This year UCSF celebrated Earth Day all month long. With lots of activities planned, from a
Sustainability Themed Bingo Card to an outdoor Yoga Flow Session, staff were encouraged
to participate in events that emphasized mindfulness and sustainability. Every Earth Month, the Sustainability Team is hard at work planning events for staff, students, and faculty alike.
Here is a quick recap of the events:
1. Earth Week Tabling
All week long, the UCSF Sustainability Team, along with partners from Recology and Stanyan’s Green Team, tabled across the five hospital sites: Mission Bay Medical Center, Parnassus Heights, Mount Zion Medical Center, and Hyde and Stanyan Hospitals. During these tabling sessions, the team provided waste sorting games, fun trivia questions, stickers, and more! The team had about 132 visitor engagements and got to answer any questions staff may have.
2. Earth Month Bingo Card
UCSF Health Sustainability Team made a Bingo Card that lasted all month long in honor of Earth Month. Some of the actions included “eat plant based for a day”, “reuse a single-use item”, or “take a screen break outside.” For a chance to win a sustainable prize, participants had to send in a completed bingo card as well as a picture of them completing one of the challenges. The
winners received a sustainable prize package, which included seeds, seed shakers,
and stasher bags. This challenge hopefully made staff more aware of sustainability
actions they can take in their everyday lives, making everyday Earth Day!
3. Waste to Art Exhibition
The Waste to Art Exhibition took place on April 14th and was a big success! Waste to Art is UCSF’s annual challenge dedicated to transforming waste, including medical and laboratory waste, into incredible, and inspiring art pieces. UCSF community members made an art piece of their choosing, and these pieces were showcased at the Waste to Art Exhibition. The beginning of the day was open to the public, where viewers surveyed the art and voted for their favorite pieces. Later in the day, from 3 to 4 p.m., followed a ceremony where the winners were announced and celebrated.
In first place was “Birth and Rebirth: Black Maternal Mortality Explored Through the Quilting Tradition” by Isabel Alves de Lima with Leah Pimentel, MBA and Charlene Blake, MD. They made a quilt constructed from medical textiles recovered from the Parnassus Operating room, including scrub caps, bunny suits, and disposable scrub jackets. The ‘Bricklayer’ quilt pattern is inspired by the Gee’s Bend quiltmakers, "a group of women and their ancestors from the Gee’s Bend area of Alabama’s rural Black Belt, whose quilts are celebrated as some of the most significant artistic contributions to American art history." An image of a birthing mother made of braided strips of material is shown, representing Black maternal mortality during childbirth.
In second place, was “Video: Ecolectivos art competition with women from Santa Maria Xalapán, Jalapa, Guatemala” by Lisa M Thompson, Professor, School of Nursing, UCSF. This Waste to
Art video shows women who participated in a recycled plastic art contest. Thompsons’ team is also conducting a research project in rural Guatemala known as Ecolectivos, where they work with rural Xinca indigenous communities who are taking steps to reduce the burning of plastic waste in household cooking and trash fires, through encouraging repurposing plastic.
And in third place was, “Mouth of the Earth,” by Priyanka Suri, UCSF School of Dentistry Student. Mouth of the Earth confronts the often-unseen environmental cost of modern healthcare through the lens of dentistry. The sculpture is of the Earth, depicted as an open mouth,
representing our constant consumption and accumulation in nature. The sculpture
is constructed entirely from discarded dental materials, including blue nitrile gloves,
green rubber dam sheets, and layers of reclaimed boxing and beading wax molded
into exaggerated dentition. Mouth of the Earth is not only a reflection of current
realities, but also a call to action! Thank you to all our participants, winners, judges,
and sustainability team for putting this together!
4. UCSF Annual Sustainability Celebration
The Annual Sustainability Awards Celebration took place on April 15th, honoring the hard work of notable UCSF community members’ contributions to sustainability efforts. We heard from key
speakers including Chief Sustainability Officer, Kira Stoll, and Chancellor, Sam Hawgood. Guests were served sustainable food from Moffit Catering Services on reusable dishware from Dispatch Goods, making it a zero-waste event. At the event, students, staff, and faculty sustainability advocates gathered to share community achievements and honor the 2026 UCSF Sustainability Award recipients in a recognition ceremony. The awardees are leading the way through unique efforts and impactful actions.
Congratulations to all sustainability award recipients: Pranay Narang, M.S. and Third-Year Medical Student; Laura Weil, CNM, NP, MPH; Hilary Ong, MD, FAAP, DCM; Matt Richardson, DPT; Ramneek Rai, DDS; Christy Carillo, CDM, CFPP; Mel Maxwell, Executive Director, Supply Chain Management – Logistics; and the UCSF Health Interdepartmental Team consisting of Energy Management, Facilities Operations, and Real Estate!
5. Yoga Session
UCSF Health Sustainability partnered with the Native American Health Alliance to hold a gentle yoga flow to celebrate Earth Month. It was led by Sapphire Persinger, a Clinical Research Coordinator at UCSF and certified yoga instructor. During the event, we set intentions of sustainability and mindfulness. The sustainability team was also tabling before and after the event, to inform staff on the importance of Earth Month and Sustainability.
6. E-Waste
UCSF Sustainability Teams held two e-waste events at Parnassus Heights
Hospital and Mission Bay Medical Center. Staff were onsite collecting unwanted electronics and had 25 participants at the Mission Bay Event and 58 participants at Parnassus Heights.
7. BCH Oakland Litter Pickup
Members of the Oakland Green Team participated in a
litter cleanup on Friday, April 24th. For more information or any questions email: ucsfhealthsustainability@ucsf.edu