2015

Sustainability and Student Life

USFSP

Dr. Tobienne Jr. ENC3250 Professional

Writing
Sustainable Superheroes
Brian Quinn
Alexander Reams
Luis Reyes-Cruz
11/27/15

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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Transportation Bikes, EVs, Ride Sharing

Bicycles in
St.Petersburg are
seen everywhere
with so much, so
close, biking is
definitely the most
efficient way to get
around town.

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 Tampas Share-A-Bull bicycle share
program.
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With

electric

vehicles

sales rising tremendously

over the last 10 years, its
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 UPass 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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Green Purchasing Upholding our Commitment

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

university.
green

Some

features

construction

at

the
main

include
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 superheros 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 everyones 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 peoples 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 electricityproducing 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 campuss 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 Nations 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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Nations 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.

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