white paper - the green beans

7/23/2019 White Paper - The Green Beans

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Team Green BeansAngel SolomonJourdin ReeceMichaela Tolbert

Stephanie Schlau#$%&' ()*'+ (+,-'.& / 0+1 2+)3.%4 5,6%'33'

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA


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Table Of Contents

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This paper will discuss the efforts of the University of South Florida to go

green. We will look at the different projects that have been successfully

implemented, the many committees and student organizations that have

contributed to the projects, and what the projects are doing for the University.Some of the student contributors that have

kept this movement alive by working

together to create a more green campus

are the Student Green Energy Fund,

Student Environmental Awareness Society

(SEAS), and the Student Environmental

Association (SEA). They are the ones that

decide how to best use their budget for the

good of the University. In addition to theprojects of this movement, another

approach the University has taken to better

the green campus is constructing

Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED) certified buildings. The

University has also established many recycling programs in order to reduce

waste consumption. We will also discuss how the University is a part of a

community that is in the process of becoming more environmentally aware, and

how the University and the city of Saint Petersburg are working together to help

further this movement1

Executive Summary


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Introduction

Why Go Green?It is known that our planet

has limited resource availability.

The idea of green living infers a lifethat is dedicated towards

maintaining an ecological balance,

and preserving the planet and its

natural resources. This will help

protect future generations, and

emphasize the idea that our

survival depends, either directly or

indirectly, on our natural

environment. The reason forsustainability measures is the

consequence of rapid population

growth, economic growth, and

consumption of our natural

resources due to advances in

technology.

T h e U n i v e r s i ty o f S o u t h

F l o r id a T h e G r e e n

M o v e m e n t

The University of South Florida has

been dedicated to developing a

sustainable campus since 1995. In

2008, the University of South

Florida hosted the USF Going

Green Tampa Bay Expo with

Hillsborough City/Country PlanningCommission. During the expo, the

Climate Commitment was signed,

which pledged the

University of South Floridas

commitment to maintaining a

campus climate that is neutral, an

to continuing efforts in research,education, and innovation in

sustainability. After hearing that th

institute received a D+ on its

College Sustainability Report

Card", the president of USF, Judy

Genshaft, signed the American

College and University Presidents

Climate Commitment (ACUPCC),

which agreed to major sustainabiefforts such as greenhouse gas

inventories, sustainability

awareness, and the inclusion of

sustainable efforts into the

academic programs.

Since the signing, USF ha

incorporated sustainability into the

Master Plan. The University of

South Floridas Office of

Sustainability established its first

greenhouse gas inventory and

created the Climate Action Pan.

One of USFs biggest

accomplishments is the

implementation of the worlds first

School of Global Sustainability,

which offers a M.A degree in Glob

Sustainability. In addition, USF ha

constructed the first LEED Gold

building on campus and hascreated a million-dollar Student

Green Energy Fund to help

promote renewable energy at the

University.

USFs Climate

Action Plan (CAP)

The Climate Action

Plan was created to help

the University of South

Florida reduce its carbon

dioxide emissions. CAP

set out to focus on the

design environment of theUSF campus, which

looked to improve

resource management,

conservation, and

irrigation. In addition, the

CAP sets out to build an

environment from

recycled and renewable

material. CAP has

promoted alternate formsof transportation for the

students and staff, and

has implemented the

USF Bull Runner and

bicycle systems such as

the Share-A-Bull project.

The Climate Action Plan

focuses on ensuring that

USF is energy efficient bycontrolling consumption.


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USFs Green Report

Administration AThe University of South Floridas master

plan and strategic plan incorporatessustainability. The sustainability office haseight staff members and the school isimplementing a green purchasing policy.

Climate Change & Energy BThe University of South Florida

conducts greenhouse gas emissioninventories to reduce emissions withcarbon offsets. Heat recovery systems,lighting systems, and energy-efficientlighting have helped decrease energyuse. The University has solar panelsand has purchased electricity fromrenewable sources to generaterenewable energy.

Food & Recycling - B28% of the dining services budget isspent on local food products, andpurchases hormone- and antibiotic-freece cream products. The dining hall istrayless, which has saved 32,992 gallons

of water per year.

Green Building - AUSFs master plan has includedbuilding initiatives. Many of thebuildings meet LEED criteria, and twobuildings are LEED Gold certified. TheUniversity has installed water meteringtechnology, lighting sensors, and LEDlighting in all buildings. Dual-flush toiletsand low-flow showerheads have beeninstalled in some buildings.

Student Involvement- AIn 2009 the Green Living LearningCommunity was created and gives 25students the opportunity to enhancesustainability programming, and helpsencourage students to participate incampus initiatives. At orientation, newstudents are given information from the

sustainability office. The campus is hometo many student sustainability groups.

Transportation - AUSF has preferred parking forcarpoolers and is currently working on alarge-scale ride-sharing program. Thestudents are able to ride local publictransportation for free, and theUniversity runs the biodiesel-poweredBull Runner Shuttle for free travelaround campus and neighboringcommunities. The University also offersbike-sharing and car-sharing programs.

Endowment Transparency - AUSF makes a list of all holdings, votescast on proxy resolutions, and the numberof shares available to the public per openrecords law, which all can all be available

upon request.

Investment Priorities - AThe Universitys goal is to optimizeinvestment returns and is currentlyinvested in renewable energy funds.

Shareholder Engagement - DUSFs investment managers areprovided with general guidelines thatdetermine its proxy votes.

The Green

Report

Card

The Green

Report Card was

designed to identify

colleges and

universities that are

extraordinary in their

commitment to

sustainability. The goa

was to provide easy

accessible information

which allows schools t

learn from one

anothers experiences

that will enable them t

establish a moreeffective sustainability

practice. The Report

Card serves as a tool

for when high school

students are evaluatin

campuses. It also

serves as a means for

independent evaluatio

for campus operations

and endowment

investments, and

provides thorough

assessment methods

assessing performanc

across 43 indicators in

main categories.

NEW


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USFs Student

Green Energy

FundW h a t i s t h e S t u d e n t G r e e n

E n e r g y F u n d ?

The Student

Green Energy Fund

(SGEF) is an

organization that is

dedicated to makingUSF an

environmentally

sustainable campus

through the student green fee, which

is a fund that supports the

conservation of energy while

reducing energy cost. The SGEF

began as a student led organization

in 2007, and gained approval by the

Florida Board of Governors in 2011.

After the approval from the board,

the SGEF was voted on by the USF

student body to initiate an additional

fee to the students tuition. The

SGEF comes from a dollar per credit

hour fee, and was passed by the

student body with a 72% vote. This

fund is used to support USFs

dedication to

reducing and

even

possibly

eliminating greenhouse gas

emissions.

The SGEF committee is made

up of four students and four staff and

faculty. However, any student and/or

faculty are able to make green

proposals year-round, which allow

the SGEF to be a student

voiced organization. The

proposal process is a three

step process, which includes

a submission of the proposal

through the SGEF proposalwebsite, a presentation to the

SGEF committee, and finally

the submission of the proposal to the

Chancellor by the chair and Regional

Vice Chair of the committee for

approval. Upon approval, paperwork

must be submitted to the USFSP

administration.

T h e S t u d e n t G r e e n E n e r g y

F u n d C o m p l e t e d P r o j e c ts

Since its creation in 2011, the SGEF

has funded several projects to help

with USFs efforts in creating an

environmentally sustainable campus.

The SGEF projects are committed to

conserving energy while reducing

energy cost and greenhouse gas

emissions, and promoting

renewable technologies. Some of

the completed proposals include


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W a t e r B o t t l e F il l in g

D e v i c e s

The SGEF funded several

water-bottle filling stations across

campus. The Committee Chair of the

SGEF, Michael Legget, made this

proposal in 2012. The Elkay EZH2O

bottle refill stations are a great

alternative to the usage of plastic

bottles. The refill station has a no-

touch sensor with a 20-second shut

off timer. The refill station includes adigital display, which shows how

many water bottles are being saved

in the process. When the filling

stations were installed, SGEF

included 25-ounce aluminum water

bottles to be used at all the stations.

It is estimated that the installation of

the 62 water stations has saved 1.2million plastic water bottles within the

first eight months of the installation.

This translates into $1.5 million

saved. Legget states that his goal

was to not limit the number of water

bottles used, but to push the

students towards thinking more

sustainably.

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Q: Can you explain a little more about your part inthe Student Green Energy Fund?

A: I was hired by James Scott, who was the student

body president at the time, to help start the StudentGreen Energy Fund at USFSP. We held meetingstogether to decide what would be good to present to theBoard of Governors in order to get approval for theStudent Green Energy Fund, and to help the schoolbecome more sustainable.

Q: Why was the Student Green Energy Fundstarted?

A: The Student Green Energy Fund was started to get

students involved in the school by allowing them topropose projects and see through the implementation othose projects. A bonus to the SGEF was itscontribution to USFs efforts to become anenvironmentally sustainable campus. This clubrepresented teaching students leadership roles andresponsibilities.

Q: What was your role in the LED light installationproject?

A: I was initially the one who presented the idea ofputting LED lights in the parking garage on campus. Iwas first exposed to the idea from a representativevisiting USF. I thought it would be a great project thatUSFSP should take advantage of. My initial plan was toinstall LED lights all around campus, but it just wasnt

ossible due to the immense cost.


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LEED

Certification

In 2014, the

Science and

Technology

Building at the

University of South

Florida St. Petersburg campus was

the first building at USF to be a

Leadership in Environmental and

Energy Design (LEED) CertifiedGold building. The LEED

Certification is a national rating

system for building designs.

USFs LEED Certified building

is two stories and around 35,000

square feet. The building contains a

lecture room, four teaching labs, five

USF College of Marine Science

research labs, four USFSP College

of Arts and Science research labs,

and eight classrooms. The building

was designed by HOK and

constructed by Skanska USA

Building, Inc., and the cost was

around $80

million. The building was designed

so that the architecture represented

four natural elements. In addition,

the building has energy efficient

lighting and heating/air conditioning,

low-flow toilets, and recycled carpet.

The building was constructed from a

variety of sustainable materials in

order to reduce the impact on the

environment such as the stainless

steel handrails, which are made up

of 80% post-industrial scrap and the

ceiling tiles being composed of 69%pre-consumer recycled material. The

landscape of the building was

constructed to utilize a pallet of

native and drought tolerant materials

of native grasses, woods, shrubs,

and groundcover.

Other buildings at USF that

have received LEED Certification

include the Interdisciplinary Science

Building located on the Tampa

campus after its opening in the Fall

2011 semester, the Morsani Center

for Advance Health Care, and the

Wellness and Nutrition Center.


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The achievement of receiving

the LEED Gold certificate for the

building exemplifies USFs

commitment to creating an


To further this commitment, the new

Tampa Campus Master Plan will

require all new construction to be

LEED certified.

Reduce, Reuse,

RecycleRecycling is a fundamental process

for the University of South Florida to

create a sustainable campus.

Campus

USFs efforts to reduce

consumption have resulted in the

University distributing over 2000

recycling containers on campus. The

single-stream recycling allows for all

recyclables to be placed in a single

container for collection. In order to

expand this program, USF looks to

distribute 350 blue recycling

containers to administrative and

academic offices, and place

aluminum recycling containers in the

residence halls. In addition, USFSP

offers a computer equipment-

recycling drop off. Many of the

departments and colleges are

actively recycling their equipment

with various companies and

programs.

Dining Hall

USFs dining hall is taking

great efforts to reduce waste. The

dining hall service uses cardboard

and tin materials, which are recycled

through Frito-Lay and Republic

Waste Services. The dining hall

service recycles the grease to make

biodiesel that powers automobiles.

The napkins in the dining halls are

made from recycled material and the

The University of South Florida was

awarded the 2012 Second NatureClimate Leadership Awardfor

showing the top innovation and

climate leadership at the doctoral

level. The awards recognize USF as

one of the ten universities overall

leading a national transition to a

clean and sustainable future.

SPOTLIGH


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dining hall services have green-

ware, which is composed of corn-

resin material. USFs dining services

offers reusable to-go containers

along with offering USDA Organic

Certified, Vegan and Vegetarian

options at every location. The

trayless services have saved USF

32,992 gallons of water per

academic year.

Student

Organizations

The University of South Florida has

many student organizations that are

dedicated to making the University

more sustainable. The student

organizations educate and

encourage the students on campus

to take initiative against

environmental issues.

The Student Environmental

Awareness Society

The Student Environmental

Awareness Society (SEAS) is one of

the leading student environmental

clubs and was created to promote

environmental issues on and aroundthe USF campus. The SEAS plans

co-friendly

activities to

celebrate the

earth, such as

the Earth Hour. This activity

encourages one hour without

technology or electricity in order to

promote energy saving. The

members of SEAS come together to

discuss important environmental

issues that are affecting the USF

campus and surrounding community.

The SEAS helped with the creation

of the SGEF and other sustainable

organizations/projects. Similarly,

SEAS works closely with the clubs at

the USF to help them with theirinitiatives. In addition, SEAS works

closely with non-profit organizations

to organize

beach

cleanups,

and does a

lot of policy

work such

as

gathering signatures for petitions.

Recently, SEAS worked with

the Tampa Bay Estuary program and

received a $3,500 Bay Mini-Grant to

install a WaterGoat along the

northern edge of Bayboro Harbor,

which is designed to collect trash

and other debris. This allows for an

easy cleanup and stops water

pollution. The WaterGoat is a

75-foot system of nets that stops

trash from entering the Tampa

Bay.


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Student Environmental

Association

The Student EnvironmentalAssociation (SEA) is a student

organization that is focused on

helping the University of South

Florida become more of an

environmentally conscious

university.

SEA meets

every week

to discuss

how the

organization

can engage

in

volunteering activities or discuss

ways to educate the community on

environmental issues. In 2008 and

continuing the efforts in 2009, SEA

partnered with the Physical Plant to

host a program, RecycleMania, thatraised awareness on energy

consumption. RecycleMania is a 10-

week program that had participating

schools across the country report

data on their recycling and trash

efforts. Each school then rated each

other on four different categories,

which allowed them to see how their

efforts compared to others. SEA is a

very active organization that

encourages, motivates, and

educates students on environmental

issues and ways to become more

sustainable.

How does USF

compare

The University of

Pennsylvania

The University of

Pennsylvania received an A- in 2011

by the Sustainable Endowments

Institute for the College Sustainability

Report Card, which is higher than

the University of South Floridas B+.

The University of Pennsylvania

received a higher grade in recycling,

food, and climate change and

energy.

In 2009, UPenn launched its

Climate Action Plan to take steps to

improve the Universitys ecological

performance. The Environmental

Sustainability Advisory Committee

works to accomplish the goals of the

Climate Action Plan. Similar to USF,UPenn has a green fund that has

financed more than 18 projects

proposed by students or faculty.

UPenn has purchased

renewable energy credits that

represent 45% of the Universitys

energy needs. All of the new

buildings constructed at UPenn must

be at least LEED Silver certified.

Since 2000, the university has

repurposed 940,000 square feet of

existing building space for alternate

use.


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The dining services at UPenn

spends 30% of its budget on local

products, and only purchases

seafood that conforms to the

sustainability guidelines along with

hormone- and antibiotic-free milk

and meat items. The dinning halls

are trayless and have composting

receptacles around the university.

In the fall of 2010, UPenn

launched a green rate parking

permit for low-emitting vehicles. The

University also has a heavily

subsidized student transit pass,

which allows for unlimited rides onthe buses and subways.

Similar to USF, the University

has 12 environmentally focused

student groups. The College House

Eco-Reps program is an

environmental leadership program,

which is open to all College House

residents, that focuses on raising

awareness of environmental issues

and encouraging sustainable

practices on campus. One of the

student groups received the Penn

Green Fund to build an on-campus

garden.

The University of FloridaThe University of Florida

received a B+ on the College

Sustainability Report Card from theSustainable Endowments Institute in

2011, which is the same grade that

the University of South Florida

received in the same year.

The University of Floridas

sustainability office that was created

by the University of Floridas

Sustainability Committee hosted the

first ever Florida Food Summit in

2010 to help integrate sustainability

into the curriculum.

UF has a goal to reach areduction in greenhouse gas

emissions to 83% by 2050. Efforts to

conserve energy has already been

made such as T5 and T8 lighting

being used in 95% of the buildings,

and heat recovery systems and

temperature setbacks. Similar to

USF, all new construction projects at

UF must meet the LEED Certified

Gold requirements. Currently, there

are 18 LEED-certified buildings on

campus (2 silver, 5 gold, and 1

platinum). Other energy saving

installations on campus include low-

flow showerheads, faucets, and

waterless urinals, which have

decreased the water consumption by

24% since 2005 even though the

size of the student body hasincreased.

85% of students commute to

campus, and therefore the University

provides free shuttle services on and

around campus for members of the

campus community.


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The University of Florida

dining services serves local and

organic vegetables, fruit, meat, dairy,

and exclusively cage-free eggs.

Disposable dishware that is made of

biodegradable content and trayless

dining services has saved the

university 500,000 gallons of waste

per year. There is composting

receptacles available in the

residence halls and outdoors.

Conclusion

The Go Green movement atUSFSP has been highly successful

by its implementation of SGEF

funded projects, such as the

installation of LED lights, solar doks,

water-bottle filling devices, and

energy-saving gym equipment. USF

has implemented recycling programs

on and around campus. The Student

Green Energy Fund and other

funding organizations are facilitatedand promoted by student lead

organizations such as the Student

Environmental Awareness Society

and the Student Environmental

Association. Events promoted by

SEAS and SEA have helped

students of the University of South

Florida Saint Petersburg and the

surrounding community gainknowledge and understanding about

the importance of going green and

the effects it will have on future

generations to come. The

University's dedication is recognized

by the LEED certification for

buildings that are contributing to the


The University of South Florida Saint

Petersburg hopes to continue

making progress in becoming an



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American College University Presidents Climate Commitment

(ACUPCC) A network of colleges and universities have created institutional

commitments to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from specified campus

operations, and to promote research and educational efforts of higher education

to equip society to re-stabilize the earths climate.

Ecological Footprint - the impact of a person or community on the

environment, expressed as the amount of land required to sustain their use ofnatural resources.

Emission the production and discharge of something, especially gas or

radiation

Greenhouse Gases - a gas that contributes to the greenhouse effect by

absorbing infrared radiation (carbon dioxide and chlorofluorocarbons)

Greenhouse Gas Inventories are type of emission inventory that are

developed for a variety of reasons. Scientists use inventories of natural and

human-caused emissions as tools when developing atmospheric models.

LED Light emitting diodes

Nonrenewable Resource A resource that is not replaceable after it has

been used.

Renewable Resource is an organic natural resource, which can replenish to

overcome usage and consumption, either through biological reproduction or

other naturally recurring processes. They are resources part of the Earths

natural environment and largest components of its ecosphere.

Solar Dok a solar-powered picnic table made from recycled materials by the

company EnerFusion, which provides a self-sustaining, electronic device

charging center.

Sustainabil i ty is the ability to continue a define behavior indefinitely.

Environmental Science: the quality of not being harmful to the environment or

depleting natural resources, and thereby supporting long-term ecological

balance.

Glossary of Terms


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white paper - the green beans

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