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About

ESA encourages and facilitates the academic, pre-professional, cultural, social, and political self-realization of the University of Southern California’s environmental student groups as individuals and as a unified student community and advances and develops the green culture of the University and neighboring community.
It is our mission to...
  • Engage: connect students to the environmental community through our programming and bring in new students to ideas of sustainability.
  • Inform: provide students with correct information about environmental issues and about university action to confront them.
  • Empower: give students the resources and opportunities to get involved, voice their interests, and have an impact.
Click here to see how we fit into USC’s environmental community!

Events

Initiatives

Sustainability Goals by 2020

Sustainability 2020 embraces the integration of sustainability into all facets of the university. This plan supports coordination and implementation through USC’s decentralized management model by focusing on policies that affect the university as a whole.
Sustainability in Education and Research
  • Encourage the development of environmentally literate students and faculty
  • Develop degree programs that train students to be practitioners of sustainability studies and science with a curriculum that embodies breadth and depth
  • Develop excellence in research that includes cross-disciplinary studies, promotes competitiveness in grant applications, and produces transformative findings
Engagement in Sustainability
  • Strengthen awareness of existing campus sustainability practices and set targets to increase activity
  • Establish the USC campuses as living laboratories for sustainability
  • Engage the community in the principles of sustainability
Energy Conservation & Greenhouse Gas Mitigation
  • Reduce greenhouse gas emissions per square foot by 20% from 2014 levels by 2020
  • Capitalize on energy risks and opportunities
Sustainable Transportation
  • Reduce the number of single occupancy vehicles (SOVs) traveling to and from the USC campuses
  • Increase student, faculty, and staff participation in alternative transportation programs
Sustainable Procurement
  • Engage 75% of USC departments and offices in responsible purchasing practices by 2020
  • Purchase 10% of food from sustainable sources by 2017 and 20% by 2020
Waste Diversion
  • Achieve 75% waste diversion levels by 2020
  • Increase education on waste reduction and recycling and expand diversion and recycling programs
Waste Conservation
  • Decrease potable water use 10% by 2017 and 25% by 2020
  • Increase awareness of current water conservation practices
  • Implement audience-appropriate educational campaigns designed to modify behavior and increase conservation

Click here to learn more about the Sustainability 2020 Plan’s origins.
Click here to read the entire plan.

Executive Board

Executive Directors (Olivia & Emily)
Assistant Director (Claire)
Diretor of Events (Joseph)
Director of Financial Operations (Soven)
Director of External Affairs (Firuze)
Director of Internal Affairs (Sachi)
Director of Advocacy (Clare)
Directors of Outreach (Devin & Madi & Ryan)
Director of Public Relations (Camila)
Social Media Chairs (Maryam & Emily)
Technology Chair (Elizabeth)
Graphic Designs Chair (Tyler)
Community Gardens Chair (Zannatul)
Greek Relations Chair (Isabella)

Camila Beatriz

Director of Public Relations
Year: Sophomore
Major: Theatre and Dramatic Arts
Hometown: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Fun Fact: In my spare time I enjoy clapping my hands together vigorously
Spirit Vegetable: Tomato

Claire Mauss

Assistant Director
Year: Sophomore
Major: Environmental Science and Health
Hometown: Irvine, California
Fun Fact: I volunteered on an organice herbal tea farm this summer!
Spirit Vegetable: Artichoke

Clare Chandler

Co-Director of Advocacy
Year: Sophomore
Major: Environmental Studies
Minor: Economics
Hometown: Indianapolis, IN
Fun Fact: Once at the MOMA in New York, my little brother walked up to a Jackson Pollock painting and rubbed his face on it (age ~4)
Spirit Vegetable: Edamame

Devin Manion

Co-Director of Outreach
Year: Junior
Major: Environmental Studies
Hometown: Los Gatos, CA
Fun Fact: One day I want to be on the board of an art musuem.
Spirit Vegetable: String bean

Elizabeth Berson

Technology Chair
Year: Sophomore
Major: Industrial and Systems Engineering
Minor: Web Technologies and Applications
Hometown: St. Louis, MO
Fun Fact: I know all the elements of the periodic table
Spirit Vegetable: Brussel Sprout

Emily Palmer

Co-Executive Director
Year: Senior
Major: Environmental Engineering
Hometown: Buffalo, NY
Fun Fact: I have kayaked the same route as the mayor in Portlandia.
Spirit Vegetable: Golden Beet

Emily Quirke

Co-Social Media Chair
Year: Junior
Major: Environmental Science and Technology
Minors: PR and Marketing
Hometown: Rye, NY
Fun Fact: I have an identical twin sister.
Spirit Vegetable: Beets

Firuze Barimani

Director of External Affairs
Year: Senior
Major: Business
Hometown: Hacienda Heights, CA
Fun Fact: I've been raising chickens at home for eight years now.
Spirit Vegetable: Sweet potato

Isabella Caltabiano

Greek Relations Chair
Year: Sophomore
Major: International Relations
Minors: Environmental Studies
Hometown: New York
Fun Fact: I am trilingual
Spirit Vegetable: Scallion

Joseph Mathews

Director of Events
Year:
Major:
Hometown:
Fun Fact:
Spirit Vegetable:

Madi David

Co-Director of Outreach
Year: Sophomore
Major:
Hometown: Sydney, Australia
Fun Fact:
Spirit Vegetable:

Maryam Sultan

Co-Social Media Chair
Year: Junior
Major: Undecided
Hometown: Hawthorne, CA
Fun Fact: I have an unhealthy obsession with donuts.
Spirit Vegetable: Tomatoes

Olivia Pearson

Co-Executive Director
Year: Junior
Major: Environmental Engineering
Hometown: Oakhurst, CA
Fun Fact: My fingers are double jointed and I can gleek on command.
Spirit Vegetable: Artichokes

Ryan Nhu

Co-Director of Outreach
Year: Freshman
Majors: Law, History and Culture (B.A.) & Environmental Studies (B.S.)
Hometown: Irvine, CA
Fun Fact: I make kombucha!
Spirit Vegetable: Cauliflower

Sachi Elias

Director of Internal Affairs
Year: Sophomore
Major: Enviornmental Science and Health
Hometown: New York City
Fun Fact: I am a shark diver.
Spirit Vegetable: Peas

Soven Bery

Director of Financial Operations
Year: Junior
Major: Business Administration
Hometown: Basking Ridge, NJ
Fun Fact: As a child I lived on a farm in Ohio and once got lost in a corn field for 5 hours.
Spirit Vegetable: Corn

Tyler Yee

Graphics Chair
Year: Sophomore
Major: Art/Design
Minor: Environmental Science and Technolgoy
Hometown: Bay Area
Fun Fact:
Spirit Vegetable: Sweet Potato

Zannatul Zannat

Communitiy Gardens Chair
Year:
Major:
Minor:
Hometown: Boston, MA
Fun Fact:
Spirit Vegetable:

Partners

Global Inheritance


Global Inheritance works to empower individuals worldwide to think and act creatively in solving global issues. The group’s initiatives focus on the power of creativity to communicate and drive progressive social change. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in Los Angeles, California Global Inheritance has specialized in reaching young audiences to create awareness of environmental and social issues.

Website
Facebook
Twitter
Email

Asta Works


Asta Works is a platform that guides and encourages recycling in a convenient and social manner. They help you make the right decision at the point of disposal and help you see your impact through their app. By collecting clothing, plastic bags, bottles & cans, and wine corns Asta Works works to reduce U.S. waste.

Website

Office of Sustainability


The USC Office of Sustainability office members work on teams with internal and external stakeholders such as operations units, students, faculty and school leaders, community and city leaders, and the private sector to help develop lasting solutions for some of USC’s most pressing social and environmental challenges.

Website

Program Board


Made up of 5 special-interest committees and 9 community-focused assemblies all united with the common goal of promoting diversity and entertainment through events on campus, USC Program Board is the programming branch of Undergraduate Student Government and the umbrella organization for many other student organizations on campus.

Website

USG


The USC Undergraduate Student Government is the official governing body of the nearly 19,000 undergraduates at USC. Through extensive advocacy, programming, and funding work, they seek to make a meaningful impact on the undergraduate experience.

Website

Member Organizations

Clover
American Academy of of Environmental Engineers & Scientists
Eco-op
Environmental Core
Peaks and Professors
SC Outfitters
SCuba Diving Club
Solar Car Team
Science Policy Group
The Sustainability Project

News

Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.



March 2017
Environmental Student Assembly holds 2020 sustainability forum


April 2016

Springfest draws large crowd to campus

Erin Brockovich promotes environmentalism


February 2016
ESA holds open forum about sustainability

Make it rain


January 2016
ESA hosts panel on COP21 conference

Solar panels installed at campus center

Sustainability 2020 is a step in the right direction for USC


November 2015
Students de-stress in McCarthy Quad Monday


October 2015
ESA, Schwarzenegger Institute host author

‘Know Tomorrow’ educates students on climate change

ESA event gives students drought prevention tips


Applications


Interested in getting more involved in the USC environmental community? Apply to ESA E-Board for the 2018-19 academic year here! Application closes 4/9 at 11:59pm

Apply to be the Green Engagement Fund Chair! This position is affiliated with the Office of Sustainability and is in charge of a student run grant program for advancing sustainability on USC's campus! Click here to apply! Application closes 4/9 at 11:59pm

Click here for the ESA Member Org Funding Application.
Click here for the ESA Member Org Media Request Form.

Click here for the Green Engagement Fund application due next spring semester 2018.

Contact

Seen an environmental problem in our community? Have an idea you’d like to see come to life? An event you’d like to see on campus? Want to be more involved but don’t know how? Leave a question, comment, and/or suggestion below.