficacy of these factors.

Lawn Management
As UCLA moves away from synthetic fertilizers for lawns, the campus is considering more sustainable management practices, including compost use. The Lawn Management SAR team will have the opportunity to research how compost affects water retention and root systems using small plots on campus. Teams will document current practices, implement composting, and use moisture meters to test for water retention in lawns with compost and lawns without. The team’s research will give insight into reducing water needs, making lawns more resilient, and lessening synthetic fertilizer use.

Database for Student Groups in Sustainability
Dozens of students engage in applied research on campus related to sustainability, including through the Sustainability Action Research Program, Grand Challenges Scholars Program, and a variety of other channels. However, there is no streamlined system to organize many of these diverse research teams or projects. The Database for Student Applied Research team will investigate best practices in coordinating and sharing student research.  They may work to build a database to categorize different programs and store information to make it available for future groups. With a centralized database, students in sustainability will be able to access past projects’ data and connect with other research groups. Students with programming knowledge are encouraged to apply.  This project will work with UCLA’s office of Sustainability.