UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

How Green Can You Go? Five Inspiring Sustainability Initiatives at UCLA

Left to right: Umbrellas with solar-powered charging stations at UCLA Anderson; UCLA’s co-generation power plant; Bruin Bike Share

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Along with the S.A.F.E. Collection Center for household hazardous waste, solar panels atop Ackerman Student Union, the UCLA Bike Shop and bike fix-it stands and air pumps stationed around campus, UCLA is dotted with numerous other green features. Anderson alumna Nurit Katz (’08), UCLA’s chief sustainability officer and executive officer of facilities management, shared these five cool campus interventions you might not know about:

1) The Marion Anderson Courtyard at UCLA Anderson is the perfect place to break for lunch and power down — and power up, as it happens. In 2015, Jason Hsu (Ph.D. ’04), assistant adjunct professor of finance and an Anderson alumnus, generously donated a ZON Powersol umbrella that provides shade as well as three weather-proofed solar-powered USB ports to charge up to three mobile devices at a time as quickly as a wall outlet, day or night. UCLA Anderson immediately purchased three more with help from donations to the Anderson Fund from students and alumni, and has added more since. UCLA was the first UC campus to use the ZON umbrellas. It’s just one of the ways Anderson is thinking in the Next.

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A Latina in Business School: On Being the Bridge

By Amanda Sol Peralta (’20)

National Hispanic Heritage Month always prompts me to reflect on the community that I unwittingly joined when I moved to the U.S. 25 years ago. This fall, as I begin business school at UCLA Anderson, it’s made me recommit to how this community has enriched my experience as an American.

Among activist circles I have often heard that it shouldn’t be the burden of marginalized peoples to explain their experiences or educate others. This is a perspective I understand and respect, but one that differs deeply from my experiences in underrepresented groups (Latinos, first-generation Americans and college graduates, LGBTQ for context). Perhaps this makes sense, considering I have a tendency to pay attention to how I am different. What may equally affect my perspective is the fact that as a Chilean immigrant, I have rarely been in social or professional settings where even one other person shared my background.