Sustainability
The mission of the Sustainability Department at Santa Barbara Unified School District is to reduce the district's environmental impact and foster a culture of environmental responsibility and sustainability. We improve our district through fiscally responsible projects that will reduce our environmental impact while saving the district operation expenses, innovative programs to help achieve our goals, and collaborations with external partners and stakeholders.
Sustainability Initiatives
Contact
Desmond Ho is Santa Barbara Unified School District's first Sustainability and Operations Coordinator. He was responsible for overseeing the construction of 4.2MW of solar across 14 school sites with 6 battery storage microgrids that is amongst the first in the nation for public school districts. Since he started in late 2021, he has successfully leveraged over 9 million dollars of grant funding for HVAC assessments, HVAC replacements, HVAC controls upgrades, heat pump water heater upgrades, and LED light.
His background is in both environmental science and marine ecology as he holds a Masters in Environmental Science and Management degree from the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His prior role as an air quality specialist from the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District gave him insight into environmental regulations, project management, and education as he built a highly successful K-3 education program from the ground up that reached across Santa Barbara County. In his free time, Desmond enjoys biking on/off roads, scuba diving the Channel Islands, and wrenching on all things with wheels.
Desmond welcomes any input into environmental programs that will benefit students, staff, and/or the community! You can email him at desmondho@sbunified.org
