Started From the Bottom

Now Were Green

ENC3250.798U15
Instructor: Dr. Tobienne
University South Florida
140 Seventh Avenue South
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
June 19, 2015

ThreesCompany FivesACrowd
Sheyla Rosales
Emilia Vellucci
David Seitz

Table of Contents
Introduction ......................................................................................................... 3
Executive Summary ............................................................................................ 4
Where it Started .................................................................................................. 4
The Present ......................................................................................................... 7
SGEF .................................................................................................................... 7
LEED Certification .............................................................................................. 8
Green Buildings ................................................................................................ 10
The Future ......................................................................................................... 12
Environment Fit................................................................................................. 13
Earth Tub ........................................................................................................... 13
Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 14
Glossary of Terms ............................................................................................ 15
Annotated Bibliography ................................................................................... 16

Introduction
The University of South Florida St. Petersburg wasnt always green. In fact,
before the signing of the American College and Universitys Presidents Climate
Commitment in April 2008, USFSP was just an ordinary small campus in St.
Petersburg, Florida. It wasnt until students with the mentally to give back to the
environment and with faculty who truly believed in giving back and doing the right
thing for the environment, that in 2008 the most important step for the University
of South Florida St. Petersburg was accomplished. Since then the University of
South Florida St. Petersburg has grown
tremendously. It has come a long way
from just planting trees and plants,
which of course they still do as well as
conducting clean ups. They have now
moved a step further by creating
student led organizations to creating funding and ideas as well as educating
students on the importance of the green movement and what they can do for the
environment. Over time the University of South Florida St. Petersburg has
become more than just a small college in St. Petersburg, Florida, it has become
the heart of the downtown area according to Judy Booth in her article The
Tampa Bay Green Living Examiner, for its tremendous growth. Since then the
University of South Florida St. Petersburg has won multiple awards and
continues to grow and prosper for the future to come.

Executive Summary
USFSP made a great decision by signing the American College and Universitys
Presidents Climate Commitment in April 2008. Since then, the program
established in the USFSP campus has only grown tremendously from where it
started, to where its current position stands, and where it is going in the future.
From environmentally friendly computing, to LEED certifications, priority parking
for low-emission vehicles, to the Green Energy Fund started by its very own
students. The Green movement here in USFSP has the potential to keep growing
over the future because of the passionate students and dedicated faculty who
made this all happened. The Science and Technology building constructed in
2010 made a record for USFSP becoming their first building to reach LEED
certified gold only making it a goal reached yet again for the University, only to
confirm that the faculty and USFSP students are truly for the environment and
doing whatever they can to help.
Where It Started
The University of South Florida St. Petersburg has come a long way from the
small college it used to be. Looking at the campus now students and faculty
members cant help but get a sense of pride ship and accomplishment on how
much their efforts have helped the campus to grow. It all started in 2010 when
Joseph Dorsey became the new Environmental Justice Ambassador. Dorsey
mainly focuses on environmental policy and its implications at local, regional,
national, and global levels. With such a passionate individual and guidance why
wouldnt the University Of South Florida St. Petersburg jump on board to excel
with their help in the environment? Dorsey becoming the new Environmental
4

Justice Ambassador was just a getaway for the University to start making some
changes. In 2011, three of the most influential organizations arose to change
USFSP towards a much greener approach. The gardening club started working
on their own project including a garden where students and/or faculty members
can plant something of their own. The garden has since grown to 19 full beds
and there next big step is to start experimenting with companion planting to
naturally repel pests. It would
also promote pollination and
increase crop production.
The garden club also
consists of a Bayboro
Garden House which is a
three part compost system
which breaks down organic
matter into viable nutrient rich soil. The Tavern at Bayboro donates their coffee
grounds and fish scraps for the garden to use as well.

Another Organization that aims to help the environment as much as they can is
the Student Environment Awareness (SEA). The organization promotes
awareness of environmental issues, outdoor activities, and taking steps towards
a greener campus, community and world. The organization who has made the
biggest impact thus far is the Student Green
Energy Fund. This organization gives the
students a voice on how their money can be
used and encourages them to bring
proposals to the board for changes they
might want to see. The funds are raised by taking one dollar per credit at USFSP
and adding it to the fund to fund future projects. Since the start of the Student
Green Energy Fund in 2011, the University of South Florida St. Petersburg has
gone through tremendous changes. In 2011, they started building electric
stations for electric powered vehicles to help promote the use of less gas
operated vehicles. These electric operated vehicles reduce the use of oil and
natural resources by using a rechargeable battery instead to power the vehicle.
Another great accomplishment for the University of South Florida was receiving
the reaffirmation from the commission, on colleges of the southern association, of
colleges and schools for their academic quality, student support, financial stability
and integrity.

The Present
The University of South Florida, Saint Petersburg campus has made
strides to become a more self-sufficient and green campus. They have made
changes to their campus that are helping to accomplish these goals every day.
The majority of these goals are accomplished because of students working every
day to ensure that the campus and college that they love is making changes to
be better. The majority of the funding for these changes is raised by the students
and distributed based on the decision of a board made up of 50%
students. Some of the important changes that they have made are creating two
completely green buildings on the campus, promoting reduce, reuse and
recycling and the student environmental awareness society even conducts
beach clean ups off campus to help keep the world clean. These projects and
more are all available on USF SP website under Green initiative. The list of
projects continues to grow by the year as the University strives towards its never
ending goal of improving the college in a greener direction.

SGEF
The University Of South Florida, Saint
Petersburg can credit the green work that
they have gotten done to the Student Green
Energy Fund (SGEF). The SGEF is a
committee of six students and four faculty
members that get together and decide where
to allocate the funds that are raised each
semester. Once a semester, groups or clubs from the school can pitch green
7

ideas to them and then they are voted on. The funds are taken out of every
student's tuition (one dollar per credit hour). This may not seem like a lot of
money but if you consider the fact that USF SP campus currently has around
4000 active students and each student takes between 6-15 credit hours a
semester. The amount of money raised per year can be almost 120,000 dollars.
One great thing about this fund is that the money can only be used for projects
that meet the committee's requirements. According to USF St. Petersburg
connect page the requirements for the project must promote sustainability,
reduce energy costs, promote power
generation, and mitigate all types of waste
and resource consumption, or lower gas
emissions. The best part about these
projects is that they ideas come directly from
the students and then the projects are used to further help the students. Some of
the more recent projects that the SGEF has funded are a hybrid truck that is
used by the students to carry their sailing equipment and in the gym there are
machines that are human operated, running solely on the calories burned during
an exercise. In order to get an inside view at the workings of SGEF we requested
an Interview with David Vasquez the head chair and Morgan Gonzales the vice
chair, however they were both unavailable to answers our questions.
LEED CERTIFICATION
The University of South Florida St Petersburg has made a commitment
now that will affect their future forever. They have committed to Establish a
policy that all new campus construction will be built to at least the U.S. Green
8

Building Councils LEED Silver standard or equivalent.(Sustainability |

Climate/Energy.)
What is LEED? What does is it stand for? LEED, or Leadership in Energy
& Environmental Design, is a green building certification program that recognizes
best-in-class building strategies and practices. To receive LEED certification,
building projects satisfy prerequisites and earn points to achieve different levels
of certification.(LEED | U.S. Green Building Council.) You may be wondering
now what is involved to become a silver certification, how many types of
certification are there, and what do they base this on? The LEED rating system
offers four certification levels for
new construction -- Certified,
Silver, Gold and Platinum -- that
correspond to the number of
credits accrued in five green design
categories: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials
and resources and indoor environmental quality. (NRDC: Building Green - LEED
Certification Information.)
There is so much thought that must go into a LEED building before the
construction process is ever started. The building site and construction materials
must be carefully planned and selected to make sure the end product is qualified
for certification. While that process is going on the fixtures for lighting and
plumbing must also meet a certain standard for the consideration. It also doesnt
stop once the project is completed but has to be maintained with environmentally
friendly products (i.e. cleaning products).
9

Green Buildings
The University of South Florida, Saint Petersburg campus currently has
two green buildings on site, the Science and Technology building and the
University Student Center.
Throughout the production of these
two buildings they used materials that
would promote the reduce, reuse
recycle lifestyle for many years to
come. One of the great ideas that
they had was to use recycled
materials in the actual construction of the buildings. According to an article about
the buildings on USF St. Petersburg website 20% Recycled Content used in
building materials. This means that out of the hundreds of materials necessary
to build a structure of this size, they made sure to use recycled materials when
they could. This goes along with the University's principles and proves that they
are not only working towards becoming more economically friendly but have
been working on it since they started the construction. Along with the recycled
material they also managed to bring in between 10-20% of the building material
from within 500 miles of the school. This is an important factor because when
Science and Technology

University Student Center

35,000 square feet

81,000 square feet

Two stories

Six-story residence hall

$12 million dollar

$20 Million dollar

10

materials are used within a close proximity there is a reduction in moving waste.
There is less need for planes, trains and cars the get the material to the site and
thus a reduction in air pollution

Another green feature that these buildings contain is a runoff water

management plan. Runoff water also known as Storm water is basically the
water that comes directly from the sky. This does not include anything other than
water. In fact, there are some instances where Storm water runoff drains are
being polluted because people allow trash and other non-water materials to go
into it. Some people may not realize that in a storm water runoff system the water
that goes down these drains goes directly into a nearby lake. The University of
South Florida has come up with a list of rules and policies involving their storm
water runoff system to ensure it is only being used for its intended purpose. An
illicit discharge according to the University of South Floridas storm water policy
is when you use the drain for some other purpose, including but not limited to
water from washing cars, pressure systems that contain chemical agents and
any sort of runoff that contains materials other than H20. These policies help to
ensure that the good that USF is doing by having these storm water runoff drains
is not disrupted by any contamination.

USFSP has built two building on their campus that are both LEED certified
Gold. Those two building are the Science and Technology building (STG) and
University Student Center (USC). This was a great opportunity for the school to
take on this type of commitment. USFSP has been able to save cost by being
more energy and water efficient by implementing the LEED designs that focus on
11

efficiency in those areas, while also eliminating some of its carbon footprint.
The University of South Florida tries to follow the 3 Rs of Environmental
friendliness, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. One of the big changes that they
created in order to reduce paper waste is the USFSP Digital Archive. The Digital
Archive is composed of journals, conferences, presentations, and articles that all
the students, faculty and professors have access too. By allowing all the material
to be available online there is no need to have physical copies and therefore,
there is a reduction in the amount of paper used.
Future
USFSP is currently constructing a new building called The Kate Tiedemann
College of Business, which has plans to be 68,000 square feet state of the art
structure, and will stand four stories. With plans to be LEED Green Certification
as well will help the College with saving on utility cost and grow in it future efforts
with its green initiative.

The Student Green Energy Fund is also looking to better the future of USFSP
with its proposed projects. Currently SGEF has five proposed projects it hopes
will be funded to better our campus here we will take a look at a few.

12

Environment Fit
Is a proposed project from Kaitlin McKeever, which would make a difference in
the USFSP gym. There are two goals for this project One; to replace all the
florescent light bulbs with LED

Florescent
Light Bulbs
11,076

lights, and secondly to replace

V.S.

Total Watts Consumed

Now:
the older cardio
Cost Per Year:
$5,660
Total Savings per year:
equipment that use 21-23 amps
Project & Installation Cost
Return on Investment:
of electricity with newer machines
("EnvironmentallyFriendlyGym.")
made from recycled product that also use less energy about 3 amps. The

diagram below shows the saving of the light bulb replacement with the initial
costs to make the project a reality.
Earth Tub
Composting is a process of organic
material decomposing to becoming soil.
This soil is found to be more nutrient
rich and great landscaping. Audrey
Goeckner has proposed that USFSP
invest in an Earth Tub, which is an
onsite composting tub. There are many benefits to composting because it can
turn yard waste and unused or by products of food into a useful material. The
landscaping around campus is beautiful, and Im sure there is money spent on
keeping the campus looking the way it does with green grass and blooming
plants. This project gives USFSP to use it lawn clipping, leaves, and other yard

13

LED
Lights
4,206
$2,254
$3,406
$32,000
9.5 years

waste along with foods that will go unused or the byproducts of some foods such
as apple cores or banana peels. There is a great deal of support behind this
project from the garden club and the Environmental Science and Sustainability
Club.
Conclusion
The University of South Florida St Petersburg started out as any other college or
institution, but it has grown into so much more. USFSP has really taken the going
green initiative and ran with it from starting student lead organizations to making
a difference with its carbon footprint. Were reminded of the saying every little bit
helps, and they have shown just how much that little bit does.

14

Glossary of Terms
Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED) is a green building
program that certifies based on points building strategies and planning.
Runoff is the draining away for rain water.
Student Environment Awareness (SEA) - The organization promotes
awareness of environmental issues, outdoor activities, and taking steps towards
a greener campus, community and world.
Student Green Energy Fund is a fund that is financed through a nominal fee
added on to credit hours, which allows student organized projects to be funded.
Storm Water is water either collected from rain fall or an abundance of surface
water from rain fall.

15

Annotated Bibliography
Editorials@crowsneststpete.com. USFSP Green Movement Guidelines for
making campus more eco-friendly could push the University 2015 Web
http://crowsneststpete.com/2012/01/25/usfsp-should-sign-commitment-to-gogreen-guidelines-for-making-campus-more-eco-friendly-could-push-theuniversity/
The editors for the Crows Nest for the University of South Florida St. Pete
Campus state in there article why its a good idea for USFSP to continue their
push towards sustainability by signing the American College and University
Presidents Climate Commitment. They believe that the universities that sign it
agree to form a climate action plan to help further the goal of reducing
greenhouse gas emissions. Its a commitment they strongly believe would
benefit both the campus and the environment.
Booth, Judy USF St. Petersburg: Changing the future by becoming LEED now
Tampa Bay Green Living Examiner Web http://www.examiner.com/article/usf-stpetersburg-changing-the-future-by-becoming-leed-now
The author for Examiner.com congratulates USFSP for the opening of their new
LEED gold building. Being the first building for USFSP to achieve the gold status,
it could only mean that USFSP made a good decision with the going green
movement and that they are for helping the environment the best they can.
"Sustainability | Green Buildings." Sustainability. Web. 16 June 2015. .
This is a page solely dedicated to talking about the green initiative at USFSP.
This page talks about the specific things that are green in two buildings on the
colleges campus.
"Green Initiatives." Undergraduate Admissions. Web. 16 June 2015.
http://www.usfsp.edu/undergrad/green/
This page is a list of all the ways that the university is going green.
Hixson, Carol. "Going Green: Supporting Student Research and Scholarship
through the USFSP Digital Archive." 19 Apr. 2012. Web. 16 June 2015.
http://131.247.118.4/xmlui/handle/10806/4508
This is a presentation that discusses how USFSP going green is good for the
environment. Specifically how they manage to save paper waste.

16

"Sustainability | SGEF." Sustainability. Web. 16 June 2015.

http://www.usfsp.edu/sustainability/sgef/
This site offers the main purpose of the going green fund and the two people in
charge of the fund. One of which we have contacted.
"LEED | U.S. Green Building Council." LEED | U.S. Green Building Council. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 14 June 2015.
< http://www.usgbc.org/leed>
With this publication we were able to get a clear understand of what LEED is and
what it stands for.
"NRDC: Building Green - LEED Certification Information." NRDC: Building Green
- LEED Certification Information. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 June 2015.
< http://www.nrdc.org/buildinggreen/leed.asp>
The author of this publication helped when searching for what exactly LEED
looked for on its grading scale and the point system. They also discussed the
benefits of going with the LEED designed, which gave me a more clear
prospective.
McKeever, Kaitlin. "EnvironmentallyFriendlyGym." Google Docs. N.p., n.d. Web.
14 June 2015.
<https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gKJHUJ1As6tsVLX4sdcnUJFe8aJ69m
GwS1KzWUcIoHc/edit#slide=id.p>.
In this presentation Kaitlin gives good information about the cost and expenses
currently incurred with the lighting and exercise equipment. With that information
she was able to calculate the cot if they were replaces which helps get a
perspective on the saving involved.

17