Irvine, California, June 5, 2025 – The University of California, Irvine, has received a star gold assessment for sustainability from the association to further develop sustainability in sustainability tracking, evaluation and evaluation of university education, whereby the reputation as a leading employee is maintained in promoting sustainability.
With over 1,200 participants in 52 countries, the Aashe Stars program is a globally recognized framework for the public documentation of the sustainability performance of universities and universities. Institutions provide success in five sectors: academics, commitment, operation, planning and administration as well as innovation and leadership.
Since 2013, UC Irvine has consistently deserved top marks from the Aash Stars program. This year's gold assessment continues and underlines the university's continuous commitment to the sustainability initiatives and practices on campus.
“On an academic, operational and student level, we emphasize how important it is to be sustainable,” said R. Umashankar, Managing Director of Campus Planning & Sustainability. “When people come on campus, it is important that sustainable habits and behaviors are prioritized at all levels.”
Sustainability at UC Irvine is the goal of having enough for everyone. It is a balance between social, economic and ecological factors that are combined in the just durability of current and future natural and human systems. Therefore, UC Irvine, the guideline of the UC Sustainable Practices adopted in 2024, tries to create a healthy company and reduce its ecological footprint and welcomes cooperation on the entire campus.
Many of these efforts, as is the broad selection of sustainability courses and research, sustainable landscaping and management of campus site and sustainable transport options for stars for their successful inclusion in campus practices.
UC Irvine also deals with the current challenges about approaches such as waste transmission that aim to minimize the materials on landfills and maximize the recycled and composted materials. Decarbonization – Slashing greenhouse gas emissions – is another strategy that is used. While these changes are significant in terms of costs and size, both companies remain priorities from the university.
For example, the 1.3 billion dollar UCI Health-Irvine Medical Campus, which will later be completed this year, will include the country's first purely electrical hospital. The complex includes environmentally friendly buildings that should promote human well -being, innovation and environmental administration to promote well -being, innovation and environmental administration, and expand the idea of what can be sustainable building.
In accordance with the guideline of the UC Sustainable Practices, all new main structures on campus must meet the management of the energy and environmental design standards for gold or platinum certification. Leed promotes water savings, energy efficiency, air quality control and more to ensure high performance.
With 41 LEED-certified buildings, many gold and platinum ratings, UC Irvine has continued a legacy of environmental administration since 2007.
A culture of health
“You cannot have well -being without sustainability,” said Aarushi Guppa, Senior Sustainability Planner for Campus Planning and Sustainability. “In order to create a sustainable society and a sustainable planet, we want people to thrive in it.”
As one of the few locations in the USA to adopt the Okanagan Charter and become an official health university in 2021, UC Irvine is also the opportunity to enable well-being-and create a sustainable space for everyone who calls the university house.
Shortly after adoption of the charter, the campus started the comprehensive Wellbegg initiative. In the star evaluation highlighted and focused on four areas: diversity, equity and inclusion; the natural and built environment; Sustainability; And the culture of the well-being decisive for the implementation of well-being as an institutional value.
With sustainability as one of its most important columns, the comprehensive well -being initiative emphasizes the inseparable connection between a healthy planet and a flourishing society as well as the efforts of the university to strengthen it.
However, creating a sustainable society requires cooperation beyond the campus. With a view to those who are most affected by the current social, economic and ecological questions, UC Irvine builds connections to community leaders and local organizations in order to work together.
One of these partnerships is the Newkirk Center for Science and Society Research Department. Since 2018 it has been working with groups that serve historically marginalized people, form individuals in research justice and research methods based in the municipality to promote institutional and structural change. A central element of the program is his commitment to inclusiveness and equity through research practices, which can directly treat UC Irvine systemic inequalities that affect marginalized population groups.
Similarly, the community's environmental research accelerators are aimed at the numerous factors that contribute to health differences in under -provisioned communities. Cera under the direction of the Center for Land, Environment and Natural Resources of the School of Law is dedicated to the repair of the damage of “returning science” research, which is underfunded, incomplete or ignored despite its importance for health and well-being.
These partnership programs not only enable individuals to deal with a sustainable future, but also to ensure that the efforts of UC Irvine, to achieve this, meet the various social, ecological and economic needs of the region.
“We alone cannot solve [these issues]”Gupta said.
With regard to the future, UC Irvine is devoted to the expansion of the current initiatives and the discovery of new ways to promote sustainability on and outside the campus.
“Achieving Aash -Stars Gold is a very important measure of the commitment of our students, faculties and employees for sustainability,” said Umashankar. “If we reflect the commitment to the campus in the light of climate change, we will be more pronounced in the coming years, and I am firmly convinced that we are in an excellent position.”
To see the full stars of UC Irvine, visit https://reports.aashe.org/institutions/university-of-california-irvine-ca/report/2025-03-07.
About the brilliant future campaign from UC Irvine: The campaign for the brilliant future published on October 4, 2019 is intended to sharpen the awareness and support of UC Irvine. UC Irvine is due to the inclusion of 75,000 alumni and profits of philanthropic investments of 2 billion US dollars and tries to achieve new heights of excellence for the success of students, health and well -being, research and more.
About the University of California, Irvine: UC Irvine was founded in 1965 and is a member of the prestigious association of American universities and is one of the country's ten best public universities US News & World Report. The campus has produced five Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievements, Premier research, innovation and reading mascot. Under the direction of Chancellor Howard Gillman, UC Irvine has more than 36,000 students and offers 224 degree programs. It is located in one of the safest and most economical lively communities in the world and is the second largest employer of Orange County, who annually contributes $ 7 billion to the local economy and $ 8 billion nationwide. Further information on UC Irvine can be found at www.uci.edu.
Media access: For a fee, radio programs/stations can use a studio on campus with a COMREX IP audio codec to interview UC Irvine faculty and experts subject to availability and approval of the university. You can find more UC Irvine messages at News.uci.edu. Further resources for journalists can be found at https://news.uci.edu/media-resources.