From the classroom to the state capitol: Sustainable environmental design students are designing California’s resilient future

This spring, graduating seniors majoring in sustainable environmental design (SED) — one of four undergraduate majors offered by UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design — supported the Governor’s Office of Land-use and Climate Innovation (LCI) to explore solutions for creating more resilient and regenerative suburban communities.

Each team selected a different location in California but all had the same focus: propose design strategies that tackle the overlapping issues of climate, economy, and equity. They started with on-the-ground investigations, closely working with the California Governor’s Office as their client. Students performed in-depth research and conducted interviews with residents, homeowners, contractors, and other stakeholders.

“The method was always to ask first, design second,” explains Nader Afzalan, the capstone course instructor and program director of the SED major. 

The projects address issues that every suburban community in the state grapples with: heat and climate risk, housing and transit, the transition to clean energy, mobility and streets, wildfires and emergencies, and gaining the trust of residents through civic engagement and participation. They explored possible solutions within real-world constraints and opportunities, such as recent state laws to increase housing density, using tools like computer-vision modeling of wildfire risk and GIS mapping.

“This was a win-win collaboration between our college and the state,” said Afzalan. “My students got to work on a real policy problem and engage directly with government staff, while the California Governor’s Office gained tangible ideas from energetic, creative students whose out-of-the-box thinking surfaced solutions the state hadn’t been considering.”

The capstone course for SED majors is just one of many courses in the college that gives students the opportunity to engage directly with real-world issues and present their designs to decision-makers at the municipal, county, or state level. Innovative ideas developed at CED don’t just stay within the walls of Bauer Wurster Hall, but actually influence the transformation of our neighborhoods and cities into healthier, more sustainable, and more equitable places to live.

Eleonore Aries-Praud and Reewa Monie — Livermore
A framework that rates Livermore’s climate readiness and found it strong on paper but shaky underneath.

Quinn Gostyla — Berkeley Hills
A tool that grades your home’s wildfire safety from photos and big data to link you to a trusted contractor.

Ella Heimbrodt — Pomona
A comprehensive framework to evaluate the feasibility of implementing major housing policies.

Andrew Blatt — statewide
A free tool that lets anyone score how ready their community is for disasters.

Allison Dai — statewide
An interactive and social app that helps residents in suburban communities prepare for natural disasters. 

Andrew Shao — Bakersfield
A small pocket park using little parcels of land in the city for community gatherings and promoting healthy behavior.

Mila Yglesias — Bakersfield
A protected bike lane by Bakersfield High, plus repairs, bike sharing, trees, and a street market.

Judy Zhou — Bakersfield
A campaign that gets all ages involved in gardens, shaded walkways, and more accessible public transit.

Martha Lazcano — Pomona
Three community-based strategies to make neighborhoods more resilient: help centers, cooler roofs, safer streets.

Shanayah Kasam — Pomona
A plan to get more rooftops to go solar by showing savings and making it visible through behavioral economics strategies.