Projects
Year
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vegetables in bins in a store

Accounting for Reductions: The Carbon Footprint of a Zero Waste Grocery Store

This project will compare Nada Grocery’s carbon emissions and plastic waste production under a business as usual scenario to a variety of probable scenarios that could happen as a result of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

Group Members: Mike (Ruiheng) Jin, Andrew Salvador, Kate Shoemaker, Shelby Walsh, Victoria Wallace

Faculty Advisors: Sarah Anderson

Clients: Nada Grocery, Inc.

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An agricultural crop growing in rows

Evaluating the Climate Mitigation Potential of Natural and Working Lands in Santa Barbara County

This project evaluates how Santa Barbara County’s working lands may be managed to best mitigate and adapt to climate change. Using TerraCount, this project aims to quantify the carbon storage impacts and co-benefits associated with a range of management activities.

Group Members: Alicia Fennell, Gavi Keyles, Madeline Oliver, Minnie Ringland, Michael Wells

Faculty Advisors: Samantha Stevenson-Karl

Clients: County of Santa Barbara Sustainability Division

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Beautiful monarch butterfly perches delicately on the vibrant petals of a purple flower

Saving Monarchs

The Western Monarch’s population has dropped precipitously, with only 1,914 individuals observed in 2020. To help save this iconic species from extinction, this project is working with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to help nurseries, gardeners, and community-members to adopt monarch-friendly behaviors.

Group Members: Lizzy Schattle, Zoe Duerksen-Salm, Courtney Krone, Marie Bouffard, Nicole Schmidt

Faculty Advisors: Lisa Leombruni

Clients: US Fish and Wildlife Service

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gorillas in the congo

Combining Conservation and Community Empowerment to Protect Grauer’s Gorilla

This project hopes to promote the conservation of the endangered Grauer's gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Using a data-driven approach to inform habitat corridor management, we are looking at priority conservation areas to investigate the trade-offs between human activities and gorilla conservation planning.

Group Members: Kelsie Fronheiser, Monica Gordon, Zoe Duerksen-Salm, Lizzy Schattle, Yani Pohl

Faculty Advisors: Mark Buntaine, Frank Davis

Clients: Strong Roots Congo

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tropical bird

Wildlife-Friendly Farming and Crop Resilience in Southern Costa Rica

This project team is working with the Costa Rica-based non-profit, Osa Conservation, to evaluate the potential of eco-certifications to produce a net economic benefit to farmers in the Talamanca-Osa Region, and to upport Osa Conservation and local farmers in decision-making by projecting shifts in crop suitability distributions considering the anticipated impacts of climate change.

Group Members: Marie Bouffard, Cameryn Brock, Julia Dagum, Bret Folger, Lauren Manzo

Faculty Advisors: Ashley Larsen

Clients: Osa Conservation

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Still lake water surrounded by boulders.

Understanding Multiple Benefits of Floodplain Restoration from Flood Managed Aquifer Recharge in Madera County, California

This project is working to address California's groundwater resilience by analyzing the multiple benefits of using flood waters for managed aquifer recharge and floodplain restoration in the Madera Basin of the San Joaquin Valley.

Group Members: Alex Ehrens, Annika Leiby, Alex Milward, Nicole Schmidt

Faculty Advisors: Scott Jasechko

Clients: California Department of Water Resources, Environmental Defense Fund

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Sunset behind large electrical towers

Advancing Methods for Corporate Climate Risk Assessment

This project first seeks to identify the climate weather events that will have the most signifiant impact on 19 Raytheon Technologies locations within the United States.

Group Members: Margaret Brickner, Derek Nguyen, Jordan Faires, Paul Rikhter

Faculty Advisors: Eric Masanet, Matt Potoski

Clients: Raytheon Technologies

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Group of four students smiling

Evaluating and Improving the Ability of an Adaptive Management Framework (FISHE) to Identify and Resolve Fishery Management Challenges related to Climate Change

This project examined if the Environmental Defense Fund's Framework for Integrated Stock and Habitat Evaluation (FISHEF) would continue to provide sound guidance to data-limited fishery managers given the influences of global climate change on fish.

Faculty Advisors: Steve Gaines

Clients: Environmental Defense Fund

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four students posing together

Air Quality & Diabetes Risk in California

This project assessed the relationships between air pollution particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) and diabetes prevalence throughout the state of California using a cross sectional and panel data approach for the Sansum Diabetes Research Institute.

Faculty Advisors: Ashley Larsen

Clients: Sansum Diabetes Research Institute

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four students standing with faculty mentor

Evaluating the Multiple Benefits Associated with Distributed Rainwater Catchment Systems in Austin, Texas

Through evaluating the benefit of adding rain capturing technology to Austin, TX, this project aimed to create a versatile evaluation framework for water management projects in other municipalities.

Faculty Advisors: Christina Tague

Clients: Pacific Institute

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Group of five students with faculty mentor on outdoor terrace

Implementing Vessel Monitoring Devices in Small Scale Fisheries: Analysis of Social and Economic Enabling Conditions to Maximize Adoption

This project analyzed the willingness of small-scale fisheries to participate in a vessel tracking program that is incentive-compatible to their preferences. The team conducted a dual response choice experiment to evaluate fisheries' preference data from surveys conducted in Indonesia and Mexico, then utilized a contingent valuation to gauge both fishers’ willingness to pay for a tracking program and the effects of fishers’ characteristics on their willingness to pay.

Faculty Advisors: Christopher Costello

Clients: Global Fishing Watch

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Five students stand with professor in group

Functional Forests: The Role of California Forests in Achieving Statewide Carbon Neutrality

In conjunction with the Joint Institute for Wood Products Innovation (through the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection), the project team aims to assess how California’s forests may support statewide carbon neutrality.​ The project focuses on determining the costs and carbon consequences of a host of forest management treatments across all forests in California, and how these treatments can contribute to the State’s climate goals. 

Faculty Advisors: Andrew Plantinga

Clients: Joint Institute for Wood Products Innovation, California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection

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Five students pose together

Assessing Brazil’s Marine Aquaculture Potential

This study explored the spatial feasibility of mariculture development and create an interactive web-based tool to predict potential locations, yields, and profitability for offshore mariculture of cobia (Rachycentron canadum) in Brazil’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Faculty Advisors: Hunter Lenihan

Clients: World Wildlife Fund Brazil

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Group of four students smiling

Creating a Region-wide Green Infrastructure Strategic Plan for Maunalua Bay

This project developed a model using the Environmental Protection Agency’s Storm Water Management Model 5.1 to facilitate identification of "hotspot" areas that contribute higher stormwater pollution relative to surrounding areas in the Maunalua Bay Region, O'ahu, Hawai'i.

Faculty Advisors: Kelly Caylor, Samantha Stevenson-Karl

Clients: Mālama Maunalua

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Three students standing together

Eco-Entrepreneuship: Bad Grass

Arundo donax, or giant reed, is an invasive plant species that thrives around rivers and streams. Bad Grass creates consumer products thus promoting demand for Arundo biomass. By introducing a line of cannabis pipes that are strategically positioned between joints and pipes, we can attract customers interested in smoking out of disposable pipes.

Faculty Advisors: Bruce Kendall, Mark Buntaine