University of South Florida Going Green By: DREAM GREEN

Grady Bonfield Liridon Gjeloshi Betsy Clary

For: Dr. Francis Tobienne, Jr. Professional Writing ENC3250.791F13 November 29, 2013

Table of Contents
Introduction Eco-Friendly Commuting Benefits Students New Science and Technology Building Pre-College Global Sustainability Program USFs Push For Student Recycling Conclusion Annotated Bibliography Works Cited Glossary 1 2 3 4 5 6 7-8 9 10

Introduction

The Introduction To The Green Movement At USF

In the past two decades USF has made significant strides in their sustainability initiative. Not only does the college itself take initiative in going green but they also allow for many student-run initiatives to be successful in their efforts as well.

Some of the first green initiative projects started by USF were planting over 2000 new trees, adding new bike lanes in order to provide a safe alternative to automobiles as a way to get to class, and by providing a free off-campus shuttle system that uses biofuel technology.

Eco-Friendly Commuting Also Benefits Students USFs Push Toward Eco-Friendly Commuting Also Benefits Students Thanks to the green push at USF, new and efficient programs will be available to benefit the students while benefiting the green movement. Two new programs were introduced by the dean for the College of Sustainability, a new school created by USF to cover new ground in the green effort for generations to come.
The Expansion of Bike Sharing

One of the ideas mentioned, and currently being implemented, was a bike-sharing program for students. The program will give students access to up to 100 new GPS-enabled bikes that can be used to travel across the large campus. It has become a known fact to students around USF Tampa that the easiest way to travel across campus was to use your car. This new program hopes to halt this issue, which will help lower auto emissions across campus by students traversing between classes. The program is an expansion of the current Borrow Our Bikes program, but adds significant changes that should entice more students to begin using bikes more often across campus. For example, a 24-hour checkout system and more bike banks throughout the campus to return bicycles to will make using a bike an even more viable option. With a new trend of bicycles being used on campus, the College of Sustainability hopes to ride the wave and get students on to the bike program. So far, the program has been funded to be able to operate for at least one year, and the school hopes it will be a success and carry into the future. The program has received over $300,000 from the Student Green Energy Fund, and hopes to launch by spring or summer semester of 2014.

The expansion of USFs bike-sharing program will be ready by Spring 2014

Smart Parking Project

While helping students get to campus with the bike-sharing program, the College of Sustainability plans to simultaneously help students arriving in their vehicles on campus. The school is currently working with third party developers to create a mobile application for students to access. The app will hold important information for students to access regarding traffic around campus. For example, a real time shuttle tracker for students is planned. There are also plans to implement traffic information pertaining to the campus parking garages, including electronic signs posted above the major garages. This project, dubbed the smart parking project, plans to launch some time next year. USF plans to conduct a study pre-program and post-program

New Science and Technology Building Is The Future Analyzing the statistics to see how successful the program is. The project has received over $250,000 from the Student Green Energy Fund. While these new ideas become implemented, the school is also continuing its carsharing program. This program allows students the opportunity to rent a car for a low hourly payment. The cars are hybrids, and can be rented by students who are in need of a car. This is a favorable alternative for students who do not want to deal with the large payments of a regular rental company. These companies charge underage fees to the same demographic as the majority of students attending USF. The school plans to expand its car-sharing program, as it has been a success since its implementation. New Science and Technology Building Is The Future The construction of the new Science and Technology building at the USF St. Petersburg campus gained new traction in the green movement. In 2010, the building received a gold rating for its LEED certification. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) recognizes buildings that have been constructed to be environmentally responsible. During the buildings construction, over 85% of the waste created was recycled instead of disposed to a landfill. This equated to over 1,100 tons of waste recycled rather than wasted.

The new Science and Technology building at USF St. Pete will save $80,000 annually in energy costs

Pre-College Global Sustainability Program Brings Awareness

The building is projected to save close to $80,000 in energy costs thanks to the different designs implemented to the building. For example, an insulated roof as well as heat-decreasing glass will help lower the cost of air conditioning throughout the year. The inclusion of improved water fixtures will serve as a major saver in water costs. The fixtures are projected to lower usage by 50%, which equates to nearly 90,000 gallons of water saved per year. In total, the cost of construction was twelve million dollars. In its grand opening for the semester, the building held 76 classes. While the building will save enormous amounts of money and help assist the green effort by USF, it is doing even more for students. The new classrooms included inside the building are significantly improved, with technological improvements including smart monitors. The building also houses 13 labs as well as 8 classrooms. Pre-College Global Sustainability Program Brings Awareness To Students Early In 2012, the College of Global Sustainability launched the PreCollege Global Sustainability Program, available to local high school juniors and seniors. The program, which spans ten days during the summer, gets teens familiar with various sustainability careers found in different career paths. These programs send teens to several different sustainable centered locations throughout the Tampa Bay area, including aquatic preserves and Tampa International Airport. While on these trips, students document their experiences in their respective daily blogs. During class lectures, students get their hands dirty with in-class experiments. In an engineering lab, students created water filters while exploring the topic of water sanitation and filtration. Program planner Bessie Skoures said the goal was to get the next generation interested in sustainability issues, and it is off to a great start. Just this past summer, attendance for the Global Sustainability program has reached over 150 students.
Local high school students attend a wildlife trip to a small island off Seminole Bay

USFs Push For Student Recycling USFs Push For Student Recycling USF students have also made efforts in going green by promoting recycling and compost programs in dorms. Recycling has become a university wide standard. The college has green recycle bins next to most garbage bins and some students even take the initiative to go through garbages to pull out the recyclables and put them in their designated recycle bins. One dorm on USFs Tampa campus took the green initiative so far as to run a compost pile instead of having a trash bin for their dorm. up new recycling bins or fund a new research project when looking for new ways to go green. The decision was passed in 2011 by the student body with a whopping 70% approval.
An Eco-Friendly Change To-Go

USF is also going the extra mile with involving their campus restaurants. A new policy replaces the default Styrofoam to-go boxes with plastic, reusable to-go boxes. These new containers will require a $4 refundable deposit and, the student can choose to return the container for the refund or keep it for themselves. This will hope to drive down waste on campus, considering the fact that over 200,000 to-go boxes were thrown away on campus within a year. Thus far, USF is estimated to have saved over 500,000 containers from reaching landfills. This is just another example of how USF is becoming ecofriendly through its students. So far, the new policy seems to be a success to the environment and for students.
ConservaBull Challenges Students

USF is dropping Styrofoam for an eco-friendly alternative

Students also make the financial sacrifice every semester by paying a fee that goes to the colleges green initiative funds. This money is used to pay for anything the school does in its efforts to go green whether it be put

The college also has a program they call ConservaBull in which they lay out challenges for students to be green. One of which was a challenge for students living in dorms to cut back on their energy usage on campus. In doing so they were able to save 216,820 kilowatt hours of power which is enough power to get to and from Orlando approximately 600 times according to the Sustain-A-Bull website. In order to further the progress of this initiative the college announced that it would be holding a competition second semester to see which dorm hall would be able to have

Conclusion the largest increase the percentage of energy saved when compared to their first semester numbers. Once a dorm hall is picked they announced that they will then hold a raffle for a new iPod Nano which will only include the names of students residing in the winning hall.

No Slowing Down In USFs Future

For over a decade, USF has made significant strides to be an impactful factor in the green movement. The school continues to expand its environmental programs and raise awareness among the school and communities. Thanks to the large investments to the Patel College of Global Sustainability, future projects are under way for students to take advantage of. USF hopes to be the most green-friendly school in the nation, and they are on the right track with the numerous programs currently in action.

You may visit the Patel College of Global Sustainability at http://sgs.usf.edu/ for more information on the efforts USF is making to expand its global sustainability cause.

Annotated Bibliography

Gadsden, Sandra. "New Science and Technology Building Helps Transform USF St. Petersburg." Tampa Bay Times. N.p., 23 Jan. 2010. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. Gadsden wrote an informative article that covers a number of interesting facts from the construction of the new building. This piece helped give an in depth look into the many accomplishments made with the buildings construction. Gadsden does an excellent job digging up all of the great facts, which became handy during the research process.

Miller, Daylina. "USF Offers Bike-Share Program." - University of South Florida. N.p., 19 Jan. 2011. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. This article gave insight into the new bike sharing program, and the mechanics on how it will be successful. The author did a great job familiarizing the reader with the program by discussing its history and how it plans to improve on it. This was a major contribution to the writing involved with the commuting areas of the white paper.

Roldan, Roberto. "New Green Programs to save Drivers' Time." The Oracle: University of South Florida. N.p., 5 Nov. 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. This article was also a contributor to the commuting areas of the white paper. Roldan wrote an excellent article highlighting the current troubles with commuting to the USF campus, and the future endeavors of the school to improve these issues. Roldan digs up a number of interesting facts, including the total investments into the project.

Cash, Jacqui. "USF One of Nation's Top Green Colleges." - University of South Florida. N.p., 5 May 2010. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. This article highlights USFs efforts in going green by announcing that they have made the Princeton Reviews guide to the greenest colleges. It goes further into detail by discussing rankings and special events that the university holds in order to promote a green life. It also discusses the awards the college has won and the accomplishments of groups inside the college. Miller, Daylina. "Sustainability Film Festival." - University of South Florida. N.p., 4 May 2010. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. This article discusses how students at the University of South Florida are now using video diaries and school projects to show and promote the green initiative happening around the campus. These projects will promote the green initiative as well as inform people about things that they can do in order to help keep the university green.

Annotated Bibliography

Rogers, Jesse. "USF Is Taking Green to a Whole New Level, out with Styrofoam, in with Reusable to Go Boxes." WFTS. N.p., 8 July 2011. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. This article discusses the changes being made at USFs dining halls in order to take part in the green movement happening on campus. They have discontinued wasting food and water and got rid of the Styrofoam to-go boxes and switched over to a reusable to-go box. The reusable to-go box has become a part of the meal plan in which the students pay a deposit for a reusable plastic container which they can reuse and at the end of the semester turn back in to be reimbursed their deposit. By doing this, USF has decreased the amount of waste we add to landfills every year. Sustainable Endowments Institute. The College Sustainability Report Card. N.d. Web. 2011. This website is an annual report card for the green initiative of a university. They show that the University of South Florida has improved since last year. The report card goes into detailed grading of things such as: recycling, energy change, efforts by administration, buildings, transportation, efforts by the students, and shareholder involvement to name a few. University of South Florida. Physical Plant. N.p. Web. 2009. This website goes into specific detail in a factual manner about the many ways that USF is making an effort to go green. They discuss everything from recycling, to energy conservation, water conservation, and even pollution prevention methods used by the university.

Works Cited

Works Cited
Cash, Jacqui. "USF One of Nation's Top Green Colleges." - University of South Florida. N.p., 5 May 2010. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.

Gadsden, Sandra. "New Science and Technology Building Helps Transform USF St. Petersburg." Tampa Bay Times. N.p., 23 Jan. 2010. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. Kavanaugh, Missy. "Development News." 83Degrees. N.p., 18 May 2010. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. Miller, Daylina. "Sustainability Film Festival." - University of South Florida. N.p., 4 May 2010. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. Miller, Daylina. "USF Offers Bike-Share Program." - University of South Florida. N.p., 19 Jan. 2011. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.

Rogers, Jesse. "USF Is Taking Green to a Whole New Level, out with Styrofoam, in with Reusable to Go Boxes." WFTS. N.p., 8 July 2011. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. Roldan, Roberto. "New Green Programs to save Drivers' Time." The Oracle: University of South Florida. N.p., 5 Nov. 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. "Strategic Initiatives." Sustain-A-Bull USF. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. "Sustainability Programs and Initiatives at USF and around the World." Patel School of Global Sustainability RSS. N.p., 3 July 2012. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. "Sustainability Programs and Initiatives at USF and around the World." Patel School of Global Sustainability RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. Wolfe, Melissa. "Sustainable Thinking." - University of South Florida. N.p., 28 June 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013

Glossary

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Glossary
Borrow Our Bikes Program a program that allows USF students the ability to rent bikes to traverse the campus ConservaBull a program encouraging students to accomplish various eco-friendly challenges proposed periodically Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED) - a program that recognizes eco-friendly buildings, including a ratings system Patel College of Sustainability A school established by USF and funded by many investors to create new discoveries for eco-friendly programs Student Green Energy Fund approved by students, a special fee on student tuition that goes directly to the funds behind USFs environmental sustainability efforts

Glossary

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