StarCam hit the red carpet of the First Annual UCLA IoES Event, where our own Aiden Simko spoke to the program's Director, Glen McDonald. "This is our inaugural gala event," said MacDonald, "What's exciting for us is how many people statewide are interested in and supportive of this initiative to really build something special here at UCLA."
When asked about how long the project had been in the works, MacDonald said, "UCLA has long been involved in the individual faculty member level or the individual department on issues of environment sustainability, but in the late 90's a group of professors came together and said, 'We need to do more, we need a nexus, we need an organization focused on research, education and outreach, specifically on the environment,' and that's what we've been working toward developing."
The response to the initiative has been great so far. They have partnered with 25 different corporations, including Disney! MacDonald said, "We were really just delighted that people saw what we were doing and said, 'let's get together and really take it to the next level.'"
"They're seeing the importance of sustainability in part because people have a commitment to the planet, have a commitment to the people, but also because it often makes really good business sense. When you take the time to do a sustainablilty audit of, let's say, your energy use, or your water use, or the materials you make in your profit, you suddenly find there were things you overlooked that will not only be good for the planet, good for everybody living on it, but will be good for the bottom line."
In parting, he left us with these words of wisdom: "Waste not, want not, I think that goes a long way to really solving a lot of the problems we're facing."