For the 2014/2015 academic year I was commissioned by the Building and Facilities Working Group (BFWG) to create a UCSC specific working draft of a green building checklist. The main goal of this 3-quarter project was to create a working draft of the University of California, Santa Cruz Green Building Checklist (UCSC GBC). This checklist will assist project managers in better incorporating more energy and water-efficient design in the pre-design, preliminary planning, working drawings, construction and commissioning phases of project development. This Checklist will be used on minor and major capital projects that cost under $5 million and therefore are not required by UCOP to achieve LEED Silver certification.

In order to create a working draft that will be effective at the University of California, Santa Cruz, it was necessary to understand the process that all building projects at the University go through. During interviews, meetings and phone calls I was able to gain a basic understand of the building process at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Additionally, I connected with campus staff who helped fill in gaps in knowledge for the technical, high-level aspects of the building process. Once I gathered University information, I began to study pre-existing green building checklists and try to understand what made them effective and gain widespread adoption within the green building community. The majority of the project time was spent organizing all of this information into an easy to use checklist that would be effective in guiding project managers through a more sustainable building process as the University of California, Santa Cruz.

The creation and use of the UCSC GBC will have huge energy, resource and sustainable impacts at the University of California, Santa Cruz and beyond. As humans we spend over 90% of our lives indoors, therefore it is essential that the buildings we occupy be safe, healthy and sustainable. This checklist aims to address those 3 things in all of the campus buildings. The University of California is a leading academic institution, thus it paves the way for others to follow. If we can be effective in creating such a checklist here at Santa Cruz, it could prompt other campuses to follow. It is these specific campus projects that are going to help the UC system meet its Carbon Neutrality goal by 2025. Large scale policy and directives have an impact, but the smaller, campus specific work will play a major role in making sure we are able to meet the Carbon Neutrality Initiative.