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P r e p a r e d B y :
CHARLIE’S ANGELS: WHITE PAPER PROJECT
An inside look into the University of
South Florida St. Petersburg campus,
going-green movement.
Kh r ys t l e B o w e n
Jo s h Ik e r d
As h l e e L a c z yn s k i
A ma n d a R i c h a r d s o n
D a i s h a W h i t e n
ENC3250.796S15
Professional Writing
Professor: Dr. Francis Tobienne, Jr. 4/10/2015
Page 1
Table of Contents
Executive Summary…………………………………………………………………………….…..Page 2
Introduction……………………………………………………… …………………………………………...…..Page 3
University of South Florida St. Pete
Recycling………………………………………………………………………………….…… Page 4
Conservation………………………………………….……………………………………..Page 7
Collected Data
Graphical Representation of Group Findings………………………………..Page10
Student Interviews…………………………………………..…………………………..Page11
Surrounding Florida Universities
Florida Atlantic University…………………………… ………………………………….……Page 14
Lynn University……………………………………………………………………………Page 14
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….…… ….……….Page 16
Annotated Bibliography……………………………………………………………….….…….Page 17
Works Cited………………………………………………………………………….………….…….Page 20
Glossary of Terms Page……………………………………………………………….…….…..Page 22
Page 2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Being environmentally conscious has become almost a trend in the United States. But
being conscious about the environment should not be just a trend because it pertains to everyday
life. The University of South Florida St. Petersburg has gone to great lengths to their green
movement. The information that is to be presented in this report will allow the reader to form
their own opinions about this innovation and decide whether to take action or not. It will also
provide ideas and steps on how to take this project to the next level and how certain solutions
will affect their community.
Other resources that are provided in this report are personally conducted interviews,
scientific journals, and a literature source that illustrates the challenges of this project along with
the benefits for the environment. The annotated bibliography provides various sources that will
showcase the communities’ viewpoints on the project and the overall effectiveness of the project
itself.
The main goal of this report is to help the reader see how they can reinvent and preserve
their community. This report will provide different and fun ways on how to their community is
becoming greener and give options to think about different ways to live their lives. The goal for
our group is to inspire the reader to think outside of the box about the environment and make a
change towards a greener future.
Page 3
INTRODUCTION
The University of South Florida’s efforts to “go green” have been recognized through
the inclusion in The Princeton Review’s Guide to 286 Green Colleges. The first comprehensive
guidebook solely focused on colleges and universities that have demonstrated an above average
commitment to sustainability in terms of campus infrastructure, activities and initiatives.
USF has implemented not only simple things such as recycling bins located throughout
all our their campuses but they have cut down 30%-40% on water usage for plants and added a
75 cent fee per credit hour in order to be able to purchase renewable energy.
The University of South Florida is a university that has dedicated years to being a green
campus. The recycling trend continues currently with the USF Student Environmental
Association and the Patel College of Global Sustainability.
Page 4
University of South Florida St. Pete
RECYCLING
The University of South Florida of St. Petersburg (USFSP) has put a lot of emphasis on
ways our college community can help the environment, even if we have to start with the little
things first and progress from there. An example of this is all of the recycling bins that are
placed around on campus that was a project started by the Student Green Energy Fund. There
have been a number of blue recycling bins placed in all of the classrooms on campus that are
specifically for paper and other recyclables. Over 80 percent of the trash that we throw away is
recyclable and these small recycling bins encourage students, professors, and
other staffers alike to toss old papers out to be recycled instead of just trashing
them. The paper recycling bins have helped recycle well over 9,700 tons of
paper since the bins were placed in the classrooms.
The campus has been aware of the recycle movement since 2007 because it was
determined that over 48 tons of aluminum was recycled since the recycling receptacles were
placed around the campus, but there have been bigger and better investments in recycling since
then. If you were to take a look around the USFSP campus you would find that for almost every
regular trashcan placed on campus there is recycling receptacle for plastic, glass, and aluminum
placed directly beside it. There are a total of 20 of these trash/recycle bin combos that are located
on campus and each of these are made up of 937 recycled milk jugs. The project is called “Don’t
Be Trashy” and was established in 2013. These receptacles were placed on campus to encourage
students to get rid of their recyclable items in a proper and more energy efficient way.
Page 5
The bins also have a limited the amount of waste that is placed in landfills. Having the recycling
receptacles have helped save the university eighty-six dollars a week because they do not have
to purchase more dumpsters to place on campus. USFSP also has other resources in place for
people to recycle their old batteries, cell phones and computers.
The main campus of the University of South Florida (USF) located in Tampa, has also
been participating in the green movement. They were a partnership with an organization called
RecycleMania which is an organization that focuses on encouraging students to be more
conscious of recycling. They like to plan events that bring out the more competitive side of the
students by challenging students to recycle as many materials that they are able to collect and try
to beat other rival schools. The main USF campus recently dedicated 10 whole weeks to
competing in RecycleMania and found that the recycling rate on the campus is a little over thirty-
nine percent. In order to find the campus’ recycling rate, you take the weight of the targeted
materials, divide it by the campus population, and viola you have the recycling rate. Some of the
items that are accepted as recyclables, or the targeted materials, in the RecycleMania competition
range from paper, cans, bottles, food service organics, to trash and even E-waste. In 2009 it was
recorded that over 500 tons of paper were recycled throughout USF’s campuses along with 48
tons of aluminum.
Page 6
As for the competition side of
RecycleMania, there are 3 distinct divisions
for competing in RecycleMania: the
competitive division, the benchmark
division, and the 3R
Actions division. USF
participates in the
Benchmark division
which is the least strict
of the three divisions
since the rules of
weighing your
recyclables are more
lenient, and the school
schools that are in the benchmark division
may not be eligible to win RecycleMania;
they can still look at how their recycling
rates match up against other schools in
comparison. While the
recycling rate
percentage at USF may
not be very high, the
main idea of
RecycleMania is to
raise awareness about
recycling so that it
becomes a habit and not
just a trend that you
is encouraged to
participate while
A flyer that was used during the time USF
was participating in RecycleMania
casually participate.
recycling at its own pace. All though
Page 7
CONSERVATION
There are also water fountains in the class buildings that have a bottle filling option
which provides filtered water and helps to reduce the use of plastic bottles and encourage the use
of re-usable bottles. Now you do not have to only use re-usable bottles at the stations and plastic
ones are fine as well, in fact highly encouraged. Let’s say that a person drinks 2-3 plastic bottles
of water a day, they could simply use the refillable bottle drinking stations and use only one
plastic bottle a day. This could dramatically reduce the amount of waste that a person uses by
using only one plastic bottle a day.
One of the big projects that the school was obtaining is a gold LEED certification for the
Science and Technology (STG) building on a campus. The two story, 3500, square foot building
was granted this honor in 2010 shortly after being built. To be certified the building must have
the following credentials, but are not limited to, the construction of the building, the design and
a operation of the building has features that improve human and environmental health. When the
building was being constructed, USFSP received much financial support from Progress Energy
which is now known as Duke Energy. They helped build a more sophisticated and updated
laboratories for the science majors and classes. The building houses 76 class rooms and is used
constantly throughout the semester.
Another energy efficient system that the university has in place is solar docs and pole
that are located in three different places. These are power stations that let students charge their
electronics through solar energy. Two of the stations are located on the coast of Bayboro Harbor
and are in the fashion of a table with LED lighting. The other is located near the fountain on
Page 8
Harbor Walk and each of these stations are self-sustaining and made of recycled materials. The
entire project was completed in spring of 2013.
The university also supports the concept of conservation by having online drop-boxes to
submit assignments and view other work. This website is named Canvas, and it is a site that our
university and many others use to upload and download documents that people can view twenty
four hours a day, seven days a week. Instead of the professors handing out printed assignments,
students can simply be added to the drop-boxes of each individual course. This allows a massive
amount of paper to be saved since everything that we need is available over a simple internet
connection. An online drop box also gives professors the luxury of being able to review and
return assignments to students electronically.
With the help of students, faculty, and staff we are able to go-green at USFSP. Student
Green Energy Fund (SGEF) is a committee made up of several students and faculty members.
The members attend scheduled meetings where they talk about new and existing proposals about
projects on campus. Students are even encouraged to submit their own proposals on new ways to
save energy at USFSP. Once a student submits a proposal, the committee will evaluate and
analyze the proposal and will either pass it or respectfully decline the offer.
According to SGEF’s former ranking media officer Teri Deardorff, based on her
experience as a board member she believes that all the implemented projects presented to the
committee to be worthwhile and useful to the students and the surrounding community. She also
noted that out of all the projects implemented none of them seemed better on paper than they do
in real life, insinuating that all the projects were a success and are still being used to this day.
Lastly, Deardorff noted that the Solar Docks and the water bottle fill stations are especially high-
Page 9
visibility items that students have come to enjoy and rely on a daily basis. She was quoted saying
the following, “Whenever I want to go study at the Solar Docks they are almost always being
utilized by people!”
Page 10
Collected Data
GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION OF GROUP FINDINGS
Below is a graph that depicts usage by students of four different energy efficient devices.
According to our data, about 95% of the students asked at USFSP said that they recycle on a
daily basis especially at the school. A whopping 73% of students have or are actively using the
water bottle fill stations to fill up their thermos and or water bottles with purified water for free.
There was 55% of students that said they have used the solar docs to plug in and benefit from the
solar energy at least one time or another. The most upsetting number was the amount of people
that we interviewed who recycled batteries, ink cartridges, and old electronic devices. The
Going green project utilization
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Recycling Bins (paper, plastic, glass, aluminum
Solar Docs Water bottle fill stations
recycling centers (batteries, cell phones,
ink cartridges, computer parts)
number was less than half at only 34%. Based on these numbers we can see that USFSP is having
great progress with the different projects it has chosen to implement on the campus and has
considerable room for progress. We are not yet at full contribution from everyone yet, but we
“Fig. 1. Going
green project
utilization, Josh
Ikerd,
Independent
Survey Results
from USF
students, (March
2015).”
Page 11
only expect these numbers to rise in the future since more and more students becoming
conscious about the environment.
STUDENT INTERVIEWS
We took the liberty of interviewing four students, who wish to remain anonymous about
their contribution to going green and recycling. We asked them six simple questions that referred
to recycling that ranged from the simple question of do you recycle to their opinions on the matter.
To reserve their anonymities they will be referred to students 1 through 4 in the latter
parts of this document.
Question 1: Do you recycle at home?
Student 1: No, I want to but no recycling
bin.
Student 2: Yes.
Student 3: Yes.
Student 4: Yes.
Question 2: Do you recycle at school?
Student 1: Yes.
Student 2: Yes.
Student 3: Oh heck yes I do! Especially
paper.
Student 4: Yes.
Question 3: How do you think USFSP can
become greener?
Student 1: Put more recycling bins around
the school. Ensure the student living has
recycling options as well.
Student 2: By putting more recycling bins
next to trashcans that don’t already have
Page 12
one. This encourages people to recycle
more.
Student 3: Well, USF is obviously already a
very green school, with options to recycle
everywhere, plenty of trees and there is a
good option to use energy-saving tech, like
with the electric car parking spaces.
However, I think that it would be wise to
invest in the development energy saving
technologies here at USF, because from
what I've seen in the physics department,
most of the science that is done here has a
biological focus.
Student 4: Making recycling bins more
accessible to students and staff in other areas
other than dining, such as student housing or
densely populated buildings, and being able
to recycle paper and aluminum in more
areas in addition to plastic.
Question 4: Do you separate your
recyclables from papers and plastics?
Student 1: I do not segregate my
recyclables; it is one giant recycling bin.
Student 2: If I have two separate bins, I do.
Student 3: Yes, I do!
Student 4: Sometimes, when I have the
options and the resources.
Question 5: Where did you learn to
recycle?
Student 1: I learned from a past internship,
and in school.
Student 2: I learned it in grade school and
from my parents.
Student 3: I have learned about recycling
from science classes. I am a physics major
and I also teach environmental science, so I
try to stay updated.
Student 4: I learned recycling in primary
school and secondary schooling, as well as
at home.
Page 13
Question 6: Do you think that schools
should teach about recycling more than
they already do?
Student 1: There should be more efforts to
teach recycling in school because it is
important to save the environment. Make it
into a game that way kids think its fun.
Student 2: By doing a section of it each year
in school, it would reinforce the idea of it.
Student 3: I think that there are plenty of
people who don't know exactly how to
recycle and they don't know what is
recyclable or not. I think it would be
important to possibly have utility companies
or USF teach people about how to recycle
effectively.
Student 4: Yes, recycling is important and
everyone should at least be taught the basics.
Page 14
Surrounding Florida Universities FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY
There are many Florida universities
that are attempting to make their campuses
more ecofriendly. For example Florida
Atlantic University (FAU) is a campus
located in Boca Raton and is larger than
USFSP with about 30,000 students
compared to USFSP’s 6,000. Like our
Science and Technology building that has a
LEED gold certification, FAU has three
buildings that have LEED certifications. The
first building that received the a LEED
certification was their College of
Engineering and Computer Science building
that received a platinum certification on
August 8, 2011. This building was one of
the first buildings on a college campus to
receive this certification in southeast
Florida. The second and third buildings that
obtained a LEED certification were their
College of Nursing and the Dave Joint Use
Facility.
These two have a gold certification like our
STG building.
LYNN UNIVERSITY
A university that is similar in size to
ours is Lynn University that is also located
in Boca Raton. They focus on five major
areas when it comes to how they are going
to be a sustainable campus. Area one is
“Community and education” which focuses
on raising the student and community
awareness of the importance of
conservation. Area two is “Energy and
Transportation” which wants people to
reduce their carbon foot print and making
the campus energy efficiently. To help them
save energy they partnered with Siemens
Building Technologies Division so that they
can upgrade their buildings to reduce energy
consumption up to 50 percent. This process
will take some time however, an
approximated 20 years, but when completed
Page 15
it will be well work it. Area three is
“Landscape and ecology” and area four is
simply “water”. The water area wants to
reduce their water usage and take advantage
of the reclaimed water that can be used in
the Boca Raton area. The final area of focus
is “Materials and Waste” which is simply
what this papers main focus was on which is
recycling the possible materials and
reducing the amount of waste that we
produce.
Page 16
CONCLUSION
The USFSP campus has lots of history behind it but one of the most important things in
their history was their drive to become a green school. Students are really involved with the
environmental activities and programs that are offered at the USFSP campus and our in favor of the
school going green. According to our survey results students’ believe that recycling products
and promoting the “going green” movement is something they will indeed partake in during their
everyday activities.
We have continued to be a school that shows initiative and compete with schools that are
larger than us and to set an example to the rest of the community. Like our LEED certified
building that promotes “green” initiatives that has sparked a fuse on campus that is trying to
make other buildings like the Student Life Center LEED certified as well. The movement will
not just stop on campus either. Hopefully starting a good habit will carry over to other aspects of
people’s lives so we can reduce our carbon footprint so there will be resources and a place to live
for future generations.
Page 17
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cash, Jacqui. "USF One of Nation's Top Green Colleges." - University of South Florida. 5 May
2010. Web. 17 Mar. 2015. <http://news.usf.edu/article/templates/?a=2295>.
The following source provided a direct quote explaining just how prestigious the
recognition was for USF’s going green movement. It also provided some specific
percentages and numbers on how much the going green changes have positively changed
the campus. This source was particularly helpful with listing details on how the “green”
changes made on campus directly affected certain statistics. Those details helped put it in
perspective.
"Completed Projects." USFSP Student Green Energy Fund. USFSP, 2013. Web. 15 Mar. 2015.
<https://sites.google.com/a/mail.usf.edu/sgef-usf-st-pete/completed-projects>.
The Student Green Energy Fund website offered much insight on the completed energy
efficient projects located at USFSP. In the tabs marked “completed projects” and “follow
the proposals,” there was an abundant amount of information on the different green
projects USF had passed or still continued to be in-progress with. These links showed an
overview on the different dates of proposal, proposal status, and the proposal summary.
We will use this information to help explain the different green initiatives USFSP is
offering and gather factual information on the one’s we are currently investigating.
"Divisions & Categories." Recycle Mania Tournament. RecycleMania, 2010. Web. 24 Mar.
2015. <http://recyclemaniacs.org/participate/rules/divisions-categories>.
This is from the website of the program RecycleMania. This section of the website is
discussing the different organizations that are in collaboration with RecycleMania. It also
discusses what they do as a company and the different ways the universities can
participate in the Recycle Mania program.
Funke, John. "Power from 93 million miles." The Crow’s Nest. USFSP, 11 Feb. 2013. Web. 16
Mar. 2015. <http://crowsneststpete.com/author/jfunke/>.
The source titled “Power from 93 million miles” is a periodical from USFSP’s school
newspaper, The Crow’s Nest. Although the article at one time was a print, it can still be
found online on the Crow’s Nest webpage. This particular article highlighted information
Page 18
about the new (at that time) solar docs. The article stated where the solar docs are located,
what the solar docs do, and even what they are made of. This proved to be a very good
find, and will be used to further inform our audience on the Solar Docs we are
investigating.
Gobbo, Kristine. "First Academic Building in Southeast Florida to Achieve LEED Platinum
Certification." Florida Atlantic University. N.p., 8 Aug. 2011. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.fau.edu/mediarelations/releases0811/081106.php>.
The article is talking about the newly LEED certified building at Florida Atlantic
University. It summarizes what specific technological feature’s the building has that
makes it platinum certified LEED building. To input this source into our paper we will
talk about other universities and how they are becoming more environmentally friendly
and compare them to our school. We will then use that information to suggest ways that
our university can improve our step to becoming a green campus.
Goining Green. Lyyn University and Apple , n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.lynn.edu/about-lynn/going-green>.
This site is talking about the five steps that Lynn University is taking to become a greener
university. In our paper we will be mention the five areas and briefly discussing each one
of them. This will benefit our paper because we are able to see what other universities are
doing to become green and USFSP can borrow some of their ideas and potentially make
them better and more sustainable.
"History of RecycleMania." Recycle Mania Tournament. RecycleMania, n.d. Web. 24 Mar.
2015. <http://recyclemaniacs.org/about/history-recyclemania>.
A basic summary of this site is the history of how and why RecycleMania got started. In
our paper we look at what corporation has done for the University of South Florida
specifically.
Page 19
"Science & Technology Building Earns LEED Certification." University of South Florida St.
Petersburg. 22 Jan. 2010. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.usfsp.edu/blog/2010/01/22/science-technology-building/>.
This article is a basic rundown the campuses Science and Technology and the LEED
certification that it received. To implement this into our paper, we will talk about how
you can get a LEED certification and why it is important. We will also be comparing to
other universities that have buildings with a LEED certification as well.
Weybrecht, Giselle. "An innovative way to making your campus more sustainable: The Student
Green Energy Fund." Primetime. N.p., 12 Dec. 2012. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.
<http://primetime.unprme.org/2012/12/17/an-innovative-way-to-making-your-campus-
more-sustainable-the-student-green-energy-fund/>.
The article titled “An Innovative way to Making Your Campus More Sustainable: The
Student Green Energy Fund” is an online article/ interview with three students from
USFSP that are working on projects with the USFSP Student Green Energy Fund. It goes
into detail about a few of the projects and how they will help the school, as well as what
the Student Green Fund is planning on doing in the future.
Page 20
WORKS CITED
Cash, Jacqui. "USF One of Nation's Top Green Colleges." University of South Florida. USF, 5
May 2010. Web. 17 Mar. 2015.
<http://news.usf.edu/article/templates/?a=2295>.
"Completed Projects." USFSP Student Green Energy Fund. USFSP, 2013. Web. 15 Mar. 2015.
<https://sites.google.com/a/mail.usf.edu/sgef-usf-st-pete/completed-projects>.
"Divisions & Categories." Recycle Mania Tournament. RecycleMania, 2010. Web. 24 Mar.
2015. <http://recyclemaniacs.org/participate/rules/divisions-categories>.
Funke, John. "Power from 93 million miles." The Crow’s Nest. USFSP, 11 Feb. 2013. Web. 16
Mar. 2015. <http://crowsneststpete.com/author/jfunke/>.
Goining Green . Lyyn University and Apple , n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.lynn.edu/about-lynn/going-green>.
Going Green Project Utilization. Graph. Independent Survey Results: Derived from USFSP
Students. By Joshua Ikerd. St. Petersburg: University of South Florida, 2015.
Gobbo, Kristine. "First Academic Building in Southeast Florida to Achieve LEED
Platinum Certification." Florida Atlantic University. N.p., 8 Aug. 2011. Web. 24 Mar.
2015. <http://www.fau.edu/mediarelations/releases0811/081106.php>.
"History of RecycleMania." Recycle Mania Tournament. RecycleMania, n.d. Web. 24 Mar.
2015. <http://recyclemaniacs.org/about/history-recyclemania>.
Page 21
"Science & Technology Building Earns LEED Certification." University of South Florida St.
Petersburg. 22 Jan. 2010. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.usfsp.edu/blog/2010/01/22/science-technology-building/>.
Weybrecht, Giselle. "An innovative way to making your campus more sustainable: The Student
Green Energy Fund." Primetime. N.p., 12 Dec. 2012. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.
<http://primetime.unprme.org/2012/12/17/an-innovative-way-to-making-your-campus-
more-sustainable-the-student-green-energy-fund/>.
Page 22
Glossary of Terms Page
USFSP- University of South Florida St. Petersburg
SGEF- Student Green Energy Fund
LED- Light Emitting Diode
“Don’t Be Trashy”- project proposed and passed by the student green energy fund. Project consists of recycling bins strategically located in and around the campus.
“Water Bottle Fill Stations”- project proposed and passed by the student green energy fund.
Project consists of water fill stations located within campus buildings.
“Solar Docs + Solar Solstice”- project proposed and passed by the student green energy fund. Projects consist of stations to sit and plug in using solar power.
The Crow’s Nest- school newspaper publication.