SANTA CRUZ — You might assume that with a campus so neatly tucked into the redwoods, UC Santa Cruz is one of the most environmentally-friendly universities in the nation.

However, students say much more needs to be done before the campus is truly environmentally responsible.

Instead of marching in protest, though, a group of students has spent hours upon hours researching "green" building design, meeting with campus administrators and developing ways to raise ecological awareness among fellow students.

The effort is paying off.

Last July, the UC Regents, the governing board of all nine UC schools, adopted a systemwide policy calling for "green" buildings and "clean" energy, with a goal of reducing energy consumption by at least 10 percent by 2014.

"It’s like riding a wave," said senior Marcia Winslade, 24, who as co-chair of the 3-year-old Student Environmental Center lobbied hard for the policy — and at the expense of activities that typically consume the time of students, like surfing.

"We happened to be in the right place at the right time," Winslade said.

Between 30 and 40 students attend the weekly meetings of the Student Environmental Center; another 400 have signed up for environmental updates via e-mail, and 1,000 attended last year’s Earth Festival.

The movement couldn’t be more timely for UCSC, which is in the middle of planning how the campus will grow over the next 16 years. Faculty have recommended adding 6,000 students and bringing enrollment to 21,000, and a campus committee is studying whether it’s possible to build the facilities needed and retain UCSC’s unique qualities.

Winslade, who is from Texas, admits she has mixed feelings about UCSC growth.

"I don’t want to deny a UC education to someone who wants it," she said. "At the same time we have to recognize UCSC is in a beautiful community facing intense housing pressures. So we need to be cautious about how many students we can add."

Drafting a plan
Ten years ago, Teresa Heinz, now wife of presidential hopeful John Kerry, hosted a national summit of 450 delegates from higher education that produced the document "Blueprint for a Green Campus."

Among its recommendations was establishing a student environmental center: to build a network of support for energy efficiency and sustainability at colleges across the country.

Inspired by students at the University of Colorado, UCSC student Jessian Choy founded the UCSC’s Student Environmental Center. Her dedication won her a national award from the Earth Island Institute.

Choy has since graduated, but the Student Environmental Center lives on, with a budget of $80,000. The funding comes from fees approved by students.

Winslade, who came to Santa Cruz looking for good surf, got involved with the group after taking a summer ecology course as a freshman. A language major, she started networking with fellow students who wanted to put their environmental ideals into action.

In addition to tackling everyday problems such as reducing waste on campus, the UCSC students organized an earth summit, which last year gained the attention of then-chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood before she was promoted earlier this year to the No. 2 job in the UC system.

Winslade said she worries whether Greenwood’s successor will be as attuned to environmental issues.

But interim chancellor Martin Chemers said he supports the sustainability movement and applauds the students for their efforts.

"In fact, the value for sustainability and sensitivity to the environment is a widely shared value among all of us at UC Santa Cruz," he said.

Winslade and others will be watching to see how this commitment is carried out.

The design factor
The difficulty in assuring that all growth at UCSC will be environmentally sound is heightened by a state law requiring the UC Regents to award construction bids to the lowest responsible bidder, not necessarily the most ecologically minded.

"There’s no life-cycle analysis," Winslade said of the law, referring to operational costs such as heating and air conditioning, which are not factored into initial cost estimates, though they affect expenses over time. "Those represent a larger proportion of the total costs."

Frank Zwart, UCSC’s campus architect, said revising the law is not enough.

The key, in his opinion, is creating green design from the outset. Designing green means changing long-established budgeting procedures, finding skilled designers and monitoring the design process.

"We’re hopeful that the Regents’ new sustainability policy will help in all those areas," Zwart said.

Some university administrators have figured out how to change the paradigm.

One example is the University of British Columbia, where a "green" architect was put in charge of the facilities budget.

"She saved millions for the university," Winslade said. "That’s how they made progress."

UC Santa Barbara is ahead of the other UC campuses when it comes to green building. Its year-old Bren Hall is the first in the system to be certified as "green." Additionally, Donald Bren, a Southern California developer, gave $15 million to establish a graduate school in Environmental Science and Management there.

Other campuses are following the lead of UC Santa Barbara, thanks to the policy adopted by the UC Regents.

At UC Merced, which will be the newest school in the university system and is scheduled to open next year, all buildings have been designed to "green" specifications. Three are under construction.

UC Davis has decided that its new veterinary medicine building, now in design, will be a test case for "green" building on its campus.

The first UCSC building required to meet the UC sustainability standards will be a biomedical laboratory. The earliest it would be added to the capital improvement program is fall 2005, and design would not start until July 2006 at the earliest.

The Regents policy encourages campuses to apply sustainability principles to projects in design if that is feasible, given funding limits.

Zwart said that is the case for the McHenry Library expansion at UCSC, which is already in design, and a proposed digital arts building, slated to start design in July.

A tireless evangelist
In the meantime, Winslade is working to spread the word.

She helped build a garden at an elementary school in Salinas with the Community Alliance of Family Farmers and a $10,000 grant. She drives there once a week, teaching children about soil nutrients, weather and the water cycle.

She also is co-teaching a credit course at College 8 that explores the history and growth of the sustainability movement. Similar courses are being offered at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UCLA and UC Santa Barbara, developing a network of environmental activists across the state.

At UCSC, 20 students are taking a seminar version of the course, which requires an action research project. Another 150 students are enrolled in a less-demanding version, attending lectures and learning what sustainability means.

Winslade is happy with the turnout, noting that 100 are taking the class at UCLA, which has many more students than UCSC.

Her goal is to groom a cadre of students at UCSC and systemwide to carry on after she is no longer on campus.

If Winslade is successful, she said, students will realize that "deep change in our society and the way we function is necessary and possible — and desirable and rewarding."

The public is welcome to attend the Education for Sustainable Living Program classes 7-9 p.m. Mondays through May 24 from at Classroom Unit 8. Information is available on the Web at www.eslp.net

For information about the UCSC Student Environmental Center and the statewide network, visit www.ucscsec.org and www.ucssc.org