Student Opportunities & Initiatives

UC Davis students are catalysts for progress towards sustainability.
Become part of this force for good!

Getting involved in sustainability issues at UC Davis can mean gaining experience and knowledge, networking with other interested students and professionals, and advocating for meaningful change.

Leadership Opportunities Student Organization Opportunities Opportunities Across UC Davis


Leadership Opportunities with UC Davis Sustainability

UC Davis Sustainability has a growing number of ways for students to combine their professional development goals with their sustainability values. These experiential learning opportunities invite students to work with Sustainability to achieve sustainability goals.

Join the Sustainability team and drive meaningful change from within!

Current Opportunities

  • Carbon Neutrality Fellows – Fellows develop and implement a wide variety of projects that support the UC system’s goal to produce zero-net greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.
  • The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF) – Become part of the TGIF community in one of two ways:
    • Join the TGIF Committee and become part of the student team administering the TGIF grant fund; reviewing proposals, managing awarded projects, and supporting dozens of sustainability projects impacting the UC Davis community.
    • Be the lead on your own sustainability project! Apply for a $200 - $20,000 and make your goal of making the UC Davis community a more sustainable place a reality.

Future Opportunities (coming soon)

The UC Davis campus continues to make students and sustainability a priority by investing in opportunities that combine student success, professional development, and advancement of campus sustainability goals. Sustainability is currently developing several ways for students who have a passion for creating a greener future to join our team

Opportunities to look forward to in the near future:

  • Career Exploration Opportunities
    • Explore career opportunities related to sustainability, especially within the higher education community.
  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
    • Sustainability resources and opportunities are unfortunately not distributed equally across the globe and among our own spheres of influence. Join a team of undergraduates critically assessing how to combine equity values and sustainable goals at UC Davis.
  • Social Media & Communications Assessment
    • Do you believe that the key to driving positive change is education and information? Become a leader by influencing the ways that Sustainability connects to the broader campus community and help us ensure our outreach and education campaigns create the behavioral changes we need to succeed.


For Student by Students: Student Organization Opportunities

Students are at the heart of campus sustainability efforts. It was organized student action that led to the passage of the University of California’s first sustainability policy principles in 2003.

This list of active student organizations is only a subset of the many sustainability focused student organizations striving for change on our campus. Join the organization that speaks to you and find your niche.

  • Association of Environmental Professionals at UC Davis
  • Mission: Association of Environmental Professionals (AEP) at UC Davis promotes direct student engagement with working professionals in environmental fields, as they prepare to transition from an academic to professional setting. AEP at UC Davis is designed to enhance the professional development of our students by offering educational panels, career training workshops and networking opportunities that connect students to academics and working professionals from the public and private sector, and non-profits.
    Website: https://epm.ucdavis.edu/aep-uc-davis
  • Climate Reality Project Campus Corps at UC Davis
  • Mission: The Climate Reality Project Campus Corps at UC Davis is focused on mobilizing the UC Davis community to rise up and demand immediate action on climate change at all levels of decision-making.
    Website: http://climaterealityatucd.weebly.com/
  • Edible Campus
  • About: Edible Campus is a student-led project that aims to revolutionize health and wellness and university land use on the UC Davis campus. Edible Campus sees the UC Davis campus as an ideal space for beautiful, educational, and edible landscapes.
    Website: https://ediblecampus.ucdavis.edu/
  • Environmental Law Society (ELS)
  • Mission: King Hall’s Environmental Law Society aims to equip interested law students with the information and tools they will need to confront environmental challenges as lawyers, policymakers, and advocates.
    Website: https://students.law.ucdavis.edu/els/
  • Environmental Policy and Planning Commission (EPPC)
  • Mission: The Environmental Policy and Planning Commission (EPPC) is an advisory board to the ASUCD Senate comprised of nine members and up to four alternates. It is responsible for researching environmental issues affecting the campus and its surrounding area, as well as providing recommendations for improvement.
    Website: https://eppc.ucdavis.edu/
  • Environmental Sustainability Student Coalition
  • Mission: The mission of the Environmental Sustainability Student Coalition is to address sustainability challenges by forming long-standing partnerships amongst UC Davis student environmental organizations.
    Website: https://essc.ucdavis.edu/
  • Hard Tech Campus
  • Mission: Hard Tech Campus is an organization focused on the development of sustainability projects into products, with a focus on projects that utilize technological advancements in either hardware or software to achieve one of the following target areas, with respect to UN Sustainability Goals 2 and 9 (Industrial change), 2, 3, and 6 (Health, hunger, clean water, sanitation), 7 and 11 (Products for consumers), and 14 and 15 (Environmental clean-up).
    Website: https://www.hardtechfund.com/htc
  • Net Impact UC Davis
  • Mission: Our mission as a Net Impact chapter at UC Davis is to foster an interdisciplinary approach to sustainability in our community through developing solutions for local issues.
    Website: http://www.netimpactdavis.com/
  • Strategies for Ecological Education, Development and Sustainability (SEEDS)
  • Mission: SEEDS is a program of the Ecological Society of America (ESA). This club promotes ecological science in a number of ways, and encourages underrepresented students to explore the field of ecology. SEEDS also aids students in the transition from college to career by broadening perspectives with research internships, grad student and career panels, and guest speakers.
    Website: https://davisseeds.wordpress.com
  • Unitrans
  • About: Founded by the Associated Students of UC Davis in 1968 for on-campus transportation, now a city-wide public transit operation with 40 busses on 15 routes carrying more than three million passengers each year. Still operated by students! 
    Website: https://unitrans.ucdavis.edu/
  • Zero Waste and Sustainability Club
  • Mission: The Zero Waste & Sustainability Club was founded in 2018 with the goal of helping UC Davis achieve its annual zero waste goal to divert 90% of waste from the landfill. Our team aims to make zero waste and sustainability knowledge accessible to our UC Davis community by providing resources and guidance to navigate personal zero waste and sustainability journeys, and by educating the public about the waste system.
    Website: https://zerowasteucd.wixsite.com/website

Sustainability Opportunities Across UC Davis

  • The Student Farm
  • About: A 23-acre farm is a community where students create, maintain and explore sustainable food systems. Offers students employment, internship and volunteer opportunities.
    Website: https://asi.ucdavis.edu/programs/sf
  • Student Housing and Dining Services – Sustainability Commitment
  • About: Student Housing at UC Davis is dedicated to this effort and strives to be a model program for the integration of sustainable practices. We are committed to developing and maintaining healthful educational living and working environments while fully integrating sustainable practices.
    Various ways to get involved – Food Recovery Network, Project Compost, and more.
    Website: https://housing.ucdavis.edu/sustainability/
  • The UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden – Learning by Leading
  • About: The Learning by Leading™ internship program offers quarter-long and school year-long internships in which students gain leadership experience addressing a variety of environmental sustainability, restoration and literacy issues by working in teams to solve real-world problems in the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden.
    Website: https://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/learning-by-leading
  • Internship & Career Center
  • About: The Internship and Career Center equips UC Davis Aggies with the professional knowledge, skills, and connections to thrive as they launch their career journeys.
    Website: https://icc.ucdavis.edu/

Stay tuned for more…

For more information (or to share a new sustainability opportunity for UC Davis students) contact sustainability@ucdavis.edu


Previous Opportunities