2015

Dr. Tobienne Jr. – ENC3250 Professional

Writing

Sustainable Superheroes

Brian Quinn

Alexander Reams

Luis Reyes-Cruz

11/27/15

Sustainability and Student Life USFSP

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Contents

Executive Summary ........................................................... 2

Introduction ........................................................................ 3

Transportation .................................................................... 4

Green Purchasing ............................................................... 6

Water Efficiency ................................................................ 7

Green Buildings ................................................................. 9

Conclusion ....................................................................... 11

Glossary of Terms: ........................................................... 13

Annotated Bibliography ................................................... 14

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Executive Summary

The University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus, which is a member of multiple

groups that promote sustainability including the Association of Advancement of

Sustainability in Higher Education, U.S. Green Building Council, and is a signatory of

the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment has seen many

improvements over last few years that support the environmental changes needed to keep

the campus as sustainable as possible. This report will provide information showing these

changes of sustainability on campus through research and data collected through the

internet on how sustainability has helped improve the overall carbon footprint of the

USFSP campus. The results of the report show that the sustainability improvements done

on campus have improved the environmental impact the campus has made on campus as

well as the surrounding metropolis. The positive results of this report show that

sustainability can be achieved through commitment to a cause worth being committed to.

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Introduction

Sustainability has been a hot topic of interest in for the last few decades, but we have

seen an explosive growth in its interest because of the effects of poor environmental care

from the past are now being realized. With interest from the government and with the

help of the student body USFSP has become an example to other schools across the

country that it is possible to build a functional campus for learning while utilizing the

resources around it and preserving the community as well through sustainable practices.

In this report you will learn what USFSP has done to become the leader and set the bar

for other campuses to become sustainable and leave the smallest carbon footprint possible

so future generations of students will be able to enjoy the campus and surrounding areas

of St. Petersburg just as we have. In this document we will focus on six different areas

that the campus has been improving in order to meet the requirements of being a green

campus.

Climate & Energy

Waste

Water

Transportation

Green Buildings

Green Purchasing

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– Bikes, EV’s, Ride Sharing Transportation

How does one get to campus? Well if you are one of the approximately 5,000 students

that attend USFSP there are many options to choose from! If you are one of the fairly

close students to the campus or if you live on the campus, the most economical and green

choice is a bicycle. With the campus starting a bike share program in January of 2015,

students can borrow a bicycle for 24 hours to enjoy the city or commute to and from

class. The bikes can be borrowed by any USF student with an ID. Since the adoption of

the bike share program, the program has been praised by students. Not only is the

program great for students who are local to the area but many have limited student

incomes and cannot afford bicycles to get around the city or campus. The project has

been dubbed Bike-A-Bull and is modeled after USF Tampa’s Share-A-Bull bicycle share

program.

Bicycles in

St.Petersburg are

seen everywhere

with so much, so

close, biking is

definitely the most

efficient way to get

around town.

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With electric vehicles

sales rising tremendously

over the last 10 years, it’s

only fair to encourage

those with these amazing

vehicles to feel as though

they are special and to

make their support for a

sustainable world as easy as possible. USFSP decided to support those vehicle owners by

installing an electric charging station on campus. Boasting two 240 watt charging

stations, electric vehicle owners can now charge their vehicles while studying at the

library, attending a class, or renting one of the St. Pete campus sailboats. The future is

here and USFSP is ready to support the use of these very unique vehicles by also

providing parking for low emissions vehicles.

For those who do not have their own personal vehicles or bicycles to travel to and from

work from campus or home, USFSP has you covered! One of the best perks to being a

St.Petersburg student living near the USFSP campus is the Bulls U-Pass Program. The U-

Pass Program provides students with availability to public transport by bus with no cost

to them. By providing students with a universal pass, St. Pete students have the ability to

travel around town at no cost. This is a major benefit financially for students as well as it

being a win for the environment by taking more vehicles off the road.

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– Upholding our Commitment Green Purchasing

USFSP is committed to procuring

green resources and making sure

that all new construction will meet

specific requirements of being a

sustainable energy efficient

building. By purchasing Energy

Star appliances and ensuring

buildings meet a minimum of silver

LEED certification levels. One of

the major projects that the campus

has done to meet the criteria of this

sought after certification is installing a photovoltaic array on campus that absorbs energy

from the abundance of sunshine in Florida. Another ways that we have upheld our

commitment to the ACUPCC is by establishing a green purchasing program for

appliances used for the campus. With these commitments fulfilled our carbon footprint is

guaranteed less impactful than colleges not committed.

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Water Efficiency

At the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, water efficiency is among their top

priorities. Two buildings at USFSP have earned LEED points for having water efficient

landscaping, innovative wastewater technologies, and water use reduction. These

buildings are the Science and Technology and University Student Center. Receiving

LEED points is a prestigious honor that not many colleges can say they have. The

students see how serious the university takes this so they contribute their parts by using

the new water fountains around campus that save not only water but also plastic because

they let you reuse the bottle. Instead of wasting water while trying to refill your bottle

with the water going everywhere, the new water fountains have a special place for used

bottles that dispense new clean water directly down into the bottle, which saves you from

having to aim it. On the top of the water fountain has a number that shows how many

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gallons of water have been saved by using this feature. Also from visually surveying a

large amount of students on campus, many of them are starting to take recycling

seriously. Bottles are being throwing into the blue recycling bins and people are throwing

their trash into the garbage cans and not on the floor.

There are many clubs at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg that people can

join if they are interested in water conservation or even ocean water clubs. It is a great

way to get out into the community and raise awareness about the problems the

environment is facing and how the community can do their part to help also.

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Green Buildings

The Science and Technology building at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg

was the first building to

become a LEED Certified

Gold Building at the

university. Some main

green features include

construction pollution

reduction, close proximity

to public transportation,

bicycle storage, preferred parking for low-emitting and fuel efficient vehicles, storm

water runoff that limits pollution of natural water flows, water reduction for efficient

landscaping, and many more. One requirement for becoming LEED certified is to have

10% of materials used in the building come from within 500 miles of the building

location.

The second LEED certified building at

USFSP is the University Student Center.

They received their Gold certification in

the Fall of 2014. Some interesting green

features include roof that reduces urban

heat island effect, 20% recycled content

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used in building material, environmental tobacco smoke control, outdoor air delivery

monitoring and thermal comfort. Students can feel the good energy when they are helping

the environment and personally the sustainable superhero’s think it is contagious.

Along with being LEED certified, the

University of South Florida St. Petersburg is a

part of two other special organizations, the first

being the Association for the Advancement of

Sustainability of Higher Education. This organization is a prestigious group that of

universities that come together for the betterment of the environment. Also many

businesses are partners with the AASHE to ensure their customers that they are

conduction business in the most environmentally friendly way possible. The second is the

Signatory of American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. They

strive to help build a sustainable and positive global future through leadership networks

in higher education. The guidance and tools campus leaders need to implement the

Climate Leadership Commitments can be found here as well as many leadership

networks for people who want to make a change.

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Conclusion

USFSP has many jobs and internships available for students that are interested in helping

our environment. Without everyone’s help all this work will not be useful in years to

come. USFSP is committed to helping our environment in any way they can and are

showing this by investing large amounts of capital into these projects. Hopefully in the

near future many other universities will notice how much of a change we are making here

at USFSP to our community and our environment and want to do the same to theirs. We

are innovators here and want to make a change in how people treat our earth.

The best part about “going green” is that we are not asking for people’s money or for

people to donate to anything. We simply want the community to come together and make

a change for not only us, but for them as well. If adults see college students caring more

about the environment then they are, most adults will gradually start to make a change

because people see college students as intelligent individuals. The sustainable

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superheroes are only a small group of individuals that are trying to make a change but

without the help of everyone else we will not be able to succeed. The University of South

Florida is serious about their “going green” movement and hopes that all of the student

body will be as well. Together we will keep this earth beautiful for many generations to

come.

The Bulls are ready to tackle this task.

Are YOU?

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Glossary of Terms:

Sustainability: is an international, cross-disciplinary, scholarly

and open access journal of environmental, cultural, economic, and

social sustainability of human beings.

Carbon footprint: The total amount of greenhouse gases

produced to directly and indirectly support human activities,

usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Bulls U-Pass Program: Students, faculty and staff can ride any of

200 Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) busses – for free.

USFSP riders may now simply show their University ID card when

boarding the bus.

PV array (Photovoltaic array): An interconnected system of

photovoltaic modules that function as a single electricity-

producing unit. In smaller systems, an array can consist of a single

module.

Urban heat island effect: The Urban Heat Island Effect (UHI) is a

phenomenon whereby the concentration of structures and waste

heat from human activity (most notably air conditioners and

internal combustion engines) results in a slightly warmer envelope

of air over urbanized areas when compared to surrounding rural

areas.

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Annotated Bibliography

"NASPO Green Purchasing Guide." NASPO Green Purchasing Guide. N.p., May 2014.

Web. 02 Nov. 2015.

The NASPO Green Purchasing Guide will be used as a resource for researching green

purchasing. This guide outlines what is involved with making green purchases and what

defines them as green purchases. State procurement officials use these guidelines to assist

them in what is eligible as a “green purchase” for states. Procurement specialists for the

state have to follow certain criteria for the procurement they do, this guide will provide

us with information on how the campus has made decisions on green purchasing.

"Sustainability | Transportation." Sustainability. Web. 3 Nov. 2015.

USFSP has multiple ways that the campus’s transportation has become greener from

public transportation to electric charging stations. The USFSP website will be a great

source to research what exactly has been done on campus to be more sustainable. The

USF website will also potentially lead me to other cites where additional research can be

found about ways campuses can reduce emissions.

“Water Efficiency.” Sustainability Web. 3 Nov. 2015.

The University of South Florida St. Pete campus is dedicated to preserving water in as

many ways as possible. Two buildings on the St. Pete campus have eanred LEED points

for having water efficient land scaping, innovative water waste technology, and water use

reduction properties. LEED certification is something USF wants to be a leader in. This

website will show me many great features about how the campus saves water.

“Green Buildings.” Sustainability. Web. 3 Nov. 2015.

The University of South Florida St. Pete campus currently has two LEED certified

buildings and is currently building another. This website will show me all the green

features about this building and how those features play an important role. It also has a

link to the LEED certification website so show what needs to be done to meet these

requirements. Having LEED certified buildings is a great thing for USF to boast about

and hopefully more school will follow in their footsteps.

Cash, j. (2010, may 5). USF One of Nation's Top Green Colleges. tampa , florida, united

states .Sachiko Sakamuro, K. S. (2015, 01 15). White Paper: Purpose and Audience.

The USF One of Nation’s Top Green college article, will be used for research. In this

article we can find what USF been doing throughout the years to become one of the

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Nation’s Top Green Colleges. The article mentions the requirement to become a Green

School and how USF met them.

(Sachiko Sakamuro, 2015)

ReferencesSachiko Sakamuro, K. S. (2015, 01 15). White Paper: Purpose and

Audience.

The White Paper: Purpose and Audience article, is being used to have a better

understating of what a white paper is. The article goes over the different uses of the white

paper and its audience. Is a really good article to have a background of the white paper.