Welcome to the Ecological Coalition (ECOalition) at UCSB


What is the ECOalition? 

The ECOalition is a network of sustainability-minded campus organizations working together to discuss environmental issues and foster collaboration, provide resources to the campus and community, and bring a unified voice to UCSB’s sustainability movement.

Statement of Purpose

  1. The ECOalition connects student organizations working towards sustainability. We achieve this by holding two quarterly town hall meetings, where members share project ideas and resources and discuss potential collaborations.
  2. ECOalition creates a unified student voice on issues related to sustainability. We achieve this by passing resolutions. Proposals are sent to organizations for consideration, and later voted upon at council meetings.

UCSB has over 40 student organizations working on issues related to sustainability. In most cases these groups work independently of each other, but often on interconnected projects. As a result, there are redundancies in their efforts, inefficient use of resources, and missed opportunities for collaboration.

History

The ECOalition has been in operation for over a decade. The coalition was created to give like-minded students an opportunity to meet and collaborate. Over the years the the organization has evolved, but has always maintained the founding principles.

Recent Developments

During the 2016-2017 school year, the ECOalition voted to endorse Isla Vista Surfrider’s “Ocean-Friendly Restaurants” campaign. Several new organizations were inducted into the ECOalition, including the Climate Justice Hub: For People and Planet, the Climate Reality Project Campus Corps at UCSB, and Growth International Volunteer Excursions (GIVE). The ECOalition also facilitated the formation of a Climate “Mini-Coalition” between various groups working to address climate change issues, allowing them to provide mutual support for each others’ campaigns and to collaborate on a multitude of events. As part of Human Rights Week, the ECOalition worked with the Associated Students Humyn Rights Board and several other groups to put on an “Environmental Justice Fair” to highlight points of intersection between the environmental and social justice movements.