About Us

 We, the staff and students of the SCU’s Center for Sustainability, are deeply committed to building a humane, just, and sustainable world rooted in equity. We understand this starts with educating ourselves first and using our power to dismantle the institutional and systemic racism present in our university, community, and country at large. 

Climate change disproportionately affects Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities, creating even greater disparities along the lines of race and socioeconomic status. Just as solutions to reverse global warming must be ingrained in our daily behaviors and decisions, so too, must be actions to promote racial equity, for the only way to build a sustainable world is to ensure quality of life for all people and the planet.

We recognize the complicated history of Santa Clara University--built by the Spanish missionaries on the land of the Ohlone and Muwekma Ohlone people. The SCU community has a lot of work to do to rid the university of institutional racism and foster diversity, equity, and inclusion. We aim to uphold the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission for Diversity and Inclusion. 

We acknowledge our place of immense privilege within a Jesuit university and aim to do better. We are listening, learning and committed to making change. 

Our goals are to 

1. Tackle racial justice head on. Work individually and as a team to examine our impact on current systems of inequity, including better understanding our implicit biases. 
2. Embed racial justice work in our everyday actions as a center. We will organize inclusive and intersectional events and programs to ensure our center represents diverse voices, experts, and opportunities to engage.
3. Use our platform to create a safe space for discussions of sustainability problems and solutions which amplifies BIPOC voices.
4. Increase opportunities for BIPOC students to gain professional experience building a more humane, just, and sustainable world.

Example metrics: annual greenhouse gas emissions inventory, local offset initiatives

This means we help improve the understanding of their impact of purchasing/ consumption of resources (e.g. water) and materials (e.g. personal stuff). We also strive to engage the campus to partake in conservation, resource reduction, or voluntary simplicity, as well as recycling, composting, and creative reuse/ upcycling strategies.

Example metrics: food source miles, sustainable purchasing policies, and waste diversion rates.

We strive to expand the campus community's ability and desire to partake in sustainable behaviors that contribute to a more resilient and regenerative world.

Example metrics: number of individuals involved in sustainability-related co-curricular and employee programs, assessments of the campus community's perceived value and intrinsic motivations for sustainable behaviors.

We support solutions-based coursework and research to solve local and global problems using the campus as a demonstration test-bed.

Example metrics: number of sustainability-related and focused courses, number of students and faculty engaged in sustainability-related research, number of students engaged with community members at BUG sites.