Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau wants UC Berkeley to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to a level not seen since 1990 by 2014. Some might consider it an ambitious goal, but Cal's newly hired Director of Sustainability, Lisa McNeilly, believes that it can be done by taking such simple steps as demanding that products used at Cal be more environmentally friendly. "As a valued customer, you can often help add offerings to that supplier's list of items," suggested McNeilly. "That can be an exciting thing as well, to help pull those items into the market."

That practice, known as "green procurement," could be applied to food, cleaning products, chemicals and paper. "Berkeley has been a leader among universities on this but I think the whole UC system can definitely work to achieve great things," McNeilly offered.

There are potential financial benefits to this practice. "Most of the things that students have been pushing have a pretty short payback period," suggested Haas School of Business student Merrian Fuller. "With lighting systems, it can be a year to two years for the paybacks, and then after that it's just savings."

KCBS' Margie Shafer