Sustainability

Cal Poly Humboldt has officially broken ground on the Energy Research + Sustainability Center (ER+SC)—a hub dedicated to cutting-edge research in sustainability and cultivating the next generation of environmental leaders.

From reusable water bottles to compost bins, Cal Poly Humboldt embodies a culture of sustainability and environmental stewardship. This year, various on-campus organizations are uniting to create an inspiring Earth Week, inviting students, staff, and faculty to come together in celebration of a global movement that champions awareness and action for Earth's protection and sustainability, from April 21-26.

Cal Poly Humboldt’s Cannabis Studies Program invites campus and community members to attend the second annual Symposium on Cannabis and Environmental Stewardship to empower regenerative cannabis agriculture and best practices for licensed cannabis production.

Cal Poly Humboldt Sociology instructor Daniel Mar is playing a vital role in the future of sustainable cannabis farming in Humboldt and Mendocino counties. 

The League of American Bicyclists recognized Cal Poly Humboldt with a Silver Bicycle Friendly Business (BFB) award, moving up from a Bronze Award and earning it a place alongside more than 1,100 businesses across the country contributing to the movement to build a more Bicycle Friendly America for everyone.

A conversation on the conflict between renewable energy development and Indigenous sovereignty takes center stage during the Decolonizing Renewable Energy Development speaker series. Hosted by Cal Poly Humboldt’s Schatz Energy Research Center, the event on Wednesday, Feb. 19 is free and open to the public and features High Country News editor-in-chief Jennifer Sahn and award-winning journalist B. ‘Toastie’ Oaster.

The Rou Dalagurr: Food Sovereignty Lab & Traditional Ecological Knowledges Institute at Cal Poly Humboldt is honored to announce that co-directors and Native American Studies professors Cutcha Risling Baldy and Kaitlin Reed received the 2025 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award.

Cal Poly Humboldt is taking decisive steps toward achieving its ambitious zero waste goals with the release of a comprehensive Zero Waste Action Plan.

In line with Cal Poly Humboldt’s Climate Action Plan 2.0’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2045, the University will purchase carbon offsets at the Arcata Community Forest. The purchase will help compensate for the carbon emissions generated by University-financed air travel.

The Tribal Energy Resilience and Sovereignty project (TERAS) will empower four tribes in Northern California to transform one of the state’s least reliable electrical circuits into a highly resilient renewable energy system.

A renewable energy microgrid designed to keep Cal Poly Humboldt powered throughout outages is expected to be up and running by fall 2025. 

The National Wildlife Federation, in partnership with the Campus Race to Zero Waste Program, has awarded Cal Poly Humboldt with a Plastics Reduction Partner Bronze level certification, the first university in the California State University system to be recognized for its efforts to reduce single-use plastics on campus.

Hundreds of feet above the ground in the canopy of the redwood forest is a rich ecosystem unlike any other on Earth.

Ariel DeLara (‘15, Rangeland Resource Science) now works as a district conservationist for the Natural Resource Conservation Service, where he's dedicated to environmental stewardship and conservation.

One Cal Poly Humboldt student is amplifying the role of communities of color in the fight for environmental justice through the docu-series, Sowing Seeds: Racial Justice and the Environmental Movement.

Ushering in a new era for Northern California’s first polytechnic university, plans for Cal Poly Humboldt’s Engineering & Technology Building were approved by California State University Board of Trustees today.

Cal Poly Humboldt students and faculty are reaping the results of their groundbreaking work on California’s first commercial, open-water seaweed farm.

In an effort to curb commute costs, emissions, and parking frustrations, the University and its partners have extended the sustainable transportation options available to students, staff and faculty traveling to and from campus.

New, interactive infrastructure and apparatuses designed to engage and educate the children of Trillium Charter School about science and sustainability premiered at the school in Arcata on Tuesday, May 9.

The seventh annual Sustainability Champion Awards program honors Cal Poly Humboldt employees who have deepened a culture of sustainability on campus, advanced  the integration of sustainability into academics or student life, or have reduced the University’s environmental footprint. 

Cal Poly Humboldt is on the road to zero waste, and for its efforts was recognized by the Post-Landfill Action Network (PLAN) with a bronze Zero Waste Certification.  

A reverence for the environment is instilled in the Humboldt experience, whether it’s via the graduation pledge, or by participating in the many sustainability-driven efforts on campus. Each April, members of the university community affirm these values during Earth Week celebrations.

While Californians face increased fire risk, air pollution, and aging energy infrastructure, Tribal and rural communities remain especially vulnerable. The SAFE project—Smoke, Air, Fire, Energy—is a collaboration between Tribes and Schatz Energy Research Center to develop solutions to these challenges.

Cal Poly Humboldt, the Yurok Tribe, and College of the Redwoods have partnered on an initiative to create a local workforce for the proposed development of floating offshore wind projects along California’s North Coast.

Cal Poly Humboldt researchers found that redwoods have varying sensitivity to drought, and that rising temperatures may affect tree performance in unexpected ways—results that are both concerning and hopeful.