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Please describe your institution's greenhouse gas mitigation strategies.
During the UF CAP v1.0 (FY 2009/2010 through FY 2011/2012), UF will broadly focus on the following:
1. Foster organizational leadership and create a foundation for long-term institutional culture change in energy, water, and climate change mitigation and resource management.
a. Treat energy flows and GHGE like dollars and track them with the same due diligence and transparency.
i. Assess data concerns & direct relevant units to improve data collection at the original source.
ii. Expand the use of advanced metering infrastructure and enterprise building management systems.
iii. Create a plan to continuously improve energy consumption and GHGE data granularity from coarse, campus-wide detail to fine, building-scale and/or time interval detail.
b. Integrate the CAP with the Vision for a Sustainable UF Implementation Plan.
c. Coordinate the CAP with the Campus Master Plan.
d. Refine and expand the use of methodologies and metrics to evaluate efficacy of energy efficiency and GHGE reduction strategies.
2. Initiate, implement, and monitor the efficacy of key infrastructure energy efficiency strategies identified in the ongoing Energy Summits and outlined in the Office of Sustainability Vision and Implementation Plans.
3. Continue and expand GHGE reduction campaigns via the Office of Sustainability Green Team Network and other outreach efforts with a focus on the conservation of electricity and water, the reduction of vehicle miles traveled, and utilizing the three Rs (reduce ? reuse ? recycle) of materials and waste.
4. Evaluate, finance, and install a minimum of 100 kW of on-site renewable energy generating capacity within the main campus and/or its local environs.
For a complete look at the more detailed set of climate actions, please download the Vision for a Sustainable UF Implementation Plan currently being finalized for Fall 2009 publication. These actions are categorized and tracked according to 14 major sustainability guiding principles.
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Please describe your institution's plans to make sustainability a part of the
curriculum for all students.
Actions for further expansion and refinement of campus climate neutrality and sustainability into the integrated operational, research, curricular, and extension arms of the UF institution are expounded upon in the Vision for a Sustainable UF Implementation Plan. Furthermore, a detailed report published in June 2009, was conducted by the Presidents Strategic Initiative on Academics and Sustainability Designee and Professor of Architecture, Dr. Kim Tanzer, in association with the Provosts Fellow in Sustainability and Clinical Law Professor, Tom Ankersen, to address the interconnectivity of this triple play mission and create the foundation for a pathway to improve our institutional approach as excerpted below:
Over the past five years the University of Florida has gained a strong national reputation for its commitment to sustainability, built largely on the basis of the Office of Sustainabilitys efforts to improve campus operations. During this time a number of faculty initiatives to coordinate academic offerings--including teaching, research, service learning and extension--have been developed, largely by faculty members serving in volunteer capacities. Their efforts have been encouraged by UFs President Bernie Machen, and modestly supported through the Office of Sustainability.
To take advantage of UFs momentum and opportunities emerging nationally, during the 2008-09 academic year, President Machen requested that increased efforts to coordinate UFs academic sustainability offerings be made. A number of specific tasks were completed with the goal of reviving, updating, and strengthening faculty commitment to academic sustainability. Several funding opportunities that arose during this time were addressed. A prolonged attempt was made to create a process to inventory, assess, and prepare to report UFs coursework on behalf of our students and for the AASHE STARS system. These efforts are detailed in the report that follows and its accompanying appendices
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Please describe your institution's plans to expand community outreach efforts toward the
achievement of climate neutrality.
As a top-tier research and land grant university, UF is uniquely positioned to combine its research capacity and teaching prowess with its outreach and extension mission to develop interdisciplinary institutes and programs that deliver important sustainability related information to the public. UF hosts myriad centers for energy and water resource management, environmental research, conservation, planning, design, policy, and law.
Additionally, UF offers more than 110 courses related to sustainability, many college-level certificates, a new minor in Sustainability Studies, as well as specialized sustainability majors and masters degree programs. As evidenced in the teaching, research, and outreach successes to date that follow below, UF students are exposed to sustainability as freshmen and asked to walk the talk through an ever-increasing commitment to a more sustainable lifestyle as they transition from the student experience to alumnus status. This evolution from classroom to community is a commonly unreferenced aspect of outreach to the general public as the Gator Nation grows.
Please reference the following links for more detailed information:
UF Office of Sustainability Mission & Guiding Principles
http://sustainable.ufl.edu/about/mission.html
Vision for a Sustainable UF (A Stakeholder-Based Collaborative Vision for a Campus Sustainability)
http://www.sustainable.ufl.edu/documents/sustainability-vision.pdf
Vision for a Sustainable UF - Implementation Plans (Actions for the First 3 Years of Vision & Climate Action Plan Implementation)
http://www.sustainable.ufl.edu/guidingdocuments
Academics & Sustainability at the University of Florida
http://www.sustainable.ufl.edu/documents/AcademicsAndSustainabilityAtUF-AReport.pdf
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