The University of California (UC) has achieved significant financial savings through sustainability initiatives, according to its latest Annual Sustainability Report. Since 2010, the university has saved about $620 million by improving energy efficiency across its facilities, with $100 million of those savings realized in 2024.
Nathan Brostrom, Chief Financial Officer for UC, addressed common concerns about the cost of sustainable operations: “There’s a general misconception that environmentally sustainable operations are more costly than doing business as usual,” he said. “But what we’ve found over 22 years of setting and meeting ambitious sustainability goals at the University of California is that environmental and financial sustainability are two sides of the same coin, because using resources more efficiently often cuts costs as well. Decision-makers across the university are prioritizing sustainability projects and programs that also provide cost savings.”
Among the key initiatives contributing to these savings is a major project at UC Berkeley to replace its decades-old central power and heat plant with an electrified heating and cooling system combined with thermal energy storage. This effort is expected to save $670 million over 25 years by reducing reliance on fossil fuels and lowering operating costs associated with older infrastructure. The plan was highlighted in a recent report outlining UC’s strategies for decarbonizing operations by 2045.
UC Health locations have also contributed to cost reductions by reprocessing medical devices instead of disposing of them after single use. In the past year alone, this approach saved $11.7 million and diverted nearly a quarter-million pounds of waste from landfills.
At UCLA Health, replacing around 10,000 fluorescent lights with LED bulbs led to utility cost savings totaling $120,000 last year. The switch also resulted in lower carbon emissions comparable to removing gas-powered vehicles from the road for over half a million miles.
Sustainable construction practices have delivered additional benefits. At UC San Diego’s Marine Conservation and Technology Facility, repurposing an old fishery building reduced project costs by 12 percent compared to constructing a new facility. The renovated lab earned LEED Gold certification for its environmentally friendly design.
Student-led efforts at UCLA included purchasing reusable food containers for campus cafés using grant funding from UC’s Global Climate Leadership Council. These containers eliminated $56,000 in single-use container expenses and cut waste management costs by $8,500 in their first year.
At UC San Francisco, upgrading more than 130 specimen freezers with energy-efficient models produced electrical cost savings of $174,000 within just over one year. If all campus freezers were upgraded similarly, annual energy savings could reach $2.3 million.
The university’s ongoing efforts are detailed further in its 2025 Annual Sustainability Report, which reviews both progress made and future recommendations for eliminating carbon emissions systemwide by 2045.
