UF Recognized for Sustainable Strategy

The University of Florida was recognized by the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, for our comprehensive sustainability strategy. In the organization’s Fall 2008 e-publication “Notes from the Field” fund managers praised UF for operating with sustainability as a core value describing a variety of UF’s accomplishments.

Actions, such as President Machen’s signing the American College and University President’s Climate Change Commitment in 2006 and environmental efforts lead by grass-root student organizations, were given high marks. Accolades were also given to Gator Dining Services, for both their drive to buy regionally-sourced products and the training they provide to all food service employees on sustainable concepts and practices.

Efforts by Facilities, Planning and Construction to achieve LEED certification for campus construction and renovations were acknowledged as was the Florida Institute for Sustainable Energy Technology Incubator, a facility that helps bridge the gap between academic research in energy and commercial application.

Hands-on work in the Natural Area Teaching Lab was applauded for giving students the opportunity to learn about the importance of ecology and biotic diversity, along with understanding the potential impacts of storm water runoff in losing natural habitats.

These are just a few of UF’s actions noted in the article. To read the article in its entirety, please visit the Jessie Ball duPont Fund website.

Teaming up for Sustainability

Last semester over 30 Green Team captains representing departments ranging from the College of Dentistry to the UF Police Department came together to discuss sustainability initiatives that they are implementing in their departments. One of the themes of the meeting was building communication and collaboration with other Green Teams and the Office of Sustainability. This meeting was the largest gathering to date of the nascent Green Team network and demonstrated the growing enthusiasm that UF’s staff and faculty have for transforming their university into a sustainable campus. The meeting was also an opportunity for Jason Fults, the newly-hired Green Team Project Manager, to meet the captains face-to-face and to learn more about the challenges and successes that their respective teams have experienced.

This semester there are some exciting plans afoot for the Green Team network, including a “Sustainable Solutions Awards Program” and a pilot energy conservation campaign in Tigert Hall that will enlist Green Teams in deploying best practices in energy conservation behaviors. If successful, this project could serve as a model for other administrative buildings on campus.

There are currently more than sixty Green Teams working across campus to reduce waste and resource consumption. These groups are at the forefront of developing sustainable solutions for UF through the implementation of sustainable best practices in their departments and throughout the campus community. To learn more about the Green Team network, visit our Google Group. If you’d like to get involved, contact Jason Fults at Jason@ufl.edu or 392-7578, ext. 34.

Faculty Workshop for Sustainability in Academics at UF

Call for Faculty Participation – February 2009

February 23 and 24, 2009
Reitz Union 235, 11:45 a.m.—2:45 p.m.

Faculty members across the University of Florida regularly teach, and do research, focused or related to some aspect of sustainability. In November 2008 President Machen announced a strategic initiative in sustainability, with the goal of encouraging faculty to consider developing a nationally recognized inter-disciplinary academic program balanced between teaching, research, and academic service, utilizing UF’s already deep resources in this area. He appointed Professor Kim Tanzer to work through his office, in collaboration with Provost’s Fellow and Professor Tom Ankersen, to develop the initiative with the help of UF faculty, by May 2009.

In order to assure wide-spread faculty participation across the university, Tanzer and Ankersen will hold faculty workshops to which all members of the faculty, including academic administrators, are invited. The workshops will also be used to help implement the Vision for Sustainable UF, developed through the Office of Sustainability last academic year.

Two workshops will be held, in mid-February. One will focus on curriculum, including teaching and learning, university-wide programs, and service learning. The second will focus on potential for collaborative research. Faculty members are encouraged to attend portions or all of the workshops, either or both days, as their schedules permit.

For more information on the workshops, and other ways for faculty to get involved with the academic sustainability efforts at UF, visit the Office of Sustainability’s Faculty Involvement page.

Faculty members who have questions and/or would like to attend one or both days’ sessions should contact Kim Tanzer, tanzer@ufl.edu by February 16, 2009. Reservations for box lunches (free of charge) are essential.

Gator Dining's Green Takeout

UF Customers taking their food to go now have a greener option. Gator Dining Services is now offering reusable to-go containers at three locations on campus – Gator Corner, Fresh Food Company, and Home Zone in the Reitz Union.

These containers are dishwasher-safe and made to be reused over and over again, helping cut down on the waste produced from their traditional disposable counterparts.

“Between our two dining halls, 158,000 disposable to-go containers were used last year”, said Susanne Lewis, Sustainability Coordinator for Gator Dining. “This program will serve as another great way to minimize waste on our campus.”

The process allows customers take their food to go as usual, bring the reusable container back at their earliest convenience at which time it gets washed by Gator Dining, and the cycle continues. Up to two reusable containers can be checked out per Gator 1 card.

The first 100 people to sign up for the program will also receive a free reusable cup which can be used campus-wide to receive 50 cent discounts on fountain beverages. There will also be other prizes distributed throughout the semester to reward customers who are taking an active part in waste minimization.

Customers can sign up for the program with their Gator 1 card at the register of any of the three locations. A $7.00 refundable deposit will be taken from a Declining Balance or Flex Bucks account – this deposit is refunded in full at the end of the year as long as all containers are returned.

For more information, visit Gator Dining.

Beneficial Setbacks

While the term setback may imply a negative, in the case of energy savings it’s definitely a plus. For the third year in a row, the University of Florida will carry out holiday setbacks, or more precisely air handling units across campus will be adjusted to unoccupied status. For the Thanksgiving and winter holidays, this means setting thermostats at 68 degrees F. During the summer holiday months the thermostat is turned up to between 80 and 82 degrees F.

The most obvious benefit is monetary, with the savings calculated to be $10,000 per day. But the program doesn’t come without its challenges. Many buildings have essential personnel who work on campus even when the students are gone. File servers, in over 70 separate spaces, require fixed temperatures. And laboratory and research areas cannot tolerate temperature fluctuations.

Some campus locations currently have push button overrides, allowing occupants to set thermostats to occupied status for two hours. It’s anticipated that future monitoring and control programs will allow building managers to review a building’s setback schedule and adjust it as necessary.

But the responsibility for saving energy doesn’t have to fall solely on staff and faculty shoulders. Students are asked to turn off their lights, adjust their thermostats, and unplug their refrigerators before a long break. Even electrical appliances and stereos should be unplugged to avoid the phantom load effect. The US Department of Energy estimates that 6 to 10 percent of a home’s electrical use is for phantom loads, or electronics that are slowing draining electricity to run internal and external clock displays, remote control sensors, and maintain base to unit communications. So unplug your electronics and send the phantom packing during long breaks from school.

Gators Winning for Sustainability

It seems Gators are not just champions in sports. Many of our students are winning national and international awards for their work related to sustainability at UF. We want to thank the following students for their hard work, and congratulate them on their accomplishments:

Sara Hutton was awarded a 2008 Morris K. Udall Scholarship for her studies in sustainability and wildlife ecology and conservation.

Ryan Graunke won the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education's (AASHE) 2008 Student Sustainability Research Award for his work on the bio-digestion of Broward Dining Hall’s food waste to create methane fuel.

Hal Knowles was named the 2008 National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology Fellow for his work on the UF Carbon Neutrality Action Plan.

Alison Erlenbach won the oikos Student Award 2008 in the 'Sustainable Campus' category for her project Campus Climate Solutions, which trains students to calculate carbon offset needs for events and businesses.

Diamond in the Rough

Diamond Village Graduate and Family Housing Community is going green. It has been chosen by Housing and Residence Life as the pilot project for a campus-wide campaign to increase the sustainability of the university's living areas. Kiera White, a third-year graduate student in Interior Design, is currently working on the project as an intern with the Offices of Sustainability and Housing. White was part of a design studio project team last fall that worked to develop ideas for Diamond Village, such as the rain barrels and herb gardens that are now commonplace in the community.

Currently, she is working with Diamond Village on the re-development of the entire area, which the university wants to develop as sustainability-themed housing. Their main focus is the "breezeway" or common area, which is used by many of the residents for meetings and recreational time.

"We are working to revamp and redesign the area with sustainability in mind." says White. The plan transforms the common area into a place that will educate the residents, get them involved, and allow them to practice day-to-day applications of sustainable living. White wants the area to be easily-accessible to all the residents, even to the younger ones, and plans to have children's activities available to those families interested.

White says that by the end of the fall semester, she hopes to have a design proposal, established budget, and specs for sustainable products ready for the continued work on the effort. She hopes that the success of this project will motivate the housing department to carry these ideas to current and future on-campus living communities.

"It’s a different way to look at design" says White about the combination of traditional and sustainable concepts--"it’s a way to merge the two together."