• About Us
  • About Sustainability 2.0
  • UCSD Principles of Sustainability
  • Our Heritage of Sustainability
  • Awards and Recognition
  • Contacts
• Our Initiatives
  • Clean Energy
  • Climate
  • Education
  • Fuel Alternatives
  • Green Building
  • Smart Grid
  • Transportation Alternatives
  • Waste Diversion
  • Water
• Campus Partners
  • San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology
  • Scripps Institution of Oceanography
  • Sustainability Solutions Institute
  • UCSD Center for Energy Research
• Get Involved
  • Students, Faculty, & Partners

Our legacy charges us to teach students about the environment and humans’ impact on the planet.

Spotlight: Chill-Out Award

In April 2009, UC San Diego students received the National Wildlife Federation’s Chill-Out Award for a video that highlights the vast sustainability efforts underway on our campus. “UC San Diego: A Living Laboratory for Real-World Solutions features interviews with 8 students and shows students carrying out sustainability work on campus by:

• Collecting real-time weather data
• Demonstrating our solar photovoltaic “trees”
• Gathering samples of pond scum for research (and getting stuck in the mud!)

More about 2.0 education

• Environmental Systems (ESYS) is our rapidly growing interdisciplinary major, which prepares environmental sciences students to address real-world sustainability issues.
• UC San Diego offers hundreds of courses on sustainability-related topics. See sustainability courses.
• Opportunities abound for students eager to do real-world sustainability work. See jobs and internships.
• As a leading research university, we offer a rich variety of research opportunities for students. See year-round and summer research opportunities.

Ongoing projects

• UC San Diego received national media attention for our leadership in the first ever Focus the Nation event in 2008. Over 1,000 universities joined together to focus faculty and students on climate change solutions. High points of the student-organized 4-day event included:
  • Sustainable art show
  • Green car show
  • Careers in Sustainability panel discussion
  • Green-powered concert
  • Interactive performance featuring a student dressed as a polar bear, sitting in a 9 foot tall electric chair, with a giant switch and a sign saying “You have the power”
• UC San Diego offers students involvement with many prestigious organizations on our campus, including:
  • Scripps Institution of Oceanography
  • Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies
  • Rady School of Management
  • Jacobs School of Engineering
  • Sustainability Solutions Institute
  • Salk Institute