Student Sustainability Contest

Deadline for submission of a sustainability project, program or initiative for
the CSUF campus is Friday, March 20 by 5 PM to SustSymposium@fullerton.edu

Student Sustainability Contest Registration Form: Click Here
Student Sustainability Contest Rules and Guidelines: Click Here

Awards will be announced at the
Sustainability Symposium @ CSUF (Thursday, April 16, 2015)

The Challenge: Come up with and justify a sustainability project, program or initiative for the CSUF campus. The goal of this Student Contest is to promote sustainability in student scholarly research and creative activities, encourage student advocacy, outreach and involvement in campus sustainability practices, and make our campus more sustainable overall.

*Student Sustainability Contest submitted items were reviewed and selected by a panel of CSUF faculty, staff, and student judges.

2014 Contest Winners

Winner: Alexander Berger (Grad Student, Environmental Studies); Ryan Visperas (Undergrad Student, Civil and Environmental Engineering); Thinh Luc (Undergrad Student, Civil and Environmental Engineering)

This group of students submitted a project for the EPA's 2nd Annual Campus Rainworks Challenge. The Rainworks Challenge calls for college students to submit site designs and plans that effectively capture and reduce stormwater runoff from university campuses. The students recognized this need at Cal State Fullerton for stormwater management, and proposed this project to be designed and dovetailed into the campus' already-drafted 2020 Master Plan. The Rainworks project is a response to Governor Jerry Brown's call for a 20% reduction of water use. Considering the State's current drought concerns, this project will help the campus become more sustainable and responsible in its overall water consumption and management.

Runner-Up: Christina Morris (Undergrad Student, Theater Arts)

This student's project calls for a commitment from the campus to change its fleet of 13 vehicles with the Parking and Transportation department from trucks with low gas mileage to plug-in hybrid vehicles. The proposed plug-in hybrid vehicles have reduced toxic gas, particles and greenhouse gas emissions. The proposal proved economic benefits for the campus with increased gas mileage, and showed how the purchases could be phased in over a few years to reduce the initial cost. These vehicles are a face for the university and could be a key example of the campus' overall sustainability efforts.

2013 Contest Winners

Water Refill Stations: Brayden Mills (Environmental Studies); Brian Ross (Business)

Project update for Water Refill Stations: To date, the campus has installed 4 water refill stations in 3 different buildings on campus, and plans to implement a phased-in retrofit program for drinking fountains to be updated with bottle-filler units. Many of these units will include a bottle-ticker, which will count the number of plastic bottles saved!