The Follow Up

By: Ryan Hallman, Stephanie Hauschildt, Gabriel Hernandez, Corbin Kehrberg, Ayahna Mack, & Monica Portillo.

On the 22 of April, the Sustainable Purchasing team celebrated Earth Day by participating in the Earth Day Fair. Our team had the honor of presenting the research we had accumulated and got a chance to connect one-on-one with peers. At our booth, we had set up a whiteboard with the question “What makes a company sustainable?”, we were overly impressed with the answers we received. There was a vast amount of answers from using sustainable packaging to conserving water. As the board began to fill up it became increasingly obvious that it takes more than just one thing to make a company sustainable. To be sustainable is to make a daily effort to lower ones impact on the planet. Aside from our whiteboard we had a game of cornhole that had some of our core values for sustainable purchasing on it. People were able to play a quick game as we spoke to them of the importance of the four goals that were on our cornhole board. These goals included: Buying locally, sustainable Purchasing, less plastic, transparent supply chains

Additionally, our team was able to collect products from the fair and compare it to those products we received during Bruin Day. The differences in the products were stark. Many of the products from Bruin Day were made up of plastic and other unsustainable materials. We received many pens and a few other promotional products such as sunglasses and glasses cleaners. However, at the Earth Day Fair, we received many products made from environmentally friendly materials such as bamboo and reusable cloths.

As we begin week six of the quarter, the Sustainable Purchasing team is sending out a follow-up survey to our licensees. We hope to integrate the data we received in our first survey with new information from our follow-up. With this combined data we will have an informational presentation where we will address the Departments at UCLA and communicate the importance of sustainable purchasing. As well as see how we can better accommodate what they would like to see in the future for our line of promotional products. As we move towards a more sustainable campus we hope to include the needs of our Departments while still moving towards our goals of sustainability.