The Best Practices Awards

The University of California Office of the President (UCOP) and the California State University Office of the Chancellor (CSUOC) provide leadership and support for projects that incorporate energy efficiency and sustainable practices across all UC and CSU campuses. In support of this effort, UCOP and CSUOC staff work with project managers in capital programs, physical plant, facilities, and other units across these campuses to reduce their environmental footprint and utility costs through energy efficiency, renewable energy development and procurement, water conservation, and many other creative efforts. In several past years the California Community Colleges have also participated in the program.

An important part of this effort is showcasing successful sustainability approaches in the Best Practices Awards Competition. Through this program, projects are recognized, documented and widely shared to provide campus staff with ideas and resources that they can transfer to their own campuses.

The UCOP has overseen the Best Practice Awards Competition annually since 2005. As part of this program the Best Practices Steering Committee has invited individuals from UC, CSU, California investor-owned utilities, and other organizations to serve on juries to review project entries and make selections for awards and honorable mentions. These projects have been recognized at the annual California Higher Education Sustainability Conference (CHESC), and are hosted on the website of the Green Building Research Center at UC Berkeley. The 2018 conference was held at UC Santa Barbara, July 9-13, 2018.

Funding for Best Practices is provided by the UC/CSU/IOU Energy Efficiency Partnership.

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Best Practices 2018 Video

Click on the image above to learn about several recent award winning projects, including insights from project team leaders.

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