University of California, Santa Cruz
EN-9: Staff Professional Development

- The Sustainability Certificate Program for employees provides in depth learning about sustainability related topics, taught by campus staff and faculty. Participants must fulfill a certain number of core and elective courses to receive a certificate. - The greenwashing awareness training was a collaborative project involving students and staff from various departments with the objective of equipping the UCSC community with strategies to identify false or meaningless environmental claims by university suppliers. The training is available through the campus Learning Management System (LMS) and is a part of the standard CruzBuy classroom-training curriculum. - The Green Labs program works to certify on campus research labs as part of the UC initiative to reduce energy, waste, and water usage in labs. Labs that express interest in certification are contacted through their prime investigator and lab sustainability representative to begin certification and assessment process. - The Green Office Certification Program works to empower campus offices to implement sustainable practices in their everyday operations. They perform energy audits and waste assessments in campus offices and work with participating staff to identify actions they can commit to that will lower their waste and consumption habits and improve their overall environmental performance (while saving money!). - Diversity & Inclusion Certification Program provides a valuable professional development opportunity at no cost to the participants or their respective units. The Program is designed to offer participants an in-depth examination of diversity and differences in order to gain a greater understanding of how we can and why we should work together to build a stronger and more inclusive UC Santa Cruz community. Participants will gain valuable knowledge and skills that will enable them to more effectively and enjoyably work and lead in a multicultural, diverse environment. Program examines social justice issues. http://diversity.ucsc.edu/training/certificate_program/index.html

The Sustainability Office provides annual funding for regular sustainability conference attendance for core sustainability staff (5 employees). In addition, they also subsidize sustainability conferences and presentations for faculty, staff, and students on an as-needed basis. Recent conferences made available to and attended by UCSC faculty/staff: Post Landfill Action Network's Zero Waste Conference California Resource Recovery Association California Higher Education Sustainability Conference University of Vermont Sustainability Faculty Fellowship Conference