UCLA Honored for Sustainable Grounds Management

The University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) has become the first school in the state to receive the Green Grounds Certification from Re:wild Your Campus. The honor recognizes UCLA’s efforts to improve human health and biodiversity by eliminating the use of pesticides on campus grounds through an ecological approach to landscape and pest management. 

Re:wild Your Campus is a youth-founded, women-led nonprofit organization that aims to change the thinking behind green spaces. Founded by two UC Berkeley students in 2017, Re:wild's mission is to have school grounds to go organic by 2030.   

At UCLA, more than 90 percent of campus grounds are managed sustainably, with the university employing ecologically friendly practices to maintain its green areas, including discontinuing pesticide use. UCLA earned a gold-level certification thanks to its efforts to transition turf spaces to drought-tolerant plants and recent projects focusing on native plants. Over 30,000 square feet of turf have been converted to California native, drought-tolerant plants. 

Re:wild Your Campus introduced its Green Grounds Certification to recognize institutions that are proactively reducing their synthetic pesticide use and moving toward climate-resilient land care practices. Among the recent recipients of the certification are these: 

• University of Texas Austin Dell Medical School — Platinum. The Dell Medical School integrates native species into the landscape and uses compost and compost teas to increase soil water retention. The campus has a 27,000-gallon cistern that collects water from their 20,000 square-foot rooftop garden and feeds the irrigation system. 
• Prescott College — Platinum. Prescott College has been pesticide-free for over a decade. The campus works to prevent pests through mulching with woodchips, properly sealing buildings to minimize attractants, and implementing best-management practices for composting systems. The college also maintains a landscape that emphasizes native species, providing natural habitat for a variety of wildlife. 
• University of Massachusetts Amherst — Gold. The university is home to over 800 acres of natural lands, which are managed without synthetic inputs. The school also grows 80 percent of plants incorporated into campus landscaping in their greenhouse. The university also is making a concerted effort to reduce annual plants by replacing them with woody, perennial plant material. 

Dan Hounsell is senior editor for the facilities market. He has more than 30 years of experience writing about facilities maintenance, engineering and management.

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