No Solo
NoSolo is a grassroots initiative that was founded by our club to defeat single use plastic cups: a college staple. The idea behind NoSolo is that a very small change made by individuals across an entire university, can produce monumental results. We’ve propelled this movement by implementing our rent-a-cup system, popularizing BYOC (cup) events, and signing agreements with student orgs to omit single use plastics. We hope that soon NoSolo will be practiced by colleges everywhere across the country!
Beach Cleanups
The Beach Cleanup committee aims to protect our local waterways by removing plastic debris from Bay Area beaches and the Berkeley campus. With 14 billion pounds of trash entering our worlds’ ocean every year, our goal is to prevent some of this debris from entering the ocean and breaking into microplastics. Beach cleanups allow for an immediate physical reward of seeing the trash prevented from entering the ocean while being able to enjoy the environment that inspires us.
Art Committee
The Art Committee aims to invoke environmental awareness and action through artistic mediums. In past semesters we have created art pieces from trash, entered environmental art contests, chalked ocean conservation messages, and created posters and signs about ocean conservation! Using art is extremely important in creating environmental awareness because it shares information in a digestible and intuitive way. Our committee creates many decorations (from trash) for our various social events along with planning sustainable art events for general club members.
Sustainable Speaker Series
This year we have started something different at UC Berkeley Surfrider: The Sustainable Guest Speaker Series. The sustainable guest speaker series opens up a platform for students to learn about sustainability and our ocean. Guest speakers can range from non profit organizations, to musicians and surfers that advocate for our environment. Forums will be held over zoom this year, allowing for a wide variety of who can come speak to us. We hope that you will join us!
Education
The Education Committee works on educating both our club and the greater Berkeley community by teaching and creating lessons about sustainability. We work with the Bay Area Scientists in Schools (BASIS) organization to teach lessons about marine science and conservation in local elementary school classrooms. We also work to spread awareness of other environmental issues and campaigns to the Surfrider club. Our committee allows us to expand our circle beyond just the university and engage in the local environmental conversation with children in a fun and interactive way.
