UCSC Grounds Services wins sustainability best practice award

Members of grounds services recycling and heavy equipment crews are, left to right, top, Bill Alderson, Salvador Pena, Roger Edberg, and Ron DiNapoli; left to right, bottom, Mario Contreras, Bradley Angell, Juan Carlos Calderon, and Keith Surdyk. Crew members not pictured are Jose Anaya, Ron Dillehay and Mitch Smith.

The UC Santa Cruz Grounds Services Department received the Sustainability Best Practice Award for Innovative Waste Reduction at the 2014 California Higher Education Sustainability Conference, presented on June 17, 2014, at San Diego State University. 

Led by Roger Edberg, senior superintendent, and Bradley Angell, administrative analyst, grounds services has implemented a multi-tiered digital apparatus in furtherance of the campus’s zero-waste goals titled “Real-Time Waste Metrics for Weight Based Recharge and Diversion.” 

The current practice study uses two independent data capture systems to log both real-time volume and weight information to track diversion, improve operational efficiency, and encourage sustainable practices by users.  The project is executed cooperatively by both the recycling and the heavy equipment crews of grounds services.