Projects
Year
Image
Close up on head of lettuce

A Sustainable Agrifinance Solution? Lending to Reward Environmental Performance

​Through modeling the effects of lending behavior on groundwater supplies and economic productivity, this project seeks to uncover how an economic incentive can affect agricultural sustainability in the Salinas Valley.

Group Members: Grace Brofman, Haley Grant, Becca Reynolds, Alexandria Wilkins, Janelle Christensen

Clients: Sustainable Conservation

Image
Orange roe of a sea urchin.

Unicado: Protecting Kelp Forests through Purple Sea Urchin Ranching and Urchin Food Products (Eco-E)

Unicado upcycles food waste to ranch purple urchins, whose overpopulation is destroying California’s kelp forests. By creating demand for ranched urchins, the project aims to protect kelp ecosystems and introduce a sustainable seafood option to the market.

Group Members: Wes Newbury, Waldo Felix, Max Diamond, Qusai Bhaijeewala

Faculty Advisors: Emily Cotter

Image
Protest for environmental justice

Uprooting Environmental Injustice

Environmental managers need a foundational understanding of environmental justice to be effective, equitable, and inclusive problem solvers. This four-part workshop series is designed to help environmental managers gain critical skills and literacy in environmental justice and equity topics.

Group Members: Madeline Oliver, Kazia Mermel

Faculty Advisors: Lisa Leombruni

Image
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.

Image
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

Image
coal power plant

Nori Business to Consumer Development

Nori is a growing carbon removal company looking to expand their audience and increase carbon removal purchases. This consulting-style project involves extensive audience research, audience profiles, competitive analyses, and strategic messaging.

Group Members: Jordan Isken, Renata Massion, Peter Omasta, Minnie Ringland

Faculty Advisors: Lisa Leombruni

Clients: Nori Inc.

Image
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

Image
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

Image
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

Image
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

Image
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

Image
ground level view of a tall pine tree

Conservation of Southern California Yellow Pine Mixed Conifer Forests

This project will assess the natural range of variation (NRV) for southern California National forests, in addition to analyzing current research to provide the client with feasible management objectives that maximize forest resilience under a changing climate.

Group Members: Hannah Garcia-Wickstrum, Leana Goetze, Anne-Marie Parkinson, Jennifer Truong

Faculty Advisors: Bruce Kendall

Clients: US Forest Service

Image
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

Image
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

Image
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

Image
Group of four students smiling

Eco-Entrepreneurship: Powered by Moxie

Powered by Moxie is an Eco-Entrepreneurship Project that analyzes the environmental impacts of different types of grocery and snack packaging and offers a solution to reduce packaging waste by using reusable packaging. Powered by Moxie delivers farmer’s market produce and snacks to corporate offices as a supplemental employee benefit program.

Faculty Advisors: Matt Potoski

Image
Group of four students smiling

Whales, Vessels, and Fish: Economic Valuation of Whale Watching and Marine Spatial Planning Surrounding Dominica

To reduce the risk of vessel strikes on the Caribbean community of sperm whales off the coast of Dominica, this project created a dynamic marine spatial plan for the coast waters of Dominica and proposed shipping lanes that will avoid high suitable habitat of sperm whales.

Faculty Advisors: James Frew

Clients: Dominica Sperm Whale Project

Image
Cookstoves are distributed to rural Rwandans to be used

Adopt-a-Cookstove

Looking to help Adopt-a-Cookstove find and communicate with its target audience, the team conducted interviews with industry experts and researched its competitors. With this information they designed infographics and a website for the organization.

Faculty Advisors: Lisa Leombruni

Image
Five students stand together

Quantifying and Managing Microplastics From Footwear Use: Outsole Loss Through Wear

In partnership with Adidas AG, the Future Footwear team seeks to understand the microplastic problem that is generated from the footwear industry within the United States.

Faculty Advisors: Roland Geyer, Patricia Holden

Clients: Adidas

Image
Sea bluffs eroding under buildings

Let's Talk About Sea Level Rise

The California Coastal Commission knows how important it is for Californians to prepare for a future that will include sea level rise. This project aimed to create digestible communication tools for the agency that highlight the importance of sea level rise planning and adaptation in coastal communities.

Faculty Advisors: Lisa Leombruni