Harnessing Student Power at UCLA: An Interview With the Co-Director of Environmental Justice Now

Klara Parang is a student at UCLA, where she serves on an environmental justice student committee in partnership with the Buy Your Values UCLA campaign.

Labor 411 Editor, Sahid Fawaz, talked with Klara about her work on campus to promote ethical purchasing.

SF: Can you give us some background on your role with USAC and the Buy Your Values UCLA campaign?

KP: I am currently serving as Co-Project Director of Environmental Justice Now (“EJN”), which is a committee of the Facilities Action Committee (“FAC”). And FAC is one of 15 offices under the UCLA Undergraduate Students Association (“USAC”). FAC focuses on advocating for sustainability, accessibility, and transportation. And the EJN is working to promote the environmental justice initiatives on UCLA’s campus and for the greater Los Angeles County.

The EJN partnership with Buy Your Values began last year due to our thinking our belief that environmental justice is only about climate change and environmental challenges for marginalized communities but about merchandise labor practices and what that means with the institutions like the UCLA bookstore. Because real people make the merchandise, we want to know how that merchandise was produced.

Yes, the clothing industry has a large impact on environment, but we also want to know the impact on the people who make clothes. With that in mind, we saw that a partnership with the Buy Your Values campaign would be beneficial. When people think of environmental justice, we want them to think about more than green spaces and community gardens. We want to see the movement branch out. That thought process, I believe, is what helped establish the partnership.

SF: What campus activities has Buy Your Values been involved with this semester?

KP: We had our orientation last month as a way to introduce ourselves to students and presidents of organizations on UCLA campus in hopes of gaining more support. We are looking to start with smaller organizations on campus, whether it’s targeting consulting clubs, or even just sororities and fraternities and how they produce their merchandise.

And we’re building a partnership with the app called Get Green. We had a productive meeting with the app’s developer this month.

SF: Can you tell us a little bit about the Get Green app?

KP: The goal of the app, which was created by a previous UCLA grad, is to gamify green actions and sustainability initiatives on campuses, which it does by creating competitions.

It’s been successful at colleges like the University of Miami and the University of Washington. We want to create a version of this app for ethical labor practices and the fashion industry.

We hope to use the app to create competitions between organizations on campus because there are many sustainability groups here. We want to make sure that they are engaging in ethical purchasing for their own merchandise. We are sponsored by a thrift store called Crossroads. And we hope those on campus will be incentivized to get involved with organizations like Crossroads.

SF: How does the app work?

KP: Once a user completes an action, the user build ups “leaves.” These leaves show how much CO2 emissions are being reduced by the sustainable action.

But we want to change the leaves on the app to something else, because sustainability is not only about reducing CO2 emissions. It also has to do with the people and ethical purchasing practices and how it impacts labor rights. So, we want to tailor the app to better align it with the Buy Your Values mission. I think this could be a good partnership to not only help get green, get out there, and get involved with the UCLA campus but also to help Buy Your Values more effectively reach campus life at UCLA.

SF: What are some of the partnership’s on-campus goals this year?

KP: Our biggest plan is to focus the Green App on university engagement. We want to get our name heard on campus because once we are well-established, known, credible, and valued, then we can become more effective. We don’t want to be begging people to sign our campaign. We want to build credibility and attract participants.

At the end of the day, our biggest school goal with the app is to start off with developing challenges, trivia, and educational content, and eventually promote sustainable habits.

SF: What are your plans after graduation?

KP: I hope to eventually pursue a PhD, possibly in Environmental Engineering. I know that I want to work for a water district eventually, like the Metropolitan Water District. It’s very far-reaching work that helps in how we get our clean water ethically.