• Home
  • Sustainability | UC San Diego Bookstore

Sustainability



Environmental sustainability, fair trade, local grown, and organic practices are key criteria used to evaluate suppliers when we consider the introduction of new products and the replenishing of existing ones. Our ongoing sustainability practices include:

1. Sunshine Market division:

  • Battery recycling drop-off.
  • Participates in the “Please Don’t Take A Bag“ program.
  • Recycles newspapers and cardboard.
  • Uses biodegradable and recycled paper products for food and beverage serving.
  • Carries organic, Green, fair trade, and natural product lines including food, paper and cleaning products.
  • Staff participation in sustainability educational sessions.
  • Provides a discount for using your own cup.
  • Provides a beverage container for sale manufactured from corn products.
  • Sells reusable shopping bags for $1.99.
  • Introduce compostable dining ware, straws, lids, and utensils.
2. Customer Service division:
  • All cash register stations use recycle bins for paper and cardboard.
  • Participates in the “Please Don’t Take A Bag“ program.
  • Powers off all registers and computers at the end of the day to conserve energy.
  • Uses cleaning rags instead of paper towels.
  • Reuses plastic bags and reuses paper for scratch paper.
  • Minimizes the content of emails to fit on one page.
  • Creates mass memos instead of individual notices.
  • Communicates with costumers primarily via email and phone instead of using paper mail.
  • Arranges shipments using the smallest amount of packaging material as possible.
  • Registers and computers go into energy saver mode when not in use.
  • Recycles shredded paperwork.
  • Recommends the UC San Diego online general catalog to customers.
  • Reuses office supplies such as rubber bands, paperclips, etc.
  • Provide paper bags at checkout.
3. Shipping and Receiving division:
  • Recycles approximately 33 percent of the in-bound cartons.
  • Reuses cartons for storage, transport/transfers and shipping.
  • Reuses packing materials such as peanuts, bubble wrap, newspaper and Kraft paper.
  • Reduced amount of Xeroxing by approximately 30 percent/month by not making copies of all transfer manifests (500 to 800 copies).
  • Recycles aluminum cans and plastic bottles.
  • Recycles broken and unusable wood pallets.
  • Eliminate Styrofoam packing material.
  • Introduced biodegradable corn starch packing material.
4. IT division:
  • During the construction and remodel of the Bookstore (2007-2008) all of the old data and telephone wiring was recycled through Mortenson contractors.
  • Uses remanufactured/recycled toner cartridges for Bookstore laser printers.
  • Recycles all reporting printouts.
  • With the installation of VisualRATEX, about 15 percent of the reports that are generated go to the monitor screen instead of automatically printing.
  • After equipment cannot be repaired any longer or becomes obsolete it is decommissioned and sent to the UC San Diego Salvage Department for resale or disposal.
5. Accounting division:
  • Outdated documents are sent to a shredding/recycling company.
  • Approximately 100 boxes per year that are in good shape are re-used for storage and filing.
  • Approximately six to eight pallets of paper are shredded and recycled yearly plus a 64 gallon bin every three months.
  • Reporting paper is reused for scratch paper.
  • The cash office reuses envelopes from incoming mail to store paperwork from the registers.
  • Major recurring reports to stakeholders are distributed electronically.
6. Receiving and Delivery division:
  • Uses a hybrid vehicle for official Bookstore business.
  • Reuses inbound boxes/cartons and packaging materials for shipping.
  • Lights and computers are shut off at the end of each day.
7. Maintenance and Housekeeping division:
  • Provides blue recycle bins next to trash bins in every office, conference room, training room, and at all main entrances of the store totalling approximately 100 bins.
  • Recycles cardboard boxes, batteries, light bulbs, paper goods, plastic, and aluminum.
  • Water saving commodes with auto flushers are installed in the restrooms.
  • Water saving auto on/off faucets are installed in the restroom sinks.
  • Plastic trash can liners are reused.
  • Uses environmentally friendly “Green Safe” cleaning products and cleaning supplies.
  • Bookstore lights are on a energy saving, programmable auto off/on schedule.
  • Air conditioning and heating units are on a programmable schedule-shutting down when the Bookstore is closed.
  • The Bookstore shopping baskets are made from recycled plastic. The plastic is derived from a byproduct (waste) that is generated from manufactured plastic car parts.
8. Gifts and Clothing division:
  • Provides eco manufactured choices: eco car mug-85% post industrial materials, grande mug-100% USA corn plastic, commuter mug- 100% USA corn plastic, lanyard-made from 100% post consumer recycled product/one side reads “ I used to be a soda bottle,” eco-friendly tote bags-unbleached natural cotton/15% recycled materials/100% biodegradable, adult organic cotton tees, youth organic tees.
  • Sale sustainable gowns to graduate.
  • Introduce other recycle or sustain grad options for summer 2022 (sash, diploma covers, caps, tassels, and more).
9. Supply division:
  • Provides recycled/sustainable office and school supply choices: content notebooks, multi-use printer paper, fine business stationery, folders, planners, filler paper, art pads, index cards, journals, pens, pencils, highlighters, paper clips, staples, rulers, indexes, sheet protectors, binders, post it notes, energy saving, long life light bulbs, rechargeable batteries, and battery chargers.
  • Provides recycling receptacles on the sales floor for batteries, pens and empty ink jet cartridges.
  • Promote the use of digital and rental book options to students.
  • Buyback Books from students at the end of each quarter to reduce shipping and carbon footprints to the environment.
  • Course material readers produced by Campus Imprints (Use recycle Paper).
10. Marketing division:
  • Spearheaded the design and production of UC San Diego branded reusable bags, offering them for sale below cost, at 99 cents.
  • Spearheaded the design and production of paper bags which replaced plastic bags on January 1, 2009.
  • Spearheaded Bookstore communication concerning our sustainability efforts.
  • Maintains updates to Bookstore sustainability information document and web site.
  • Uses recycled paper and soy based inks for printing.
11. Computer Store:
  • Recommends these environmentally friendly computer features: highly recyclable aluminum and glass enclosure, mercury free LED backlit display, arsenic free glass, BFR free internal cables, Energy Star rating, EPEAT gold rating.
  • Carries inkjet printers made with recycled material.
  • Carries APC surge protectors which eliminate standby power from computer peripherals (standby power accounts for 5%-10% of all residential power consumed.)
  • Carries laptop bags made entirely of recycled plastic bottles.
  • Provides battery recycling drop-off.
  • Recycles toner and ink cartridges.
  • Participates in the UC San Diego Bookstore “Please don’t take a bag” program.
  • Recycles cardboard.
For more information, visit the Campus Sustainability Site.