UCSF is working hard to reduce our emissions based upon five major sources.  They are electricity, natural gas, fleet vehicles, commute and air travel.  Heating/cooling mechanical retrofits and lighting retrofits have reduced some of our emissions in past years.  Commute and air travel are two areas where we can engage the campus community to reduce emissions through the increased use of teleconferencing, public transit, and personal energy efficiency practices such as turning off lights, equipment, and computer monitors. Our goals are to achieve our historic 2000 emissions levels by 2014; 1990 levels by 2020;and Carbon Neutrality as soon as possible.  Please note that our square footage has doubled since 2000 making this goal even more challenging. Since 2010 we’ve added over 665,000 sq ft. to the campus footprint.  Reducing emissions further is a challenge that we cannot achieved without all our participation.

(note: Emissions from leased space was estimated and included in calculations for 2007-08.  It was provided as separate emissions for 2009-11)

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Employee Commute

The UCSF Transportation Department has worked hard to offer alternative transportation options to the UCSF community.  Pre-tax subsidies are used to lower the cost of public transit, electric vehicle charging stations are available to public and permit parking areas, secured bicycle storage is provided in two locations, the Marin Commute Club buses people to/from Marin, and a robust shuttle service is provide to all major UCSF hubs. 

Measured in percentage of single occupancy vehicles versus all commute alternatives made by staff, students, and faculty per year based on an annual survey


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Culture Shift

UCSF Sustainability is tracking UCSF community engagement by the number of unique LivingGreen.ucsf.edu website hits per month.  We are also tracking the number of faculty, staff and student pledges obtained each month through our LivingGreen tabling events and LivingGreen Office and Laboratory assessments performed.  Our goal is to obtain pledges from faculty, students, and staff to do three simple actions:

• Turn off your monitor
• Report Water Leaks
• Learn to Sort your waste

Our LivingGreen Team Interns are signing up the UCSF community to make pledges at tabling events held in building lobbies, at campus/medical center events, or areas where the LivingGreen Office or LivingGreen Lab assessments are taking place to obtain their certifications. In 2013, we are offering LivingGreen Event certifications as well.

Unique website visitors(in blue) and total website visits (in green).  More information can be found at here.

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Sustainable Food

UCSF Medical Center’s Nutrition and Food Services is tracking their total and sustainable food spend to meet the UCOP System-wide Policy on Sustainable Practices of 20% sustainable food spend by 2020.  The medical center is on track to meet this goal.  Campus Life Services is working with the Retail Food vendors to find an tool to help them track their sustainable food spend.  The definition UC uses for sustainable food includes the following:

• Locally Grown
• Locally Raised, Handled, and Distributed
• Fair Trade Certified
• Domestic Fair Trade Certified
• Shade-Grown or Bird Friendly Coffee
• Rainforest Alliance Certified
• Food Alliance Certified
• USDA Organic
• AGA Grassfed
• Pasture Raised
• Grass-finished/100% Grassfed
• Certified Humane Raised & Handled
• Cage-free
• Protected Harvest Certified
• Marine Stewardship Council
• Seafood Watch Guide “Best Choices” or “Good Alternatives”
• Farm/business is a cooperative or has profit sharing with all employees
• Farm/business social responsibility policy includes (1) union or prevailing wages, (2) transportation and/or housing support, and (3) health care benefits
• Other practices or certified processes as determined by the campus and brought to the Sustainable Foodservices Working Group for review and possible addition in future Policy updates.

Percentage of spend on food meeting the sustainable food definition over total food spend per year


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Green Buildings

UCSF is working hard to ensure that all new construction (NC), renovations/commercial interiors(CI), and existing building operations & maintenance (EBOM) meet the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) guidelines for green buildings.  The UC system-wide Policy on Sustainable Practices requires that all new construction and renovations meet the LEED-Silver criteria at a minimum.  As of 2011, UCSF has 9.4 million gross square feet of owned and leased space. By 2014, a quarter of that will be LEED certified space.  UCSF currently has 23 buildings that have received LEED Certification for all or part of their space or planned certification for all or part of their space. 


Measured by square feet of LEED certified space (2014 data projected)


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Hazardous Waste

UCSF has medical center and research activities that generate hazardous waste in the process of providing health, diagnostic, and investigative benefits.  A conscious effort is made by our Environmental Health and Safety staff to reduce those hazards through safety training, practices, and reduction of hazardous materials where feasible.  This effort has led to the reduction of 43 tons of hazardous waste in the past four years.

Total tons of hazardous waste generated and disposed of per year


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Medical Waste

UCSF has medical center and research activities that generate medical or infectious waste in the process of providing health, diagnostic, and investigative benefits. A conscious effort is made by our Environmental Health and Safety and Hospitality Department staff to reduce those hazards through safety training, best practices, and reduction of infectious waste where feasible. To reduce our off-site disposal of medical waste, an on-site steam sterilization system has been installed which has reduced our disposal costs by $250,000 per year.  In the past four years we have reduced our medical waste by 316 tons.

Measured by tons generated and treated per year.


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Solid Waste

Diversion Rates
UCSF Facilities Management is working hard to reach the UC System-wide Policy on Sustainable Practices solid waste goal of 75% diversion by 2020.  This means that we divert 75% of all our solid waste to be reused, recycled, or composted.  Even though the Medical Center is not included in this requirement, Hospitality Services are also working to divert as much waste as possible through composting in the cafeteria, in-patient room recycling and Surgery department recycling.  The entire campus is engaged in helping UCSF meet this goal through education campaigns and outreach.

Measured by tons of waste reused, recycled or composted over the total solid waste generated per year. Medical Center data is not included.


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Recycled Paper Usage

Total Number of PCW Reams Used
The UC system-wide Policy on Sustainable Practices states that the University will phase out the use of virgin paper and adopt a minimum standard of 30% Post Consumer Waste (PCW) recycled content paper to be used in all office equipment (e.g., multi-function devices, copiers, printers, and fax machines).  To date the campus is at 65% PCW copy paper.  The medical center has already converted to 100% to 30% PCW copy paper.  In addition, the policy supports the ongoing transition to electronic documentation and the conversion to electronic medical record in the medical center will significantly reduce the use of paper throughout the campus and medical center.


Measured by percentage of post consumer waste reams of paper purchased per year


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Water Usage

UCSF has implemented several activities to reduce water usage, including the replacement of a steam turbine in the central plant which provides significant efficiencies and water savings of 36 million gallons from between 2009 and 2010.  Reuse of cooling tower water has also reduced our water usage. The new Water Conservation work group is continuing to look for water savings opportunities and will be implement a full campus audit of water usage to develop a baseline for further water savings projects.

In addition, wherever possible, UCSF will purchase WaterSense® certified products and develop strategic sourcing of water saving products as well as pressing the market for greater energy and water efficiency for the products and services regularly purchased by the University.


Measured by million gallons of water used per year


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