UCOP’s Franklin building employees turned out in big numbers last Friday, responding to the LEED commuter survey at a rate of 82 percent. The strong showing, combined with other green operations and maintenance practices, nearly assures that the Franklin building will qualify when it applies for LEED Gold.

The survey is a significant part of UCOP’s effort to renew the building’s LEED certification for operations and maintenance practices and upgrade from silver to gold. With the high participation rate and the large number of employees who take public transit, the building will get a minimum of 12 out of 15 possible points toward the “alternative commuting transportation” portion of the LEED application.

“The response was overwhelmingly positive, and even people who didn’t come into the office on Friday were still motivated to take the survey,” said Chief Building Manager Roman Starno, who is spearheading the LEED certification renewal. “We won’t know for sure until we complete the application and hear back from LEED, but based on these results, we should be able to earn LEED Gold.”

The commuting survey is only one part of the LEED application; it also requires documenting low energy use, waste reduction, a green cleaning program, environmental purchasing strategies and other sustainable practices.

With a total of 844 occupants in the Franklin building, 693 took the survey, including nearly 100 who were on leave, telecommuting or otherwise offsite the day of the survey. About 150 non-Franklin occupants also took the survey.

Here is the breakdown from the results of how Franklin occupants got to and from work last week:

• bus/BART/ferry: 42%
• drive alone: 33%
• carpool: 8%
• self-powered (e.g., walk, bike): 5%
• other (e.g., telecommute, on leave, worked offsite): 12%

The day was full of fanfare, including musical performances by Ishtory, free eats and members of the sustainability team gently urging everyone to take the survey, which was open for only one day. Respondents were eligible for a random drawing for thank-you prizes, which went to:

• iPad mini: Jeannie Malanowski, principal business analyst in the Office of Strategic Change Resources
• One month of fresh, organic produce from Full Belly Farm: Shaudreya Waterman, program assistant in Risk Services
• Gift certificate to Bittersweet Chocolate Café: Patricia Osorio-O’Dea, deputy to the vice provost in Academic Planning, Programs & Coordination

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a voluntary green building rating system, administered by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), which rates buildings on their sustainable operational and maintenance practices, including reduced energy and water use and the indoor environment they create and maintain for their occupants.

Starno is completing the LEED application for submission in the coming months and should get results from USGBC by the end of the calendar year.

Get ready to take the LEED Gold survey this Friday, May 17, and help UC’s Franklin headquarters demonstrate its commitment to sustainability and reducing its environmental impact.

Whether you work at Franklin or elsewhere, whether you take BART in or drive, UCOP wants you to join the effort this Friday to renew and upgrade the Franklin building’s LEED certification from silver to gold.

Here’s all you need to do:

• On the morning of Friday, May 17, you’ll receive an email from EVP Nathan Brostrom with a link to the anonymous SurveyMonkey survey.
• Complete the five-minute survey no later than 7 p.m. by answering questions about your work commute.
• Be sure to opt in at the end of the survey to the drawing for thank-you prizes, including one iPad mini, one month of weekly organic produce deliveries from Full Belly Farm, and a gift certificate to downtown Oakland’s Bittersweet. (Local prizes will be substituted if winners are from non–Bay Area locations.)

The sooner you take the survey, the better. It will be available on one day only — Friday, May 17, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. — and all responses must be submitted on that day.

So take the survey! Look for the email on May 17 with the link to SurveyMonkey; alternatively you can take the survey on laptops in the Franklin lobby or on paper, but please take it only once.

What is LEED?

If you aren’t familiar with LEED, it stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a voluntary program that rates buildings on their operational costs, energy and water use and the environment they create and maintain for their occupants.

The Franklin building was a frontrunner in becoming the second existing UC building to become LEED certified for operations and maintenance practices in 2007. The goal was not only to improve its own environmental performance, but also, as UC headquarters, to set an example of environmental responsibility for other UC locations to follow.

Since LEED certification expires every five years, Franklin is now up for recertification to prove that it continues to meet LEED criteria for environmentally responsible buildings. One important measure is how many Franklin occupants use alternative transportation methods (other than driving alone) to get to and from work, which is the subject of the May 17 survey.

So take the survey this Friday!

For more background, see the April 29 Link story.

Want to be a part of something big, and green, and gold?

No, this has nothing to do with the Oakland A’s. It’s about UC’s Franklin headquarters and its all-out effort to go for gold, LEED Gold, to demonstrate its commitment to sustainability and reducing its environmental impact.

Whether you work at Franklin or elsewhere, whether you take BART in or drive, UCOP wants you to join the effort on Friday, May 17, to renew and upgrade the Franklin building’s LEED certification from silver to gold.

Here’s all you need to do:

• On the morning of Friday, May 17, you’ll receive an email from EVP Nathan Brostrom with a link to the anonymous SurveyMonkey survey.
• Complete the five-minute survey no later than 7 p.m. by answering questions about your work commute.
• Be sure to opt in at the end of the survey to the drawing for thank-you prizes, including one iPad mini, one month of weekly organic produce deliveries from Full Belly Farm, and a gift certificate to downtown Oakland’s Bittersweet. (Local prizes will be substituted if winners are from non–Bay Area locations.)

There will be other fanfare, all to thank you for being part of UC’s national leadership in environmental responsibility. The survey will be available on one day only — Friday, May 17, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. — and all responses must be submitted on that day.

So take the survey! Look for the email on May 17 with the link to SurveyMonkey; alternatively you can take the survey on laptops in the Franklin lobby or on paper, but please take it only once.

What is LEED?

If you aren’t familiar with LEED, it stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a voluntary program that rates buildings on their operational costs, energy and water use and the environment they create and maintain for their occupants.

The Franklin building was a frontrunner in becoming the second existing UC building to become LEED certified for operations and maintenance practices in 2007. The goal was not only to improve its own environmental performance, but also, as UC headquarters, to set an example of environmental responsibility for other UC locations to follow.

Since LEED certification expires every five years, Franklin is now up for recertification to prove that it continues to meet LEED criteria for environmentally responsible buildings. One important measure is how many Franklin occupants use alternative transportation methods (other than driving alone) to get to and from work, which is the subject of the May 17 survey.

So save the date, Friday, May 17, and be sure to take the survey!

The University of California, through its Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR), hosted a wide-ranging, provocative discussion on April 9 about how to sustainably feed 8 billion people by 2025.

Several themes emerged from the UC Global Food Systems Forum: Take a bottom-up approach. Focus on solutions. Pursue low-hanging fruit. Decrease food waste. Be practical. Be innovative. Involve education. But opinions differed on how to balance small- and large-scale farming, the role of genetically modified organisms, and what should be the most important area of focus.

More than 475 people attended the food forum in Ontario, Calif., which also reached a worldwide virtual audience. A live webcast received 1,500 unique viewers from 34 countries, while a steady stream of tweets at #Food2025 made the conversation a trending topic on Twitter. With more than 1 billion people going hungry every day and 1 billion people overweight, the conversation was timely.

“We must act now to improve the food and nutrition supply of people in poor countries and communities throughout the world,” said keynote speaker Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and president of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice.

The daylong forum, part of ANR’s statewide conference, addressed the challenges faced by food producers, suppliers and consumers in a world of growing population, strains on natural systems, climate change, shifting geopolitics and other converging forces. The event convened some of the world’s leading experts — farmers, researchers, policymakers, economists, environmentalists and others — with the New Yorker’s Michael Specter (pictured above) moderating a global panel and author and journalist Mark Arax moderating a California panel. The speakers offered thoughtful insights and solutions.

“This is fundamental to our mission as a land-grant university,” said UC ANR Vice President Barbara Allen-Diaz. “Our goal is to take these brilliant ideas and turn them into brilliant plans of action.”

The Global Food Systems Forum webcast can be viewed at: http://food2025.ucanr.edu/webcast. The event also will air later on UCTV. For more information, visit http://food2025.ucanr.edu.

For more:

>> See Health/ANR Communications Coordinator Alec Rosenberg’s full story

>> More coverage: California farmers face global pressures

>> Video: UC Cooperative Extension turns 100