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The University of South Floridas Contributions to the Green Movement

Prepared for: Dr. Francis Tobienne Professional Writing ENC3250 (791) November 29th, 2013 Team: The Green Machine: Weston Brautigam Alicia Caruso Nicole Dale Jamie Gooden Elizabeth Johnsey

Table of Contents Executive Summary Introduction Body What is the Campus and Community Sustainability Conference? How does this impact other schools? How does this impact USF? Conclusion Glossary of Terms Annotated Bibliography Work Cited 3 4 6 7 8 13 15 16 19

Executive Summary:
From construction to campus activities, the University of South Florida has promoted the going green movement across its many campuses. One such activity that shows the University of South Floridas goal of sustainability is their participation in the annual Campus and Community Sustainability Conference. This conference allows for the school to meet and discuss their experience with the going green movement, and learn what others are doing to be sustainable. The University of South Floridas participation in the conference has contributed not only to the sustainability of the school, but also to Floridas sustainable future.

Introduction:
The environmental movement, which is commonly referred to as the green movement, is an internationally recognized movement that promotes sustainable use of resources and the environment. This movement has led to changes in public policy and the behavior of mankind toward the environment. It is characterized by sustainable activities and actions that are meant to create and protect a healthier environment. Such sustainable activities can be traced all the way back to medieval times, when sustainable agriculture methods began to become popular. These sustainable practices not only protected the environment, but also benefited humans by increasing crop yields and agricultural progress. Through sustainable practices have been in existence globally for many years, the United States environmental movement can be traced back to the early 19th century. Transcendentalist philosophy of the 1830s and 1840s first began to promote and spread environmentalist and sustainable ideas and beliefs. One of the well-known transcendentalists behind this philosophy, David Thoreau, published Maine Woods in the 1860s. This series of essays called for the conservation and respect of the environment, promoting environmentalist ideas. This increase in environmental awareness in the U.S. led to the creation of the first major environmental policies. Often these policies were created in response to a major disaster or outcry of the public. In 1950, issues of air pollution leading to negative health effects arose, and the U.S. held its first conference on air pollution. This led to the passing of the Air Pollution Act in 1955. The Silent World by Jacques Cousteau, in 1953, spread awareness of the oceans and marine life. This led to increased conservation of the oceans and such acts as the Marine Mammal and Coastal Zone Management Acts of 1972, along with the creation of the National Oceanographic and Administration in 1970. In 1962, Rachel Carsons Silent Spring brought awareness to the issue of the overuse of pesticides such as DDT. DDT would later be banned from the U.S. in1972.

On April 22nd, 1970, the first national Earth Day was celebrated. This day was meant to spread awareness of environmental issues and promote the environmental movement. It would later be celebrated internationally by a total of 140 countries on April 22nd, 1990. Today, individuals and small groups are still carrying out the environmental movement. Individuals and small groups contribute to the environmental movement by conserving water and energy, promoting recycling, and conserving important lands and waters. The environmental movement is heavily characterized by the use of such things as solar panels, low-flush toilets, and compost containers. Many schools and universities have also joined the environmental movement, due to the encouragement of students and faculty with sustainable ideas and beliefs. One such university is the University of South Florida. The university has set the goals of using sustainable resources, promoting sustainable activities amongst students and faculty, and forming a better environment for the school and surrounding community. The University of South Florida has also been recognized for having sustainable and environmentally active campuses. The university has been recognized through such organizations as the Climate Leadership Awards, Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, and Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (S.T.A.R.S.). The University of South Florida participates in many sustainable conferences, where it shares its sustainable progress with the community and learns new sustainable in the future. Its such conferences the top amongst other sustainable universities. methods to use participation in it rise to

has helped guide the school through the environmental movement and is helping

Body: I. What is the Campus and Community Sustainability Conference?


The Campus and Community Sustainability Conference is an annual conference that has been occurring in Tampa, Florida for the past seven years. The conference first began in 2006, and since then it has grown in both the number of sponsors and participants. Its sponsors include Tampa Electric, The University of South Florida, Florida Publix The City of variety of businesses Florida The two days long the University Marshall open to the Campus and Sustainability main focus is together from government, communities come share their challenges Sustainable Collins Center, Supermarkets, Tampa, and a other (Sustainable Conference). conference is and is held at of South Florida Center, and is public. The Community Conferences to bring individuals campuses, businesses and for a chance to together to experiences and related to

creating sustainability and a green culture (Sustainable Florida Conference). The presentations that are presented here focus on issues relating to Floridas economy, environment, and the overall quality of life for Florida residents. Many participants look at issues involving education and research for sustainability, economic improvements that would bring about sustainable efficiency and

effectiveness, protection and restoration for ecological systems, and enhancing sustainability for the overall well-being of people. These participants include students from the University of Florida, the Polk County School District, and the Civil& Environmental Engineering Department at the University of South Florida, Florida West Coast Resource Conservation & Development, the Florida Farm Bureau Federation, and a variety of other local businesses in the Tampa Bay area (Sustainable Florida Conference). Together these local businesses and university students, come up with new and creative ideas and programs that bring going green and sustainability to be more accessible to all Florida residents.

II. How does this impact other schools (other than USF)?
The University of South Florida is not the only college in the state to make a commitment to sustainability. The University of Florida in Gainesville is innovator in

the green campus movement; in a 2009 Princeton Review survey UF was rated near the top of the scale on environmentally related policies, practices, and academic offerings. Through the colleges Student Senate an agency for sustainability was created called Gators Going Green, GGG for short. The core mission of Gators Going Green is to create and implement policies and programming that will support a more sustainable campus and community at the University of Florida. The college also has an Office of Sustainability that worked toward creating a Vision for a Sustainable UF, the vision includes 14 guiding principles that range from waste management, land and resource management, as well as health and wellbeing. The school continues to work to meet their guidelines and make their campus more sustainable.

The University of Tampa is also committed to going green. In 2009 the president of UT committed to carbon neutrality and since this time the number of sustainability incentives has increased. Now all new construction projects on campus are being evaluated for sustainability goals: lower energy consumption, reduced water consumption, use of green chemicals, use of sustainable materials in construction, LEED certification when reasonable, and the effort to recycle construction material. There is also a solar installation on the roof of the athletics building that heats all water used in showers and bathrooms and another solar panel on the roof of a 500-plus capacity residence hall that provides 70% of the hot water needs. While not a large school the University of Tampa strives to make sure its campus continues on a path to sustainability that seeks a balance in sustainability efforts in a manner that improves the quality of life and academic experience at the University and yet is responsive to the global nature of environmental issues facing all of society.

III. How does it impact USF?


The University of South Florida has contributed to the green movement in many ways since the last Campus and Community Sustainability Conference. Its contributions include the sustainable use of water, energy, and other resources. The university has done this through such actions as sustainable transportation and architecture. These actions have helped protect existing environments and create a better environment for both the university and the surrounding communities. The

University of South Florida attracts students from many different locations, and students often travel great distances to take classes and join in campus activities. Common transportation methods such as cars can cause great pollution, but are still necessary in order for students to reach the University of South Florida. To help lessen this pollution, the University of South Florida has begun to offer several

environmental-friendly transportation options. These methods of transportation are helping the University of South Florida decrease their carbon footprint, increase the environmental-health of their surrounding community, and helping promote the universities green ideas. One such option offered by the University of South Florida is a program known as WeCar. WeCar is a car rental program that allows students to have access to environmentally friendly hybrid cars that can be found on several of the universities campuses. The cars may used by students for anything from shopping to overnight trips. This students a more environmental-friendly driving option, and is helpful to the schools on-campus residents. The University of South Florida has also participated in Zimride, an online car-pooling website. The website allows students to find others to carpool with, and allows students to get to know one another in order to find the optimal carpooling partner. This promotes carpooling, and lessens the amount of cars on the road. The University of South Floridas Tampa campus has also offered U-Pass, a program that allows students to ride the city buses. This promotes more students to use public transportation rather than a personal car, and lessens the 9 most many runs gives be

amount of cars on the road. Along with access to public buses, the University of South Floridas Tampa campus also offers BullRunner, a campus bus that travels between main campus locations. The University of South Florida further promotes their environmental-friendly transportation options by offering an emergency rides program. This program allows students who use these transportation options to have eight free taxi rides a year. USF has also shown its push toward the green movement through its use of green architecture techniques. In both the construction of new buildings and renovation of older buildings, USF has opted to use environmental friendly habits, designs, and materials. During construction and renovation, USF has made a habit of recycling materials. these rather than in has used designs in construction such as green harvesting, water roofs have many USF include such high reflectivity construction This has kept materials in use, landfills. USF several green their and renovation, roofs, rainwater and low-flow fixtures. Green been added to buildings, and attributes as insulation and values. Several

USF buildings also harvest rainwater, which can be reused throughout the campus. Low- flow water fixtures such as low-flow faucets and flushing devices have been added throughout many USF buildings, saving on water usage. Along with its green designs, USF both conserves construction materials and uses environmentally friendly construction materials whenever possible. Altogether, these factors have led to green buildings on USF campuses, and an overall greener USF environment. The Sustainability program at the University of South Florida has completed multiple projects to go green. Some of these projects include solar panels for the

student center and amp-a theater, writing computer code to enable faculty to control temperature within the campus buildings, or their newest undertaking of supplying GPS installed bikes to make transportation for students on campus more accessible while eliminating greenhouse gases at the same time. Tampa community in the same positive way? USF sustainability program coordinator Shawna Neckar not only helping the to focus campus too. We County, the have a lot of committees like USA which is a of being a very on our council we Florida Arbor Society, theres a lot of outreach that way. understands the importance of USF campus but the community as well, We try a lot of our efforts on but also within the community of Tampa work with Hillsborough city of Tampa, we boards and Tree Campus designation green campus, have City of Tampa, and we all work as a group so

Last year the sustainability program attracted over 1500 people and 60 local and corporate vendors to Tampas botanical gardens. The Earth Day event we had local businesss we had big ones like Teco Energy, Tampa Bay Water, Whole Foods, last year our theme was fresh food revolution so were trying to encourage local food purchasing and support of local farmers or business that bring in fresh food locally. We had Sweetwater farms, honey bee, anything to do even with renewable energy we try and incorporate this into a big Earth Day event so we try and bring in vendors that sort of educate the public on these other options that are available. This event not only helped to educate local residence but also brought in revenue to the university, the city of Tampa, and all the local vendors whose goal is to go green. 11

Conclusion:
Three years ago students at the University of South Florida held a vote, a vote that decided whether or not to create the Student Green Energy Fund. The vote passed and over the last three years the Office of Sustainability, with the help of the Student Green Energy Fund at USF Tampa, has funded eighteen sustainability related programs. The Student Green Energy Fund has raised about one million dollars per year contributing a total budget of about three million dollars. Every program funded is decided by the Student Green Energy Fund council and contributes to the main goal of the program, which is reducing USFs carbon footprint within so many The office of sustainability has a real presence on and off the USF campus and has received international recognitions for its contributions to promote a greener community. Now as the end of a three years comes to a close the USF students will have a big decision to make, those decisions include the future of the sustainability program and the future of the Student Green Energy Fund. USF sustainability program coordinator Shawna Neckar believes strongly in the program and believes the students do as well, Just based on enrollment in our program we can see that students are really interested in making this a point in the future. That this is something that is real and can provide them with great jobs going forward and long term careers. The Student Green Energy Fund has made USF one of greenest schools in the nation making the campus and the future of USF a more desirable place to live and receive an education. The USF students should support the sustainability years.

program to help maintain USFs position as a green school as the new generation will be even more involved than the current college students, We have partnerships with k-12 schools and kids are really enthusiastic, I mean they realize what needs to be done and they are just really fantastic the kids. With the help of the Student Green Energy Fund when the time comes for some of these children to apply for colleges USFs carbon footprint will be amongst the lowest in the nation. The USF campus itself will be miles ahead of universities without a sustainability program. USF will have the ability to offer amenities to students making their lifes easier and more enjoyable, and the future generations will strive and be proud to call themselves a USF Bull.

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Glossary of Terms: Campus and Community Sustainability Conference The Campus and Community Sustainability Conference is an annual conference that brings together Florida campuses, businesses, and communities to discuss their experiences with sustainable practices. Carbon Footprint The amount of carbon related compounds emitted from a specific source. Earth Day Earth Day is a globally celebrated holiday that takes place on April 22nd, and promotes sustainable practices and environmental awareness. Going Green Movement The Going Green Movement is a movement within politics and beliefs that pushes for sustainable use of resources and the environment. Sustainability Sustainability is the practice of using resources in a way that keeps the resources in existence and from being completely used up.

Annotated Bibliography:
Chachere, Vickie. Sustainability Gold. USF News. University of South Florida, February 7th, 2011. Web. November 19th, 2013. This USF News article discusses how USF has been recognized and awarded by several sustainable competitions and ranking systems. It discusses USFs progress toward its sustainable goals, and compares it to other organizations and universities. It also mentions how USF has been recognized for its sustainability. Thurston, Susan. Zimride Gives Carpooling a Boost at USF. Tampa Bay Times. Tampa Bay Times, December 2nd, 2010. Web. November 19th, 2013. This article from the Tampa Bay Times, offers information on USFs participation in Zimride, a website that helps those such as students find an organize carpooling partners. The article also discusses how USF has promoted both students and faculty to use sustainable transportation options. It gives a list of sustainable transportation options offered on USFs multiple campuses. Williams, Alex. Buying Into the Green Movement. The New York Times. The New York Times Company, July 1st, 2007. Web. November 19th, 2013. This article offers information on the origins of the environmental movement, and the current environmental movement status. It mentions common activities and methods that those who follow the environmental movement complete. It discusses the popularity of such sustainable things as solar panels and recycled objects, and the impact these things have on both the environment and the goals of the movement. It also discusses new sustainable actions that should be taken in the future.

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Timeline: The Modern Environmental Movement. PBS. WGBH Educational Foundation, n.d. Web. November 19th, 2013. This PBS webpage offers a timeline of major events in the U.S. environmental movement. It discusses environmental legislation, leaders, and publications. It lists the events in chronological order, and provides a paragraph explaining each event. It also shows how one event led to another, or how one event has been influenced by another. A Brief History of the Modern Green Movement in America. WebEcoist. TotallyHer Media, n.d. Web. November 19th, 2013. This webpage offers information on the origins of the environmental movement and major events that have occurred. It discusses the main philosophies that started the environmental movement, and the main people who influenced the environmental movement. It also discusses environmental legislation, leaders, and publications. History of Environmentalism FeelFriendly. FeelFriendly, n.d. Web. November 19th, 2013. This webpage offers information on the origins of the environmental movement and major events that have occurred. It discusses international events that have occurred which have led to the continuation of the environmental movement. It discusses environmental legislation, leaders, and publications. The Office of Sustainability at USF. Patel College of Global Sustainability. University of South Florida, n.d. Web. November 19th, 2013. The Patel College of Global Sustainabilitys The Office of Sustainability at USF webpage offers information on the sustainable goals of USF and where it sits in the environmental movement. It discusses what USF has done to promote sustainability, and what actions USF has taken in such aspects as construction, transportation, and student life in order to be more sustainable

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Sustainability Challenge. USF News. University of South Florida, March 19th, 2012. Web. November 19th, 2013. This USF News article discusses USFs participation in sustainable competitions and challenges. It discusses USFs progress toward its sustainable goals, and compares it to other organizations and universities. It also mentions how USF has been recognized for its sustainability. Green Building. Patel College of Global Sustainability. University of South Florida, n.d. Web. November 19th, 2013. The Patel College of Global Sustainabilitys Green Building webpage offers a large amount of information on the current and future architecture of USF campuses. The webpage gives information on different campus buildings, which have been renovated or built with sustainable technologies such as solar panels, low-flush toilets, and efficient roofs. The webpage also discuses the schools conservative use of construction materials, and recycling of unneeded materials. The webpage mentions USFs sustainable architectural goals for future construction plans, as well. "Campus and Community Sustainability Conference." Campus and Community Sustainability Conference RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. This website offers information on the Campus and Community Sustainability conference. It discusses the goals of the conference, and the participants and sponsors. It offers links to past presentations and topics that have been discussed at the conference, and discusses how the conference has impacted the community.

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Work Cited:
Chachere, Vickie. Sustainability Gold. USF News. University of South Florida, February 7th, 2011. Web. November 19th, 2013. Thurston, Susan. Zimride Gives Carpooling a Boost at USF. Tampa Bay Times. Tampa Bay Times, December 2nd, 2010. Web. November 19th, 2013. Williams, Alex. Buying Into the Green Movement. The New York Times. The New York Times Company, July 1st, 2007. Web. November 19th, 2013. Timeline: The Modern Environmental Movement. PBS. WGBH Educational Foundation, n.d. Web. November 19th, 2013. A Brief History of the Modern Green Movement in America. WebEcoist. TotallyHer Media, n.d. Web. November 19th, 2013. History of Environmentalism FeelFriendly. FeelFriendly, n.d. Web. November 19th, 2013. The Office of Sustainability at USF. Patel College of Global Sustainability. University of South Florida, n.d. Web. November 19th, 2013. Sustainability Challenge. USF News. University of South Florida, March 19th, 2012. Web. November 19th, 2013. Green Building. Patel College of Global Sustainability. University of South Florida, n.d. Web. November 19th, 2013. Campus and Community Sustainability Conference. Campus and Community Sustainability Conference RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. November 18th, 2013.

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