March to June 2022 Projects

This page was last updated as of June 8th, 2022.

View our current projects

BAAQMD Carl Moyer Grant

Overview: The District aims to leverage grant funding from the Bay Area Air Quality District's (BAAQMD) Carl Moyer Program to replace some internal combustion engine (ICE) mowers with electric mowers. Electric mowers have a higher upfront cost than ICE mowers, but have lower fuel and maintenance costs. The grant will help offset the higher purchase price and make the electric mower a viable purchase option.

Latest Update: The grant is moving forward with Executive Vice Chancellor Dr. Storti’s go ahead! The Carl Moyer Grant will reimburse the District about 80% of the capital cost to switch to an electric mower. Taking the costs of maintenance and gas into consideration, the District will save an estimated $42K-52K over 5 years with the grant (opposed to $17K without the grant).

BTU Meter Inventory

Overview: The Sustainability Team is partnering with Facilities staff to inventory all District BTU meters, which measure hot and chilled water energy use. The inventory will serve as a resource for facilities staff and outside consultants, and also lend towards identifying meter calibration issues. With more consistent and accurate readings, SMCCCD can qualify for the evaluation of future energy incentive opportunities.

Latest Update: On April 12th, Evan, Kannan, and College of San Mateo Utility Engineer Nic Chavez conducted a site walk of the CSM campus and gathered information and photos for the inventory. Site visits to Cañada College and Skyline College are to be scheduled in the coming months.

Climate Action Planning

Overview: The Climate Action Plan (CAP) provides a comprehensive assessment of GHG emissions across the District and details plans to get to carbon neutrality. To create this plan, the Sustainability Team is working with consultants at Brailsford & Dunlavey, who have extensive experience doing climate action planning for institutions of higher education.

Latest Update: The Sustainability Team has been working in collaboration with campus stakeholders and leadership to measure our greenhouse gas emissions, determine a business-as-usual forecast, and establish initiatives that will drive our emissions down quickly and completely. Recently, the Team coordinated with Brailsford & Dunlavey to conduct community workshops to engage students, faculty, and staff in the CAP process. So far, three workshops have helped capture feedback from the campus community on priorities to include in the District CAP and identify short- and long-term climate action and adaptation priorities.

SMCCCD Equitable Stakeholder Engagement Notes_2022.05.11.pdf

M

MMM

Earth Day Engagement Events

Overview: In celebration of Earth Week, the Sustainability Team helped organize and run two student engagement events on April 18th and April 20th at Cañada College and Skyline College, respectively. Students were invited to build an air plant terrarium to take home with them, and were encouraged to ask questions to members of the Sustainability Team as they moved down the terrarium assembly line. The event also featured a solar oven (loaned out by Cañada's Professor Mahoney) that baked chocolate chip cookies using only the power of the sun! Combined, the two events served over 70 students. A huge shoutout to the Cañada Student Senate and Skyline's Sustainability Coordinator Landon Smith for their initiative and support!

Energize Colleges Internships

Overview: The Sustainability Team has partnered with SEI, PCE, Acterra, Climate Resilient Communities, Coltura, Menlo Spark, the San Mateo County Office of Education, and the San Mateo County Office Of Sustainability to develop twelve paid energy/sustainability internship opportunities for our students. These internships have been filled by students studying at all three campuses, each with unique professional and academic backgrounds.

Latest Update: As of the end of April, two of the interns have completed their internships, and the remaining ten are excited to continue their work. Over the course of May and June, the remaining interns will be wrapping up their project work and participating in professional development opportunities.

Energize Colleges SMCCCD Spring 2022 Interim Report (2).pdf

m

Fleet Electrification

Overview: To remain ahead of state regulations, as well as realize cost savings, lower emissions, and user health benefits, the District is transitioning to an electric vehicle fleet.

Latest Update: College of San Mateo Facilities Manager Robert Gutierrez and Sustainability Team staff Evan Christo met with a PG&E representative on May 10th to discuss the PG&E EV Fleet Program, which offers significant incentives to procuring electric vehicles and charging infrastructure. As part of the program requirement, Robert and Evan are developing a draft 5-year plan for each campus that details which electric vehicles and charging stations are to be purchased each year.

Paperless Program

Overview: The Paperless Program is helping the District transition to paper-free workflows by providing staff and faculty access to digital tools in tandem with a managed printing service. The Program will support student learning, streamline processes, and save money on printing.

Latest Update: The Sustainability Team conducted a printer audit of CSM Building 10’s 4th floor offices in partnership with Xerox. This exercise allowed the team to better understand printer stock and usage, and prepare to consolidate and optimize our fleet to realize resource and cost efficiencies. The team will be analyzing the report from both audits at the District Office and Building 10 to pilot a behavior change campaign focused on reduced paper usage.

Printers found in the site-walk of the 4th floor of CSM Building 10.

Waste & Water Audits

Overview: The Sustainability team has been working closely with Cañada’s ENVS 101 lab course to deliver educational waste and water audits to students. In March, the Team helped lead a waste audit where several bags of landfill, compost and recycling were separated, weighed and analyzed by students to understand sorting habits and contamination levels on campus. Students also performed visual checks of waste signage and bin locations and aim to present their findings and recommendations to Facilities staff soon. In April, the Team joined the class for a indoor water audit, where students measured and analyzed the gallons per minute used in restrooms in different campus buildings.