About

The Student Sustainability Collective (SSC) functions as a student-managed subset of the Sustainability Resource Center (SRC). The SRC consists of three general spaces: the SSC, the Sustainability Coordinator offices, and public outreach space. The Collective provides a space for the community to engage the university into proactive change for sustainability through programming, events, outreach, resources, support, and community.

The Student Sustainability Collective at the Sustainability Resource Center was founded on the principles of community, service, collaboration, and empowerment under the belief that engaging and providing resources to the campus community on issues of sustainability will lead to a more sustainable future. Accordingly, the Student Sustainability Collective stresses a high importance in service to students, staff, and faculty. Recognizing the value of social justice and peace, environmentalism, and responsible business policies in view of the challenges posed by inequality, climate change, and other issues, the Student Sustainability Collective is committed to the triple bottom line of sustainability as a foundational principle in daily operations, interactions, decisions, and purchasing practices. In this light, the Student Sustainability Collective as an important part of the Sustainability Resource Center seeks to be a positive influence in university life and the community that surrounds us.

Mission Statement

The UC San Diego Student Sustainability Collective is an open space that is dedicated to serving the university community in the area of sustainability by providing resources, support, and space to foster an active culture of responsibility for sustainability on campus and in the community. The Student Sustainability Collective at the SRC furthers these goals by strategies that are geared towards student empowerment and learning opportunities.

What is Sustainability?

Sustainability seeks to create and maintain conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, and fulfill the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations.  The most widely quoted definition internationally is that sustainability means “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

As part of the Sustainability Resource Center, The Student Sustainability Collective (SSC) promotes sustainable development, activism and progress through education, technical cooperation and capacity building at UC San Diego.

The achievement of sustainable development requires the integration of its economic, environmental and social components at all levels. This is facilitated by continuous dialogue and action in cooperative partnership, focusing on key, dynamic sustainable development issues

Sustainable Development Issues

Civil and Human Rights (Indigenous, Migrant, LGBTQIA, Race and gender rights)

Labor issues ( Struggle of students and workers to secure and defend the right to a fair wage).

Student Workers Collective Website

Corporate Accountability (Fair Trade, Ensuring equal social and environmental rights)

Energy and Waste (Conservation, Clean and accessible alternatives, Recycling, Composting)

Food (Organic, Locally Accessible, Vegetarian/ Vegan, Health, Fair trade subsidies and labor standards)

Urban Development and Transportation (Clean, accessible and affordable alternatives, Cyclist and pedestrian rights, sustainable building and development)

Water (Conservation, Access and affordability, Anti-privatization, Human and environmental justice)

These development issues are modeled after the United Nation’s Sustainability Development Issues