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Initiative Contributes to SCU’s Top Rankings in Research and Community Engagement
The Initiative contributed to SCU's #1 ranking in sustainability research and #8 ranking in public engagement in the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education's 2022 STARS ratings. The STARS ratings are the most comprehensive measures of universities’ achievements in practicing sustainability. The Initiative was one of three formal community partnerships to advance sustainability highlighted in SCU’s reporting, a contribution that will grow more important as the STARS criteria change to put greater weight on community engaged research with underserved communities. |
 | The Stench of Sustainability in Bayview Hunters Point
The Initiative issued a new report, The Stench of Sustainability, on noxious emissions from the Darling animal rendering plant in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunters Point, produced by our Law and Advocacy Lab for community partner Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice. Operated by Darling for over 50 years, the plant processes animal carcasses and grease from local restaurant traps and turns them into usable materials. But the Darling plant has also blanketed the surrounding neighborhood with “nauseating fumes” for years, adding to the stresses faced by a low-income and racially diverse community that is already overburdened by many other environmental hazards. The Stench of Sustainability summarizes data in public documents obtained from three agencies that regulate Darling’s operations, and provides recommendations for reducing the plant’s impact on the community. The report was co-authored by the Initiative’s Zsea Bowmani and Elias Rodriguez (SCU Law ‘21), with editorial assistance from SCU undergraduates Emily Pachoud, Hannah Trillo, and Grace Yonkers-Talz. Read more about the project on the Law and Advocacy Lab’s blog. |
 | Migratory Birds Found to Decline The Initiative’s Iris Stewart-Frey, Liam Healey '19, and collaborators from the South Bay Bird Observatory (SFBBO) published a study that was featured on the title page in the journal Ecological Restoration, "Long Term Progress in Riparian Restoration with Concurrent Avian Declines in the Southern San Francisco Bay Area (CA)." Riparian areas are a critical landscape habitat for breeding and migrant birds in arid urban regions like the San Francisco Bay Area. The paper assesses the long-term restoration at Coyote Creek Field station, a riparian site near campus, and analyzes decades of bird and vegetation data that has been collected by SFBBO scientists and volunteers, using long-term avian mist-netting data and vegetation surveys. The research team found that although the restored vegetation and bird communities became more similar to a remnant riparian strip, indicating restoration success, migratory birds declined in all habitat areas, highlighting the need for multi-site restoration efforts and multifaceted approaches to evaluating restoration outcomes. The staff at SFBBO have generously co-mentored several cohorts of ESS senior capstone groups, and this study originated with such a project.
Photo: Katie LaBarbera (SFBBO) |
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Action Research Addresses Bronco Student Food Insecurity and Basic Needs
While recent studies at the University of California found that 39% of undergraduate students and 50% of Latinx and Black students experienced food insecurity, this issue remains less understood in private universities. Chris Bacon coordinated a team of student researchers, including Chloe Gentile-Montgomery, Kylie Griggs, and Paola Felix, to produce a report about students’ food security and basic needs at SCU. The study found that 20% of students were food insecure in 2020, with close to 40% facing food or housing insecurity. The data also reveal racial and ethnic disparities, and concerns about access to culturally relevant and vegetarian food. Despite increasing outreach, less than one third of respondents were aware of expanding support services. After documenting creative mutual aid approaches and developing recommendations, the research team has continued annual studies, receiving over 750 surveys in 2022. Inspired by the concept of Cura Personalis, the researchers are working in partnership with SCU’s Center for Food Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Student Life, Mission and Ministry, Center for Sustainability and others to form a task force on building a university-wide response that aims to create the conditions for all students to fulfill their basic needs in a more just and sustainable way.
Photo: SCU Center for Sustainability |
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Environmental Justice and the Common Good Initiative
Santa Clara University
500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95053
environmentaljustice@scu.edu
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