University of San Diego
EN-3: Student Life

The Be Blue Go Green (BBGG) student organization is committed to sustainability education and to lowering the university's carbon footprint through marketing campaigns, community service and outreach, and eco-events. This group has recently been successful in organizing climate marches, bringing local sustainability leaders to campus for guest speaking events, hosting do-it-yourself workshops to educate about upcycling, etc.


https://www.sandiego.edu/sustainability/get-involved/be-blue-go-green.php

The community garden is located in a prominent space behind the central housing office of Residential Life. Students enrolled in the Campus Recreation Gardening class, student volunteers, and Be Blue Go Green members tend the garden together. Overlooking the canyon that runs alongside the campus, the garden is also used as a mediation zone and a location for community meals and other social gatherings. The garden features a rain barrel to collect rainwater that is then used to water the garden. The food produced by the garden is freely available for anyone who is part of the campus community.

The University of San Diego Social Innovation Challenge (SIC) promotes, guides, and supports student-driven ideas to launch or contribute to social enterprises. Social enterprises can be for-profit, nonprofit, or blended ventures, working locally and internationally. The SIC is a bottom-up initiative in which the university’s Center for Peace and Commerce (CPC) acts as catalyst and mentor. It seeks to harness students’ imagination for a better world and offer concrete tools and opportunities to help them turn their ideas into reality. With CPC support, students are responsible for developing or refining proposals for social enterprises that achieve positive results for the four P's: People, Profit, Planet, and Peace, in order to:

- invest in students with the potential to make positive, sustainable social impact
- promote problem-solving through the development of sustainable ventures
- support enterprise development for the quadruple bottom-line (people, planet, profit, and peace)

Sustainability-related events are organized by various on-campus organizations such as the Changemaker Hub, Energy Policy Initiatives Center, Center for Peace and Commerce, the Career Development Center, the Cultivate Living Learning Community, and the Office of Sustainability. Examples include:

- Climate and Energy Law Symposium (https://www.sandiego.edu/epic/symposium/previous-symposia/2019.php)
- The USD Social Innovation Challenge (which is Linked to the Dell Challenge) and associated Idea-Lab sessions with social entrepreneurship (https://www.sandiego.edu/cpc/gsic/)
- Supply Chain Management Career Fair
- Impact Career Fair
- Torero Talks: Alumni Making an Impact
- Careers with Impact Panel and Mixer

The Office of Sustainability hosted a documentary regarding food waste and the Be Blue Go Green club sponsored a documentary screening regarding climate change. Both movie screenings took place on campus and were open events to the entire campus.

Sustainability is a key part of the USD outdoors program which follows ‘leave no trace’ principles. Outdoor Adventures (OA) serves USD community members with opportunities to experience outdoor activities that promote personal growth, leadership development, relationship building and environmental responsibility.

With a focus on outdoor recreation, environmental education, leadership development and team-building, OA offers a variety of outings locally, regionally and internationally. Pre-Orientation Adventure, overnight trips, outdoor recreation classes and day trips around San Diego are a few examples. OA also operates a resource center and rental shop that provides outdoor recreation equipment and trip planning resources for individuals and groups that choose to venture on their own excursions.

Outdoor Adventures is a hub for people interested in living an active, outdoor lifestyle that strives to create a balance between humanity and the natural world.


https://www.sandiego.edu/outdoor-adventures/about/sustainability.php

USD was designated an ASHOKA Changemaker campus due to its commitments to sustainability & ethics and to develop young people into changemakers. The Changemaker Hub annual themes are inspired by its vision of creating a more just and sustainable world.

The 2019-2020 Changemaker Challenge theme is Homelessness, Displacement, and Migration. The Changemaker Challenge provides an opportunity for engaging in idea-generation, thus increasing awareness and knowledge about current social and environmental problems and mobilizing people towards problem-solving.

Additionally the Office of Sustainability has semester themes to focus marketing and events on. In fall 2019 the theme was energy efficiency and in spring 2020 the theme is water conservation.


https://www.sandiego.edu/changemaker/ideas-into-action/changemaker-challenge.php

The university offers a 0.5 unit class that focuses on sustainable gardening and living a healthy, organic lifestyle. This class is taught through the community garden on campus.

Additionally, the Office of Sustainability's Eco-Resident Program is a peer-to-peer program that consists of a trained student assistant meeting with campus residents to discuss their sustainability practices and offer suggestions as to how they can increase their sustainability behaviors.


https://www.sandiego.edu/sustainability/get-involved/eco-resident-cert-program.php

Multiple student assistant positions are available each semester through the Office of Sustainability. These are offered to encourage student driven leadership initiatives.

Undergraduate assistantships, as well as graduate assistantships, have been offered to students who show keen interests in sustainability and help their peers gain awareness of the various programs on campus.

https://www.sandiego.edu/sustainability/get-involved/internships.php

The Office of Sustainability partners with various on-campus student groups to help promote sustainability across various dimensions of academics. Two of the groups that the Office is working with include:

1. Net Impact: Undergrad/Grad Chapter - The Office supports the Net Impact Club by providing guidance on the initiatives that can be driven by the club such as sustainability panel discussions, recycling challenges, etc.

2. Associated Students Sustainability Chair - The Office regular meets and advises the Sustainability Chair on how to effectively engage and empower students and sustainability-focused action on campus.