ESLP Sustainable Action Research Team Presentations
The Education for Sustainable Living Research Teams conducted various research projects throughout the hill and the campus to find ways that UCLA as a campus can be more sustainable.
The first team to present was Team Turf. The members were interesting in finding out whether it would be more sustainable for UCLA to replace most or all of its practice fields with turf rather than the regular grass already there. Through much research and surveying, they concluded that many students actually prefer turf to grass and using turf may be a good alternative to grass. However, turf does have many of its own problems including maintenance and repair.
Next, there was a team that examined composting at Ackerman Union. The team actually went through the food waste produced within a few days to sort through what was compostable, what was recyclable, and what was really trash. To their surprise, almost everything was either compostable or recyclable, leading them to believe that implementing a compostable program at Ackerman could significantly reduce the amount of trash UCLA generates and must send to landfills.
Also related to this project is the Green Living Project, which examined the dorms in terms of waste, water and energy. The waste team found that many students are willing to take a little extra time to sort their trash into recyclables and compost but that some education is required so students can better understand what can really be composted or not. The energy team put electric meters on students’ dorm outlets to measure the amount of energy students were wasting through their “vampire” appliances and by leaving lights on when it isn’t necessary. They found that there is some substantial amount of energy being wasted. Suggestions to avoid this include installing power strips that automatically turn off when the student leaves the room so electronics don’t suck away energy. The water team measured how much water was being used in showers and found there could be improvements in that area too.
Finally, the Green Lab team inspected labs in the MIMG and dentistry buildings to see what plastic tubes and other equipment can be recycled. They found that much of the plastic being used could contain potentially hazardous material and that was a hindrance in getting all the plastic that could be recycled TO be recycled.
These projects were very informative and made apparent many areas that UCLA could be improved to be more sustainable.
ESLP Sustainable Action Research Team Presentations
The Education for Sustainable Living Research Teams conducted various research projects throughout the hill and the campus to find ways that UCLA as a campus can be more sustainable.
The first team to present was Team Turf. The members were interesting in finding out whether it would be more sustainable for UCLA to replace most or all of its practice fields with turf rather than the regular grass already there. Through much research and surveying, they concluded that many students actually prefer turf to grass and using turf may be a good alternative to grass. However, turf does have many of its own problems including maintenance and repair.
Next, there was a team that examined composting at Ackerman Union. The team actually went through the food waste produced within a few days to sort through what was compostable, what was recyclable, and what was really trash. To their surprise, almost everything was either compostable or recyclable, leading them to believe that implementing a compostable program at Ackerman could significantly reduce the amount of trash UCLA generates and must send to landfills.
Also related to this project is the Green Living Project, which examined the dorms in terms of waste, water and energy. The waste team found that many students are willing to take a little extra time to sort their trash into recyclables and compost but that some education is required so students can better understand what can really be composted or not. The energy team put electric meters on students’ dorm outlets to measure the amount of energy students were wasting through their “vampire” appliances and by leaving lights on when it isn’t necessary. They found that there is some substantial amount of energy being wasted. Suggestions to avoid this include installing power strips that automatically turn off when the student leaves the room so electronics don’t suck away energy. The water team measured how much water was being used in showers and found there could be improvements in that area too.
Finally, the Green Lab team inspected labs in the MIMG and dentistry buildings to see what plastic tubes and other equipment can be recycled. They found that much of the plastic being used could contain potentially hazardous material and that was a hindrance in getting all the plastic that could be recycled TO be recycled.
These projects were very informative and made apparent many areas that UCLA could be improved to be more sustainable.
Comment by Jennifer Lu May 29, 2009 @ 4:36 am