University of Florida Office of Sustainability

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A University of Florida intern will toil this summer turning leftover oil from the cafeteria's chicken fingers into fuel, while campus managers install outdoor charging units for hybrid cars, and rainwater is collected for flushing toilets.

The efforts could be called a push by two-year President Bernie Machen to make UF an environmentally friendly institution, but it's more of a shove.

For years, the Gainesville school has dabbled in the area of "sustainability," a term that encompasses an overall philosophy of environmentalism, from commuting and cooking to building design and budgeting.

But this year, Machen boldly declared that UF will become the nation's most sustainable university - all new school vehicles will either be hybrid or run on alternative fuels, all new construction and remodeled buildings will earn Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification, a new Office of Sustainability was created with a full-time director and even the president's mansion will get an eco-friendly makeover.

By 2015, Machen declared, UF will be a "zero waste" school where everything is reduced, reused or recycled.

"Sometimes it takes one person's leadership to say, 'We're not going to mess around anymore, we're going to go for it with all the resources we have,' " said Miles Albertson, the school's associate director of facilities, planning and construction. "The payoff is we are stewards of the Earth as well as stewards of public money."

UF is the hands-down sustainability leader among Florida universities. On Tuesday, the school was put on the Environmental Protection Agency's list of best workplaces for commuters. In October, UF became the first university designated a "Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary" because of its wildlife habitat management and environmental planning.

School officials also claim UF has 60 percent of the buildings in the state that are certified or becoming certified for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design a designation awarded to projects that follow specific environmentally-friendly guidelines and incorporate things such as outlets for hybrid cars, multiple bicycle racks and showers for bike commuters.

But UF isn't the only school seriously looking at more "green" options as fuel and utility costs skyrocket.

This year, Florida's universities requested, and received, $20.7 million for rising utility bills, which threaten to cut into budgets that pay for classroom instruction.

Florida State University got $2.4 million to offset its $30 million utility bill. Still, FSU Vice President John Carnaghi said the school is expected to exceed its utility budget by $7 million in 2006-07.

FSU is going through an energy audit with a private company to add cost-savings systems that turn off lights when classrooms aren't in use and that cool campus air-conditioning chillers with groundwater. A previous audit conducted in 1997 has saved the school $8.5 million, officials estimate.

At Boca Raton's Florida Atlantic University, chargers for hybrid vehicles have been installed in some parking lots and the new nursing building has environmental leadership certification. Waterless urinals, using reclaimed water for irrigation and resetting thermostats are all cost- and environment-saving initiatives used by FAU.

"State universities are tuned in, certainly, with these issues," said FSU's Carnaghi, who is deterred somewhat from building to environmental guidelines by cost. "Even though you'll be saving on the back end, you have to have the money to get into the game."

Dedee DeLongpré, director of UF's new Office of Sustainability, said becoming a greener campus means "thinking differently about everything you do, including accounting."

"You have to move away from just looking at the price point today and step back and look at the whole thing," she said.

But with more organizations trying to meet certification standards, which were established by the U.S. Green Building Council, costs are coming down.

Although few studies have directly compared the cost of a green building with the cost of a traditional structure, a 2003 California analysis found that earning the lowest, or silver, certification from the council should not add costs to a project, provided the standards are incorporated into the initial proposal requests and are part of the main design.

Albertson, UF's facilities planner, said all architecture and construction firms that work with UF know the school requires silver certification on its new buildings and include features in their designs to earn the label from day one.

Those include collecting rainwater on the roof to flush low-flow toilets, planting native flora that doesn't require irrigation, planting more shade trees to reduce heat reflection off parking lots, providing reserved parking spaces for car-pool vehicles, installing chargers for hybrid cars and Segway two-wheel vehicles, providing more bicycle racks and showers inside or near a building for bicycle commuters and using highly reflective roofing materials that absorb less heat.

Albertson, who has been in construction for more than three decades, said sometimes you have to be willing to try new things with design concepts that can be difficult for designers and builders more accustomed to putting savings above all else.

"You have got to get on the train or it's going to leave you," he said. "When we make things more sustainable and more green, we are using less gas, less virgin lumber, less fossil fuel and less of the universe's natural resources."

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Thinking about environmentalism is one thing. The University of Florida is thinking bigger and putting its ideas into practice.

As The Post reported, UF is integrating zero-waste initiatives in everything from cooking to cars to facilities, part of a master plan aimed at the emerging concept of sustainability. Other state universities are pursuing "green" initiatives that go beyond hybrid vehicles and reclaimed water. But the state's flagship university intends to be the leader. President Bernie Machen's declaration that UF will become the nation's most sustainable university is consistent with the nationwide Top-10 aspirations UF set in hiring him three years ago.

"It has been a priority around here for awhile," said Dedee DeLongpré, first director of UF's Office of Sustainability, but "one of my charges from the president is to make the campus a leading laboratory for sustainability." That common-sense goal was in place before energy prices spiked, and it includes societal-longevity factors, which reinforce the point that if a company, home or campus is less wasteful, it is more efficient.

"Since the Industrial Revolution, our society has been expert at extracting resources at an unsustainable rate and making things and then throwing away all that stuff," Ms. DeLongpré said. "Depending on where you come from geographically, there is a different concept of where 'away' is. In some places, there is no 'away.''"

Ms. DeLongpré contrasted the fact that most of us "don't think twice about getting in the car to travel a couple miles down the road" with the "mind-boggling number of new cars taking to the road in China." Her point underscores the importance of developing technologies, if not practices, that others might emulate.

The effort (sustainable.ufl.edu) is part of the campaign to move society away, as Ms. DeLongpré said, from the very linear "take-make-waste cycle of extracting, making and throwing away" to a more circular cycle of "borrow, use and return." UF may be in Gainesville, but with almost 50,000 students, a vast physical plant and thousands of employees, the university is also its own community. If UF can develop standards to make a campus sustainable, those standards can work in the wider community.

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HAGUE -- As the nation looks to agriculture for renewable fuels from crops and other sources, University of Florida researchers have developed a manure management system in Alachua that produces energy, saves valuable nutrients for fertilizer, cuts greenhouse gas emissions and stops offensive odors.

"It’s an environmentally friendly solution for an unpleasant housekeeping task," said Ann Wilkie, an associate research professor with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. "It’s not often that one technology can solve several major problems, but our innovative animal manure management system is a sustainable option for dairies and other livestock operations that produces renewable energy and protects the environment."

She said the growing number of big dairy and swine livestock farms -- along with urban sprawl in rural areas -- has resulted in greater awareness and concern about the proper storage, treatment and utilization of manure.

Without proper management, animal manure can get into groundwater supplies, and odor problems can irk nearby residents.

"The key to our waste management system is a natural biological process called anaerobic digestion that relies on microorganisms to transform animal manure into methane gas," Wilkie said. "Anaerobic digesters, which process waste under oxygen-free conditions, are different than conventional aerobic systems that use oxygen to treat the waste."

She said anaerobic digesters can process five to 10 times more waste than aerobic systems. Because the waste is enclosed to keep oxygen out, anaerobic digestion keeps odors in. Odors, flies and pathogens are reduced by as much as 95 percent.

With anaerobic digestion, the methane produced can be used to heat water or generate electricity, eliminating greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. Nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus can be recovered and used to fertilize crops.

To demonstrate the technology at a working dairy farm, a large-scale anaerobic digester at UF’s 500-cow Dairy Research Unit in the community of Hague in Alachua is now generating bio-gas from manure flushed from animal barns and milking parlors.

The patented waste treatment technology is being made available for licensing by UF’s Office of Technology Licensing.

About 40 cubic feet of methane per day can be produced from the waste of each dairy cow, Wilkie said. Each cubic foot of methane has about l,000 BTUs, which adds up to a huge amount of usable energy.

A British Thermal Unit is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of water by one degree Fahrenheit.

Art Darling, executive director of Sunshine State Milk Producers Inc. in Orlando, said although methane technology is not cheap, it can solve important energy and environmental problems on Florida dairy farms.

Darling said the UF system takes advantage of the fact that it is less expensive to move liquid containing manure than moving dry manure solids. The anaerobic digester processes manure from the large volumes of water used to flush waste from animal holding areas at the dairy.

Because manure flushed from these areas is so diluted by water, only two types of anaerobic digesters are practical for Florida dairies -- covered lagoons and fixed-film digesters, Wilkie said.

Covered lagoons require large land areas, gas-tight covers and careful sealing to prevent nutrients from leaching into groundwater.

By contrast, the fixed-film anaerobic digester at Hague is a 100,000-gallon tank that has a relatively small footprint, which can be a real plus when local land-planning issues are a concern, she said.

"In covered lagoons, which are less efficient than fixed-film anaerobic digesters, the digestive bacteria float around, making only random contact with the manure particles," Wilkie said. "In fixed-film digesters, the bacterial growth occurs on the surfaces of the internal media that the waste must flow over, thereby assuring frequent contact. In this way, higher volumes of wastewater can be processed."

She said a fixed-film digester can process flushed manure in two to three days compared to 30 to 40 days for a covered lagoon. Generally, the fixed-film design is suitable for any livestock manure that is diluted with water for transport or processing, such as dairy and swine waste.

The by-products of anaerobic digestion -- liquid fertilizer and compost -- reduce the need for synthetic fertilizers and soil conditioners that are produced using less sustainable methods, providing a cost savings as well as environmental benefits, Wilkie said.

Anaerobic digestion reduces the potential for global warming in two ways, she said. First, by capturing biogas, anaerobic digestion can reduce natural emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Second, when anaerobic digestion produces renewable fuel to replace fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, production of carbon dioxide from burning those fossil fuels is avoided.

Another advantage of anaerobic digestion is that it produces very little sludge, which requires further processing and disposal. With aerobic treatment, up to 50 percent of the organic matter from the waste is converted to sludge.

The anaerobic digester also lowers the levels of pathogens; starvation and competition with other microorganisms help kill pathogens that might be in the manure, Wilkie said.

David Armstrong, farm manager at the UF dairy unit in Hague, said the fixed-film anaerobic digester has been operating successfully for five years, and some of the methane produced is used to heat water for the milking parlor.

He said the digester is "farmer friendly" because it is easy to operate and maintain.

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Turning lights off in empty classrooms, buying fuel-efficient state vehicles and aiming for zero waste by 2015 are just some of the ways the University of Florida leads the pack in the state for conservation and recycling efforts.

UF was recognized Monday by the Council for Sustainable Florida, a group of business, resident and government leaders working through Florida State University's Collins Center for Public Policy, for its 16-year effort in trying to reduce the university's impact on the environment.

"We want to make sure we have Florida's beautiful natural resources for generations to come," said Tim Center, director of the council.

The council gave out nine awards Monday at the Sustainable Florida Best Practices Awards Program at FSU.

To increase environmental efficiency across campus, the university has implemented programs as small as pitching cans in recycle bins to as large as building structures that use less energy.

In 2001, the university adopted Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) criteria for design and construction for all major new construction and renovation projects.

In fact, as many as 15 UF buildings are either already certified, awaiting certification or remain under construction.

Additionally, UF's Office of Sustainability, resurrected last fall after more than a year's absence, has created and supported programs, goals and campaigns to "reduce, reuse and recycle," said Dedee DeLongpré, director of the program.

One of those goals is for the university to reduce its net waste to zero by 2015, DeLongpré said.

A zero waste task force made up of faculty, community members, students and staff meet monthly to discuss long-term goals. Some of the plans include growing the campus recycling program, creating a system to convert waste into energy and partnering with "Tools for Schools," a program that gives Alachua County schools reusable computers and other supplies, she said.

Progress Energy is talking to UF about a plasma reactor that takes waste and converts it to usable energy and Anheuser-Busch is expected to pay for plastic recycling bags on football game days, according to the minutes of a task force meeting in April.

"It's great that we've all engaged in a message of hope, instead of the doom and gloom usually associated with the environment," DeLongpré said.

An independent panel of experts in sustainable practices ranked the projects up for the awards, Center said.

Here's a sampling of some other winning projects:

Holloway Technology, based in Leesburg, created an irrigation system that uses only rain water and contains no sprinklers. The water is kept in a fish pond, where the fish help keep the water healthy. Holloway Technology won the Sustainable Florida Small Business Award.

Professor Ann Wilkie with UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences designed a treatment for dairy manure that controls odors and produces renewable energy. She won the Sustainable Florida Non-Profit Award.

Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Progress Energy teamed up to win the Business Partnership Award. They created a fuel cell system that translates solar energy into hydrogen and oxygen to make electricity. The project is on display at the Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park and fuels the center's Wildlife Encounter Pavilion.

UF's desire to achieve zero waste by 2015 has spun off other programs, too.

Students have formed Gators for a Sustainable Campus. The club currently consists of about 50 people, said 21-year-old Brendan Moore, president of the organization.

"UF is doing a lot of sustainability efforts on the university level," Moore said. "Our group will help students effect change more at their level and be able to make a personal difference."

CONSERVATION: UF to reduce state vehicle use
A new "fleet management program" at the University of Florida aims to reduce the number of state vehicles used on campus and increase fuel efficiency.

It's part of UF's long-term plan to reduce its impact on the environment.

Each department or college will be able to own, lease or rent vehicles, but each vehicle will need to be driven a minimum of 6,000 miles each year in order to justify ownership, according to a Monday memo sent to deans, department chairs and directors.

Beginning Aug. 1, all colleges or departments will pay an annual fee of $3,000 for the ability to park these vehicles in reserved spots.

As an alternative to owning the vehicles, colleges and departments will be able to lease or rent vehicles through Avis and Enterprise. An hourly rental system through a car-sharing service also is planned. A taxi service is expected to begin on Sept. 1.

Low-carbon and alternative fuels will be available for UF vehicles through the Physical Plant Division.

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Energy bills in the millions combined with idealistic environmentalism are forcing campuses to become laboratories of new conservation tactics.

GAINESVILLE The building that houses the University of Florida’s school of construction uses half the energy of most buildings its size.

The urinals are waterless and rainwater flushes the toilets. Classrooms have sensors that make the lights go dark when the last person walks out.

When workers finished Rinker Hall three years ago, it was considered revolutionary: The first building in Florida to receive a gold rating from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

Today, such energy-efficient construction is the norm at UF, where President Bernard Machen is making sustainability and energy conservation a priority.

All newly purchased university cars must be hybrids or operate on alternative fuel. UF works with environmentally conscious vendors, like food suppliers who use recycled packaging. In winter, the thermostat is set to a chilly 68. In summer, it sits at a balmy 78.

By 2015, Machen wants UF to produce zero solid waste. That’s no small feat at a university that is larger than many cities.

In part, this emphasis on conservation is a bow to Mother Nature. But it also is the product of ballooning energy bills at Florida universities, where annual utility costs are approaching the stratosphere.

The University of South Florida is looking at a power bill as high as $20-million, $5-million more than last year.

The University of Central Florida expects to surpass its utility budget this year by at least $3-million.

Little surprise, then, that USF is requiring more energy efficiency. And UCF is considering converting its entire vehicle fleet to alternative fuels.

Suddenly, environmentalism is a bargain.

"We’ve already been doing some of these things, but there hasn’t been a big emphasis until it hits you in the pocketbook," says David Norvell, energy manager at UCF. "Then it becomes a priority."

***
The nation’s 4,000 colleges and universities have a combined annual operating budget of $300-billion, or almost 3 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product, according to Second Nature, a Cambridge, Mass.-based firm that promotes sustainability in higher education.

That means they have the power to affect demand for environmentally-friendly products, helping companies who produce such things to survive, says Anthony Cortese, Second Nature’s CEO.

Universities also are filled with creative, smart, enterprising people who graduate and apply their ideas throughout society.

"We can bring a whole life change to this community," Machen says. "And then they’re going to take it with them when they leave."

Several years ago, conservation at UF was a scattered effort. Reclaimed water sprinkled the grounds and free student bus passes discouraged cars. University police drove a few hybrid cars. The school of construction began offering a graduate-level concentration in sustainable building.

Then came Machen and his wife, Chris, a devoted recycler who longs for a large organic supermarket in town. They brought new emphasis to the idea of a sustainable campus, and President Machen vowed to implement changes that had been proposed years earlier.

"I said, 'Bernie, we’ve got to get moving on this,’ " says Chris Machen, a vocal supporter of UF’s greening efforts.

"All people needed was the top person to say, we’re going to do this."

President Machen created the Office of Sustainability to coordinate UF’s many efforts. Since then, "it’s been like a snowball going down hill," he says.

There are plans to start a "flex vehicle" program in which employees share university cars rather than drive their own. The president’s home, built in 1953, will be renovated into a model for "green" living. UF is working to better incorporate the tenets of sustainability into its curriculum. And officials hope to offset carbon dioxide emissions through more plantings and other measures.

"People are so passionate about this, and it’s not even just economic," says Chris Machen. "It’s: 'This is the right thing to do. Why aren’t we doing more?’ "

***
Other Florida universities are moving in UF’s direction. Economics demand it.

The state is having to kick in almost $21-million this year to offset some of the university system’s rising utility costs. Those budget-busters are a major reason Florida State University, Florida Atlantic University, USF and the University of North Florida are conserving far more than in the past. Last month, UCF became the latest school to commit to the push. From a distance, the sunflowers and honeysuckles blanketing the roof of UCF’s student center look purely cosmetic, a nice landscaping touch.

But all those plants, paid for with a $340,000 grant from the state Department of Environmental Protection, help insulate the building. They reduce stormwater runoff and will extend the life of the roof by more than 20 years.

When UCF planted the "green roof" last spring, it became the first university in Florida to do so.

Mark Freeman, a graduate student majoring in environmental politics, sees the roof as a sign that UCF is trying to balance its explosive growth with environmental needs.

"It’s innovative. It’s a step in the right direction," says Freeman, 25, of Vero Beach. "We have all these great minds, and it’s good to see them help the university by making it more sustainable and environmentally-friendly."

Mark Hostetler, an associate UF professor of wildlife ecology, sits on the task force working to eliminate UF’s production of solid waste.

He sees both promise and challenges ahead.

It’s easier to stick to old habits, and some sustainable efforts like construction or hybrid cars cost more up-front. Universities like UF, UCF and USF are huge bureaucracies, so changing policies for construction and vendor contracts is no small feat.

But slowly, things are changing.

"Think about it,’’ Hostetler says. "Thirty years ago, nobody was recycling. Now in Gainesville, if you don’t recycle, they look at you funny."

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Top-notch efforts in sustainability earned UF two awards in a Florida environmental event.

The Council for Sustainable Florida awarded UF the Sustainable Government award at the 8th Annual Sustainable Florida Best Practices Awards event held at the Florida State University campus Monday.

"It's one more way for us to show our leadership as a campus," said Dedee DeLongpré, UF's director of the Office of Sustainability. "It's good for business, it's good for morale and it's authentic."

Ann Wilkie, of UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, won UF's second award, Sustainable Nonprofit Organization Award, for her work with the anaerobic manure digestion.

UF President Bernie Machen has made sustainability efforts a centerpiece of his administration since arriving in 2004.

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Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, LeRoy Collins Jr., spoke to students in Rinker Hall, UF's first energy-efficient "green building," about the need to co-exist with the environment Wednesday afternoon.

"We need to get to a point where we are doing things more efficiently, because we are running out of resources," Collins said.

Collins was invited by his nephew, UF student John Begeman, to speak to Charles Kibert's Green Building Design and Delivery class about his views on environmental issues and answer questions about his campaign platform.

He spoke about how Floridians have damaged the hills and swamps he grew up in more than 50 years ago. Students now have a "major role" to play in how the state treats the environment, he said.

"There are a lot of good laws that are not being followed," Collins said.

He argued that the public was ignoring laws meant to keep runoff and other pollution from escaping retention pools and entering the streets. Oil contained in the leakage can contaminate estuaries, he said.

About 40 percent of the coral reefs surrounding Florida are dead, partly because of toxicity in the water and the cultivation of food fish, Collins said. He also said shrimp farms in Central America and other countries are now competing with Florida. Global warming is also an issue of concern for Collins. He said he disagrees with Republicans who don't believe global warming exists or that it is a threat.

"It's inexorable, and it's going to change our environment," Collins said.

Collins stressed the need to become energy-independent but said it might require a large federal gasoline tax.

He said he believes the Organization of the Petroleum-Exporting Countries continues to lower the price of oil to encourage Americans to buy oil from them.

"In the process of becoming energy-independent, we might be able to control our own destiny better," he said.

Politics runs in Collins' family. His father was a Democrat who served as Florida's governor from 1955-1956. But this is his first run for office.

Environmental issues weren't the only issue Collins targeted. He said national security is a top priority for him, and it was the reason he entered the race.

"I think this is probably the most hazardous time I've ever seen for the sustenance of our country," Collins said. "The reason I think that is because there are a hundred-million people out there who want us dead."

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In Tallahassee, where Seminoles and Rattlers predominate and Gators are more likely to be ridiculed than emulated, some might consider any excellent example set by the University of Florida as automatically suspect.

But loyalties and spirit aside, UF can rightfully claim to have set a standard that other universities - as well as local and state governments, especially in tandem with universities - should eagerly try to equal.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last month named UF one of the best workplaces in the nation for commuters, one of only 72 colleges and universities in America that the federal agency considers innovative in its approach to transportation.

The EPA looked at such issues as air quality, energy conservation and reduction of traffic congestion. UF was the only university in Florida to make the list.

It was no accident, but rather the result of a commitment to principles of sustainability on campus. UF recently established an Office of Sustainability, whose purpose is to approach every aspect of university life and policies with an eye toward the environment and the economy.

More than 100 professors on campus have been recruited for their expertise on various aspects of sustainability. The goal is to make UF a "living laboratory" for a wide range of practices in which sustainable growth can be put into practice. These include building designs, purchasing policies and community outreach.

Quality-of-life issues
Very simply, putting sustainable policies into practice makes life better - regardless of one's favorite school colors.

Consider a few of UF's initiatives to encourage alternative modes of transportation, practices that local transportation planners and commissioners would be smart to incorporate in policies for our community and campuses:

A carpool program that rewards three-person carpools with free parking at convenient locations throughout campus. Two-person carpools receive a reduced rate for parking decals. It includes a free "emergency ride home" program.

Free use of the regional transit system, paid for by the UF administration, for all employees as well as students.

An extensive system of bike lanes and walking paths. UF, in collaboration with the city of Gainesville, helped pay for construction of off-campus sidewalks to encourage walking to campus.

In April, the men's basketball team at UF won the NCAA national championship - an exciting accomplishment worthy of emulation by any university with a major basketball program.

The university's sustainability standards may not generate the same kind of fan appeal. But in their efforts to improve campus and community life, our local universities and local and state governments would do well to borrow a page from the Gator nation.

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In its quest to compete with the nation's top public universities, the University of Florida plans to roll out a $6.5 million health care plan for graduate students next year.

The so-called "GatorGradCare" plan will extend free benefits to some 4,500 graduate students, all of whom receive a paycheck from the university for teaching or research appointments.

"It will put us right at the top with our peers," UF President Bernie Machen said Friday.

Only about half of UF's approximately 10,000 graduate students are on appointment and will therefore be eligible for the plan. Since the plan is free, UF expects all eligible students to participate when it is offered in January.

With full student participation, the plan would cost about $6.5 million a year, about half of which would be covered by the university. The other half will be paid for by contracts and grants that fund graduate student research, according to UF officials.

The push for graduate student health care is directly tied to UF's overall mission of becoming a preeminent research institution. Machen has emphasized there is a need to recruit more post-doctoral students, who are the research workhorses of any university. The lack of health care has inhibited those efforts, Machen said.

"This is an area that we are way behind on, and it impacts our ability to recruit the best graduate students," he told UF trustees at a meeting Friday.

Like UF's health care plan for faculty and staff, GatorGradCare will extend to the domestic partners of graduate students. UF trustees approved a domestic partnership plan for employees in December, allowing gay and lesbian employees to extend health care coverage to a partner. The employee domestic partnership plan does not use any state dollars, nor will GatorGradCare, according to Kyle Cavanaugh, UF's vice president of human resources.

Victor Romano, a member of a union representing UF graduate students, said the union was adamant about the inclusion of domestic partnership coverage in the plan.

"I think it was extremely important, and it was something we insisted on," said Romano, chief negotiator for Graduate Students United.

The GatorGradCare plan wasn't born overnight. UF students have asked for a plan for years, and administrators tried unsuccessfully this session to get state lawmakers to fund a plan statewide.

"This is the culmination of an over-decades-long effort," said Romano, who is completing his Ph.D. in sociology.

Machen said he will continue to push for a legislative funding of the plan, but it could take years before that happens. UF has a unique need for the plan because of its major research emphasis, but that need isn't shared by all of the state's 11 public universities.

As such, UF found few allies in its lobbying efforts for the plan this session. Over time, however, Machen said he thinks he can persuade other institutions and lawmakers to get on board.

"Sometimes it takes two or three years to get above the horizon," he said.

Currently, UF offers $500 stipends to graduate students on appointment for health care coverage.

That leaves about $1,000 a year for the students to pick up with their own money.

The new plan won't require any such contribution from the students unless they choose to cover a spouse, partner or child.

Cavanaugh said he believes UF's plan is competitive with about any other university in the nation.

"Arguably," he said, "we're able to stand toe-to-toe."

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UF club grows 'greener'
NEW SUSTAINABILITY CLUB PUSHES FOR EVERYDAY CHANGES

By MARA SLOAN
Alligator Contributing Writer

Gators can make changing lightbulbs sexy.

"Changing light bulbs isn't sexy," said Brendan Moore, president of Gators for a Sustainable Campus, "but if every UF student changed one lightbulb, they would prevent 25,000 tons of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere over the bulbs' lifetimes, which is about 5 percent of UF's yearly carbon dioxide emissions."

Moore's group wants to talk to students one-on-one about energy efficiency and how personal changes can bear a large impact.

The group is working with the UF housing office to have energy-efficient lightbulbs donated for certain campus residence halls.

Yulee Hall, which is known as a Global Living Learning Community, is one of the halls being considered for the lightbulbs, Moore said. Graduate student housing, the Keys Complex, and fraternity and sorority houses are also being considered.

Replacing one incandescent lightbulb with a compact fluorescent one can cut your personal carbon dioxide emissions by a half-ton over the lifetime of the bulb, Moore said. Energy-saving lightbulbs cost about $2.

Gators for a Sustainable Campus was started by a group of students who took an honors sustainability course, taught by Dedee DeLongpré, the director of UF's Office of Sustainability.

DeLongpré's students decided they wanted to create on-campus awareness about the ability of one person to help the world by contributing to economic, social and environmental sustainability through simple individual actions.

The group emerged as an official organization in May. Due to the positive response it generated, another student organization, the Environmental Action Group decided to merge with it.

The group will have volunteers handing out bags in which tailgaters can recycle cans and bottles during home football games, Moore said.

And if members get their way, an initiative could appear on the Fall Student Government ballot that asks students to pay an extra 25 cents to 50 cents per credit hour to fund "green" energy projects on campus.

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Global warming's effect on hurricane strength disputed in new report

The Associated Press

July 28, 2006, 4:09 PM EDT

MIAMI -- Scientists linking the increased strength of hurricanes over recent years to global warming have not accounted for outdated technology that may have underestimated storms' power decades ago, researchers said in a report published Friday.

The research by Chris Landsea of the National Hurricane Center challenges two studies published last year by other respected climatologists.

One of the studies, by Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was considered the first major research to challenge the belief that global warming's affect on hurricanes was too slight to accurately measure and that climate change likely won't substantially change tropical storms for decades.

And, if Landsea and his three co-authors are correct, it was fundamentally flawed.

``The methodology is fine. There's no problem with the way they analyzed the data,'' said Landsea, who is science and operations officer at the hurricane center. ``The problem is with the data itself.''

The study claims historical storm data has been rendered out-of-date by new technology that better estimates the strength of hurricanes. He pointed to advancements in the quality of satellite imagery that is used to estimate a storm's strength when it can't be directly measured by aircraft or on land.

In short, Landsea said, there were far more Category 4 and 5 storms in decades past than previously thought, because satellite imagery has improved so greatly.

The article was published in the journal Science. It is co-authored by Bruce Harper, an Australian engineer who is an expert on Pacific cyclones; Karl Hoarau, a professor at Cergy-Pontoise University in France; and John Knaff, a researcher at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It looks at only a small sampling of historical storm data, though the authors plan to examine further hurricane information they believe will further prove their thesis.

Emanuel discounted the Science piece and said he put considerable effort into accounting for changes in estimating storm strength.

``They ignore the most significant finding from my Nature paper _ that Atlantic hurricane activity is highly correlated with sea surface temperature, which is comparatively well-measured,'' Emanuel said by e-mail from the Queen Mary 2, where he is lecturing on storms. ``This cannot be explained away by invoking rather qualitative arguments about data quality.''

Emanuel analyzed records of storm measurements made by aircraft and satellites since the 1950s. He found the amount of energy released in these storms in both the North Atlantic and the North Pacific oceans increased, especially since the mid-1970s.

His study was published last year, along with another Science piece that linked a double in Category 4 and 5 hurricanes since 1970 to the rise of ocean surface temperatures.

Landsea said he did not dispute global warming was occurring or that it could influence hurricanes; he said it simply was not proven by the storm information available.

The studies did not address fluctuation in the number of hurricanes, only in their intensity. But researchers agree that the Atlantic basin is in a period of higher hurricane activity that could last decades.
Copyright © 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Injecting sulfur into the atmosphere to slow down global warming is worthy of serious consideration, according to Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego. His thought-provoking paper is published in the August issue of the Springer journal Climatic Change, devoted this month to the controversial field of geoengineering.

ALBEDO ENHANCEMENT BY STRATOSPHERIC SULFUR INJECTIONS: A CONTRIBUTION TO RESOLVE A POLICY DILEMMA?

Crutzen's editorial essay available in PDF:

CLICK HERE

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On the research menu: half-eaten hamburgers

University of Florida students Shunpei Iguchi and James Duncan spent 10 hours sifting through garbage while separating the wrappers from half-eaten hamburgers at the Reitz Union food court Thursday.

Iguchi and Duncan are interns in UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences bio-energy program conducting a study on food waste as a possible source of renewable energy.

Some organic waste could potentially be recycled into a usable fuel source, according to Ann C. Wilkie, director of the bio-energy school.

"One of the projects for this year's interns is to get an idea of how much organic waste is actually produced on campus," she said.

Wilkie said summer interns look at the alternative possibilities of waste management and how waste can be recycled into useful energy.

In order to extract the byproducts from garbage, Iguchi and Duncan put the food scraps in an anaerobic digesting system, where microbes break down the organic matter converting it into a form of natural gas called "biogas."

"We're putting on gloves and going through the garbage to make sure everything can go in the digest system," Duncan said.

Duncan and Iguchi marked cardboard boxes "organic" and "inorganic" in hopes that lunching students would categorize their garbage.

The two are still working out the kinks of the experiment, and Thursday's dry run proved slightly more challenging than they previously thought.

"The biggest problem is that people are lazy," Iguchi said.

As the day went on he and Duncan had to change the signs on the bins to direct students having trouble separating "food" and "non-food" items.

The last signs put on the bins included pictures of "food" and "non-food" items, including a cartoon of fries and milk shakes, to better guide students.

"We saw a range of reactions, most commonly confusion," Duncan said. "But separating food scraps from packaging is a common practice in most parts of the globe."

As part of the project, Duncan will write a proposal on how the experiment can be made better.

"Right now, nobody has committed to the project," Duncan said.

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Graduate student surveys UF's little wild kingdoms

On the University of Florida campus, Dan Dawson knows where to go to see wild things.

The graduate student in wildlife ecology and conservation last week concluded two years of work cataloguing wildlife on campus. He found 103 bird species, 35 species of reptiles and amphibians and 11 mammal species in conservation areas scattered around the university.

"They're really a good habitat for a lot of common species," he said.

Nearly 450 of the 2,000 acres on campus are designated as conservation areas, said Linda Dixon, campus planning manager. Dawson's findings will help make sure that construction and other practices don't reduce the diversity of wildlife in those places, she said.

Dawson conducted the research in part for the use by university's facilities planning and construction department and in part for his own thesis. He established spots in 10 conservation areas where he observed birds and placed buckets and pipes in the ground to catch frogs, snakes and lizards.

The findings didn't contain more than isolated sightings of endangered or exotic species or other major surprises. One of the more unusual discoveries was a yellow-footed tortoise, a South American species that Dawson guesses escaped or was set free from the fraternities near where he found it.

But many of the species he found could be spotted in large backyards and natural places around Gainesville: green anoles and Eastern garter snakes, bronze frogs and raccoons. Among the birds were the bald eagle, red-headed woodpecker and ruby-throated hummingbird.

The work shows a developed place such as a campus or city can contain a diversity of wildlife, said Mark Hostetler, a wildlife ecology professor at UF who advised Dawson on the project.

"When you talk about diversity you're taking about all the species, not just the endangered ones," he said.

While government planners promote development within cities to reduce sprawl, Hostetler said maintaining green spaces in urban places can also provide benefits. Birds and other wildlife move between these islands of habitat as they migrate, he said.

Such places also provide a peaceful refuge for city dwellers who might not otherwise be exposed to nature, he said.

"They serve both wildlife and humans," he said.

UF's conservation areas can also serve as outdoor classrooms, said Dedee DeLongpré, the director of the university's Office of Sustainability.

UF has designated the conservation areas on the southwest corner of campus as a teaching laboratory for the natural sciences. But other conservation areas can also be used for classes, DeLongpré said, and those classes don't have to be limited to the sciences.

"They don't even need to leave campus to do it," she said.

The university's master plan designates 31 conservation areas to be protected from development. Audubon International last year named the university as a wildlife sanctuary in part for its work protecting those areas, the first university to earn such a designation.

The school is developing management plans to ensure the diversity of plants and wildlife in its conservation areas, Dixon said. Efforts include fencing to prevent trash from reaching them and controlling exotic plant species.

Student government recently recommended using a $500,000 state grant for additional conservation work on those areas, she said.

Education efforts are also important ways to protect the environment on a university campus, Hostetler said. Students need to be aware that they should stay on trails and not release pets or feed wildlife, he said.

Dawson said he was surprised that he never encountered students or had any of his traps disturbed during the project. He said he hopes his work will help students realize that conservation areas contain a thriving natural world right outside their dorm rooms.

"I'd like people in general to appreciate them more than they do," he said.

Nathan Crabbe can be reached at 352-338-3176 or crabben@gvillesun.com.

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Graduate student surveys UF's little wild kingdoms

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Ethanol touted as right road for alternative fueling

RON WORD
Associated Press

GAINESVILLE - Florida needs to develop sources of renewable alternative energy to reduce its reliance on foreign oil and fossil fuels, U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez said Wednesday at an energy conference at the University of Florida.

Joined by oil industry executives, power company officials and University of Florida professors, Martinez and U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam heralded the use of ethanol. Other alternative energy sources such as solar and wind received only scant mention.

"We need to change our mind-set in the U.S. and get away from viewing drilling as the answer, and instead put our energies behind alternative fuels as the only way to a better future," Martinez said.

Some researchers, however, said the amount of ethanol produced makes up only a small portion of the nation's fuel supply and its production has some environmental impacts.

Martinez said there is only one commercial station in the state selling ethanol, although several companies have plans to produce ethanol from grain, sugar cane or corn.

"Making the choice to protect our coast from offshore drilling means that Florida has to put its money where its mouth is when it comes to finding alternative ways to run our cars and cool our homes. We can't have it both ways. That's why we're here today to discuss Florida's Road to Energy Independence - what will work, what we need to explore and how we get there."

Industry experts noted Florida uses about 8.6 billion gallons of gasoline each year, the third highest in the nation.

"It is a staggering consumption story," said Putnam, R-Fla., who said the country needs to "grow itself out" of the energy problem using crops and biomass to produce ethanol.

University of Minnesota professor Jason Hill, however, said if every kernel of corn in the country was made into ethanol, it would replace only 12 percent of the gasoline used in this country.

As a motor fuel, ethanol from corn produces a modest 25 percent more energy than is consumed - including from fossil fuels - in growing the corn, converting it into ethanol and shipping it for use in gasoline, his study showed.

Hill also said ethanol has environmental drawbacks, including "markedly greater" releases of nitrogen, phosphorous and pesticides into waterways as runoff from corn fields. Ethanol, especially at higher concentrations in gasoline, also produces more smog-causing pollutants than gasoline per unit of energy burned, the researchers said.

But Florida researchers are still touting ethanol, although no plants have yet come on line.

"It will take a massive effort to build all the plants we need," said Lonnie Ingrain, a University of Florida professor who has developed a process to make ethanol out of agricultural waste.

Buzz Hoover, president of Gate Ethanol, said the Jacksonville-based company plans to build an ethanol plant in north Florida that will initially produce 50 million gallons of ethanol a yearm, with plans to expand to 100 million.

The plant will supply ethanol to Gate stations across Florida and sell its excess.

Hoover and other oil company executives said they need incentives and tax breaks to keep the price competitive.

Clay Sell, deputy director of the U.S. Department of Energy, said the agency was planning on offering $2 billion in loan guarantees for alternate energy companies.

Mike O'Sullivan, senior vice president of FP&L Energy, said the Florida-based company is one of the largest producers of wind energy in the country, but pointed out that Florida's winds, while extreme at times, do not blow consistently enough to generate electricity.

Alan Banks, president and chief executive officer for Fort Lauderdale-based Losonoco, said his company was building three ethanol plants in the United States, including one in Florida.

"It's time to get out of the lab and into productivity," he said.

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College campuses go green
Sustainability is now all the rage in research

By Diane Hirth
DEMOCRAT SENIOR WRITER
Going green to shape a world where energy sources, homes and most material goods would be earth friendly is spreading through colleges like kudzu vine.

It's called sustainability.

Once futuristic ideas on saving the earth from global warming and overflowing landfills are being dispensed routinely in university classrooms and laboratories as problems to be solved.

The gung-ho, go-green attitudes on campus are as noticeable as the work itself, encountered in disciplines as various as engineering and interior design.

Florida State University student Justin Kramer, for example, is earning a master's in sustainable energy engineering, a new degree at FSU.

"Hopefully this technology really takes off, so we're not just replacing fossil fuels but replacing them with environmentally friendly fuels," said Kramer, 23, who grew up in Crawfordville. "We're watching our power supply dwindle and increasing our demand- it's kind of a scary notion. It's why we're looking toward alternative sources. I have a feeling the sun will be around a little longer."

Kramer is part of the 10-member research team of Anjane'yulu' Krothapalli, a mechanical engineering professor working on producing cheap, non-polluting energy for the two billion people in the world without electricity. The same technology could be useful when hurricanes tear apart the U.S. electrical grid.

Krothapalli as a boy studied by the light of a kerosene lamp in Amrutalur, India, because his family home didn't have electricity until 1973.

He's imbued with a sense of global mission: "Somebody has to do this. That's what it boils down to. We can't just sit here and not help people. It's something I have an opportunity do, and FSU is good enough to let me do what I wanted to do."

Krothapalli's technology starts with a solar dish, used to concentrate the sun's energy to boil water. Steam from the process runs a turbine and creates electricity. Then the energy is put into an electrolyzer, that splits water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is stored in a pressurized tank; the oxygen released into the air.

Picture a rural village where someone owns the solar dish and electrolyzer and sells hydrogen to villagers. The villagers would have fuel cells that combine the hydrogen and oxygen to create electricity.

"Our goal is to provide electricity to people for around 10 cents a kilowatt hour," said Krothapalli, concentrating on keeping the apparatus simple so it won't break down or cost much. He's established the Sustainable Energy Science and Engineering Center at FSU and taken steps to start commercializing his research.

Rethinking interior design
"It hasn't caught on too mainstream yet," said Amy Boyce, 22, who graduated from FSU this spring with a bachelor's degree in interior design.

But the choice of using paint, carpet, furniture and floorings that are non-polluting and recyclable was woven into her FSU classes. She just received the "LEED" professional green-building certification that cements her expertise to employ these ideas in her interior design job in Atlanta. "I'm really excited about it," Boyce said.

Said Eric Wiedegreen, chairman of FSU's Department of Interior Design, "We're committed to the concept of sustainability in its greatest sense, from cradle to cradle. Hopefully (a product) would never have to go to the landfill. It doesn't hurt people in the manufacturing, usage or disposal."

By getting interior-design students to think this way, almost overnight a stronger market is created for products like linoleum made from flax seed and bamboo floors, said Wiedegreen.

More companies and people "are seeing it as an ethical issue," he said. "We need to rethink all this and wind up with a better world. Sustainability is just good design."

Recently FSU interior design graduate Bridget Dunn won top prize in the 2006 Student Sustainable Design Competition sponsored by the International Interior Design Association. Her concept was a clinic for underprivileged women in a hypothetical historic downtown Tallahassee building that used all green principles.

Going green in Gainesville
University of Florida, with the blessings of President Bernie Machen, has declared its 2,000-acre footprint in Gainesville a sustainable campus in the making. More than 75 UF courses incorporate sustainability, and the university is exploring how to reduce its pollution and expenses by greening the campus.

"We think we're the only Florida institution of higher education that has a formal campus-wide sustainability initiative," said DeDee Longpre, hired in February to lead UF's sustainability office. Her master's degree in business incorporated sustainability management.

Just one way UF is becoming greener is in regard to transit. The university buys only hybrid or flex-fuel vehicles and uses biodiesel in its diesel vehicles. It is about to install an ethanol tank. Carpooling UF faculty get free parking passes. All students, faculty and staff ride regional buses for free on and off campus.

And more showers are being placed around campus to help sweaty bicycle commuters refresh themselves.

From Oct. 25-26, a conference hosted by the Gators will be a chance for universities, colleges and communities to share sustainability best practices.

Possibilities realized
This fall, Kramer will help construct an experimental house on the FSU campus using Krothapalli's solar energy system and other green techniques. One goal is to make it the 10th building in the world with platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

"The house is actually a lab. We're going to work in it. Test out the technologies, how the lights run, how the water works. We can modify as we go along," said Kramer. "The stuff we're working here is really revolutionary. It's not only high technology but it's green and it's practical."

He added with glee, "The possibilities of these technologies are endless, the applications are as broad as your imagination."

For more information on FSU's Sustainable Energy Science and Engineering Center, see www.sesec.fsu.edu

For more on University of Florida's sustainable campus, see www.sustainable.ufl.edu

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Has time come for alternative fuels?

By NATHAN CRABBE
Sun staff writer

Florida can be a leader in alternative fuels made with everything from orange peels to yard waste, according to participants in an energy forum Wednesday at the University of Florida.

Lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., joined UF researchers and members of the energy industry at the forum.

All participants agreed that Florida can reduce its dependence on oil by developing technology that converts crop and plant waste into fuel.

"We need to change our mindset in the U.S. and get away from viewing drilling as the answer and instead put our energies into alternative fuels," Martinez said.

Florida uses 8.6 billion gallons of gasoline a year, and the number is growing by 300 million gallons a year, according to forum participants. The fuel comes almost entirely from out-of-state sources, said UF microbiology professor Lonnie Ingram.

"Every dollar we spend on gasoline in the state of Florida essentially falls off the map," he said.

Ingram has developed ways to use bacteria to convert plant waste into ethanol. The state's status as the No. 1 producer of sugar cane, citrus, forest residue and urban wood waste make it ideal for such technology, said UF forestry professor Mary Duryea.

"Those are great ingredients for advancing the science of bioenergy," she said.

Several of the forum participants focused on ethanol, which until recently has been largely produced and used as a fuel additive in the Midwest. But now a handful of ethanol plants are on the drawing board in Florida, including a plant by Jacksonville-based Gate Petroleum proposed to be built near White Springs.

"Ethanol has been been the sole domain of Midwestern corn growers," said U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow. "It doesn't have to continue to be that way."

Florida farmers are interested in growing crops that can be used to produce energy, said Kevin Morgan, director of agricultural policy for the Florida Farm Bureau. But farmers need to be assured they'll be able to make money off such crops, he said.

"At the end of the day, if this is a profitable venture, agriculture will move that way," he said.

Lawmakers talked about ways to encourage the production of ethanol and other alternative sources of energy. State Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, said Florida should create a "mini-NASA" that focuses on research into renewable energy.

Such a research center could be funded through a 10-cent-a-month tax on electric meters, he said, but lawmakers must have the political will to pass such a measure.

"We're going to have to make an investment in the future for renewable energy," he said.

Florida Power and Light is among state utilities using renewable sources such as wind and solar energy, said Mike O'Sullivan, the utility's senior vice president. But he said many renewable energy technologies are still being developed and they are expensive.

"Everybody wants their air conditioning bill as low as possible, but some of the renewable technologies aren't quite ready for prime time," he said.

Other participants cautioned that a move toward renewable energy will take a massive effort. The U.S. Department of Energy goal of using ethanol and other renewable sources as 30 percent of the nation's fuel consumption is ambitious but can be done, Ingram said.

"It will take a massive building effort," he said.

Phil Lampert, executive director of the Ethanol Vehicle Association, said the state should expand the use of ethanol but not expect it will solve all its energy problems.

"Ethanol is not the silver bullet. . . . It is one of our nation's opportunities to wean ourselves off our dependence on petroleum products," he said.

Nathan Crabbe can be reached at 352-338-3176 or crabben@gvillesun.com.

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UF finds ethanol source for car fleet

By NATHAN CRABBE
Sun staff writer

The University of Florida started fueling some of its vehicle fleet with ethanol Thursday, as part of efforts to reduce the use of fossil fuels on campus.

UF President Bernie Machen last year ordered the university to give priority to buying hybrid vehicles and "flex-fuel" vehicles that run on gasoline or ethanol. But until now, the university's 45 flex-fuel vehicles didn't have an available source of the corn-based fuel.

Lewis Oil of Gainesville sold an initial 2,000-gallon batch of 85 percent ethanol to UF and is bidding on an ongoing contract. The company also plans to start selling ethanol to the general public at a Gainesville service station.

The university's use of ethanol creates a local market for the fuel that might allow others to use it, said Dedee DeLongpré, the director of the university's Office of Sustainability

"It's leading by example," she said
The use of ethanol on campus is part of a wider push to reduce the number of vehicles and use of fossil fuels there. Other efforts include the university charging departments a $3,000 fee per car to park vehicles on campus and offering taxi and car-sharing services.

Ethanol is an alternative fuel that is usually derived from corn and blended with gasoline. Ethanol until recently had largely been produced and used in the Midwest, but now political and business leaders in Florida are promoting the fuel here.

Just this week, a "Farm to Fuel Summit" was held in Orlando to discuss opportunities for growing crops for fuel in the state and other ways to increase production.

Gate Petroleum of Jacksonville plans an ethanol plant near White Springs, which would be one of the first in the state and use corn bought from the Midwest.

Lewis Oil plans to sell ethanol at one of the 15 service stations it owns in Gainesville, said Richard Paznik, the company's plant manager. The company previously didn't see a big demand for ethanol, he said, but hopes UF's use of the fuel will create more interest.

"It's slowly spreading," he said.
The cost of ethanol fluctuates but is generally competitively priced with gasoline, he said, recently selling at $2.94 a gallon. Ethanol has a higher octane rating than straight gasoline but provides lower gas mileage, he said.

While ethanol is also a cleaner-burning fuel, there are environmental concerns about the expansion of its use.

The production of corn and transportation of ethanol requires fossil fuels that can offset ethanol's environmental benefits, said Chris Bird, environmental protection director for Alachua County.

"The jury's still out on whether there's a net benefit," he said.

UF has a fleet of more than 2,000 vehicles, including 10 hybrids and 45 flex-fuel vehicles, said Jon Priest, motor pool superintendent.

The university now uses about 30,000 gallons of gasoline and 8,000 gallons of diesel each month, he said.

The diesel vehicles will soon be running on a fuel blended with 20 percent biodiesel. Gainesville-based Freedom Fuels provided a test batch of the fuel produced from vegetable oil that worked well in vehicles, Priest said.

The university also is trying to reduce the number of vehicles on campus though financial penalties.

Starting last month, departments must pay $3,000 per vehicle to park on campus as a way to encourage them to reduce their vehicle fleet, DeLongpré said.

She said the fee will be used to fund taxi and car-sharing services on campus.

"If we were going to take something away, we wanted to offer a practical alternative," she said.

The taxi service is being tested this month. Three taxis are available on campus, providing transportation to faculty and staff.

A car-sharing service also could be offered to students, said Allan Preston, coordinator of the quality office in the physical plant.

Members of the program would get background and insurance checks, he said, then be able to rent vehicles for $5 an hour.

DeLongpré said those efforts combined with the use of alternative fuels can help the school reduce its total emissions of carbon dioxide.

She said UF might eventually be able to use ethanol experts on campus to develop ways to use locally grown crops to produce fuels for its fleet on campus.

"Ideally, we don't want to get an alternative fuel from halfway across the county - that's not sustainable," she said. "But you've got to start somewhere."

Nathan Crabbe can be reached at 338-3176 or crabben@gvillesun.com.

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University will be one of the first in the U.S. to offer an organic farming major

By NATHAN CRABBE
Sun staff writer

As organic food becomes a bigger presence on the shelves of major grocery stores, the University of Florida is following suit by expanding the study and research of organic farming.

UF officials recently announced the university will be one of the first in the U.S. to offer an organic farming major. A class in organic crop production is being offered for the first time this fall semester as part of the program.

"The organic food industry is maturing and I think you see that in lot of ways," said Mickie Swisher, co-director of UF's Center for Organic Agriculture.

The development of national organic standards in 2002 made the UF major possible, said Danielle Treadwell, an assistant horticulture professor teaching the crop production course. Now students can be taught standards that can be applied anywhere in the country, she said.

But an organic industry previously filled with small growers selling produce at farmer's markets and through co-operative programs has also seen other changes. Corporate giants such as Archer Daniels Midland, Coca-Cola and General Mills have purchased organic companies and led to a consolidation of the industry.

The changes have meant greater consumer access to organic foods and lower prices, Treadwell said, but can also hurt local food producers.

"On the one hand, it's a good thing" because of the environmental benefits, she said. "On the other hand, we're missing opportunities to support our local growers."

Organic farming is the production of crops and livestock without synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, hormones, drugs and artificial techniques. Once a niche market, organic foods have gone mainstream in recent years.

The sale of organic foods has grown nearly 20 percent annually since 1990 and accounted for $13.8 billion in consumer sales in 2005, according to Organic Trade Association. Organics now represent 2.5 percent of all food sales, the group reported.

The trend has led to the development of nearly 2.2 million acres of organic farm land nationwide, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics. But Florida has been a small player with just 12,778 acres as of 2004, according to the department.

Many of the state's organic farms are located in North Central Florida, growing organic blueberries, mushrooms, watermelons and other produce. About 13 organic farms totaling more than 700 acres are certified in Alachua County and nearby communities, said Marty Mesh, director of the Gainesville-based Florida Organic Growers Association.

He said Gainesville is an especially good market for organic growers, being a progressive college community with at least five area farmer's markets. While the growth of the industry has meant competition from big growers, he said, it has benefited small farmers with expanded research dollars and access to crop insurance.

"There's more and more resources available," he said.

Organic research means a change in priorities, said Rose Koenig, an organic farmer who is co-director of the UF's organic agriculture center. Agriculture research has traditionally aimed at enlarging crop yield through chemical sprays and biotechnology, she said.

Because both tools are not appropriate for organic farming, she said, the center is working to promote research into alternative methods for organic growers.

One research project being conducted at Koenig's farm involves studying environmentally friendly ways to fight weeds, ranging from planting cover crops to flaming the soil. Carlene Chase, an assistant professor of horticultural science conducting the research, said there had previously been a lack of research involving organic farming at big state universities.

"More scientists are recognizing this is something more consumers are interested in," she said.

The university is also expanding the number of organically certified farm land at its research farm in Citra, now at 17 acres. Organic standards require land to be free of synthetic chemicals for three years to be certified.

UF's major is one of the first in the country, announced around the same time as a program at the University of Washington. Five students have signed up for the UF major, and the organic crop production class is expected to attract more, said Melissa A. Webb, coordinator of academic support services for horticultural sciences.

Treadwell said the class is different than other agriculture classes in its emphasis on the law outlining the national organic standards. The class will also teach old-style farming with modern methods to address soil and water quality and other issues, she said.

"It's traditional farming with high tech added to it," she said.

Treadwell views UF's increased emphasis on organic farming as a way for the university to support local food production.

Despite the consolidation of the organic industry, she said the root of the organic movement is still making people knowledgeable about who is growing their food and how it is being done.

"It's about reconnecting with your food, really," she said.

Nathan Crabbe can be reached at 352-338-3176 or crabben@gvillesun.com

FYI: About the organic food industry

# The U.S. organic industry grew 17 percent to reach $14.6 billion in consumer sales in 2005.

# Organic foods, the largest part of the organic industry, grew 16 percent and accounted for $13.8 billion in sales.

# The sales of organic foods represented 2.5 percent of total U.S. food sales, which has has grown from less than 1 percent in 1997.

# Organic foods have shown consistent growth rates of 15 percent to 21 percent a year since 1997.

SOURCE: Organic Trade Association

 

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Sleek? Well, No. Complex? Yes, Indeed.

By ERICA GOODE
Published: August 29, 2006

It is a good thing the manatee has thick skin.

To the dolphins, the whales, the sea otters go the admiring oohs and ahs, the cries of, ''How sleek!'' ''How beautiful!''

The manatee, sluggish, squinty-eyed and bewhiskered, is more likely to have its rotund bulk compared to ''a sweet potato,'' its homely, almost fetal looks deemed ''prehistoric'' -- terms applied by startled New Yorkers this month to a Florida manatee that made an unexpected appearance in the Hudson River.

Cleverness is unhesitatingly ascribed to the dolphin. But the manatee is not seen leaping through hoops or performing somersaults on command, and even scientists have suspected it may not be the smartest mammal in the sea. Writing in 1902, a British anatomist, Grafton Elliot Smith, groused that manatee brains -- tiny in proportion to the animals' bodies and smooth as a baby's cheek -- resembled ''the brains of idiots.''

Yet the conception of the simple sea cow is being turned on its head by the recent work of Roger L. Reep, a neuroscientist at the University of Florida at Gainesville, and a small group of other manatee researchers, including Gordon B. Bauer, a professor of psychology at New College of Florida, and David Mann, a biologist at the University of South Florida.

In studies over the last decade, they have shown that the endangered Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) is as unusual in its physiology, sensory capabilities and brain organization as in its external appearance.

Far from being slow learners, manatees, it turns out, are as adept at experimental tasks as dolphins, though they are slower-moving and, having no taste for fish, more difficult to motivate. They have a highly developed sense of touch, mediated by thick hairs called vibrissae that adorn not just the face, as in other mammals, but the entire body, according to the researchers' recent work.

And where earlier scientists saw in the manatee's brain the evidence of deficient intelligence, Dr. Reep sees evolution's shaping of an animal perfectly adapted to its environment.

Dr. Reep -- a co-author, with Robert K. Bonde, a biologist at the Sirenia Project of the United States Geological Survey, of a recently published book, ''The Florida Manatee: Biology and Conservation'' (University Press of Florida) -- argues that the small size of the manatee brain may have little or nothing to do with its intelligence.

Brain size has been linked by some biologists with the elaborateness of the survival strategies an animal must develop to find food and avoid predators. Manatees have the lowest brain-to-body ratio of any mammal. But, as Dr. Reep noted, they are aquatic herbivores, subsisting on sea grass and other vegetation, with no need to catch prey. And with the exception of powerboats piloted by speed-happy Floridians, which kill about 80 manatees a year and maim dozens more, they have no predators.

''Manatees don't eat anybody, and they're not eaten by anybody,'' Dr. Reep said.

But he also suspects that rather than the manatee's brain being unusually small for its body, the situation may be the other way around: that its body, for sound evolutionary reasons, has grown unusually large in proportion to its brain.

A large body makes it easier to keep warm in the water -- essential for a mammal, like the manatee, with a glacially slow metabolism. It also provides room for the large digestive system necessary to process giant quantities of low-protein, low-calorie food.

The manatee must consume 10 percent of its 800-pound to 1,200-pound body weight daily. Hugh, 22, and Buffett, 19, captive manatees at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla., are fed 72 heads of lettuce and 12 bunches of kale a day, their trainers say. And in a 2000 study, Iske Larkin, a researcher in Dr. Reep's laboratory, used colored kernels of corn to determine that food took an average of seven days to pass through a captive manatee's intestinal tract -- a leisurely digestive pace comparable to that of a koala or a two-toed sloth.

The smooth surface of the manatee's brain -- it generally has only one main vertical fissure, or sulcus, and no surface ridges to speak of -- is more puzzling, Dr. Reep concedes. The brains of virtually every other mammal bigger than a small rodent show some degree of folding. And scientists have generally taken the human cortex, a study in ridges and crevasses, as a model of higher-order mental process, assuming accordingly that brain convolution is a sign of intelligence.

''I would make a guess that if you showed a manatee brain to a modern neuroscientist, to this day, most would consider that the manatee is not very smart, that idea is so ingrained,'' Dr. Reep said.

But he added that scientists still know almost nothing about what drives the development of brain formation. Evolutionary lineage appears to have an influence. The brains of primates tend to have different patterns of convolution than those of carnivores, for example. And mechanical factors like brain size and the denseness of neural tissue in the cortex may play a role.

Manatees have a relatively thick cerebrum, with multiple layers that may, Dr. Reep suspects, indicate complexity despite a lack of folding.

In any case, he said, brain convolution ''doesn't seem to be correlated with the capacity to do things.''

More to the point, intelligence -- in animals or in humans -- is hard to define, much less compare between species, Dr. Reep said. Is the intelligence of a gifted concert pianist the same as that of a math whiz? Is a lion's cunning the same as the cleverness of a Norwegian rat?

The manatee is good at what it needs to be good at.

Sirenia, a biological order that includes the dugong and three extant species of manatees, appear in the fossil record in the early to middle Eocene, about 50 million years ago, around the same time as whales, horses and other mammals, said Daryl P. Domning, a professor of anatomy at Howard University who has collected and studied the fossils of manatees and other sirenians around the world.

Four-legged land mammals that returned to the sea, the sirenians shed their hind legs but retained vestigial pelvic bones and, in two manatee species, nails on their flippers. Manatees count among their close relatives the elephant and the rock hyrax. Another sirenian, Steller's sea cow, lived in the Bering Sea and exceeded 5,000 pounds. It was hunted into extinction in the 1700's.

Although dugongs appear in the folklore of Palau, sirenians in general ''don't seem to have inspired the amount of awe that other animals did, like pumas and jaguars and things like that,'' Dr. Domning said. ''You don't find them putting up monuments or statues to them.''

Florida manatees, a subspecies of the West Indian manatee, thrive in warm, shallow coastal waters and migrate when the temperature drops. They spend a great deal of time eating, with frequent naps between meals. Their social world is relatively straightforward. Males mate with females in a violent affair that resembles a gang rape; manatee calves stick close to their mothers for about two years, then head off on their own.

Groups of manatees may cluster, playing, grazing and dozing at a warm-water source -- a power plant, for example. But they are just as likely to be loners, striking out wherever the warm currents take them, even if that means passing the Statue of Liberty and heading up the East River to Rhode Island, as an earlier northward manatee pioneer, Chessie, did in 1995. (The manatee spotted in the Hudson in early August was seen on Aug. 17 even farther north, off Cape Cod. But two days later it had turned south again to Rhode Island. The last reported sighting was the afternoon of Aug. 25, in Bristol Harbor, R.I. )

The manatee's sensory capacities and brain organization, researchers are learning, are perfectly suited to its style of life.

In the dim, muddy shallows where manatees feed, for example, sharp eyes are less than useful. And sight is not a manatee's strong suit, though the heavy-lidded wrinkled dimples that serve as eyes are undoubtedly part of the animal's charm.

Manatees distinguish colors. The orange of carrots in a trainer's hand can inspire a captive manatee to an uncharacteristic speed. But they are bad at distinguishing brightness, and they are clumsy, frequently bumping into things.

In 2003, Dr. Bauer and four colleagues, including Debborah Colbert and Joseph Gaspard III of the Mote Marine Laboratory, reported in The International Journal of Comparative Psychology on the visual testing of the Mote manatees, Hugh and Buffett. The manatees were trained to discriminate between two underwater panels of evenly spaced vertical lines, swimming toward the correct panel for a reward of apples, beets, carrots and monkey biscuits. By varying the distance between the lines, the researchers showed that Buffett's eyesight was about 20/420, similar to a cow's and far worse than a human's.

Poor Hugh, Dr. Bauer said, was blind ''even by manatee standards.''

Yet far more valuable than sight in murky water is an acute sense of touch, and it is here that manatees excel. Their mastery of the tactile world, Dr. Reep and his colleagues have recently established, comes from the thick, bristly hairs called vibrissae. Unlike normal hair fibers, each vibrissa is a finely calibrated sensory device, its follicle surrounded by a blood-filled pocket or blood sinus. The movement of the hair produces changes in the fluid that are registered by receptors around the hair follicle, which transmit the information to the brain via hundreds of nerve fibers. An increase in blood pressure increases the sensitivity of the hairs.

In research over the last five years, Dr. Reep and his colleagues have shown that manatees have 2,000 facial vibrissae of varying thickness, 600 of them in the so-called oral disk, a circular region between mouth and nose that the manatee uses much like an elephant's trunk, to grasp or explore objects. Each facial vibrissa is linked with 50 to 200 nerve fibers. An additional 3,000 vibrissae are spaced less densely over the rest of the body.

Rats, dogs, sea lions and other whiskered animals also have vibrissae, but not in such large numbers and typically only on the face. In research not yet published, Diana Sarko, a graduate student in Dr. Reep's lab, confirmed that another mammal has vibrissae dispersed over its body, the rodent-faced, rabbit-size rock hyrax, the manatee's distant cousin.

Like the manatee, the hyrax, which inhabits rocky outcroppings, spends much of its time in dim light and has poor vision.

''Rock hyraxes live in little cave dwellings, so they probably use these hairs to navigate in these dark surroundings,'' Ms. Sarko said.

In testing, Buffett, Hugh and other captive animals have proved just how acute a manatee's tactile sense can be. Using the bristles on the oral disk and the upper lips, manatees can detect minute differences in the width of grooves and ridges on an underwater panel. A manatee tested by a team of researchers in Germany could distinguish differences as small as 0.05 millimeters, as well as an elephant performing the same task with its trunk, and almost as well as a human. Hugh and Buffett did even better, outperforming the elephant and, in Buffett's case, the human.

The findings were presented at the 16th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals in 2005.

A sensory modality that is so important should be prominently represented in the brain. And, confirming an observation first made by a German scientist in 1912, Dr. Reep's research team has identified large clusters of cells called Rindenkerne in sensory processing areas in the deep layers of the manatee's cerebral cortex. These clusters, the researchers suspect, are the manatee equivalents of the cell groupings called barrels found in other whiskered species like mice and rats, regions that process sensory information from the vibrissae.

Even more tantalizing is that, in the manatee, these clusters extend into a region of the brain believed to be centrally involved with sound perception.

''Either these things have nothing to do with the hair at all, or the more exciting possibility is that perhaps somatic sensation is so important that the specialized structure is overlapping with processing going on in auditory areas,'' Dr. Reep said.

The normal hearing of manatees is known to be quite good in certain ranges, better than that of humans. In studies published in 1999 and 2000, Edmund and Laura Gerstein of Florida Atlantic University found that the underwater hearing of two captive manatees in a pool was sharpest at high frequencies -- in the 16-to-18-kilohertz range -- findings that have complicated the debate about powerboats. Though Florida has spent years trying to persuade boaters to slow down in areas that manatees frequent, the high frequencies emitted by a boat moving at high speed may be easier for the animals to hear (although having the time to get out of the way is a different matter).

But in a study also presented at the marine mammal meetings, Dr. Bauer, Dr. Reep and colleagues have found hints that manatees can also ''hear'' low-frequency sounds, perhaps by using the vibrissae on their bodies to detect subtle changes in water movement. Hugh and Buffett were able to determine the location of three-second low-frequency vibrations in the 23-to-1,000-hertz range with up to 100 percent accuracy. The researchers plan to repeat these experiments with the vibrissae covered, to see whether the manatees still score highly.

If they do, it will suggest that they have a capacity unique among mammals and may help biologists explain, among other things, how they navigate back to their favorite patches of sea grass each year and how they monitor the movements of other manatees in cloudy water. Fish and some amphibians have similar sensory systems, mediated by cells running down the sides of their bodies. Called the lateral line, this system is ''the reason why we can sneak up behind a fish but cannot grab it,'' Dr. Reep writes.

For now, the question of how intertwined the sensory abilities of manatees might be remains unanswered. Yet even what is known reveals a degree of complexity that argues against labeling them as sweet but dumb -- peaceable simpletons.

Dr. Domning of Howard could not agree more.

''They're too smart to jump through hoops the way those dumb dolphins do,'' he said.

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Machen asks trustees to simplify goals, bonuses

By LINDSEY FRANCO
Published: September 8, 2006

Framed with the Board of Trustees' meeting table, UF President Bernie Machen discusses his goals for UF during a trustees meeting at Emerson Alumni Hall on Thursday.

UF President Bernie Machen's compensation for the year could depend on how well he pays faculty members, expands need-based aid and improves campus sustainability, or the conservation of resources for future generations.

Those goals were outlined in a set of 51 objectives for Machen and the university that the Board of Trustees' Committee on Governance discussed at its Thursday meeting.

Each year, Machen receives a bonus from the trustees based on how well he meets his yearly objectives. Last year, the board awarded him a $75,000 bonus for his performance.

The goals also appear in UF's Strategic Work Plan, a document that maps the university's route to becoming a top-tier institution.

But at Thursday's meeting, Machen said the trustees should consider a different way to chart UF's progress.

To revamp the goal-setting system, Machen said the board should create "a simplified model" of his annual and long-term goals.

That plan would compress Machen's yearly and three-year objectives into a single document.

"It's very aligned with where we want to go," said trustee Dianna Morgan, the former senior vice president of public affairs for Walt Disney World.

If the trustees eventually approve Machen's plan, his yearly compensation could be affected, said committee Chairman Mac McGriff.

He said several goals listed in the current plan would remain from year to year.

"There are a lot of them that won't get accomplished in a year that will stay there and keep you focused," said McGriff, who works as private investor in Jacksonville.

Machen also highlighted three of his own goals for the university, which include analyzing UF's financial needs and strengthening the communication between trustees and other administrators.

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Green Team steps up effort to get orange and blue fans to recycle

By NATHAN CRABBE
Published: September 10. 2006

Judging by the drinking habits of some University of Florida football fans, the 80 tons of waste produced during game days is full of cans and bottles.

While the drinking itself has been a concern of the UF president, the lack of recycling of the waste was a sore spot for first lady Chris Machen.

Now a group of volunteers called the Green Team is stepping up recycling efforts during pre-game tailgating. About 30 students clad in green shirts distributed blue bags for recyclable waste to tailgaters Saturday and even sifted through trash to pull out cans and bottles.

"It's obscene how many bottles are thrown away," said Aly Byrne, a 20-year-old environmental engineering major and part of the Green Team.

During the first game of the year, students passed out about 300 bags and collected 300 pounds of recyclable material. The number of bags increased to 800 this week and should hit 1,500 during the next home game, said Dedee DeLongpré, UF's director of sustainability.

"So many people recycle at home these days," she said. "They expect to recycle wherever they go."

The effort appeared to be a mixed success. Some bags in the student tailgating area in front of the UF library were packed full. Others lay empty, as cans and bottles were instead thrown in trash cans or lay strewn on the ground nearby.

Volunteers picked through the trash to remove those bottles, but said they hope they won't have to do that next time around. Educating tailgaters about recycling was part of the Green Team's efforts.

"Hopefully after a couple of times they'll recognize us as the Green Team and know what to do," said Beau Frail, a 19-year-old member of the team.

Some fans seemed to respond well to the effort. Mike Thibult, 42, of Gainesville said local residents are used to recycling at home and would do the same during games if given the opportunity.

"I buy into it big time and I think most of us do," he said.

UF produces about 63 tons of waste during an average day, DeLongpré said.

About 23 tons includes industrial material such as concrete that is recycled. The remaining 40 tons of waste doubles in volume on game day, she said.

The Green Team is just part of recycling efforts. Another program aims at "zero waste" in the luxury boxes of Florida Field. DeLongpré said cups and other plastic used there are starch based, which is biodegradable.

She said efforts outside the stadium had a mixed history of success. Last year, people collecting bags designated for recycling in the O'Connell Center lot spent most of their time picking other trash from the containers.

This year, bins with a small hole for cans and bottles might be set up during games to avoid the problem.

DeLongpré said she encountered fans who were throwing out their cans and bottles, but put them in the blue bags once she explained the program. The recyclable waste will likely never be captured in its entirety, she said, but education efforts should mean more and more is collected over time.

"Even people that have been drinking can get it," she said.

Nathan Crabbe can be reached at 352-338-3176 or crabben@gvillesun.com

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Ethanol fuels flow in state for first time
The Associated Press
Published: September 14. 2006

TALLAHASSEE - Drivers with vehicles that can use ethanol-blend fuel were able to buy it in Florida for the first time Wednesday when a gas station here became the state's first to sell E-85.

Gov. Jeb Bush was the first to use it, pumping the corn-based fuel into an SUV with the hope that eventually it could help lessen dependence on foreign oil, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, provide an economic boost to farmers and maybe even blunt high pump prices.

The promotion of alternative fuels has been the centerpiece of Bush's energy policy - and state officials said the governor would be riding in a vehicle that can use E-85 within a couple weeks.

The fuel can only be used in flex fuel vehicles, or FFVs. It would damage regular engines.

Bush said the primary reason he would like to see more drivers shift to such vehicles is that it reduces the amount of oil the nation must buy from foreign suppliers.

"It's in our national security interest and our economic interest as a state to diversify," Bush said. "It would make sense to me to be reliant on sources of energy internationally that would be more stable than oil from Venezuela, oil from the Middle East, oil from Nigeria, where there is political instability or outright hatred of our country."

While there's debate on whether using more ethanol would make much of a dent in oil imports, environmentalists agree with Bush's second reason for promoting its use: it spews much less pollution into the air.

"The E-85 tends to promote a cleaner environment, I would say this is positive news," said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch in Washington.

O'Donnell and other advocates for clean air say it's a small step - stronger emissions requirements for all vehicles would go much further in cleaning up the air. But overall, they agree it could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The fuel Bush pumped in to a Chevy Tahoe Wednesday at an Inland Gas Station was $2.29 a gallon, about 20 cents cheaper than regular gas. But for the consumer, the overall cost may be a wash. Fuel flex vehicles get about 20 to 25 percent fewer miles to the gallon.

Officials with E-85 supplier Southwest Georgia Oil said the company planned to make it available in the coming months at 16 additional Inland Fuel and SunStop gas stations in the Tallahassee area.

E-85 is available in several other states, mostly in the Midwest, but overall, fewer than 750 of more than 180,000 fuel stations nationwide offer it.

Researchers say another obstacle to making biofuels a viable gas replacement is the lack of crops available to turn into fuel.

A recent University of Minnesota study found that if all the corn grown in the country were turned into fuel, it would offset just 12 percent of the gasoline used in the nation. The entire soybean crop would replace even less. So more crops would need to be grown, and that requires the use of more fuel.

There also would have to be more refineries making it. Nationally, 91 plants produced 4 billion gallons of ethanol last year, according to the Renewable Fuels Association.

Still, interest is growing. Gate Ethanol recently announced plans to build a plant in Florida that would eventually produce 100 million gallons of the fuel to supply Gate stations across the state. Fort Lauderdale-based Losonoco is also planning to build a Florida plant and U.S. EnviroFuel is building plants at Port Tampa and Port Manatee.

Bush has also called for federal lawmakers to reduce the import tax on ethanol so more can be imported from Brazil, a major producer and user of the fuel.

U.S. automakers have pledged to double production of flexible fuel vehicles by 2010 and General Motors is a partner in the effort to promote the use of ethanol in Florida.

About 5 million American cars, including Chevy Suburbans, certain Ford F-150s and Tauruses, and even some Mercedes cars are able to run on flex fuel.

Florida's Department of Environmental Protection has 300 flex fuel vehicles in its fleet.

FFVs can run on all E-85, all gasoline, or any combination of the two fuels. And E-85, as the name implies, is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, so it doesn't remove fossil fuel from the equation entirely.

And while environmentalists are generally supportive of ethanol use, researchers have pointed out that it isn't very efficient.

Debate continues about just how much fuel it takes to actually get a gallon of ethanol from seed to car gas tank, but most recent studies have found corn ethanol produces a just 25 percent to 40 percent more energy than is consumed to grow it, convert it into ethanol and then ship it to gas pumps.

In other words, you need lots of fuel to make ethanol and to ship it to the consumer.

Some critics also question the environmental impact because of the way fuel standards work. For each fuel efficient flex fuel car automakers produce, they're allowed to produce more gas-only SUVs than they otherwise would, potentially increasing overall gas use.

Crops other than corn are more efficient - in Brazil ethanol is made from sugarcane, something Bush notes Florida has lots of. And Bush said if biomass production takes off, it will boost Florida's farm economy.

Among the skeptics are some petroleum sellers, for obvious reasons. But Mike Harrell, the president of Inland Food Stores, which is installing the pumps in north Florida, said the fuel is the wave of the future as far as he's concerned.

"I used to be a petroleum marketer," Harrell said. "Ethanol's converted me into an energy marketer."

 

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Biofuels Come of Age as the Demand Rises
By SUSAN MORAN
Published: September 12, 2006

BARACK OBAMA is not a farmer, but he believes in biodiesel and the votes of farmers who produce soybeans and other crops for it. Senator Obama, Democrat from Illinois, spoke last month at an event to celebrate plans for a new biodiesel plant in Cairo, Ill. His presence was a welcome endorsement for a budding industry.

On the day that Mr. Obama joined the Renewable Energy Group in announcing that it would build a 60-million-gallon-a-year refinery, the company said it had garnered $100 million in financing, the largest equity investment in biofuels so far. The infusion came from the American division of Bunge Ltd., a major food processor; two venture-capital funds controlled by Natural Gas Partners of Irving, Tex.; and ED&F Man Holdings Ltd., a global shipper of grains.

The investment underscores how the biodiesel industry is coming of age as demand for renewable fuels increases. The businesses range from soybean farmers in the Midwest seeking new markets to coastal start-ups with an environmental mission. Both camps are attracting a flow of money from venture capitalists and corporations alike.

Traditionally, soybean farmers dominated the biodiesel business, but lately a broader array of entrepreneurs is joining the pack, creating a curious convergence of environmentalists, farmers and investment bankers. Growth in the last year has been "phenomenal, almost frightening," said Joe Jobe, chief executive of the National Biodiesel Board, a trade association.

But the ability of entrepreneurs to succeed in the long term will depend on much more than acres of oil-rich crops or deep pockets, industry players and analysts say.

"You don’t necessarily have to be a national player, but you need to optimize distribution within your region," Mr. Jobe said.

And you need to make high-quality commercial biofuel while promising consistent quality to your customers, he added.

"Some people say anybody can make biodiesel if he can bake a cake," Mr. Jobe said. "Have you ever baked a cake involving methanol, sodium hydroxide and other chemicals that could start fires?"

About 76 commercial biodiesel plants are in production today, up from 22 in 2004. The average business operates one plant that yields 30 million gallons a year of fuel and costs up to $20 million to build. Some companies are planning refineries capable of brewing up to 100 million gallons a year.

Nationwide production of the fuel tripled last year over 2004 to 75 million gallons. The board estimates that production will double this year, but Mr. Jobe estimates that the number could reach as much as, if not more, than 250 million gallons by year’s end.

That’s still a drop in the bucket compared with the nearly 140 billion gallons of gasoline the United States consumes each year. It also pales in comparison with ethanol. Last year, the global biofuels market totaled $15.7 billion in sales, of which only $1.6 billion came from biodiesel. That number could jump to $7.1 billion by 2015, says Clean Edge, a research company in Portland, Ore. But biodiesel has immediate appeal in that it does not require modifications of a diesel engine. It also requires far less fossil fuel to make than, say, corn-based ethanol.

Biodiesel comes from soybean, palm or oil-seed plants like canola and mustard, as well as from animal fats. Corn oil can also be extracted for fuel. Some start-up companies and university scientists are testing algae, which is attractive because it would not dip into the nation’s feedstock reserve.

Typically blended with conventional diesel, biodiesel burns cleaner and releases fewer pollutants, including carbon monoxide and particulate matter. Several factors are driving growth, including a federal ruling on low-sulfur diesel, state mandates on renewable fuels and concern about climate change and dependence on foreign oil.

But the strongest incentives are high petroleum prices and federal tax credits. "If one of those two fall, the industry’s growth would slow significantly, but would survive," said Eric Bowen, a lawyer who helped found San Francisco Biodiesel, which plans to build refineries based on rendered animal fat and recycled vegetable oil from restaurants. "But if both fall away, the biodiesel industry would be in serious trouble."

The federal excise tax credit, aimed at curbing pollution, offers producers and distributors of agri-biodiesel, which comes from virgin crop oils and animal fats, $1 for every gallon of biodiesel they blend with regular diesel. This means that even producers who blend their 100-percent pure biodiesel with only 1 percent of petroleum-based fuel can reap the credit.

Most biodiesel sold in the United States is a blend of 20-percent pure biodiesel and 80-percent conventional diesel fuel, called B20.

So far, commercial demand has outpaced supply. Renewable Energy plans to produce 460 million gallons from several of its plants. The company was spun off from a soybean farmer cooperative called West Central, which built its first biodiesel plant in Ralston, Iowa, in 1996. Nile Ramsbottom, the president of Renewable Energy, said he expected sales to reach $740 million in 2010, a rise from $116 million last year.

Without forming alliances and not managing risk between energy and agriculture commodities, many start-ups will falter, some industry experts contend.

"Plants are going up everywhere," said Gene Gebolys, founder of World Energy Alternatives in Chelsea, Mass. "But individual plants must be part of a network in which products can get to the best markets." The company expects to exceed $100 million in sales this year from producing biodiesel from soybeans, canola and animal fat.

The first biodiesel business to receive venture-capital financing was Seattle Biodiesel, which recently changed its name to Imperium Renewables. Since spring of last year, three firms have invested $10 million in the company: Nth Power of San Francisco; Technology Partners in Palo Alto, Calif.; and Vulcan Capital, led by Paul G. Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft.

Imperium’s Seattle refinery produces five million gallons a year, and the company is building a refinery in Grays Harbor, Wash., able to produce 100 million gallons a year. Imperium now buys soybean oil from the Midwest, a costly business. But it is seeking crop sources closer to home.

Another biofuel company, Greenshift Corporation, based in New York, announced in June that it had received $22 million from Cornell Capital Partners for its GS AgriFuels division, mostly to build a plant that will produce 45 million gallons of fuel a year.

Major food processors like Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland Company are investing heavily in biofuels. On the energy front, Chevron and BP are pouring millions into biofuels production or processing.

Small businesses will have to reckon with big players. As Mr. Gebolys of World Energy says of the biodiesel business: "It’s still fun, it’s cool, it’s dynamic and it’s global. And you get to make a contribution."

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Updating Prescriptions for Avoiding Worldwide Catastrophe

By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: September 12, 2006

Few scientists have elicited such equivalent heaps of praise and criticism as James E. Lovelock, the British chemist, inventor and planetary diagnostician who has long foreseen a clash between humans and their planet.

His work underpins much of modern environmentalism. The electron capture detector he invented in the 1950’s produced initial measurements of dispersed traces of pesticides and ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons, providing a foundation for the work of Rachel Carson and for studies revealing risks to the atmosphere’s protective ozone layer.

His conception in 1972 of the planet’s chemistry, climate and veneer of life as a self-sustaining entity, soon given the name Gaia, was embraced by the Earth Day generation and was ridiculed, but eventually accepted (with big qualifications), by many biologists.

Dr. Lovelock, honored in 1997 with the Blue Planet Prize, which is widely considered the environmental equivalent of a Nobel award, has now come under attack from some environmentalists for his support of nuclear power as a way to avoid runaway "global heating"his preferred alternative to "global warming."

In his latest book, "The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth Is Fighting Back and How We Can Still Save Humanity" (Perseus, 2006), Dr. Lovelock says that any risks posed by nuclear power are small when compared with the "fever" of heat-trapping carbon dioxide produced by burning coal, oil and other fossil fuels.

In a review in the current edition of American Scientist, Brian Hayes, a senior writer, says the book contains "something each of us can admire and embrace, and also something each of us can disdain or ridicule." He adds, "For me it’s pretty nearly an even mix."

Opponents of nuclear power have started a counteroffensive to Dr. Lovelock’s call for a new nuclear age, arguing that mining uranium and building nuclear plants releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide, and that the danger from accidents or terrorism is too great. In an interview during a stop in Manhattan last week with his wife, Sandy, Dr. Lovelock, still fit and feisty at 87 and seemingly relishing his role as provocateur, said that such objections were baseless and dangerous.

He also offered a daunting prescription for avoiding utter catastrophe, while adding that something just short of that was clearly already under way.

Q. Why do you call it global heating and not global warming?

A. Warming is something that’s kind of cozy and comfortable. You think of a nice duvet on a cold winter’s day. Heating is something you want to get away from.

Q. What’s your perception of where we’re headed with even conservative predictions for growth of both populations and energy use?

A. I think we’re headed straight back to the Earth’s second stable state, which is a hot state that it’s been in many times before in the past. It’s about 14 degrees warmer than it is in these parts of the world now.

It means roughly that most life on the planet will have to move up to the Arctic basin, to the few islands that are still habitable and to oases on the continents. It will be a much-diminished world.

Q. Can you explain why you think nuclear power is so vital?

A. The really bad thing we did way back when was starting to burn things in the atmosphere to get energy. We started with fire, just cooking food, and probably could have gotten away with that. But once we started burning forests to drive the animals out as a cheap way of hunting, then we started on our downward course. What we’re doing now with fossil fuels is just as bad.

We live in a nuclear-powered universe. We’re the oddballs by getting energy from burning carbon.

My justification of nuclear power is that we’ve reached a stage now where the dire things that threaten us are so great that even the results of an all-out nuclear war pale into insignificance as unimportant compared to what’s going to happen.

Q. You seem to say we have to get over the idea that renewable energy sources wind, solar in the short run, are a useful way out of this.

A. I feel they’re largely gestures. If it makes people feel good to shove up a windmill or put a solar panel on their roof, great, do it. It’ll help a little bit, but it’s no answer at all to the problem.

Q. What is it about this issue that you think fails to capture adequate public or political attention?

A. I think it’s mainly because scientists, and I include myself amongst them, have not really understood what was going on until very, very recently. And also scientists tend to look at things much too academically.

What really got me to write the book was going to a meeting at the Hadley Center, a big climate lab near where I live, and talking to all the people there. And Sandy came with me, and we both got the impression that they were talking about the Earth as if it was another planet, not something they were actually standing on.

And they’re all talking about their own separate little bit. One was talking about glaciers melting, another about tropical forests in trouble. But they didn’t put it together as a whole-planet phenomenon. And when you did that, then each of their gloomy stories together became a devastating thesis.

Q. You say in the book that sustainable development is a fantasy, essentially, and you have a different notion for what needs to happen, of "sustainable retreat."

A. At six-going-on-eight-billion people, the idea of any further development is almost obscene. We’ve got to learn how to retreat from the world that we’re in. Planning a good retreat is always a good measure of generalship.

Q. If you could take any facet of society elected officials, doctors, writers and show them one thing that you think could motivate the scale of change you’re talking about, any idea what you might do?

A. I would take them on a trip to the parts of the world where the changes are now maximum, and that is the Arctic. For example, not many years ago explorers were walking with dogsleds all the way to the North Pole regarding it as a great adventure. It’s only a matter of perhaps 30 years when they’ll have to go there in a sailboat.

Q. You seem to have two messages at once. One is sort of a hopeful sense of the innovative and adaptable aspect of humans, and the other is that we’re going to need all those skills.

A. The human species has been on the planet for a million years now. We’ve gone through seven major climatic changes that are equivalent to this. The ice ages were shifts in climate comparable with this one that’s coming. And we’ve survived.

That series of glaciations and interglacials put the pressures on us to select the kind of human that could adapt. And we’re the progeny of them. And we’re just up against a new and different stress. Maybe we’ll come out better.

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In Gamble, Calif. Tries to Curb Greenhouse Gases

By FELICITY BARRINGER
Published: September 15, 2006

SACRAMENTO In the Rocky Mountain States and the fast-growing desert Southwest, more than 20 power plants, designed to burn coal that is plentiful and cheap, are on the drawing boards. Much of the power, their owners expected, would be destined for the people of California.

But such plants would also be among the country’s most potent producers of carbon dioxide, the king of gases linked to global warming. So California has just delivered a new message to these energy suppliers: If you cannot produce power with the lowest possible emissions of these greenhouse gases, we are not interested.

"When your biggest customer says, 'I ain’t buying,’ you rethink," said Hal Harvey, the environment program director at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, in Menlo Park, Calif. "When you have 38 million customers you don’t have access to, you rethink. Selling to Phoenix is nice. Las Vegas is nice. But they aren’t California."

California’s decision to impose stringent demands on suppliers even outside its borders, broadened by the Legislature on Aug. 31 and awaiting the governor’s signature, is but one example of the state’s wide-ranging effort to remake its energy future.

The Democratic-controlled legislature and the Republican governor also agreed at that time on legislation to reduce industrial carbon dioxide emissions by 25 percent by 2020, a measure that affects not only power plants but also other large producers of carbon dioxide, including oil refineries and cement plants.

The state’s aim is to reduce emissions of climate-changing gases produced by burning coal, oil and gas. Other states, particularly New York, are moving in some of the same directions, but no state is moving as aggressively on as many fronts. No state has been at it longer. No state is putting more at risk.

Whether all this is visionary or deluded depends on one’s perspective. This is the state that in the early 1970’s jump-started the worldwide adoption of catalytic converters, the devices that neutralize most smog-forming chemicals emitted by tailpipes. This is the state whose per capita energy consumption has been almost flat for 30 years, even as per capita consumption has risen 50 percent nationally.

Taking on global warming is a tougher challenge. Though California was second in the nation only to Texas in emissions of carbon dioxide in 2001, and 12th in the world, it produced just 2.5 percent of the world’s total. At best, business leaders asked in a legislative hearing, what difference could California’s cuts make? And at what cost?

California, in fact, is making a huge bet: that it can reduce emissions without wrecking its economy, and therefore inspire other states and countries to follow its example on slowing climate change.

Initiatives addressing climate change are everywhere in California, pushed by legislators, by regulators, by cities, by foundations, by businesses and by investors.

Four years ago, California became the first state to seek to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide from automobile tailpipes. Car dealers and carmakers are challenging the law in federal court.

In late August, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a measure requiring builders to offer home buyers roofs with tiles that convert sunlight into electricity. Homeowners in some communities are already choosing them to reduce their electric bills.

California, which has for decades required that refrigerators, air conditioners, water heaters and other appliances become more energy efficient, just added to the list: first, chargers for cellphones or computers; second, set-top boxes and other remote-controlled devices. Those categories consume up to 10 percent of a home’s power.

Last fall, California regulators barred major investor-owned electrical utilities from signing long-term contracts to buy energy unless the seller’s greenhouse-gas emissions meet a stringent standard.

"We are dealing with it across the board," said Michael R. Peevey, the president of the Public Utilities Commission. By contrast, the Bush administration has been averse to any legislative assault on climate change.

Opponents say California may hurt its own residents with its clean-energy mandate. Scott Segal, a lawyer for Bracewell & Giuliani who represents electric utilities, summarized California’s policy as: "All electrons are not created equal. We’re going to discriminate against some of them, and create artificial barriers in the marketplace for electricity." California consumers could end up paying more for their energy and struggling to find enough, Mr. Segal said.

See remainder of article on NYTimes.org

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Fuel from trees? UF scientists unveil research

By NATHAN CRABBE
Published: 9/15/06

Black cottonwood might one day be considered black gold.

Researchers at the University of Florida have helped map the genome of black cottonwood, a Western tree that could be used to produce a petroleum alternative. The research is featured on the cover of today's edition of the journal Science.

The research was conducted at UF and 33 other scientific institutions worldwide. It could be used to breed trees with the maximum potential for fuel production.

"It's really the first step to moving toward a new energy source," said UF researcher Gary Frank Peter.

The black cottonwood tree typically grows from California to Alaska. A hybrid of the tree and the eastern cottonwood, which occurs across the eastern U.S., could be grown in Florida, Peter said.

Cottonwoods are rapidly growing trees that can rise as much as three to four feet in height in a month, said UF researcher Matias Kirst. The research could help breed trees that have a high growth rate and produce a large volume of wood, he said.

"What we're looking for is trees that would have a high biomass produced," he said.

The production of fuel from trees is a developing science. A UF microbiology professor, Lonnie Ingram, has developed a method to use genetically engineered bacteria to convert plant material into ethanol.

A plant in Louisiana is scheduled to be operational in 2007. UF is seeking funding to build a test project on campus.

Black cottonwood and other trees might eventually be grown on a large scale for energy production, Kirst said. From out-of-business Midwestern farms to old mines in Central Florida, he said, tree farms could be planted on unused land to allow local communities to produce their own fuel.

"There's so much land that could be used for this," he said.

The research was funded by the Department of Energy as part of a push to use renewable sources for 30 percent of the nation's fuel by 2030. Much of the initial efforts have been focused on ethanol produced from corn grown in the Midwest.

Ethanol produced from trees has several advantages, Peter said. Growing corn requires the use of tractors and fertilizer, offsetting some of the energy benefits.

"With trees, you don't use a lot of nitrogen and you let them grow for years and years," he said.

Trees also capture carbon dioxide, sequestering the gas that contributes to global warming. The research allows cottonwood to be selected with the best characteristics for capturing carbon, Kirst said.

"We want to put it in the soil where it is going to be stored," he said.

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Gators 'plunge' into environmental cleanup
By LISA MOOK SANG
September 18. 2006
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Some University of Florida students donned green and ran around campus Saturday marking pollution containers around the grounds of the University of Florida.

These students, along with many others, were a part of UF's annual Gator Plunge, which offers students opportunities to get involved with the university and local Gainesville community. It's an event hosted by the Dean of Students Office and the Center for Leadership and Service.

The sticker-touting students were part of just one of the many service projects of Gator Plunge.

Their project focused on environmental cleanup and helped monitor the waste that goes into the water system. Students placed markers on the pollution containers and recorded how much had already collected to create a report that would be sent to a local Gainesville environmental company.

Jonathan Graessle, 20, a sophomore at UF, led this service project and said that after participating in Gator Plunge, he wants to get more involved with environmental cleanup projects, and wants to start talking with different environmental groups to try to get involved with as many as possible.

"The more students get involved, the more there is a sense of community within the university," Graessle said. "If everyone does their part in a little way to think globally and act locally, we can create a better campus, better city, better state and better world."

The goal of Gator Plunge was to give students a chance to give back to the community, network with other student leaders and learn about the service opportunities that Gainesville has to offer.

"Essentially, we want to get more people involved," Graessle said. "Service and leadership go hand in hand, and more people serving the community, serving the university, getting involved with leadership roles, personally developing leadership abilities and helping cleanup, helps us give back."

Other service projects that Gator Plunge arranged for students ranged from working with animals, art and culture, youth development, elder care, environmental issues, homelessness and housing, and included such organizations as Haven Hospice.

Haven Hospice is a nonprofit organization that serves people and their communities affected by life-limiting illness and loss by providing comprehensive, compassionate care, while respecting each person's needs, beliefs and wishes, according to their Web site, www.havenhospice.org.

Volunteers were sent to two locations, the Attic, a resale thrift store, and Haven Hospice. At the Attic, they cleaned up the store, moved boxes and furniture and reshelved books.

At Haven Hospice, students refinished a brick path that had been created in memory of some of the patients that were treated by the organization.

"This was a huge opportunity to serve our community," said UF senior, Nicole Guevara, 21. "Giving back to the community is great because as college students, Gainesville is here for us and allows us to use its resources, and since we get to use the resources, the least we can do is give back by giving our time."

A smashing good time.

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Eco-friendly and affordable?
By NATHAN CRABBE
September 18. 2006

A subdivision being built in northeast Gainesville is showing that homes can be environmentally friendly and affordable.

Called North Point at Ironwood, the subdivision includes 14 homes ranging from nearly $140,000 to $167,000 in cost. The homes include appliances, insulation and landscaping that reduce the use of energy and water, features that the developer said add about $1,000 to the cost of each home but can provide hundreds of dollars in yearly utility savings to residents.

"Building green does not necessarily cost a lot more," said Jeffrey Michael, a housing systems analyst with the energy extension service at the University of Florida.

Yet high upfront costs are one reason long cited for the lack of so-called green building in Gainesville.

The city in 2003 started trying to encourage green building through reduced permit costs and other incentives, but records show just 34 of the 814 homes permitted since that time have gone through the program.

"It's certainly a lower success rate than I would like to see," Gainesville Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan said.

The city will be looking at ways to revise the program, Hanrahan said, such as different incentives or standards. More promotional efforts also must be done to let builders know about state and federal financial incentives provided for green building, she said.

Ken Fonorow, a Gainesville-based building-science consultant, said he also believes a lack of awareness is in part responsible for the low participation level. He said the city is responsible for failing to give awards to green builders and conduct other promotional efforts required by law.

"They're not doing anything with it at all," Fonorow said.

Others point to different factors, including builders' lack of familiarity with green construction methods and the bureaucratic requirements of the program. Gainesville building official Doug Murdock said the program started slow, with just 16 permits in its first three years, but surpassed that amount with 18 permits this year alone.

"It's caught on now here in Gainesville," Murdock said.

Thirteen of those 18 permits were issued to the properties owned by the Neighborhood Housing and Development Corp. in North Point. The nonprofit's focus on providing affordable housing fits well with green building that can provide utility savings, said Carol Barron, director of housing development for the corporation.

"The bottom line is our clients need energy-efficient homes," she said.

The North Point homes include lighting fixtures that use low-energy bulbs, an energy-efficient dishwasher and low-water landscaping. Tests will later be done to determine exactly how much energy savings can be attributed to those features.

Kenya Williams, a 32-year-old worker in the Shands human resources department, said she purchased a home in the development mainly because it was affordable. She said she wasn't looking for a green home, but liked the idea that her utility bills could be lower.

"This is just a plus," Williams said.
Barron said the green features added about $1,000 to construction costs for each home. But there were additional expenses for testing those features and the paperwork needed to receive rebates from Gainesville Regional Utilities.

"The documentation will kill you," she said.

Gainesville's green building program provides 50 percent discounts on permits for homes meeting Florida Green Building Coalition Standards. Because of the program, permits for the North Point homes cost about $324 to $417 instead of twice that amount.

Murdock said the program was previously funded through other building permits, which accounted for a lack of money to pay for promotional efforts. A new state law is now forcing the department to pay for the program using money from the general fund, which he said could mean more money for promotions.

The program at this point has attracted a handful of developers. Homes built by Neighborhood Housing and other builders in North Point account for all but one of the homes in the program this year, and homes in the Madera subdivision on Williston Road account for six of the 16 homes in previous years.

UF energy experts provided consulting on homes in both those subdivisions. UF's Michael, who was part of that work, said the softening of the housing market and increasing utility bills will likely push more people to build green.

"The buyer is becoming more educated," he said. "They're beginning to demand it now."

But Fonorow, the consultant, said he thinks consumers are confused by the many different green building standards and programs.

He advocates using the energy rating for homes - called the Home Energy Rating System, or HERS, score - as a universal and scientifically based way for people to understand the issue, similar to miles per gallon for vehicles.

"I think people are pretty confused," he said.

The HERS score scale extends from 0 to 100, with a score of 100 indicating the home uses no purchased energy. The federal government's Energy Star program certifies homes with a HERS score of 86 or more, and homes in North Pointe rate at that level or higher, Barron said.

About 769 homes in Alachua County have been certified under the Energy Star program, which can include homes inside and outside the Gainesville city limits.

G.W. Robinson has built 214 homes certified in the program, according to the Energy Star Web site. Robinson said the features add 3 percent to 4 percent to the cost of the homes, but he believes there's demand for homes with environmental benefits.

"We believe there's enough people who believe in what we're trying to do," Robinson said.

Barron said she thinks builders have an ethical obligation to build green.

"It's the right thing to do," she said.

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UF study: Live oak trees struggle for survival in growth areas
Writer - Cathy Keen, ckeen@ufl.edu, 352-392-0186

GAINESVILLE, Fla. The majestic live oak is losing its battle for survival to suburban sprawl and the encroachment of taller trees, a new University of Florida study finds.

An icon in American history and literature, broad-crowned live oaks thrive in open savannas but are dying off as they are crowded and overshadowed by the encroachment of taller trees, said Francis Putz, a UF botanist and the study’s co-author.

It is an irony of nature that the successes of reforestation and urban forestry threaten live oaks, which in the past maintained the elbow room they needed from logging, cattle grazing and frequent fires, said Putz, whose work is published in the June issue of Forest Ecology and Management. "We are confusing our natural savanna heritage with forested landscapes and the tragedy is that the forest is killing live oaks," he said. "If we allow other trees to grow up too close to the live oak, the live oak will die. Our research clearly establishes this fate in both rural and suburban landscapes."

The live oak’s broad crown, with long arching limbs that spread horizontally rather than vertically, as most trees do, give it a distinctive architectural makeup, said Tova Spector, who did the study with Putz as part of her master’s degree in ecology. "Trees that grow straight and tall crowd the live oaks, causing their crowns to die back," she said.

"Once their branches begin to grow horizontally, live oaks seem unable to reverse this trend by growing upwards," said Spector, who mapped and measured crown densities in both closed canopy and savanna-like tree stands in Alachua County, Florida.

Sweet gum, black cherry and magnolia are among the culprits, but the worst offender ironically is laurel oak, which resembles the live oak but is not nearly as sturdy, killing more people in the South than any other tree, Putz said. "I wouldn’t park my brand-new Saab underneath a laurel oak if I had one, whereas the live oak is a homeowner’s best friend," he said.

The live oak’s deep roots, relatively short stature and strong wood help it to withstand the high winds and strong storm surges that topple other trees during hurricanes, Spector said.

Spector also measured changes in savannas and woodlands, live oak habitat, from 1955 to 1999, using aerial photos of rural parts of Alachua County. She found that these open habitats declined from 70 percent cover to less than 33 percent, mostly because of the establishment of pine plantations.

A 2003 published study of live oak trees in four suburban Gainesville neighborhoods that Putz did with another graduate student, Mark Templeton, found that more than 90 percent of these trees were crowded by other trees.

Based on these findings, Putz said he believes more than half of the live oaks in the city of Gainesville alone are in danger of being destroyed by encroaching trees, a process that can take anywhere from 10 to 30 years and is most rapid in the suburbs where lawns are fertilized.

The problem is widespread because suburban sprawl and forest expansion are threatening savannas and open-canopied woodlands in many parts of the world, Putz said.

"The trees of these savannas, from the oaks of California and Europe to the acacias of Africa and the legumes of tropical America, are all likely to suffer when forest trees encroach on their crowns," he said. "In the U.S. alone, savanna is the natural vegetation all across the coastal plain from Virginia to Texas."

Saving live oaks sometimes means having to kill other trees, which can be expensive, but preserving a single live oak can add as much as $30,000 to the value of a house, Putz said. Furthermore, having a live oak nearby is good protection against hurricane damage.

In Southern history, live oaks were landmarks where people met to socialize and conduct business. "When a lot of people think of the South, they immediately think of spreading live oaks festooned with Spanish moss," Spector said. In the opening scene of "Gone with the Wind," Scarlett O’Hara flirts with bachelors under live oaks at a barbecue. Similarly, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings ends her book "The Yearling" with the hero saying goodbye to his childhood under the live oak trees.

The frigate, the USS Constitution got its name "Old Ironsides" for the strength of its live oak wood. In a War of 1812 battle, cannon balls bounced off the side of the boat, Spector said. "Naval captains at the time specified that ships were to be made of live oak because it was one of the most durable woods in the world," she said.

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Disabled complain about dirty buses

By DOMINICK TAO
Alligator Writer

Vatrice Perrin, a third-year law student at UF, is wheelchair-bound. She relies on buses operated by MV Transportation Inc. to get around Gainesville.

But these special-needs buses are filthy, smelly and unreliable, said Perrin and about seven other disabled Gainesville residents at the City Commission meeting Monday.

"You cross your fingers that you get a van, period," Perrin said. "They're actually a public health threat. It's like Third World conditions on the bus."

The cadre of angry residents, with disabilities ranging from blindness to diabetes, came to the meeting to persuade the commissioners to demand better conditions for their buses.

Perrin cited grime, foul odors and urine on one of the transportation company's vehicles.

Russel Tieskoetter, one of MV's vice presidents, said Gainesville is a big client, accounting for about 20 percent of his company's business in the Southeast. At the meeting, Tieskoetter told the city commissioners he was doing everything he could to remedy the complaints.

In a compromise between MV and angry citizens, the commission voted to alter the company's contract so that it could be terminated in February if it does not improve conditions.

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First lady keen on green efforts

By CHAD SMITH
Alligator Writer

Chris Machen, an avid supporter of UF's sustainability effort, sits in the President's Home on Wednesday.

Chris Machen may not have a Tigert Hall office or the six-figure salary of the UF president's closest advisers, but she has something more valuable: his ear.

Machen, UF's first lady, teamed with her husband Bernie in his crusade to make UF's campus more environmentally friendly.

"I'm not a poster child for this thing," she said in a Wednesday interview at the president's house. "This is really something that I absolutely believe in and am totally passionate about."

Machen said she played a key role in convincing her husband to address campus sustainability, which is an effort to lessen humans' environmental impact.

Sustainability can be as simple as recycling a soda can or as complex as constructing a large building that won't require much lighting or air conditioning.

When Machen and her husband moved out of the president's house this summer, she announced she wanted to convert it to a "green" building.

Machen serves on UF's Sustainability Committee, the centerpiece of her efforts. The group consists of professors and experts aiming to increase sustainability efforts on campus.

Though Machen admits she's not an expert, her last name can help the committee get things done.

At a recent committee social, Machen requested the meal consist of free-range chicken and beef, which are allowed to graze freely before slaughter.

She said she has always been concerned with preserving the environment and has been recycling for more than 30 years. She also enjoys spending time outdoors - particularly riding her horse, Zippy, which she said she doesn't get to do nearly enough.

Now that the Machens have three young grandchildren, she worries about the world they will grow up to live in.

"It's such a cliche, 'I'm doing this for my kids or my grandkids,'" she said. "But when you actually have grandkids, you really start thinking about those things."

Educating people - especially children - is vital to the success of the program, she said.

"We need to catch these kids young," she said.

Her 3-year-old grandson, Noah, is on the right track: He already knows which bin is for bottles and which one is for paper.

"That's a habit that will be with him for his life," Machen said.

She realizes it will take time to educate the university community about her efforts, let alone meet UF's goals for a sustainable campus.

Her husband said he wants to free UF's campus of all solid wastes by 2015.

The university currently recycles about 36 percent of its waste.

"We're going to make great strides," she said. "We'll have to see whether we get it to zero. But it won't be for lack of trying."

 

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Local fare to join UF menus

By VANESSA BORGES
Alligator Contributing Writer

This month kicks off the UF Office of Sustainability's plan to get the ball rolling on responsible food practices - and it could mean more local ingredients at UF's dining halls.

In 2004 the Student Senate urged the university to create an Office of Sustainability, and since then UF President Bernie Machen has initiated several plans to make UF a model for environmentally friendly practices.

But in that time UF has done little to create a sustainable food program in its dining halls and other eating facilities.

Until now.

Jill Rodriguez, marketing program manager for Gator Dining Services, said that the goal is to produce everything in-house or to buy from local farmers.

"We want to be responsible and not overcook," Rodriguez said. "We don't want and don't have many leftovers."

The Fresh Food Company in the Broward Dining Center offers made-to-order meals every day, Rodriguez said. The facility feeds up to 3,000 students daily without wasting food, she added.

Rodriguez pointed out that the facility does not use any plastic plates or utensils, eliminating more waste.

On Oct. 23, the Fresh Food Company will be hosting a "Local Food Night" to observe how students respond to the idea of having fresh, local food from Alachua County farms available.

"Fresh Food Company is basically a living, learning lab for sustainable practices," Rodriguez said.

Now the plan is to broaden UF's purchasing, Rodriguez explains.

Joining forces with Sysco Corp., the university's food supplier, local farmers who are interested in working with the Office of Sustainability will be sought out to provide food at several on-campus locations.

The only concern, Rodriguez said, is whether local farms will be able to provide food daily.

Meredith Frazier, a member of Gators for a Sustainable Campus, said supporting local farmers is beneficial because it is an investment in the local economy.

Frazier said she would buy more food on campus if she knew her money would be going to local businesses.

"Spending our money on food provided by large corporations drains money from the local economy and sends it to companies that often give an unusually large amount of money to top officials," she said. "Buying locally cuts out the middleman. Your money goes straight from your hand to the farmer's pocket."

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Grounds for Learning

By JACK STRIPLING
Sun staff writer
October 16. 2006 6:01AM

After all of the scholarship offers are weighed and the U.S. News & World Report rankings are considered, students looking for that perfect college may make their selection in part based on the grooming of a rolling lawn or the beauty of a tree swaying in the wind.

In a world of high-stakes student recruitment, experts say, the beauty of a college campus can prove a key factor for luring the best and brightest.

"There is a certain vision that (students) have, and when a school hits it with its physical appearance kids want to go there," said Ken Mercer, a guidance counselor at Gainesville High School.

Among a group of college freshmen surveyed this year, students listed a campus visit as a key factor in their college selection, The Chronicle of Higher Education found. The academic reputation of the college and the job placement of the college's graduates were the only factors that more students cited as their No. 1 reason for choosing a school.

At the University of Florida, students marvel at historic and imposing brick structures, which give UF the feel of a classic collegiate campus. But beyond the brick and mortar, much of the work that goes into shaping UF's appearance is carried out by the more than 100 people who work in UF's Grounds Department.

The department, which is responsible for landscaping and maintenance, now has an annual budget of $4.4 million, which is an increase of $780,445 or 22 percent since 2002. The majority of the department's budget - more than 80 percent - pays for salaries.

UF's main campus consists of 1,000 cultivated acres, including 33 acres of playing fields in nine locations and more than 235 acres of active irrigation.

When Marty Werts began working for UF's Grounds Department 27 years ago, it was pretty much limited to a mow-and-blow operation. Since then, however, there's been increased emphasis placed on landscaping and beautification.

More and more people at UF are weighing in on how things should look.

A 14-member committee, called the Lakes Vegetation and Landscaping Committee, is consulted on major landscaping projects, charged with determining whether the projects fit into UF's master plan.

And then there are the special requests, which come from deans who are known to call on the Grounds Department to plant flowers or clean up a particular area when alumni will be coming in town. During football season, when donors and alumni are frequent visitors, requests for something special are ever more common, Werts said.

"The guys work a lot of hours," said Werts, a superintendent of grounds. "They work the weekends to try to keep the campus clean after games. There's just a lot more requests, I would say. Everybody wants their area (to look nice). Every college wants something done because they're going to have visitors."

Werts, who dabbles in organic farming, has pushed to add butterfly gardens around campus and he also was behind a recent effort to plant citrus trees.

Werts has promoted the use of more native plants on campus, which can thrive in the environment without as much watering or fertilization. That said, significant irrigation is still required to keep UF green. Between UF's main campus and auxiliary sites, which include Whitney Lab in St. Augustine and several other facilities in Florida, the university uses about 1 million gallons of water each day, Werts said. Last year, 470 million gallons of water were used by UF, according to data provided to The Sun.

UF has made significant progress when it comes to irrigating with reclaimed water, which is recycled from treated sewage, as opposed to ground water. Of the 470 million gallons used last year, 90 percent was reclaimed. That wasn't always the case. As recently as 2001, UF was using 76 percent ground water.

The change in reclaimed water usage, UF officials say, is due to a $600,000 effort over the last eight years aimed at extending the reclaimed water system. Eric Cochran, associate director of the Physical Plant Division, called the move to reclaimed water one of the "great unsung success stories" at the university.

Jack Davis, a UF professor of environmental history and Florida history, wasn't so quick to praise UF for moving to more reclaimed water. UF would be better served to cut back on its use of St. Augustine grass and other imported landscaping materials that don't require so much water in the first place, Davis said.

"It's good that they're using reclaimed water, which just means that it's water that doesn't have to go to one more step to become potable," Davis said. "It still has to be pumped to you, which requires electricity. It's better than using regular potable water, but the best solution is to use good old Mother Nature."

UF's Office of Sustainability, which was re-established in February, creates policies that would help the university to protect and restore natural resources. Landscaping has yet to be integrated into the sustainability effort.

"I don't have a strategic plan on that piece, so I don't want to pretend we do have a plan on that piece," said Dedee DeLongpré, the sustainability office's director.

Despite the lack of a clear direction, DeLongpré praises UF for setting aside conservation areas on campus and working to incorporate more native plants. But she concedes that moving away from the classic notion of a campus filled with imposing green spaces, and adopting what may be more sustainable landscaping options, will require a culture shift at UF and elsewhere. In the minds of many, she said, a college campus is supposed to have a certain look and feel, and that look isn't necessarily eco-friendly.

"Grass is a recruiting tool," she said. "For whatever reason, we as an American society have developed this notion of the collegiate campus."

Eric Flagg, an environmental consultant and co-director of a new documentary based on American lawns, said it's of little surprise that academic institutions so often feature sprawling stretches of grass that require a lot of water to stay in shape. Like other large and powerful institutions, universities seek to project an image of strength that is often associated with well-kept grounds, Flagg said.

"It's a subtle thing psychologically, but the minute you see a nicely manicured lawn it means a number of things. It means money, time, resources and kind of a sense of security," said Flagg, who's new film is called "Gimme Green."

"I think for the most part it's a learned aesthetic. But at the same time it is very nice to look at. You get this feeling of nature in order, and when things are green it means life."

CORRECTION: Article from Gainesville Sun 10/16/06

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Machen: UF will be one of first to join climate pact

By JACK STRIPLING
Sun staff writer
October 26. 2006 6:01AM

Calling global warming a "frightening phenomenon," University of Florida President Bernie Machen announced Wednesday that UF will be among the first universities in the nation to commit to going "climate neutral" in future years.

Machen will sign the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, a pledge to take environmentally conscious steps so that the net impact of university activity will not worsen the problem of climate change. The pact requires universities to publicly disclose progress, but allows each institution to set its own pace in reaching the lofty goal.

Machen, who did not say when UF aims to go climate neutral, used the inaugural Campus and Community Sustainability Conference at UF as the stage to announce the university's pending commitment. The conference, which seeks to share eco-friendly practices, drew more than 400 people from around the state, including representatives from 21 universities and colleges.

To reach the goal of climate neutrality, participating universities will work to cut greenhouse gas emissions, develop new energy technologies and construct "green" buildings that operate with greater energy efficiency.

The climate commitment is a fledgling movement organized by Second Nature and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, two groups that seek to improve environmental practices at colleges and universities. Anthony Cortese, president of Second Nature, said it's incumbent upon universities - consumers of nearly 6 percent of the world's electricity - to step up and address climate change.

"What the presidents are realizing is this is not simply an environmental issue," he said. "This is about the future of civilization as we know it."

UF is one of fewer than 10 universities that have committed to sign the pact, but Cortese said he expects at least 100 others to follow suit by the end of 2007.

The sustainability conference at UF comes one year after Machen first rolled out concrete plans to make UF a greener kind of campus. Machen said Wednesday that the university is better off than it was last October but remains far from reaching its goals.

"We have done a lot, but we have a long way to go," Machen said.

Machen proceeded to give the audience assembled in the Reitz Union Auditorium the first official "report card" on UF's efforts to become a better environmental steward by cutting emissions and by recycling.

In a growing movement, which Machen says is "sweeping the nation," UF is working to emerge as a leader in the realm of "sustainability." The concept ultimately boils down to preserving natural resources for future generations, which can admittedly prove a tall order for a giant university like UF that consumes vast energy and resources.

Despite the challenges, Machen said Wednesday that UF has made progress, particularly in the area of emissions. UF set out last year to buy only hybrid or alternative fuel vehicles, and the university's fleet now has 12 hybrids and 45 "flex fuel" vehicles that run on gasoline or a blend of up to 85 percent ethanol, commonly called E-85. Ethanol is a biofuel derived from crops.

Even with 500 gallons of E-85 fuel being used per month at UF, the great majority of UF's fleet still runs on traditional gasoline or diesel. Indeed, UF uses a total of 30,000 gallons of gasoline and 8,000 gallons of diesel every month, Machen said.

Machen's discussion of recycling efforts at UF carried a dose of praise paired with the sober acknowledgment that much of the work is still left undone. In a joint volunteer effort with Keep Alachua County Beautiful, UF's Office of Sustainability has recycled at least four tons of plastic bottles and other refuse on game days in Gainesville this year, Machen said. On the other hand, the university put 4.4 million trash bags into landfills last year. The bags alone weighed 163 tons without trash, Machen said with a notable degree of consternation.

In addition to a pending commitment to go climate neutral, UF has already set a goal of producing zero solid waste by 2015. Machen was short on details in his speech about how that will actually be accomplished, but UF's recently created Office of Sustainability is in the process of crafting a master plan that is expected to lay out more specific strategies for this effort.

The sustainability conference continues through tonight, capped off by a speech from journalist and novelist Carl Hiaasen this evening. Hiaasen, a columnist for The Miami Herald and a UF graduate, has written extensively about environmental issues as well as the political corruption that often stifles green efforts.

Hiaasen will speak at 8 p.m. at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on campus.

Link to ARTICLE

Hiaasen laments paving over of Florida

By JACK STRIPLING
Sun staff writer
October 27. 2006 6:01AM

Carl Hiaasen is a failure.
The 53-year-old newspaper columnist and best-selling author has spent the better part of his career working to discourage more people from moving to his native Florida, warding them off with tales of depravity and corruption. But with an influx of an estimated 1,000 people moving to the Sunshine State each day, Hiaasen concedes that he hasn't been much of a deterrent.

"I've spent most of my life trying to scare people out of Florida," Hiaasen told some 1,600 people at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday.

Hiaasen has used his skewering columns in The Miami Herald and his quirky novels to shed light on environmental issues in Florida, and he stuck to those themes Thursday night. At the heart of his speech was the notion that keeping Florida green will be impossible if growth isn't controlled. Unfortunately, Hiaasen said, there's no sign of any development stopping in the state - no matter how much of Florida's natural resources are destroyed in the process.

"Growth is the God at which most of the politicians in Tallahassee worship," he said.

Hiaasen, who graduated from the University of Florida's College of Journalism in 1974, was the last speaker of a two-day conference on sustainability held at UF this week. The conference drew more than 400 people from across the state to discuss environmental issues, and Hiaasen is credited by fans as the satirical conscience of Florida's green movement.

Hiaasen is the author of more then 21 fiction and nonfiction works and short stories. Among his most well-known works are "Sick Puppy," a novel that lambastes greedy Florida developers, and "Hoot," a children's book about owls displaced by construction in Florida.

Hiaasen's latest novel, "Nature Girl," hits bookstores Nov. 14.

Ever the storyteller, Hiaasen moved from one bizarre tale of Florida to the next Thursday night. He read from the state's twisted headlines, recounting the story of a man who swung an alligator by the tail to assault his wife. In another unbelievable anecdote, Hiaasen spoke of a dolphin that had found itself entangled in a discarded Speedo swimsuit. These are the true stories of a unique state, Hiaasen said, and they've been the inspiration for much of his work.

"There's nothing in my books that couldn't happen in real life or hasn't happened since I wrote it," he told reporters at a news conference before his speech.

Hiaasen found himself the subject of his own news story recently. Upon learning that then-publisher Jess Diaz Jr. wanted to kill one of his columns, Hiaasen threatened to quit his job at The Miami Herald. The column concerned three reporters from the El Nuevo Herald, a sister Spanish-language newspaper of The Miami Herald, who were paid to appear on U.S. government broadcasts critical of Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Under pressure from The Herald's parent company, McClatchy Co., Diaz relented and the column was published. But the incident proved a flash point, and it apparently contributed to Diaz's resignation shortly thereafter, Hiaasen said.

Diaz, who should have been running the business side of the newspaper, had no business micromanaging editorial content, Hiaasen said.

"It seems to me that Mr. Diaz had not been sufficiently informed of what a publisher's role should be," he said.

Hiaasen, a syndicated columnist, said he felt the need to stand up against his publisher on principle.

"The point is, if they can muzzle me ... what are they going to do to young reporters with a big investigative story that's going to piss people off that needs to get in the paper," he said. "What are they going to do with young columnists who all have important things to say, many times completely the opposite of what I'm saying? What are they going to do? They're going to step on them like bugs, and that cannot happen.

"The Herald will do fine without me, but you can't have a climate in the newsroom where we're always going to be saying, 'What does the publisher think?' It doesn't matter. He's a business guy. Let him worry about the paper making money, let the editors worry about putting journalism and news in the paper that people can use and that's important."

Link to ARTICLE

Columnist carries nature's message
By ELIZABETH HILLAKER
Alligator Writer 10/27/06

Using witty jokes, three-time Pulitzer Prize nominee Carl Hiaasen criticized Florida policies that damage the state's natural beauty in a speech Thursday night.

"We don't seem to understand what our relationship with nature is supposed to be in this state," he said.

The UF graduate spoke at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in conjunction with UF's two-day sustainability conference.

The event was co-sponsored by UF's Office of Sustainability and Student Government speakers bureau Accent.

The show, which drew a crowd of about 1,500 eager-to-laugh people, was free and open to the public.

Throughout the hour-long speech, Hiaasen told several funny stories about people's interactions with Florida critters, including a dolphin tangled in a Speedo and a man who shared a bed with two alligators.

Hiaasen is a novelist, investigative journalist and columnist for The Miami Herald. He has written several novels, including "Flush," "Skinny Dip," "Hoot" and "Sick Puppy." "Hoot" was recently released as a film on DVD.

In order to make "Hoot" seem like it was filmed in the Florida wilderness, he said it had to be filmed in a wooded lot next to a police station in Fort Lauderdale with sirens going off.

"It's disappearing," he said of Florida's woodlands. "There's not much left."

Natural beauty draws many people to Florida, but the "great irony" is that this growth damages the environment, Hiaasen said. About 1,000 people move to Florida every day, he said.

"There's no growth management in this state," he said. "Growth is the god at which most of the politicians worship up in Tallahassee."

"That's why the grassroots is so important," he said, encouraging people to keep fighting against apathy with environmental issues.

"Deep in our hearts we root for all the gators, not just Florida Gators," he said.

Kelly Gillen, a Keystone Heights resident, said Hiaasen's speech was "certainly entertaining and insightful."

"It offers us a window about what our conscience should be pricking us about," Gillen said.

Link to article HERE

UF sustainability efforts extend to old electronics

By LUKE CHRISTAKIS
Alligator Contributing Writer

With sustainability on the brain, one UF department uses broken and unused electronic equipment to help make the campus greener.

By controlling the university's supply of broken and unused computers, UF's Asset Management Services reduces electronic equipment waste and saves the school money.

Asset Management helps the university cut down on waste by acquiring unused computers from all over campus and donating them to departments that need them.

"A department will find that they no longer need a computer," said Amanda Jobes, the assistant controller for Asset Management. "We circulate the computer until nobody wants it."

The focus is on sustaining resources, she said.

Because departments do not pay for the computers they get from Asset Management, the university also saves money on machines. The program offers an alternative to buying new computers.

"Our society is kind of programmed to buy, buy, buy," Jobes said.

Broken computers are either repaired and entered back into circulation, or stripped so that functional parts can be reused in repairing and building machines.

However, even with the efficiency of cannibalization, unused broken parts are common.

"If it's not useable we send it to recycling," Jobes said.

Electronics recycling firms take the old and broken equipment and strip it for sellable components.

Computers considered too old for use at the university are auctioned on the Asset Management Web site, Jobes said.

Students can also help prevent electronic waste from piling up. Manufacturers such as Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard have programs to help customers recycle old computers.

There's more to sustainability than just recycling properly, though.

By bringing a desktop computer to college instead of a laptop, students can save money and reduce waste. Desktops are generally cheaper, and their parts can be more easily reused.

Freshman Kelly Tran learned about the advantages of desktop computers from her father, who repairs broken machines as a hobby, Tran said.

"Usually he'll fix them and pass them along," Tran said.

Link to article HERE

Link to article HERE

Deja  Brew sports corn-made cups

By WHITNEY SESSA
Alligator Contrbuting Writer

 

Deja Brew Cafe has found a way of brewing up environmentally friendly products.

The cups that Deja Brew uses not only help protect the earth, but come from it themselves. They are made from corn.

These environmentally friendly cups are made from NatureWorks PLA, a clear food-packing resin made from field maize.

Hudson Harr, a UF finance senior, said he's drank coffee there since it opened.

"I used to be a hard-core Starbucks person," Harr said. "But considering the environmental impact, I'm more inclined now to buy something that can blend back into the environment 100 percent."

NatureWorks PLA looks and feels like plastic packaging and is durable enough to protect food and retain freshness.

According to the NatureWorks LLC Web site, NatureWorks PLA is created by harvesting the starch stored in natural plant sugars. The plant sugar is then fermented into lactic acid, which is used to create a clear plastic that can be shaped into a variety of bottles, containers, trays, film and other packaging.

Mary Rosenthal, a NatureWorks spokeswoman, said the energy used to create PLA is lower than the energy required for manufacturing plastics. The PLA manufacturing process produces no carbon dioxide emissions, she said, making it a greenhouse-gas neutral process.

The product, Rosenthal said, is unique because it is made from maize, which is annually renewable.

"Maize is a resource that can be grown in 100 days, not 100 years," she said.

The cafe, located inside Target Copy on West University Avenue, started using the corn-based cups when it opened about a year ago, said store supervisor Alex Evans.

Evans, a UF elementary education junior, said that Deja  Brew always tries to use fair-trade, environmentally safe products.

The coffee shop only uses the corn cups for its cold beverages, he said, because the corn product tends to melt easily. For hot beverages, it uses cups made from recycled paper.

Link to article HERE

 

Link to article HERE

Coffee shops take different actions on environment - Starbucks' recycling varies by area

By ASHLEY FURROW
Alligator Contributing Writer

Walking through the double doors, Jared Egol breathes in the fresh aroma of espresso beans as he approaches the counter at Starbucks to order his favorite drink.

As he sips on his drink, he hardly notices the baristas throwing away milk jugs and tossing newspapers into the trash cans.

"I don't think Starbucks is Captain Planet's enemy or anything," said Egol, a creative writing senior at UF. "Starbucks is a very successful company ... It's very hard to believe that they wouldn't be environmentally friendly."

Of Starbucks' nine retail stores in Gainesville, only a few employ a recycling program. While the company is committed to increasing recycling, Starbucks must rely on its landlords to put a high priority on the practice. However, some of its stores are located in communities like Gainesville, where commercial recycling facilities are limited or unavailable.

"They try and give the appearance of being environmentally friendly, but recycling is not strictly enforced," said Emily Keber, a UF student and Starbucks employee.

Having served as a barista for more than two years, she has worked at three different locations in Gainesville, one of which tried to implement a recycling program, she said.

Keber said that another employee brought in separate bins and tried to recycle milk jugs, but recycling pickup wasn't available. The worker would drive out of his way to take the milk jugs to a recycling collection company, she said.

"It just got too much for one person to handle," Keber said.

Gainesville has a mandatory recycling ordinance in place stating that commercial companies must recycle if more than 15 percent of the company's waste is from office paper and corrugated cardboard. Since most of Starbucks' waste comes from milk jugs, Starbucks is not required to participate.

Gainesville does not offer any recycling pickup for commercial locations, but it does provide a list of recycling collection companies that will pick up recycled materials.

Link to article HERE

Link to article HERE and to the whole special issue on campus sustainability HERE.

From the issue dated October 20, 2006

THE SUSTAINABLE UNIVERSITY

In Search of the Sustainable Campus
With eyes on the future, universities try to clean up their acts

By SCOTT CARLSON

Gainesville, Fla.

On the southern edge of the University of Florida's campus here, past the ag-school fields and within nose-shot of the swine pens, Doug Renk is helping to build a new energy economy, one gallon at a time.

It looks like a scene out of The Road Warrior. Steel caldrons, propane tanks, and barrels of old fryer oil are lined up on a concrete platform, some of them connected in a complicated tangle of pipes, gauges, and valves. Mr. Renk, a research assistant at the university, is taking discarded vegetable oil from restaurants on and around the campus and brewing it into biodiesel some 400 gallons so far, which have been used in the campus fleet.

Mr. Renk's goal is one day to have a self-sufficient unit that will turn a campus waste stream into a source of energy. He has been supported all the way by campus leaders including the president, J. Bernard Machen, who has made sustainability a top priority and has set clear goals for the university.

"We wouldn't be pursuing this if it hadn't been for their incentive," Mr. Renk says. Without Dr. Machen's goals for sustainability, the biodiesel project "would have been a harder sell" to the restaurant managers, facilities administrators, and faculty members who supply resources to his experiment.

Across the country, conscientious professors, business leaders, student activists, and grass-roots organizers are driving the sustainability movement with the urgent sense that humanity is facing a series of crises, among them, climate change, a growing divide between rich and poor, energy shortages, the collapse of various ecosystems, and the pressures of a world population that may reach nine billion by mid-century.

The University of Florida is one of a growing number of institutions that are beginning to transform their campuses, their operations, their policies, and their teaching to reflect a commitment to sustainability, a wide-ranging concept with three components: environmental awareness, social responsibility, and sound economic stewardship.

Some environmentally oriented colleges such as Berea College, College of the Atlantic, and Warren Wilson College made sustainability a central part of their mission years ago. Other institutions including Arizona State University, Furman University, the Johns Hopkins University, Muhlenberg College, and many others discovered sustainability more recently, and are increasing their efforts quickly.

They are putting up green buildings, planting native landscapes, switching to renewable power, supporting local communities, developing clean technologies, establishing policies on living wages, and finding ways to turn those efforts into teachable moments and research projects. Many of the colleges have sustainability committees of faculty members or even sustainability coordinators, who organize efforts on the campuses and try to link people like Mr. Renk with those who would supply his vegetable oil and those who would use his fuel.

But sustainability is a complicated concept, and its implementation in higher education faces immense hurdles. Supporters of the movement say that most people simply do not understand sustainability or the ways that their day-to-day activities affect environmental, social, or economic issues. Even more challenging, much of society's infrastructure has already been built unsustainably. For example, Arizona State University has enacted policies to build only green structures and to pursue renewable energy, but it still has to contend with the circumstances of its existence in a bone-dry, sprawled-out community addicted to the internal-combustion engine.

For the time being, most institutions are reaching for low-hanging fruit. The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, a group that has grown from 35 to 175 members in the past nine months, met at Arizona State earlier this month with the goal of encouraging colleges to do more and to learn how to measure success.

"If they view sustainability as a few green buildings here and a little work to help the community there, then we're not awakening them to the larger issue," says Anthony D. Cortese, a sustainability advocate in higher education and co-founder of the sustainability association.

Some supporters worry that universities are "greenwashing" themselves, taking minor steps to adopt the appearance of sustainability but avoiding the really difficult changes. Others say that educational institutions are simply moving too slowly, falling behind corporations that have led the way on this issue. David Newport, director of the environmental center at the University of Colorado at Boulder, who was instrumental in getting sustainability efforts started at the University of Florida several years ago, believes that "higher ed is the last place sustainability is going to be hot."

"I've always savored that irony we're supposed to be on the leading edge, and we're behind the curve," he says. "There are, what, 4,500 colleges in the United States, and how many are really doing something? Less than 100 or 200? It hasn't really been integrated into the lexicon of higher education."

Slow Going

At the University of Florida, momentum in sustainability began more than 10 years ago, long before Dr. Machen arrived, but it progressed in fits and starts. A campus sustainability committee had come up with a list of recommendations for the university, but it got little traction under Charles E. Young, who was president until 2003.

When Dr. Machen, a pediatric-dentist-turned-administrator, arrived from the University of Utah, the issue had become politicized. He called for new recommendations and a new sustainability committee to guide strategy. His wife, Christine, the environmentalist in the Machen household, joined the committee to show presidential support.

Before long, talk about sustainability was buzzing in administration offices, among professors, and in the facilities department. Dr. Machen recently listed sustainability as one of four priorities for the university, along with improving health care for students, raising faculty and staff pay, and offering more students financial aid.

"I just stood back and let it go," Dr. Machen says. "If I tried to stop this now, I'd get run over."

There are sustainable initiatives sprouting all over Florida's 2,000-acre campus. The school has built or started constructing 18 green buildings since 2003, and it is setting minimum standards for energy efficiency. Many parts of the campus have been reverted to natural landscapes, and last year the campus earned a designation as an Audubon sanctuary. Mass-transit services have received more resources, including the addition of Sunday bus service for the first time, and part of the motor pool is running on biodiesel and ethanol. The university is making greater efforts to recycle trash, especially at Gator football games, where it collected more than 2,600 pounds of bottles and cans at a game against the University of Central Florida last month. The university has set an ambitious, perhaps unrealistic, goal of becoming waste-free by 2015.

Not all of the projects have been painless or well received. To reduce the number of state-owned cars within departments, administrators jacked up annual parking rates astronomically, to $3,000 per parking pass this September. Some departments have gotten rid of their cars to avoid the parking fee, but university officials won't say how many.

The exorbitant parking tax wasn't a popular move even among researchers who support sustainability in general and it hints at the difficulty that future, deeper sustainability efforts might face. "This comes at a bad time," when money is already tight, says Alan T. Dorsey, the chair of the physics department. The cost of his department's three cars, which are used to shuttle graduate students and research equipment, will come out of researchers' budgets for now. Mr. Dorsey says his department is still deciding whether to get rid of the cars.

Dr. Machen says that discussions about sustainability will get even more contentious when the university starts considering issues more integral to the operation of the university, like investments. He remembers the pressure to get higher education's investments out of apartheid South Africa or Big Tobacco, and he thinks a movement in sustainability is headed in the same direction. Groups like the Sustainable Endowments Institute, run by a recent graduate of Williams College, are already scrutinizing the investment policies of various institutions.

Accounting for the Future

Proponents of sustainability are advocates of transparent accounting” of making invisible costs visible. They say that running society sustainably is ultimately cheaper than not doing so, if leaders consider all of the hidden costs of our current system, such as the loss of farmland to sprawl, crime from poverty in inner cities, or pollution that comes from cheap, industrialized food.

Dedee DeLongpré, director of the University of Florida's Office of Sustainability, believes applying that kind of accounting to the university is one of her core missions. She arrived at the university little more than six months ago and is one of about 65 college sustainability coordinators across the country who work as managers, educators, and evangelists for sustainability among professors, staff members, and students.

Her office is within the heart of the administration next to the vice president for finance and down the hall from the president which is unusual for someone in her position.

Ms. DeLongpré has a master's degree in sustainable business administration and has a history in community activism. Her arguments to trustees and others who hold the university's purse strings will ride on analyses of costs and benefits.

Most of the costs and savings have not been tallied yet, but she can point to some efforts that will likely pay off in the future. For example, she says, poor recycling efforts at Gator football games would present "a negative PR cost" to alumni, Gator fans, and people in the Gainesville community who might see the games as massive trash generators. (There is also real money to be made by recycling, if only a little: Anheuser-Busch has pledged to give student groups a dollar for every pound of cans and bottles they collect on game days.) Savings from energy-efficiency efforts in buildings will probably start adding up soon, she says. And she will tie the university's use of biodiesel or ethanol to research in new energy sources or an investment in national security rather than emphasizing their environmental benefits.

Like other sustainability supporters, Ms. DeLongpré sells her message as something different from the environmentalism of the past, which at times idolized nature and vilified humans. In a conservative state like Florida, "it's important to me to frame the issue in a way that bridges political divides," she says.

One of her latest efforts is getting local produce into a campus cafeteria run by the food-service corporation Aramark. (Aramark has made pledges to use local food at other colleges, such as Furman University and the Johns Hopkins University.) At the cafeteria, where many dishes are cooked fresh in front of the students, Ms. DeLongpré envisions signs about the farmers who have provided the ingredients, to make a connection to the local economy and the benefits of small-scale agriculture. With food politics discussed in popular films like Super Size Me, and in books such as The Omnivore's Dilemma and Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, Ms. DeLongpré thinks she can stimulate students' appetites for healthier local meals, even if they must pay a little more for them.

But the market here also works against sustainability. Burger King, one of several fast-food restaurants on the campus, has a restaurant right next door to the cafeteria. As long as students want Burger King, Ms. DeLongpré acknowledges, the restaurant stays.

She also faces challenges in the sheer size of her institution. Relying on local resources often works best in small settings it doesn't scale up easily. Even with Florida's long growing season, Ms. DeLongpré doubts that she could use local sources to satisfy all or even a significant portion of the university's food needs.

"For a small college with one dining hall in New Hampshire to get all of its food locally is a great accomplishment," she says, "but it's so much easier to do than at a huge research university with 48,000 students."

The university's size poses challenges in other efforts as well. Mr. Renk's biodiesel facility gets 500 gallons of vegetable oil from campus restaurants every month, and he scrounges what he can get from local ones. The university's fleet burns 8,000 gallons of diesel a month. There simply isn't enough vegetable oil in Gainesville to wean the fleet off petroleum, Mr. Renk says.

Strides at Small Schools

If small colleges don't face quite the same problems of scale, they often face limits on resources. Richard A. Niesenbaum, a professor of biology at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa., has been pushing sustainability on his 2,100-student campus for a decade, and the administration has committed to the idea only within the past few years. However, the president didn't want to spend money to hire a sustainability coordinator, Mr. Niesenbaum says, so organizing efforts on campus depend on him and a dedicated group of students, professors, and staff members.

"Maybe we're a small enough institution that individuals on the sustainability committee can handle that sort of thing," he says. The group tackles one big issue a year; the first year it was recycling, followed by reducing paper use, and composting food waste. Next the committee will look at energy use a focus the administration supports, as Pennsylvania faces energy deregulation and steep rises in energy costs within a few years.

In Southern California, Pitzer College should be fertile ground for a sustainability movement, yet it also faces familiar challenges. Founded in the 1960s, Pitzer is the alma mater of the sustainability guru L. Hunter Lovins. "We're trying to do the right thing, but excruciatingly slowly," says Paul Faulstich, an associate professor of environmental studies. "I think every decision at the academy should be made with an eye toward impact. Our economics at Pitzer College don't allow us to do that." He says Pitzer could put up some of the greenest buildings on the West Coast or provide organic and locally grown food, if only the college had more money.

Laura Skandera Trombley, Pitzer's president, says sustainability is integral to the curriculum and history of her college. The convictions of the students at Pitzer, she says, have influenced changes in college operations, both large and small. Students have set up vegetable gardens, composting areas, and a "green bikes" program, which repairs castoff bikes and offers them to students who need to get around the Claremont Colleges, of which Pitzer is a part. Taking a cue from the students, the college is building a new residence hall that will get gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, which has a rating system to evaluate the environmental impact of buildings.

Pitzer's most striking sustainability effort shows up, oddly, in the lack of green on campus. Here in thirsty Southern California, significant portions of the campus lawn which required frequent watering have been removed and replaced with native and desert plants. The effort was started years ago by one of Pitzer's professors, but Ms. Trombley has supported it. The college hired one of the world's leading experts in desert plants to tend its prickly arboretum.

Crossing a street from Pitzer to Harvey Mudd College, another Claremont College, is like walking into a different world. The desert landscapes, which can look wild and unruly, abruptly give way to lush grass in rigid squares, on which students are playing soccer.

Asked about sustainability at Harvey Mudd, Maria Klawe, the new president there, said the topic is "on the radar" and that committees are being formed to examine "how we should change our curriculum based on the fact that the world is changing." She points out that Harvey Mudd has two buildings certified by the U.S. Green Building Council.

But she thinks tearing up the grass and replacing it with cacti would probably be a thorny issue for people on campus.

"I have a feeling it would be hard to convince the trustees to change that expanse of grass," she says, just as sprinklers turn on outside her office. "There is enormous sentimental attachment to that being there."

Emotions are not the only force countering sustainability efforts at some institutions. Last month Wisconsin's Democratic governor, Jim Doyle, caught some political flak when he declared that four University of Wisconsin campuses Green Bay, Oshkosh, River Falls, and Stevens Point would be "off the grid" and using all renewable energy by 2012.

Mark Green, a Republican U.S. congressman who is Mr. Doyle's opponent in the state's race for governor, said the project used money that would otherwise keep down tuition and support conservation efforts across the state. "Perhaps the governor should spend more time worrying about how to make our UW schools more affordable for Wisconsin families who have watched tuition skyrocket by 50 percent in the last four years," Mr. Green said in a statement.

Selling Sacrifice

Sustainability's proponents face a deeper challenge than either sentimentality or economics: They want to redefine people's tastes and their perceptions of "the good life." Supporters of the movement will sometimes argue that sustainability doesn't necessarily entail sacrifice that is, if you believe it isn't a sacrifice to give up the headaches of traffic and unstable gas prices (along with the convenience of your car).

It's a tough sell, even among allies. Ed Poppell, vice president for finance and administration at the University of Florida, helped raise parking rates on campus and promoted other efforts to get people out of their cars and onto bikes or two legs. In a movement that has been associated with leftist politics, he is a registered Republican who speaks eloquently about the crises of the world and the need to pursue sustainability. Some of his peers call him "born again" on the issue.

But he still drives to work every day. "I give myself the excuse that in my position I have to be very flexible," he says, even as he acknowledges "it's difficult to tell people to change behaviors if I'm unwilling to change mine."

Sustainability advocates also disagree on the kinds of changes that universities should be making. Some institutions, such as the University of Florida, have emphasized the social-responsibility component of sustainability by setting living-wage standards for staff members. The university also requires businesses that operate on campus to meet those standards.

But the social-responsibility angle is often underemphasized or ignored in sustainability programs at other institutions, which tend to focus on the environmental component. Davis Bookhart, who is managing sustainability projects at Johns Hopkins, says his efforts to improve mass transportation and energy efficiency on the campus might have some residual social benefits, but he doesn't believe that should be a focus of the university's sustainability drive.

"I think [sustainability] means focusing exclusively on how we get the most out of our resources," like energy, water, and landscape, he says. Social justice, living wages, and democracy are important issues, "but they are not sustainability issues. ... I think they get lumped in with sustainability because sustainability becomes the catchphrase for everything that is right and progressive and good," he says.

Colorado's Mr. Newport says that on the whole, colleges "really suck at bringing the social into sustainability." But he believes that focusing on human needs is a sure way to keep a sustainability movement going.

Supporters say another way to maintain momentum is through education. Mr. Cortese, of the higher-education sustainability association, says the movement is hobbled if it is not incorporated into the curriculum.

"Helping to create a healthy, just, and sustainable society is the core mission of higher education," he says. "If you look at the charter for higher education, higher education is given academic freedom and the ability not to pay taxes in exchange for creating a civil and thriving society."

But mixing sustainability and education has already drawn accusations of indoctrination. Last year the Center of the American Experiment, a free-market think tank in Minnesota, attacked St. Olaf College when it injected sustainability themes into its curriculum.

"St. Olaf seems intent on dictating to students the 'right' way to live, work, and learn," the center said in a statement on its Web site on education issues, Intellectual Takeout. "This is an altogether unsustainable approach for a college committed by its mission statement to stimulate critical thinking." The center's statement also said that "consuming fossil fuels is one of the great drivers of our economy."

The view that environmental and economic issues are competing interests is old thinking, Mr. Cortese says. "The strategies that we have used to get where we are today have had such negative social, economic, and environmental side effects that we need a new lens."

Higher education will need to come up with new energy sources, cleaner kinds of products, better designs for cities, and more effective ways of dealing with social problems if civilization is going to move ahead, he says. Universities should assume the role they took in winning the space race and in waging the war on cancer, he says, and take on sustainability as their next great challenge.

The University of Florida recently completed a tally of all the courses on campus that cover some aspect of sustainability, with the intention of putting together degrees or certificates on the subject. Dr. Machen says he is not convinced that sustainability initiatives will always save the university money, so he would rather identify sustainability with teaching and research to ensure its future at Florida.

"If there is not an academic component to something, it gets marginalized," he says, "and there could come a time when it is seen as a nonvalued add-on."

After all, teaching the idea is consistent with the mission of the university, he says: "I graduate 15,000 students a year. If I could turn out half of them with a sensitivity to sustainability and turn them loose on the world, that's a hell of a contribution."

http://chronicle.com
Section: Special Report
Volume 53, Issue 9, Page A10
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2006 by The Chronicle of Higher Education

Link to article HERE

 

For Immediate Release:
November 1, 2006

Contact:
Pulin Modi 757-622-7382

Gainesville, Fla. The days when "choice" in the dining halls of America’s colleges and universities meant beef or chicken are fast becoming a fading memory as more and more students are demanding nutritious, humane, and delicious vegan and vegetarian options at every meal. So peta2 the world’s largest youth animal rights organizationasked students across the country to nominate schools for peta2’s "Most Vegetarian-Friendly Colleges in America" List, and the University of Florida has definitely made the grade.

The delicious selection of smart vegan food at UF includes tofu Creole, grilled portobello burgers, and vegetable jambalaya. The campus also features Vegan Corner, which offers additional options for lunch and dinner. Everyone who casts a vote at peta2.com/college will automatically be entered to win a Visa gift card worth $100.

Why are so many students closing the book on meat, eggs, and dairy products? Research conducted by food-service giant Aramark revealed that nearly one-quarter of college students surveyed said that finding vegan meals on campus was important to them. It’s no wonder. Vegetarians are fitter and trimmer than meat-eaters, so being vegan is the way to go if you want to avoid putting on the "freshman 15." Also, vegetarians are less prone to serious ailments like heart attacks, diabetes, and other killers. And going vegetarian is the single-best thing that you can do to help stop animal suffering.

"UF deserves an A’ for meeting its students’ growing hunger for delicious vegan and vegetarian meals," says PETA College Campaign Coordinator Pulin Modi. "Every time students choose a vegetarian meal, they’re taking a bite out of cruelty to animals and helping to ensure their own good health at the same time."

Other nominees include the University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Colleges were chosen according to student nominations and the schools’ online dining-service information, and everyone is eligible to vote. Winners will be announced in November.

To view the entire list of 30 U.S. and 15 Canadian colleges and universities that were nominated and to cast your vote, please visit http://www.peta2.com/college/c-vegschools.asp

Breakfast club preaches green

By ELIZABETH HILLAKER
Alligator Writer

As the sun rose over the Reitz Union on Wednesday morning, a group of campus and Gainesville leaders met to munch on breakfast and hear about sustainability.

"We have the ability to do the right thing, but it may mean questioning the status quo," Dedee DeLongpré told the Community Campus Council.

DeLongpré, the director of UF's Office of Sustainability, discussed the way the American lifestyle must change in order to restore equilibrium to the environment and foresight to personal spending.

The 7:30 a.m. meeting was so well received that the audience stayed past 8:30 a.m. to listen, and some stayed even longer to ask questions.

"That doesn't normally happen," said Florida Bridgewater-Alford, UF's director of community relations and the breakfast's organizer. DeLongpré used World War II memorabilia to show how Americans have changed from their more frugal past. One poster said, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."

The world is using natural resources at a rate 25 percent higher than the renewal rate, she said.

Americans value "how big our house is, how big our car is and how big our jewelry is," she said.

"It used to be keeping up with the Joneses; now it's keeping up with the Trumps," she said, adding that the average American owes $8,000 in credit card debt. "We can't afford to treat nature's bank accounts the way we treat our bank accounts," she said.

To replace rampant consumerism, people should put back more than they take, she said. True sustainability is not keeping things at the same level, but rather restoring and reusing them.

For example, in Germany, BMW has a program where they take back used cars, disassemble them, and either reuse or recycle their parts.

Erik Bredfeldt, the director of economic development in Gainesville, said he considers principles of sustainability when bringing in and nurturing businesses.

For example, the city is working with UF's College of Fine Arts to launch "Civic Lights" in January 2008. It's a creative lighting system that will use more energy-efficient lighting in downtown Gainesville and on campus.

Angela Lindner, a professor of environmental engineering, said her students are excited about giving back.

"Our students - that's where our hope rests," she said after the talk. "They get it."

Link to article HERE

Innovative manure management system draws national sustainability award

The Department of Soil and Water Science was honored in recognition of an innovative animal manure management system developed by Ann Wilkie, an associate professor with the department.

The management system uses anaerobic bacteria to treat waste from dairy cattle and swine operations. It produces fuel, saves nutrients, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and stops offensive odors. Operational for six years, the system is used at UF’s Dairy Research Unit in Hague, where it provides methane gas used to heat water for the milking parlor.

On the basis of Wilkie’s work, the scientific publishing company Benjamin Cummings chose the department to receive one of five Sustainable Solutions Awards presented nationwide to university academic departments that best exemplify principles of environmental sustainability. The award includes a $500 honorarium to support Dr. Wilkie’s bioenergy summer school program for IFAS undergraduates.

Link to news HERE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 3, 2006

UF HOUSING, GRU, AND THE ICBE PILOT COMPACT FLUORESCENT LIGHTBULB EXCHANGE IN TANGLEWOOD VILLAGE

The University of Florida Department of Housing and Residence Education, Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU), and the International Carbon Bank and Exchange (ICBE) are piloting a compact fluorescent light bulb exchange in Tanglewood Village November 6 – 8.

Housing maintenance staff will be replacing over 3,700 incandescent light bulbs in university-owned light fixtures with compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) in the 208 apartments in Tanglewood Village, a graduate and family housing apartment complex served by GRU. There is an average of 18 bulbs in university-owned light fixtures in each apartment. GRU is providing the lighting for the project, and the ICBE staff will be monitoring electrical usage on an ongoing basis after the installation has occurred. GRU and ICBE are providing educational materials related to CFLs and energy conservation and have met with residents on site to provide information about the exchange.

CFL lighting uses one-fifth the energy of an incandescent equivalent and lasts 8 – 12 times as long. The primary goal of the exchange is to reduce energy consumption and educate residents on energy efficient behaviors and to see how measurable of an effect the CFLs have on energy consumption. UF also hopes to realize some future long-term cost-savings related to the life of the bulbs and labor costs related to replacing bulbs less often. Residents hope to lower their monthly energy bills.

"This project educates residents about CFLs while encouraging energy conservation," said Sharon Blansett, Assistant Director of Housing. "Residents should realize some savings in their utility bills which we hope will motivate them to use CFL bulbs in their personal lighting fixtures in Tanglewood and continue to use CFLs once they move off campus."

"We anticipate this initiative to save residents over $15,000, and our community around 200 tonnes CO2 annually for the next five years," said Mark van Soestbergen, ICBE. "CFLs are dollar-for-dollar the most bang for your buck, and we can’t wait for the data to come in and see how it bears out."

"Lighting is the fourth largest energy user in your home, so getting these CFLs to our customers is really important for them to save energy and save money on their bills," said Bill Shepherd, GRU Interim Energy and Business Services Manager.

GRU and the ICBE are also conducting customer satisfaction research related to CFL use and ongoing energy use research as part of this pilot project. Based on the results of this pilot project, the CFL light bulb exchange may be expanded to other graduate and family housing apartment complexes in the future.

- 30 –

Contacts:
Sharon Blansett
sharonb@housing.ufl.edu
352.392.2171 x 10132

GRU Media Line
352.334.2677

Mark van Soestbergen
mark@icbe.com
352.284.8221

Photo opportunities in Tanglewood are available Tuesday November 7 around 10:30 – 11 a.m. Contact Mark van Soestbergen.

 

Who knew clean energy could come from the floor of a barn? It might sound crazy, but there's a new kind of power plant being developed right here in Florida that does just that.

View the video HERE.

He makes every day Earth Day

By THERESA BLACKWELL, Times Staff Writer
Published November 27, 2006

LARGO - Pinellas officials are on a mission to spread the virtues of sustainability.

In short, officials say, sustainability is a process that can lead to conservation of resources, increased economic prosperity and better lives today and in the future. It can be as simple as changing to fluorescent light bulbs or as bold as redesigning cities.

And they have a new point person for the cause.

Devesh Nirmul, 34, is the Pinellas County Extension's new Urban Environmental Sustainability agent, the first one in the state.

Nirmul thinks that with the right attitude, the county can adapt the wisdom of the natural world and natural processes to live in a manner that sustains humanity and the earth.

"I'm here to be a catalyst for the journey of sustainability that the county is embarking upon," Nirmul said. "We can use our talents as human beings to make this work for ourselves and everything around us."

Mary Campbell, Pinellas County Extension director, is working with Nirmul to introduce the concept to county employees, businesses and residents. The initial focus has been Pinellas County government, and county officials are already fired up, she said.

Nirmul started that journey himself as a senior at Brandon High School. He remembers Earth Day in 1990 at Lowry Park Zoo as what nudged him down his life's path. He designed his own major at the University of Florida, then completed a master's in public affairs and in environmental science at Indiana University.

In Washington, D.C., he enjoyed the urban lifestyle, walking and taking the Metro subway. He worked at the National Wildlife Federation and several other nonprofits and consulted for the federal government.

He co-founded the Washington D.C. Sustainable Business Network that brought businesses together to talk about how business can do well and do good at the same time.

In Tampa, he worked for the city on the mayor's beautification program as Environmental Services Coordinator and then as an urban planner.

The job he started in Pinellas two months ago is mostly funded by the University of Florida William P. and Janet F. Bushnell Professorship in Urban Environmental Sustainability endowment.

Nirmul plans to use his education and experience to lead the county to adopt practices and designs that incorporate concern for economic, social and environmental health.

"You don't have to trade off one for the other if you do it right," he said.

Some county officials, like affordable housing director Frank Bowman, were already familiar with the concept. Bowman went to his first conference on the subject in about 1988.

"This is so wonderful," he said. "It is becoming imperative at this stage, and I think there's enough momentum to get it going."

Building housing for workers next to where they work in industrial areas, Bowman said, is an example of a good practice. Employees can walk to work. The family needs one less car and that frees up their income for other uses.

That's one less car using fuel, spewing emissions and adding to traffic congestion.

Spirits were high at Nirmul's first meeting last week with county officials who will lead the process.

The Florida Green Building Coalition had recently awarded the county a silver rating in the Green Local Government Award, the first in Florida.

Nirmul and Campbell hope the county will serve as an example for residents as they move along in the process and find new ways to make sure the most densely populated county in Florida only gets better.

They plan to improve their Web site at www.pinellascounty.org/ sustainability. The site already asks residents to take pledges to do things like replace one incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb or turn off the water while brushing teeth.

Just after the meeting with county officials, Campbell consulted with Nirmul as he packed up his electronic equipment.

"You're going to have a pretty simplistic work plan this year," she said, "which is really spreading the word."

© 2006 All Rights Reserved St. Petersburg Times
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For Immediate Release:
November 27, 2006

Contact:
Pulin Modi 757-622-7382, ext. 8719; PulinM@peta2.com
Heather Carlson 757-622-7382, ext. 8293; HeatherC@peta2.com

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA VOTED ONE OF THE MOST VEGETARIAN-FRIENDLY UNIVERSITIES IN THE U.S.

School Lauded by peta2 for Meeting Students’ Growing Hunger for Meatless Meals

Gainesville, Fla. In an online contest sponsored by peta2, the world’s largest youth animal rights organization, thousands of students were asked to vote for the most vegetarian-friendly college or university in the U.S. from an elite list of 30 nominees, and the votes have been tallied. The University of Florida in Gainesville is ranked 10th in the nation.


With offerings like tofu Creole, grilled portobello burgers, and vegetable jambalaya, UF is a true vegan paradise. The school even has a daily Vegan Corner as well as a great animal rights group on campus called Animal Activists of Alachua.


The demand for meatless meals has never been higher, and young people are leading the charge. Nearly one-quarter of all college students ask for vegan options in school cafeterias. Sales of vegetarian mock meats doubled between 1998 and 2003 and now constitute a billion-dollar industry. Considering that the consumption of meat and other animal products has been conclusively linked to heart disease and other leading killers, it’s easy to understand why. And of course, going vegetarian is the best thing that you can do to help stop animal suffering.


"Just a decade ago, students who demanded vegan options in school dining halls might have gone hungry before they found a decent meal," says Pulin Modi, peta2’s college campaign coordinator. "But thanks to schools like UF, eating healthfully and humanely has never been easieror more delicious!"


The winner was Indiana University in Bloomington, Ill., and Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif., grabbed second place. Rounding out peta2’s "Greens" List were the University of Puget Sound, Yale University, the State University of New York-Purchase, Oberlin College, New York University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Pennsylvania.


To view the list of 10 U.S. and five Canadian winners, please visit peta2.com/college or click here.


#

Link to article HERE.

Study: Fla. population to double in 50 years

By Karen Voyles
Sun staff writer

Florida's population a half century ago was about five million.

Today there are about 18 million Floridians.

A half century from now, the Sunshine State will likely have twice as many residents, or about 36 million.

That projection was made by researchers on Wednesday who also said most of the growth over the next 50 years will likely be in the southern half of Florida's peninsula. Here in North Florida, extreme growth is expected to be centered around Jacksonville.

Projections were a big part of a pair of studies released Wednesday by the 1000 Friends of Florida. Friends is a 20-year-old organization that was formed to "keep the state's communities livable." The group commissioned the studies, which cost a combined $50,000 to project how Florida will look in 2060 and what can be done now to alter the development path Florida appears to be on.

The studies were underwritten by The St. Joe Co., Florida's largest private landowner, A. Duda and Sons, a major agribusiness, and The Nature Conservancy, an environmental group.

In an overview provided to reporters on Wednesday, several counties were singled out for comments. Researchers wrote that "relatively large areas of undeveloped land are projected to remain in Levy, Lafayette, Gilchrist and Suwannee counties in 2060. Suwannee County appears to be particularly vulnerable to roadside development, significantly transforming this rural landscape."

The projected growth in Suwannee County was along Interstate 10, especially where it intersects with U.S. 90 and U.S. 129.

Also noted in the overview was that "significant new population is anticipated in Taylor County near Keaton Beach and Dekle Beach, environmentally sensitive areas susceptible to high storm surges."

Large, upscale vacation developments are already being planned for that region.

Growth projections

The first study, entitled "Florida 2060: A Population Distribution Scenario for the State of Florida," came out of the University of Florida's GeoPlan Center. It projected that another seven million acres of rural land statewide will be urbanized either paved over as roadways or subdivided into housing lots or otherwise conscripted for development. And, if current development patterns continue, a "sea of urbanization" will surround what are now protected conservation lands, the report said.

Areas least likely to change were those in the Big Bend, which included Levy and Dixie counties, as well as the Panhandle. Researchers concluded those areas will likely "retain significant areas of open space."

One of the study authors, Margaret Carr, a GeoPlan professor, said researchers used middle range projections in their work and assumed the state's average annual population increases about 330,000 residents each year would continue.

In a teleconference with reporters from around the state Wednesday morning, Carr referred to what has been going on in Florida as "disjointed incrementalism." Carr said many small decisions made by multiple city, county, regional and state agencies have a cumulative effect on growth.

A game plan

A second study, "A Time for Leadership: Growth Management and Florida 2060," was conducted by Georgia Tech's Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development.

The Georgia researchers found that steps need to be taken now to plan for "development that is both sustainable and environmentally friendly."

Specifically, the researchers recommended:

· expanding Florida Forever, the natural-lands acquisition program to include agriculture and forestry lands.

· establishing a policy that rural land only be allowed to be used in urban density in return for significant public benefit.

· developing a 100-year plan that would identify which lands should have permanent protection from development, which could be developed and those appropriate for redevelopment.

· identifying the leaders who can make this all happen.

"An alarm bell has been sounded," said Vicki Tschinkel, Florida Director of The Nature Conservancy. "But that alarm should be a call for realistic large-scale planning, rather than platitudes about slowing growth. The future has not yet been written. We can still choose the kind of place Florida will be in fifty years. But we are going to have to work together to make it the special place we all want it to be."



The Associated Press contributed to this report. Karen Voyles can be reached at 486-5058 or voylesk@gvillesun.com.

Copyright 2006, The Gainesville Sun. The information contained in the Sun Online news report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Gainesville Sun.

UF hopes programs cut campus traffic

By Jack Stripling
Sun staff writer

In an effort to reduce the number of cars on campus, the University of Florida is using a fair share of carrots and sticks.

The university drew some critics for introducing a $3,000 reserved parking fee for university-owned vehicles earlier this year, but UF is now rolling out a series of transportation programs that may receive a more friendly reception.

In the coming months, UF plans to introduce a car-sharing program that would allow university students and employees to rent cars on an hourly basis for errands instead of driving to work. UF also plans to implement an online program called "GreenRide," which would help pair up students and employees who want to carpool.

The new transportation programs are part of a comprehensive "sustainability" effort at UF, which is taking steps to reduce carbon emissions and fuel consumption along with other environmentally friendly measures.

"We need vehicles. They're not going away tomorrow," said Ed Poppell, UF's vice president for finance and administration. "But I think we need to make the evaluation, how necessary is every one of them?"

It's still unclear how much UF's new parking fee will ultimately reduce the size of the university's vehicle fleet, Poppell said. Anecdotally, however, Poppell said he's been given reports that UF has been auctioning off an increased number of vehicles to other state agencies.

The university has nearly 300 vehicles that were given free reserved spaces before the $3,000 annual charge was implemented. Only about 65 of those vehicles are now registered for the $3,000 spaces, Poppell said, but that does't mean UF has actually gotten rid of all the other cars. Another 150 cars were simply moved out of reserved spots to other sites, Poppell said. In addition, about 60 new parking permits are now being processed, he said.

In the coming months, Poppell said he expects more cars to be be auctioned off as more departments work to streamline their fleets.

"People are trying to eliminate cars, and it's not going to happen overnight," he said.

UF officials are hopeful that a series of new transportation programs will reduce the need for so many cars on campus. UF plans to roll out its "Flexcar" program in January. When the program begins, UF will have eight vehicles on campus available for students and employees to rent at an hourly rate of $5.50. Users of the service would also pay an annual fee of about $40 a year.

The program is intended to give employees and students access to a vehicle for periodic errands, while encouraging them to use other means carpooling, biking and busing to get to campus from home.

"A ton of universities are using this service," said Allan Preston, coordinator of UF's quality office.

Half of UF's "Flexcar" fleet will be hybrid vehicles, Preston said. UF needed some vehicles, like a pickup, that weren't available in alternative fuel models, he said.

Preston is also piloting a free on-campus taxi service program on campus, which is now available to UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences and some employees in UF's Office of Finance and Administration. Three taxis are available to take employees across campus on demand, he said.

UF also expects to roll out its "GreenRide" service in the coming months. The university has already purchased GreenRide software, which will be used to pair up employees and students who want to carpool. The program allows users to post their travel plans, and even their smoking preference, on a Web site. The software then links users with potential carpooling companions traveling similar routes.

UF already has a bus system that is heavily used by students, but these new programs begin to offer a series of alternatives that can meet different needs, said Dedee DeLongpré, director of UF's Office of Sustainability.

"If you're going to tell people they need to give something up, there needs to be an attractive and more efficient alternative available," she said.

For students and employees frustrated with cramped parking and concerned about the environment, Flexcar and GreenRide may be the answer, DeLongpré said.

"I am forever the optimist," she said. "I think everyone's going to run out and (use these services)."

Link to article HERE

Jack Stripling can be reached at 374-5064 or Jack.Stripling@gvillesun.com

Copyright 2006, The Gainesville Sun. The information contained in the Sun Online news report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Gainesville Sun.

Editorial: Renewable fuels
Florida shouldn’t repeat mistakes of other states

Daily News

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

The new federal Energy Independence and Security Act calls for quintupling the use of renewable fuels by 2022.

Florida with the nation’s longest growing season is positioned to be a leader in the drive toward biomass conversion. But, in doing so, the state ought to avoid the swamp of unintended consequences that has bogged down the ethanol industry. Wholesale turnover of Midwestern farmlands to plant corn for ethanol has inflated the price of food, from wheat to meat. More intensive land use also has drawn down water supplies in America’s bread basket, and energy is burned up tilling, fertilizing and hauling the crop to ethanol plants.

Florida can make a positive difference. Instead of banking on corn a relatively inefficient energy producer Sunshine State agronomists ought to explore other, more efficient crops that will produce a net gain for consumers. Some studies have pointed to switchgrass and sugar cane as promising alternatives.

Yet any crop that requires fertilization and irrigation will soak up fossil fuels and resources that already are diminishing. What sense does it make to grow biomass products that require 20 percent to 120 percent more energy than they yield in the form of ethanol fuel?

Perhaps the best strategy for Florida is to harvest the unharvested. Citrus byproducts and other agricultural flotsam are voluminous and they burn just as well as freshly grown crops. Eric Waschman, of the University of Florida’s Institute for Sustainable Energy, is bullish on the state’s potential and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson has predicted that it could grow no less than 30 percent of its annual fuel supply.

Truly green alternatives like solar and wind power deserve equal attention, and here, too, sunny, peninsular Florida can play a vital role.

To read the article online, click HERE

O'Dome encourages recycling

By LISE FISHER
Sun staff writer

6:58 am, December 27, 2007
Gainesville resident Kim Hankins didn't understand why the University of Florida wasn't taking advantage of recycling during home basketball games at the O'Connell Center.

Continue to 2nd paragraph "My husband and I regularly go to the basketball games at the O'Connell Center," said Hankins, 64, in her submission to Since You Asked.

"I was wondering why there are no recycle bins for all the thousands of drink bottles that are used at every game. Supposedly UF is trying to be more â€ògreen.' It seems to me that this one little effort would have a big impact," Hankins said.

Turns out the center's new director, Lynda Reinhart, who served as the facility's interim director until her appointment in November, also was wondering the same thing and decided to do something about it.

This fall, temporary cardboard recycling bins were placed around the building in the lobbies and the arena in time for basketball season, Reinhart said. Permanent plastic bins that will hold recyclable items are on order and expected to arrive in January.

Reinhart started the push for a recycling program at the center while she still was the facility's interim director.

The idea involved more effort than some people might think, Reinhart said. It didn't just take ordering new receptacles for inside the center. First, the question about what would happen with the gathered debris had to be answered.

"If we collected all the waste, what do we do with it?" Reinhart asked.

That problem was resolved with help from UF's Physical Plant Department.

A collection bin now is located on-site for the recyclable items gathered inside the center, Reinhart said. Staffers go through the stands after events and sort through the trash, checking to make sure anything that can be recycled ends up in the bin and not the garbage.

Reinhart said organizing the program wasn't the only hitch. Awareness, both among staff and visitors to the center, has been another issue.

"I think it was probably a lack of education. Just not realizing the impact that we could have on recycling in the community," Reinhart said in responding to Hankins' question as to why a recycling program hadn't been started sooner at the center.

And, now that the program has begun, the center's staff is trying to alert visitors that there is a recycling effort under way and they should throw drink bottles in the bins instead of the garbage. Signs are being added so people realize the bins are available, what they're for and what items can be recycled, Reinhart said. When the new, permanent bins arrive, they'll also help focus attention on recycling.

It's not only the drink bottles used at the games that add to the center's recycling pile. There's also plastic souvenir cups fans leave behind that should be collected, Reinhart said.

"When you look at it in those terms, it becomes obvious the impact we could have with recycling," Reinhart said.
To read the article online, click HERE

By DREW HARWELL, Alligator Staff Writer

A highly toxic chemical that has faced strong opposition from farmers and chemists nationwide after it was approved as a pesticide is being reviewed today by the Florida Department of Agriculture in the Reitz Union.

Methyl iodide, a soil fumigant that can emit an odorless gas to fight off weeds and fungi from crops like strawberries, tomatoes and peppers, is extremely poisonous and can kill a person within seconds of inhalation, said Donald Dickson, a UF professor in the Entomology and Nematology Department.

The fumigant, however, was approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in October for a restricted one-year period after the agency said its tests had found risks associated with the compound to be minimal.

The compound's approval from the Florida Department of Agriculture, which will review the issue today at 9 a.m., is needed before it can be used on the state's farmlands.

The fumigant, though fairly new in the agriculture community, has already raised a furor over possible dangers associated with its field use.

More than 50 professors and chemists, including five chemistry Nobel Laureates, sent a joint letter to the EPA in September urging the agency to rethink its approval.

"As chemists and physicians familiar with the effects of this chemical," the letter stated, "we are concerned that pregnant women and the fetus, children, the elderly, farm workers, and other people living near application sites would be at serious risk if methyl iodide is permitted."

The EPA responded with its own letter vouching for the agency's rigorous tests. However, the chemists who wrote the letter, as well as the nonprofit Florida Certified Organic Growers & Consumers, have questioned the EPA's initial tests, suggesting weak trials or conflicts of interest as the only reasons the fumigant was approved.

Part of the danger with methyl iodide, Dickson said, is that half of the fumigant is composed of a toxic liquid called chloropicrin that serves as a warning agent to keep people and animals away.

In combination with other ingredients, the liquid has been used in the past as a wartime chemical weapon, a tear gas mixture for riot police and a fumigant to rid bugs from houses.

Though the fumigant has yet to be used in an agricultural setting, the chemists who wrote the letter said methyl iodide is a cancer hazard and can cause permanent neurological damage as well as fetal problems in exposed people and animals.

To read this article online, click HERE

Car pool opens to students
By DEBORAH SWERDLOW, Alligator Writer
Thursday, January 17, 2008 1:31 AM EST

Whether you want to catch extra sleep on the ride to school, find a buddy to keep you company during a long drive home or save gas on a road trip to a Gators game, GreenRide has the answer.

GreenRide, a UF online ride-matching program that promotes carpooling for environmental and economic reasons, is opening its doors to UF students after its first successful year with faculty and staff.

Ron Fuller, assistant director of UF Transportation and Parking Services, said the program aims to make on-campus parking easier and reduce gas emissions by organizing carpools.

"Every single occupant car we can get off the road is to everybody's benefit," Fuller said.

He said the site was only open to faculty and staff last year because it was designed to work with UF's carpooling program, which students aren't eligible for.

But now the site has been updated to accommodate students, and registration is free, he said.

After registering on the GreenRide Web site, users post their starting point, final destination and other information, such as if they prefer to ride with a non-smoker and if they have a car.

The site displays a map showing other users with similar preferences along the route and within a quarter-mile to half-mile radius of the starting location.

Fuller said students could use the site to find rides to class, back to their hometowns or other long-distance locations.

He emphasized that all of this occurs without revealing a user's personal information, besides a first name and the provided starting location, which doesn't have to be a home address.

Once users find a match, they can contact that person through the site and decide later whether they want to arrange a ride or not.

Fuller said there are about 500 faculty and staff members and about 10 to 15 students registered.

Natalie Andrietta, a UF sociology senior, said she would use the ride-matching service for getting to classes, because it would most likely be faster than taking a bus or driving herself.

"I've tried to find parking on campus before," Andrietta said. "It's not fun."

But she said she probably wouldn't use the program to find a ride home to Miami. It would be awkward to spend five hours in a car with someone she didn't know, she explained.

Fuller said he hopes to encourage participation with monthly prize drawings and giveaways.

He hopes to offer an autographed Urban Meyer football giveaway later this semester, he added.

If every UF student - or even just 5,000 - signed up for GreenRide, it would make a huge difference in gas expenditures and impact on the environment, he said.

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UF joins in national teach-in on global warming solutions
Filed under Top Stories, Announcements on January 16, 2008.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. On Jan. 31, the University of Florida will participate in Focus The Nation, an unprecedented teach-in on global warming solutions.

"Today’s college students are truly the greatest generation," said Lewis & Clark College professor of economics Eban Goodstein, author and project director for the national campaign. "No other generation has ever had to face this kind of civilizational challenge. And we as educators would be failing if we did not prepare them with the tools to meet this challenge."

The local event, called Focus The Gator Nation Teach-in, will begin at 3 p.m. at Ustler Hall Women’s Studies Atrium with a presentation by UF professors Stephen Mulkey and Paul Sotkiewicz on the science of climate change. At 4 p.m., Gainesville Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan and Tallahassee Mayor John Marks will discuss the state and local leadership opportunities and challenges for addressing climate change. In addition, they will discuss the climate challenge between the two cities.

"Mayor Marks and I are working hard in Tallahassee and Gainesville to meet our goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Gainesville and Tallahassee have kicked off an energy efficiency competition to see whether the ‘Orange and Blue’ or the ‘Garnet and Gold’ are most green," Hanrahan said.

"By synchronizing traffic signals, planting trees, saving land, growing transit ridership and curbing wasteful energy use, we not only help protect our global environment, we also create a more desirable place to live right here at home."

After the Leadership for Climate Change Forum, the teach-in will continue with an energy debate at 6 p.m. UF faculty and industry experts on various energy sources, including coal, bio-fuels and nuclear, will debate the pros and cons of each option. Gator Dining is providing refreshments for the teach-in.

The teach-in will be preceded by the Climate Change Awareness Fair from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the Reitz Student Union North Lawn, coordinated by Gators for a Sustainable Campus and the Environmental Science and Policy Society.

As part of UF’s commitment to bring awareness of global warming solutions to the local community, UF is holding a climate change competition in conjunction with the Alachua County Schools. Elementary, middle and high school students may submit drawings, essays, poems or art work or they can conduct a carbon footprint analysis of their school. Entries are due Jan. 24. Local businesses, including Satchel’s, Indigo, Gainesville Regional Utilities and Adventure Outpost, are donating prizes for the competition.

For more information on the event, please visit: http://focusthenationuf.googlepages.com.

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Light bulb exchange is bright idea

By STACEY DAVIDSON
Special to The Sun

An additional 100 or so Alachua County homes now have energy-efficient lighting, thanks to a community light bulb exchange held Saturday at Westside Recreation Center.

Continue to 2nd paragraph The exchange was supposed to last for four hours, but the organization running it ran out of its 2,000 compact fluorescent bulbs in a little more than an hour and a half because of an unexpected high demand.

The compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) were exchanged for 2,000 regular light bulbs in an event co-sponsored by the International Carbon Bank and Exchange Inc. of Gainesville, the University of Florida's Office of Sustainability and Gainesville Regional Utilities.

Residents were able to exchange regular light bulbs for CFLs for 75 cents per CFL - at least half of their typical retail cost. Some brought one light bulb. Others exchanged as many as 30.

"[The CFL] has 60 watts of brightness but only 14 watts of energy consumption," explained Mark van Soestbergen of the International Carbon Bank and Exchange. It uses one-fourth the amount of energy as a regular bulb, he said.

The purpose of the event was to "raise awareness and increase participation in energy efficiency," said van Soestbergen. "CFLs reduce greenhouse gas by 1,000 pounds per CFL over their lifetime."

Van Soestbergen works for the Carbon Bank and Exchange, a Gainesville company that tracks greenhouse gas reductions through an online platform.

Doug Klepper, a Santa Fe Community College history professor, also helped at the exchange.

"I believe the environment is a significant issue for us," Klepper said.

As for Saturday's exchange, "we underestimated the demand," Klepper said as he spoke to residents disappointed to find all the CFLs had been given out.

Some residents explained how they had unscrewed every light bulb in their home to exchange them for the discount-priced CFLs.

One CFL normally retails for about $3.75. They are cheaper when bought in packs of six for about $9.

Jessica DiMuzio, a Gainesville resident, arrived at the light bulb exchange about 12:30 p.m. only to find the CFLs had run out more than 30 minutes earlier.

She brought three old bulbs to exchange - the last three in her house that weren't energy-efficient, she said.

"Whenever [CFLs] first started, I went out and bought them," she said.

DiMuzio said her decision to be energy-conscious is not political but very personal.

She said she has cut back on water usage and checked her home for any waste of electricity.

"I keep a cold house in the winter time," she said. She doesn't mind being a little cold to save energy, she said.

If you missed out on Saturday's bulb exchange, another is planned for Feb. 23 at Westside Park.

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Energy Efficient Light Bulb Exchange
By Kate Packer

Saturday, January 19 10:00a to 2:00p
at Westside Park: Westside Park Recreation Center, Gainesville, FL
University of Florida’s Office of Sustainability and the Gainesville Regional Utilities are jointly sponsoring a community outreach program to educate the public about energy efficiency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and saving money. People can brin

Price: 75 cents for each CFL with trade in of old bulb
Phone: 352/256-1204
Age Suitability: All Ages
Tags: There are no tags.
University of Florida’s Office of Sustainability and the Gainesville Regional Utilities are jointly sponsoring a community outreach program to educate the public about energy efficiency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and saving money. People can brin

Participants will be asked to sign pledge cards to commit to reducing power plant emissions that cause global warming. "The community could reduce energy use by as much as 10 percent by completely switching to CFLs," said Mark van Soestbergen of the International Carbon Bank and Exchange in Gainesville. Volunteers from UF’s Office of Sustainability will be on site to hand out CFLs and collect old bulbs. The CFLs are funded by GRU and the revenue collected will fund future CFL distribution in the area.

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Now Recycle Mixed Office Paper and Junk Mail
January 23, 2008

2:34 p.m.

ALACHUA COUNTY - Alachua County and the City of Gainesville are pleased to announce that the residential curbside recycling program has been expanded to include mixed office paper and junk mail. These items should be placed in the Orange Bin along with newspaper, magazines, catalogs, brown paper bags and corrugated cardboard. Residents are reminded to place their Blue Bin on top of their Orange Bin to prevent paper from being blown into the street or other yards.

The City and County would like to thank SP Recycling Corp. and Waste Management, Inc. for their assistance in expanding the curbside recycling program. Their cooperation made this expansion possible at no additional cost to residents.

Please call Alachua County at (352) 338-3233 or the City of Gainesville at (352) 334-2330 for additional information.

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Gator Dining makes efforts to aid environment
By ILEANA MORALES, Alligator Writer

UF's official food service provider, Gator Dining Services, has kicked up its efforts to go green with three new sustainability initiatives.

Gator Dining is now reusing cups, donating unused food and coffee grounds, and educating its employees about conservation.

Susanne Lewis, sustainability coordinator for Gator Dining, said UF partnered with Pepsi to design a reusable cup for all campus dining locations serving fountain beverages.


The cups are sold for $1.99 at nine spots on campus, including the Reitz Union and the Hub, Lewis said.

Customers who bring the cup back get a 50-cent discount on their drink, which is normally $1.59, she said.

This semester, about 630 cups have been sold, but the number of times they have been reused would not be determined until February, Gator Dining marketing program manager Jill Rodriguez wrote in an e-mail.

Lewis said as part of a university community, Gator Dining has a responsibility to educate its customers on conservation and waste reduction efforts.

"We're trying to educate students to realize that the little choices they make in their everyday lives really can make a big impact," Lewis said.

Signs have been posted at all-you-can-eat dining locations on campus asking students not to be wasteful, she said.

In addition, educating Gator Dining employees on sustainability is key to the success of the initiatives, she said.

Gator Dining is also recycling coffee grounds. Lewis said UF will donate the grounds to local farmers to use as fertilizer.

Eighteen campus locations brew coffee, and each produces up to 10 gallons of grounds a day, she said.

Some Starbucks locations on campus are already donating grounds, and other spots will begin soon, she said.

Gator Dining is also donating leftover food from catered events on campus to local homeless shelters and food banks.

UF donated about 1,500 pounds of unused food this month, Lewis said.

Gator Dining began its sustainability efforts a few years ago, and one of its first projects was buying about 30 percent of its produce from local farmers, she said.

Investing locally provides better quality food, keeps money in the community's economy and reduces pollution because of less distance traveled, she said.

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UF launches 10-week Recyclemania campaign
By ASHLEY MCCREDIE, Alligator Contributing Writer

Students now have a different way to beat rival universities: recycling.

On Sunday, the UF Office of Sustainability started its Recyclemania campaign, a 10-week competition between 350 colleges to determine which school can recycle the most.

The campaign runs through April 5 and kicks off with Recycling Day on Tuesday on the Reitz Union North Lawn.


The event will feature games and a trash exhibit to show students how many objects which are commonly thrown away can be recycled.

This is the university's second year competing. Last year, UF beat all other Southeastern Conference schools in per capita recycling and placed third in gross weight of recyclables, said Adrian Erlenbach, an intern for UF's Office of Sustainability and Recyclemania coordinator.

"My number one goal is to win," Erlenbach said. "My larger goal is to get schools to improve their recycling."

Erlenbach plans on making the Recyclemania campaign much larger this year by raising more awareness, involving other clubs and holding events around campus. This year, the UF Physical Plant Division has put up more recycling bins to help promote more on-campus recycling, Erlenbach said.

The caught-green-handed program is another way people will be encouraged to participate. Students caught recycling by campaign volunteers will be given a free T-shirt, he said. As large contributors of recyclables on campus, the residence halls will also set up bulletin boards in their halls to educate their residents.

"I hope we win," said Alexandra Klein, Inter-residence Hall Association environmental concerns director, "but even if only 10 people choose to recycle, it will be worthwhile."

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UF joins Focus the Nation efforts to raise global-warming awareness
By KATIE SANDERS

UF students, Gainesville Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan and local businesses will join forces today in an effort to boost global warming awareness with events from morning until night.

After an 11 a.m. fair on the Reitz Union North Lawn, a campus-wide program called Focus The Gator Nation Teach-in will begin at 3 p.m. in the Ustler Hall Atrium, said Laura Ruhl, UF graduate student and one of the event's organizers.

Focus the Nation, a national initiative to pursue solutions to climate change, is the largest teach-in in U.S. history, according to the program's Web site. More than 1,750 universities, K-12 schools and businesses are involved nationwide.


"This has been a grassroots effort," Ruhl said. "It's really remarkable that we've all joined together."

Following climate-change presentations from two UF professors, Mayor Hanrahan will discuss the role that leaders have in sustainability, Ruhl said. Her appearance is scheduled for 4 p.m.

Gator Dining will provide refreshments during the event, Ruhl added.

Following the leadership forum is a 6 p.m. energy debate. UF faculty and experts from industries that produce solar, wind, ethanol and hydroelectric power will weigh the pros and cons of each alternative energy source, said Rainer Shaw, UF wildlife ecology and conservation senior and co-director of the teach-in.

"We really can't expect people to act on anything or to make a change in their lives without knowing any of the real information about it," Shaw said.

To read this article online, click HERE

UF competes to conserve
By WHITNEY HOLTZMAN
Campus correspondent
12:03 am, January 29, 2008

Since Sunday, The University of Florida has been competing with hundreds of other colleges and universities across the country to see which school can recycle the most material.

Continue to 2nd paragraph "RecycleMania is not just about the competition, it's also about teaching people about recycling," said Adrian Erlenbach, the publicity chair for Gators for a Sustainable campus, as well as an intern for UF's Office of Sustainability.

Erlenbach said that RecycleMania will run through April 5.

Almost 400 colleges and universities are participating in RecycleMania this year, according to RecycleMania's Web site.

"Over a 10-week period, campuses compete in different contests to see which institution can collect the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita, or have the highest recycling rate," the Web site states.

Recycling Day, one of RecycleMania's first events, takes place today on the Reitz Union North Lawn from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

"We're going to have a bunch of tables and displays to teach people about recycling, waste management and to raise awareness," Erlenbach said.

Erlenbach said filled trash bags at the event will symbolize how much recyclable material students throw away on a daily basis.

Today, volunteers will rummage through the trash cans on UF's campus to pick out all recyclable products that students have thrown away.

Erlenbach said the campus is home to about 1,000 bins for recycling paper and hundreds of blue bins for recycling cans and bottles.

In its first year of competition last year, UF came in third place for overall tonnage of recyclables collected. Rutgers University came in first and Stanford University came in second, Erlenbach said.

UF recycled 1,301,537 pounds last year, with a grand total of 41.3 million pounds being recycled across the country, according to RecycleMania's Web site.

UF's Physical Plant Division, paired with local businesses, will be collecting the recycled material from the bins around campus, weighing the tonnage and then reporting those figures to RecycleMania, Erlenbach said.

All measurements are required to be reported on a weekly basis in pounds, according to RecycleMania's Web site.

"Students should participate in RecycleMania because it's a fun competition," Keely O'Malley, a RecycleMania volunteer, said. "It's also a good way for students to learn about what they can and can't recycle."

O'Malley said that RecycleMania is still looking for volunteers and certainly wouldn't turn anyone away who was interested in helping.

Other aspects of this year's campaign include promoting RecycleMania in Gator Dining facilities, residence halls and at home basketball games.

The ultimate goal of RecycleMania is to increase student awareness of campus recycling and waste minimization, according to RecycleMania's Web site.

Every state in the U.S., except Montana, Nebraska, Kansas and Alaska, has at least one institution participating in RecycleMania, according to the Web site.

"I'm surprised and overwhelmed by the number of volunteers so far," Erlenbach said.

Students interested in getting involved with the campaign should send an e-mail to recyclemaniaUF@gmail.com.

"Every student who recycles affects our scores," Erlenbach said. "Moreover, anyone who throws away recyclable materials detracts from our scores."

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Gainesville grocery stores add choice to 'paper or plastic'
By MICHAEL BLACK and ERIN WHITE, Alligator Contributing Writers

Paper or plastic - or cloth?

Alternative shopping bags are becoming more popular with local grocery shoppers and environmental enthusiasts. Instead of the traditional paper or plastic bags, Gainesville supermarkets are now offering reusable or recyclable ones.

At Publix, customers are quickly buying the reusable bags, said Josh Ferris, a Publix assistant manager.


"We can't keep them in the store," Ferris said.

Each bag holds up to two and a half times more than standard plastic bags, Ferris said.

A large amount of energy and fossil fuels go into the creation of all disposable goods, including plastic grocery bags, said Anna Prizzia-Taylor, the outreach coordinator at UF's Office of Sustainability.

"All the energy it takes to make, ship and store the bag, and then people use it once and throw it away," Prizzia-Taylor said.

Americans consume 100 billion plastic shopping bags every year, and the majority become litter on the streets or clutter in landfills, according to the Worldwatch Institute, a sustainability research organization.

The problem in landfills is not just the amount of space taken up by bags, said John D. Schert, executive director of the Hinkley Center for Solid and Hazardous Waste Management at UF.

"The biggest challenge for the landfill operator is that the bags blow away," Schert said. "It just litters the landscape." In addition, he said, bags don't degrade.

Other grocery stores have already phased out plastic bags entirely. The Whole Foods Market chain announced Jan. 22 that it will stop offering plastic bags in its stores by Earth Day, on April 22.

Chantel Wilson, manager of Sunflower Health Foods on Southwest 34th Street, thinks the transition is the right move.

Wilson said the store does have customers who bring hemp or canvas bags, but most use plastic.

Prizzia-Taylor is hopeful reusable bags will soon be the norm.

"It seems a little funny that rather than carry a bag that is durable and lasts long, we just automatically take a plastic bag," she said. "We throw it away after one use and create a lot of waste."

To read this article online, click HERE.

UF Center offers intensive sustainability course
BY ANDREA ASUAJE, Alligator Contributing Writer

Architects, engineers and building managers are hitting the books in an effort to go green and keep up with new standards in their fields.

On Wednesday and Thursday, UF’s Center for Training, Research and Education for Environmental Occupations hosted an intensive course to prepare participants for a professional accreditation test.

If the 50 participants pass the test, they will be considered LEED Accredited Professionals, named after a national program standing for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.


Participants were taught how buildings can become LEED certified, a process based on a credit system of sustainable principles, said Jim Sullivan, instructor of the course.

Building construction, engineering and architecture students and specialists are the ones who often attend these courses in order to pass the exam, said Rick Fobair, a sustainable construction graduate student at UF. Fobair said courses like the one offered at the TREEO Center are definitely helpful for those seeking to become LEED-APs.

"It can be real tough to pass (the test)," he said.

The course covered all the material necessary to pass the exam, said Laurel Brown, program coordinator for the LEED program at the TREEO Center. Brown said these courses are offered throughout the state but may not be as available outside of Florida. The course held this week drew at least four out-of-state participants.

"Location doesn’t matter," she said. "People seem to be willing to travel."’

The LEED courses will soon be held in Boston and even Japan, Brown added.

Whereas most participants had to pay $450 for the Gainesville course, UF students, such as senior Kelly Moosbrugger, were given the chance to take the course for free.

Moosbrugger said becoming a LEED-AP has its advantages in today’s career world, especially with students wanting to differentiate themselves at career fairs and on their resumes. She said she was glad students and members of the community were interested in taking the course and the initiative to become more green.

"Just seeing the amount of interest that’s generated through this is really good for the environment," she said. "We’re moving toward a greener way of doing things."

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Zipcar gets 400 members in first year
By SARAH KIENY, Alligator Contributing Writer

In one year, the UF Zipcar program has amassed over 400 members and has the capacity to take on at least 300 more.

Started as part of a fleet management initiative developed by UF President Bernie Machen, its aim is to keep people from bringing cars on campus by offering hourly rental cars to UF faculty, staff and students.

The program, which began in January 2007, has a fleet of eight vehicles in four campus locations: Keene-Flint Hall, Inner Road at Southwest 13th Street, across from the Reitz Union and near Shands at UF.


Allan Preston, coordinator and management analyst for the quality control department of the Physical Plant Division, is in charge of supervising the Zipcars, formerly called Flexcars, on campus.

"Zipcars reverse the economics of owning a car," Preston said. "The more you use it, the more cost effective it is."

Funding for the project came from a $3,000 fee that UF charges for each on-campus departmental car, which can be used by faculty and staff for official business.

Since this fee was implemented, the number of the cars has gone down by 10 percent, Preston said.

Currently, students account for 80 percent of Zipcar usage. The goal is to increase usage by faculty and staff in place of departmental cars.

Companies like Zipcar are emerging around the nation and are typically implemented by local transit systems. This is the only program of its kind in Florida, he said.

Preston said Zipcars at UF will start paying for themselves soon, and at a rate of $7 an hour for drivers, they are cheaper than paying for a car’s insurance alone.

A variety of vehicles are available, from vans to trucks.

Unlike rental cars, the driver only has to be 18 years old, and everything is paid for - gas, insurance, maintenance and even carwashes.

Though there are currently no plans for expansion, Preston is ready to add more cars as demand grows. He has, however, petitioned to have a Mini Cooper added to UF’s line because he thinks it would be fun to drive.

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Experts say recycling programs not enough
By KATIE GALLAGHER, Alligator Writer

While both UF and the city continue to push recycling services, several experts say those types of programs might not be enough to make the necessary environmental impact.

"Recycling is not bad in itself, but it is a distraction from the consumption of products and containers," said Allan L. Griff, a California-based engineering consultant, in a phone interview.

"If you use nothing, that's the smallest carbon footprint of all," Griff said.


Still, both the university and the city are continuing to expand recycling programs.

On Feb. 1, Gainesville broadened its program to collect office paper and junk mail.

Last December, the city offered tips on how to recycle Christmas trees.

And this Wednesday and Thursday, Alachua County will offer businesses free recycling of electronics waste as the county's Environmental Protection Department and Office of Waste Alternatives kick off a new "e-scrap" program.

Dale Morris, solid waste coordinator of UF's Physical Plant Department, said the university has recently instituted recycling programs at Gator Dining and is working to get more indoor recycling bins.

The university is also competing in Recyclemania, a 10-week recycling contest among colleges. In pounds recycled per person, UF is currently 82nd out of 400 schools.

Dedee DeLongpré, UF's director of sustainability, said recycling is still better than throwing things away.

"If it goes in a landfill, it's not going anywhere," DeLongpré said.

But recycling can't be the only answer, she said.

People should also look for ways to reduce consumption, such as buying durable products that can be reused or boycotting those with excessive packaging, she said.

"If something comes with a whole lot of packaging, I write a letter to the company and say, 'Why does it have to have 92 pieces of plastic for this one little thing?'" she said.

Morris said the university itself is working on using fewer materials.

For example, he said, purchasers are working with textbook companies to use textbook editions for a longer time, reducing wasted paper.

"We still want to recycle what's out there, but we definitely believe in reuse," he said.

Griff said he didn't think people will ever move past recycling and reduce their consumption.

"You're dealing really with religious behavior," he said.

But DeLongpré said she believes people who recycle are willing to do more.

"People understand recycling," she said.

"Oftentimes for us, it's a point of entry for a conversation about something more impactful."

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Progress Energy Commits To Transparency Regarding Greenhouse Gas Emissions


RALEIGH, N.C., Feb. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Continuing its leadership in addressing environmental issues, Progress Energy has committed to providing detailed information about greenhouse gas emissions from the company's operations, through its voluntary participation in The Climate Registry.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin.../20020923/CHM008LOGO-c )

As a founding reporter, Progress Energy agrees to annually calculate and report both direct and indirect emissions of the six primary greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2), from all company power plants, vehicle fleet and other operations. Progress Energy is the first utility to join TCR in Florida and one of the first in the Southeast.

"We are committed to transparency with our customers, shareholders and communities about the environmental impacts of our operations," said Bill Johnson, chairman, president and CEO of Progress Energy. "We must face the challenge of global climate change together, and participating in The Climate Registry will help inform consensus-based strategies to guide our actions. We are proud to be a founding reporter to this registry."

In 2008, Progress Energy will conduct a comprehensive, companywide greenhouse gas emissions inventory using protocols established by TCR. The inventory will include all emissions associated with the company's operations and will be verified by a third party to ensure accuracy.

Progress Energy is already taking action to address climate change while meeting the growing energy demands of its customers. The company is pursuing a balanced strategy that includes aggressive energy-efficiency goals, investments in renewable and alternative energy sources and advancing state- of-the-art power plants, including new nuclear generation. More than 35 percent of the electricity generated by Progress Energy in 2007 came from nuclear power plants, which emit no greenhouse gases.

About The Climate Registry:

The Climate Registry is a collaboration among states, provinces and tribes aimed at developing and managing a common greenhouse gas emissions reporting system with high integrity. It will provide an accurate, complete, consistent, transparent and verified set of greenhouse gas emissions data from reporting entities, supported by a robust accounting and verification infrastructure. Find out more information at http://www.theclimateregistry.org.

About Progress Energy:

Progress Energy, headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., is a Fortune 250 energy company with more than 21,000 megawatts of generation capacity and $10 billion in annual revenues. The company includes two major utilities that serve more than 3.1 million customers in the Carolinas and Florida. Progress Energy is the 2006 recipient of the Edison Electric Institute's Edison Award, the industry's highest honor, in recognition of its operational excellence. The company also is the first utility to receive the prestigious J.D. Power and Associates Founder's Award for customer service. Progress Energy serves two fast-growing areas of the country, and the company is pursuing a balanced approach to meeting the future energy needs of the region. That balance includes increased energy efficiency programs, investments in renewable energy technologies and a state-of-the-art electricity system. For more information about Progress Energy, visit the company's Web site at http://www.progress-energy.com.

SOURCE Progress Energy
Copyright 2006 PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved.

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UF conference guest speaker links a warmer arctic to a world at risk

By NATHAN CRABBE, Sun staff writer

Living near the top of the world, the Inuit in northern Quebec have witnessed firsthand environmental changes such as the loss of the ozone layer and accumulation of airborne pollutants.

Continue to 2nd paragraph Sheila Watt-Cloutier has helped stem these kinds of changes working as a representative of the Inuit for more than a decade. Now she's speaking out about perhaps the greatest threat of all to her people: The emission of greenhouse gases believed to cause global warming.

"Climate change for us isn't just about the depletion of the sea ice . . . It's about our ability to exist as an indigenous people," she said.

Watt-Cloutier, 54, spoke Wednesday night at the University of Florida. The Nobel Peace Prize nominee's speech was part of the Levin College of Law's 14th Annual Public Interest Environmental Conference.

Inuit is the preferred term for the indigenous people formerly known as Eskimos. Watt-Cloutier said she traveled on dogsled for the first decade of her life but has since seen globalization lead to dramatic change that has caused problems for her people.

She said DDT and other organic pollutants persist in high levels in the Arctic, threatening the ability of mothers to breast-feed their children. She helped negotiate an international agreement restricting the use of the chemicals.

In 2005, she and 62 Inuit hunters, elders and women filed a petition with an international commission asserting that U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases violated Inuit human rights. Her work on the issue led to a nomination for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize won by Al Gore.

Watt-Cloutier said climate change is an issue deeply important to people who travel on the ice to hunt. She said the Arctic is seeing its permafrost melt, coastlines erode and communities fall into the sea.

Projections show the region could experience an ice-free summer by 2040, she said, but last summer's dramatic melting of ice suggests it could happen within a decade.

"I'm not an alarmist . . . but we live up there. We see it, we experience it," she said.

The changes also have meant new animal species moving into the colder climate. Watt-Cloutier said some are so unusual the Inuit don't even have names for them, such as barn owls.

"There's no barns in the Arctic for sure," she said.

She has pushed for limits on the emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. She said she is disappointed the U.S. and Canada have rejected a commitment to the Kyoto Protocol to set targets for such reductions.

"In all its weaknesses, Kyoto is the only instrument we have to work with," she said.

Watt-Cloutier said the effect of climate change on the Inuit should matter to the rest of the world. If the world acts to save the ice and snow of the Arctic, she said, it will have prevented the devastation of warming from being felt elsewhere.

"If you protect the Arctic, you are indeed saving the planet," she said.

Nathan Crabbe can be reached at 352-338-3176 or crabben@gville sun.com

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UF groups receive cash for recycling efforts
By KATIE SANDERS


Sometimes it pays to be green.

Ten UF groups that collected recyclables from tailgaters during home football games received a $5,600 award from Anheuser-Busch on Monday.

The recycling program, made of several campus groups collectively known as the "Green Team," gathered about 20,000 pounds of aluminum and plastics last fall. Each club was awarded a percentage of the money based on the number of hours they worked.


The program was sponsored by Burkhardt Distributing Company Inc., Gainesville's Anheuser-Busch distributor. Anheuser-Busch representatives handed an oversized check to the groups outside Tigert Hall.

Steven Burkhardt, one of the company's representatives, said he hopes the students continue to recycle - contest or not.

"It doesn't have to always be about money," Burkhardt said.

Gators for a Sustainable Campus received more than any other group - about $3,000.

Alison Erlenbach, the organization's president, said members contributed nearly 250 volunteer hours during all the 2007 home football games.

Erlenbach said the extra funds would pay for T-shirts, conferences and its new "drink sustainably" campaign, which aims to replace traditional party cups that can't be recycled with reusable containers.

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County recycling targets apartments

By CINDY SWIRKO
Sun staff writer
12:07 am, March 2, 2008


Watch out, businesses of unincorporated Alachua County - the recycling enforcers are watching you.

Continue to 2nd paragraph Alachua County ranks about 12th in Florida for recycling. That is not good enough for county officials, who are training employees to become certified code enforcement officers capable of fining businesses that are not complying.

But their aim is geared more toward encouragement than punishment, said Sally Palmi, county waste alternatives manager.

"We have had mandatory commercial recycling for a couple of years. When it comes to enforcing that, it's pretty challenging," Palmi said. "Most businesses are already doing a pretty good job. Our biggest challenge are apartment complexes, which fall under what we call 'commercially collected residential.' That is our main target with our new codes enforcement officer. We want to really get to these apartment complexes and help them learn how to better manage the resources."

Recycling saves the county money that would otherwise be spent on disposal costs. It's also good for the environment and can lead to the creation of businesses that sort recyclable materials or make goods from them.

The county's mandatory commercial recycling ordinance, which closely mirrors a city of Gainesville ordinance, requires that businesses recycle at least three of eight materials: steel cans, aluminum cans with a volume up to 2.5 gallons, glass containers with a volume up to 2.5 gallons, plastic containers with a volume up to 2.5 gallons, magazines, newspapers, office paper and corrugated cardboard.

Businesses that produce less than four cubic yards of solid waste per week or whose designated recyclables are less than 15 percent of their solid waste can be exempted.

The ordinance requires businesses to contract with a hauler to provide the containers and take away the recyclables.

Palmi said large chain stores with sizable amounts of recyclable materials such as cardboard boxes usually have a corporate recycling system.

That leaves smaller businesses and the apartment complexes as the main recyclers in the county.

Apartment complexes will be a primary target of the program because the county believes big recycling gains can be made at them.

Typically, apartment complexes put out 96-gallon containers around the buildings. All recyclable items can now be put in one container rather than separate containers for different materials.

"These are things that apartment complexes may not know, so these are the things that our guys will be talking to the complexes about, and giving them signage and fliers so they can use to help their residents do a good job," Palmi said. "The big challenge is going to be educating people on the different ways to recycle and the best way to manage it with the haulers."

Patrick Irby, who works for the county recycling program and is certified as a code officer, said he has been developing the educational materials that will be used in the effort to bring businesses into compliance with the law.

Irby said he believes much headway can be made in commercial recycling.

"Absolutely," Irby said. "Everywhere we go we have students coming up to us and saying there is no recycling at their apartment or that there is just one container for hundreds of people. We think apartments are a good place to start."

Fees for violations vary and continue to accrue until they are paid.

Richard Ashbrook, treasurer and legislative liaison of the Gainesville Apartment Association, said that while complexes can put out the recycling containers, they cannot force residents to recycle.

"It's not the responsibility of the apartment community, it's the responsibility of the resident," said Ashbrook, who works for the management firm Collegiate Properties. "Training management is unnecessary. Training the resident is necessary. If you want recycling to be a program, the best thing to do is go through the trash and sort it. The only real solution for our community is sorting it when it gets to the dump."

Recycling is one of several subjects being studied by the Energy Conservation Strategies Commission, a panel formed by the Alachua County Commission to develop recommendations for reducing energy use.

Dwight Adams, chairman of the energy commission's recycling subcommittee, said he is glad the county is starting a recycling enforcement program.

"It's kind of like running red lights or (exceeding) the speed limit - people tend to ignore it unless there is some enforcement," Adams said. "I think moving in that direction is something that needs to be done."

Cindy Swirko can be reached at 352-374-5024 or swirkoc@gvillesun.com

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Rising area gas prices fuel concern

By AMY REININK
Sun staff writer

On March 1, the average gas price in Gainesville hit a record high of $3.304 a gallon after weeks of climbing.

Around the same time, Freddie Wehbe, who owns the six Domino's stores in Gainesville, started thinking about raising prices to compensate.

"I've already raised prices twice in the past six months, and I'm on the verge of having to do so again," Wehbe said. "We tell our drivers to carry less weight in their cars, and I'm studying my own routes around town more carefully just to try to get more out of each gallon."

Officials from AAA are forecasting the average price of gas in Florida will rise to $3.75 by the end of the spring, and say that number could get closer to $4 in Gainesville.

Transportation planners say that because of the distance between residential areas and business centers in Gainesville, there are some people for whom driving to work is the only reasonable option. But they also say that the spike in the price of gas over the past two years has already led some area drivers and businesses to make serious changes.

Ron Fuller, assistant director of the University of Florida's Transportation and Parking Services, said participation in UF's carpool program, which offers special parking spots to faculty and staff who commute together, has gone from roughly 200 carpools in January 2007 to roughly 400 carpools now.

"We've found that participation in the carpool program is directly tied to the cost of driving, and this was the case as prices went from $2 a gallon to $3 a gallon last year," Fuller said. "We actually changed the carpool program to require $60 for a decal, which used to be free. That resulted in participation in the program growing, not reducing."

Marlie Sanderson, director of transportation planning for the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council, said it's likely that trend will continue and said the $4-a-gallon mark could represent a watershed moment when many drivers may decide it's finally time to change their ways.

"It's fairly clear that as gas prices increase, people are making fewer trips or shifting to using mass transit, walking or bicycling," Sanderson said. "How dramatic is the change? Right now, not very. But as prices continue to increase, I'd expect to see that shift occur more and more."

Randy Bly, a spokesman for AAA South, said springtime generally brings higher gas prices for a variety of reasons, including refineries going offline for routine maintenance and a switch to more expensive summer fuel blends.

Bly said based on last year's gas prices climbing 68 cents between March 1 and June 1, it's not hard to believe that this year's prices in Gainesville could reach $4 by the end of the spring.

Bly said past AAA surveys show that skyrocketing gas prices don't typically lead people to cancel road trips or otherwise change their driving habits.

"Even looking at last year, people still took their summer trips," By said. "They just compensated in other areas, whether it was staying in a hotel with a kitchenette to avoid spending money on eating out or not buying as many trinkets or gifts. But then again, we've never seen gas prices at this level before."

UF economist David Denslow said it's unlikely that $4-per-gallon gas prices would represent a turning point for consumers.

"I can recall in the early '70s people saying that as soon as the price of gas passed a dollar per gallon, everyone would stop buying gas," Denslow said. "They didn't. I don't think the nominal amount per gallon is as important as the total cost at the pump. People notice, 'Wow, I just paid $50 to fill up' more so than they notice $4 a gallon."

Denslow said rather than changing their driving habits, consumers are likely to cut back on discretionary items like dinners out. In Alachua County, where Denslow said sales tax figures show that the average driver uses roughly 500 gallons of gas per year, those small changes could have an effect on the economy.

"If a person is using 500 gallons per year, an extra dollar in the price of gas equals an extra $500 per person that has to be made up for somewhere else," Denslow said. "That's not an overwhelming thing for the Alachua County economy but nonetheless is something that would be noticeable."

Alex Escarzaga, manager of Gainesville's Five Star Pizza, said high fuel prices are already leading the restaurant to consider tough business decisions after raising the mileage compensation for delivery drivers.

"We would prefer not to have to charge our customers a delivery fee, but if this trend continues, we may have to," Escarzaga said. "It's something that we've discussed but that we're trying to avoid at all costs."

Wehbe said the increase in the cost of gas, along with price increases in cheese and flour, has led him to not only add a delivery fee to cover higher mileage compensation rates, but to cut back on marketing, donations and other areas.

"This is affecting the entire restaurant industry," Wehbe said. "For one thing, people don't want to spend the money to go out to eat. For another, things are just costing more. We all see increases in the cost of the supplies we get related to the price of diesel, and that hurts the bottom line."

Wehbe said he's seen an increase in sales even as prices have increased that he can only attribute to one thing.

"Maybe gas prices have gotten high enough that people figure it's cheaper to have food delivered than to drive somewhere to get it," Wehbe said.

RTS Director Jesus Gomez said the city's transit system is also considering changes based on increases in the cost of fuel as it prepares its budget for the next two years.

Gomez said that will likely mean charging UF more for RTS services and said there's a possibility it could include fare increases for individual riders.

"We really don't want to go that route, but it could be one of our options," Gomez said.

Fuller said it's clear that some drivers in Gainesville are changing their habits as the price per gallon approaches $4. But he said his own journey to work is an example of why it's nearly impossible for others to do so.

"I only live three miles off campus, but the bus that goes by my house doesn't come directly to campus," Fuller said. "I have to get on, transfer to another bus on 13th Street, then take that bus into campus. I have to be to work at 8, and the city route doesn't start until then. I've done it before, but it's not ideal."

Sanderson said long-term solutions include building higher-density housing closer to employment and shopping centers. But he said until that happens, many people are "locked in" to driving to work alone.

"For most of us, it's either too far to bike or walk to work, and the bus either doesn't come by, or comes by but doesn't go where we need it to go," Sanderson said. "I'm afraid we don't have many good options other than continuing to drive to work alone, even as gas prices go up and up."













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Staff Reports

GAINESVILLE The University of Florida’s Building Services Department of the Physical Plant Division announced its commitment last month to green cleaning practices throughout the 900-plus buildings maintained by the department.

In a new training program, UF Building Services has implemented "greener" training programs for custodial supervisors and staff. These initiatives will reduce the amount of volatile organic compounds used in cleaning while also eliminating many of the indoor airborne particulates, which are known to create mild to severe respiratory issues and other health problems.

"The University of Florida is a staunch proponent of sustainable practices," said Derrick Bacon, Assistant Director of the Physical Plant Division at the University of Florida. "In the Building Services Department, we recognize that it’s not only important to avoid using products that might negatively affect the environment, but to also educate our employees about the concept of sustainability. By understanding the larger picture, they can discuss and promote the program with our customers."

In order to educate staff and customers about sustainable practices, Bacon has worked with his local JohnsonDiversey sales representative and others to incorporate green cleaning and environmentally friendly initiatives in their training. The new training includes discussion on minimizing energy consumption, recycling, waste reduction, ergonomics, the importance of proper maintenance of entryway matting and other sustainable practices.

The program provides employees with sustainable practices they can use at work and in their personal lives. "Sustainability isn’t something that just happens at work," Bacon said.

The transition to green has been gradual, involving employee training, a green purchasing policy, testing of green products and equipment and developing an effective communications pro-gram to get the word out about green.

By working with the Office of Sustainability, the Building Services Department will continue to roll out additional initiatives to reduce the department’s impact on the health of building inhabitants and the environment. They are currently in the initial phases of deploying a new recycling program on campus.

Additional media coverage attached.

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UF student installs lumber art display near Library West

By STEPHANIE ROSENBERG, Alligator Contributing Writer


Students passing by Library West may find themselves stumped by a new public art display constructed from tree parts and installed Sunday.

With the help of his classmates, UF landscape architecture senior Christopher Buccino created the project, named "Homo Sapien V. Destructis: Controlling Nature."

The design consists of sections of lumber that "slice" through two sycamore tree stumps, which represent a destroyed forest.


Buccino said the lumber symbolizes human intervention and disruption of nature. The display will be in place until Earth Day on April 22.

He said he was inspired after he read the book "Last Child in the Woods" by Richard Louv, who attributed today’s health and social issues to humans’ disconnection with nature.

"This is something I just came up and ran with," Buccino said. "I don’t think something of this scale has ever been done before."

Evan Garfield, a sociology junior, said he was confused by the exhibit.

"It looks really sad like a tree cemetery, like tombstones," Garfield said.

Buccino will hold a question-and-answer session about his project on Tuesday from noon to 1 p.m. on the Plaza of the Americas.

To read this article online, click HERE.

Global warming hits home

By NATHAN CRABBE
Sun staff writer
12:12 am, April 5, 2008

INGLIS - The effects of global warming can be seen on one side of U.S. 19 in southern Levy County, while a controversial way to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions might eventually be built on the other.

On the west side, rising sea levels are killing palms and other trees in Waccasassa Bay Preserve State Park. University of Florida botany professor Jack Putz has been studying the dying trees, which he said provide a graphic example that climate change is not only real, but already having an impact.

"You can go there and see what's going on - and I think that's what's going to convince people," he said.

On the east side, Progress Energy is proposing to build two nuclear reactors north of its existing nuclear plant. Gainesville Regional Utilities is considering buying into the project, but a utility official said the decision will likely wait until fall as Progress starts wading through the lengthy permitting process.

Some environmental advocates question issues such as the plant's costs and disposal of nuclear waste. Proponents say conservation and renewable energy alone can't meet growing energy demands, and nuclear power could produce large amounts of electricity without the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.

"The need is not going away. It just keeps growing," said Alireza Haghighat, chairman of UF's nuclear and radiological engineering department.

As former Vice President Al Gore embarks on a three-year campaign to convince the public about climate change, some Florida residents aren't waiting around for the results. From UF researchers to utility officials, they're working to study the effects of a warming planet and determine how to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases.

The U.S. is still in "the early stages of climate denial," said Stephen Mulkey, an associate botany professor at UF and former science adviser to a state commission on Florida's future. He said the country needs to understand that the scientific community is largely in agreement that greenhouse emissions are contributing to climate change.

"If the science is wrong on this, it represents the greatest failure of science in the modern era - and possibly ever," he said.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a scientific body evaluating climate change, in its 2007 report found climate change could cause heat waves, heavy rainfall and other effects on weather. The report found sea levels could rise 7 to 23 inches by 2100.

The Miami-Dade County Climate Change Task Force, a committee of scientists, found the melting of ice in Greenland and Iceland could cause sea levels to rise significantly higher than those figures. The task force concluded that South Florida could see barrier islands inundated, freshwater resources ruined and devastating storm surges.

Waccasassa Bay provides a preview of some of the environmental impacts. Since 1992, Putz has studied trees in the preserve to trace the effect of salty seawater encroaching on the land.

Rising sea levels mean trees are exposed to an increasing concentration of salt. Putz has documented how seawater slowly kills species in relation to their ability to tolerate salt, turning forests to small islands of trees and eventually transforming the area into salt marsh.

"We're going to have an underwater preserve," he said.

The climate change panel concluded that sea level rise would continue for centuries, even if greenhouse gas concentrations were stabilized. But the group's report said the level of rise will vary greatly depending on emissions from power plants and other sources.

Progress is proposing the new nuclear plant as a way of meeting the energy needs of an expanding customer base without boosting greenhouse emissions. The utility in May will begin its permitting process with the Florida Public Service Commission before starting a federal permitting process that could take years longer.

GRU will likely wait until the fall before deciding whether to buy into a small portion of the project, said Ed Regan, the utility's chief strategic planner. He said the construction costs of the plant would be a downside, but the upside would be the lack of carbon emissions and stability for fuel costs once the plant is built.

Progress had initially estimated costs of the 2,200-megawatt plant at about $7 billion, but recently revised the figure to $17 billion. The head of the local Sierra Club chapter, Rob Brinkman, said such plants are notorious for exceeding projected schedules and construction costs.

"It's the most expensive way to reduce carbon," he said.

Haghighat said once a plant is built, the costs are less expensive than other ways of producing energy. He said opposition to nuclear energy has been wrapped up in unfounded fears over accidents and that the U.S. should follow the lead of France and other countries in expanding its use.

"We have to be honest and put everything on the table," he said.

Mulkey said he worried that efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions "may be too little, too late." The U.S. needs to start more seriously working on the effort rather than continuing to debate whether climate change is real, he said.

"I still see us as having a discourse that long ago should have been laid to rest," he said.

Nathan Crabbe can be reached at 352-338-3176 or crabben@gville sun.com


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UF awarded $20,000 to help improve solar energy
By ILEANA MORALES, Alligator Writer


A UF team "playing catch" with solar energy won a $20,000 grant to help them get it right.

David Micha, an adjunct physics and chemistry professor emeritus, and his undergraduate student team won the grant for their research to improve the capturing of solar energy to translate it into better technology.

Micha received the award from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, an organization trying to advance the chemical sciences by addressing related needs, according to the group's Web site.


With a better understanding of solar energy's scientific aspects, Micha said he hopes to prove that it can compete with, if not surpass, other energy sources.

But his team must first figure out better ways to gather solar energy and make it usable.

He said his research could have "big implications" for the country's energy needs and growing preference for more sustainable alternatives.

"It can make the U.S. less dependent on oil supplies coming from other places," he said.

Though it's difficult to predict breakthroughs, Micha said he expects his team's research to start impacting the economy within the next 10 years.

"We don't have a schedule for breakthroughs," Micha said. "I wish there was such a thing."

He said he's been focusing on this research with a rotating team of undergraduate students for about five years, and he plans to keep it up.

The bulk of the grant will help pay some of students' tuition and travel expenses for solar energy research conferences or competitions, he said.

For Micha, the award is a chance for him to be a mentor to his team, he said.

"It's mostly for the benefit of the students, not for me," he said.

To read this article online, click HERE.

Let’s celebrate Earth Day!

The first Earth Day celebration took place on March 21, 1970. It was the brainchild of Sen. Gaylord Nelson, who proposed the idea at a conference in 1969. He said that we needed "a nationwide
grassroots demonstration on behalf of the environment." His call to action was heard, and it was reported that environmental grassroots actions at college campuses across the country began to eclipse protests over the Vietnam War. As I reflect on Earth Day, I realize that similar spirit and dedication keep Earth Day alive today at UF and other universities throughout the United States. I think about the many student
organizations and individuals who have worked so hard to further sustainability at UF, and how these people reflect the true spirit of Earth Day. Earth Day has now grown to be Earth Week and Earth Month. I can only hope that in time, we will celebrate the Earth all year long. There are tons of ways to get involved
with Earth Day here at UF and in the Gainesville Community. Here are just a few of the many activities planned:

• Sustainable Products Trade Show
- Tuesday, April 15, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Reitz Student Union Grand Ballroom.

• Cultural Plaza Earth Day Festival and Natural Area Teaching Lab Trail Opening-
April 19, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., UF Cultural Plaza.

• 5th Avenue Arts Festival and Earth Day Celebration-
April 19-20, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

• UF Earth Day Celebration and Hazardous Waste Roundup -
April 22, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Reitz Student Union north lawn.

• Earth Day Dining Hall Party,
April 22, 5-8 p.m., Fresh Food Company.

Anna Prizzia
Outreach Coordinator,
Office of Sustainability

SFCC holds student research symposium
By APRIL DUDASH, Alligator Contributing Writer

Even as nine judges moseyed around with evaluation sheets, SFCC students, some clad in business attire, appeared comfortable standing next to their research posters on campus Monday evening.

SFCC held its first Student Research Symposium to showcase projects in biological sciences, physical sciences, mathematics and social and behavioral sciences.

Twenty-seven students participated in the symposium, and 17-year-old Jeramiah Hocutt won first place for his project titled "Expectations of Wind-Generated Energy as a Renewable Power Source."


"The research was long," Hocutt said. "I've become somewhat of an expert on this."

He said he didn't view the symposium as a competition against some of his classmates who also researched energy.

Instead, Hocutt saw the event as a way to educate others about solutions to a potential energy crisis.

"Let's get together and tell everyone," he said. "Not one will work as a singular alternative."

Hocutt received a $100 Barnes & Noble gift card, a $15 iTunes gift card and passes to Sea World.

"I encourage everyone else to continue on researching," he said.

Other projects focused on statistical research rather than energy sciences.

Public relations student Stephanie Dunne, 33, investigated the number of men versus women who have graduated from SFCC since 1967, which was the only year when more men graduated than women.

Nicki Nidelkoff, a 21-year-old psychology and history student, presented information on sex offenders who live next to Gainesville schools and apartment complexes.

"I was sexually abused when I was growing up, so this is a topic close to my heart," Nidelkoff said.

She said the research process was very therapeutic for her.

"Someone who's actually been there and gone through it, people tend to listen to them," Nidelkoff said.

Mike Patrick, an SFCC geology and physical science professor, served as a judge and has previous experience judging at the Alachua County Science Fair.

"This is just based on some research and not experiments," Patrick said.

Curtis Jefferson, the SFCC associate vice president of academic affairs, said the symposium helps link what students learn to current events.

"I'm very proud of the students' work, extremely proud," Jefferson said.

To read this article online, click HERE.

Researcher receives Distinguished Scientist Award

Last week, the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) presented Lonnie Ingram, UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences alternative fuels researcher, with the 2008 SURA Distinguished Scientist Award for his work developing ways to turn materials commonly considered trash into fuel that could cut the country’s dependence on oil.

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Princeton Review Will Issue 'Green' Ratings in Coming College Guide
By SCOTT CARLSON


You can't learn anything about a college these days without hearing about what that college is doing for the planet, whether it is buying local food, or shrinking its carbon footprint. And, it seems, a number of organizations are eager to evaluate these colleges on their efforts.

Grist, Sierra, and Current magazines have had their lists of top green schools. The Sustainable Endowments Institute, run by a 2004 graduate of Williams College, grades colleges in a report card with plenty of C's, D's, and F's. (Even The Chronicle once published a list of 11 of the greenest colleges, as evaluated by Noel Perrin, a now-deceased professor at Dartmouth College.)

Colleges on such lists have of course cited their high scores in their publicity efforts. But now sustainability may play an even bigger role in the marketing and enrollment game. The Princeton Review plans to announce today that it will issue green ratingsalong with its ratings of student quality of life, campus fire safety, and so onin coming college guides for prospective students. Peterson's is working on a similar effort.

The Princeton Review embarked on the green ratings after it was approached by ecoAmerica, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group that specializes in consumer research and marketing. Lee Bodner, executive director of ecoAmerica, said that he wanted to use the ratings to reach members of an audience "that might not have sustainability on their radar screens" and "show high-school students and their parents how the things that make a school sustainable are also good for them."

Rob Franek, a vice president and publisher at the Princeton Review, said that visiting hundreds of colleges made it clear to him that green issues are a top priority for today's college students and deserve a place in the review's ratings.

Colleges featured in the Princeton Review will get a score of 60 to 99 based on how they responded to almost 30 questions, like "What percentage of your grounds are managed organically?" or "Please list your school's top three undertakings that represent your environmental commitment."

One might think that sustainability advocates would favor such ratings as a way to push colleges to be greener. After all, colleges have an obsession with climbing ladders in rankings, especially those tied to admissions.

But some leaders in the sustainability field were at best ambivalent about yet another ranking system.

Among them were Julian Dautremont-Smith, the associate director of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, or AASHE, who advised Princeton Review on setting up the green evaluations. "I participated because I wanted to learn what they were doing and to help make sure that if they did go ahead, [the evaluation] would be as good as possible," he said. "I have some of my own hesitations about the move toward rankings. I'm not sure that they are the best approach."


Open to Interpretation

Sustainability is hard enough for most people to understand; measuring progress in sustainability is a much tougher job. AASHE has spent years working on the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System, or Stars, which is out in a test version. Many think that will ultimately become the gold standard of sustainability evaluations­a way for colleges to track their progress. Advocates favor it because the process is open; a college knows where it's getting points, and where it's missing them.

That's not necessarily the case with the Princeton Review's ratings, or others. Dedee DeLongpré-Johnston, the sustainability director at the University of Florida, said questions on the self-evaluation were open to interpretation. "You could have just monkeyed with them and interpreted them to your best advantage," she said. (She generally supports the Princeton Review's effort as a way to reach out to prospective students interested in sustainability.)

Fred Volkmann, the vice chancellor for public affairs at Washington University in St. Louis, said he did not fill out the questionnaire. He told the Princeton Review that the university would rather participate in Stars.

"As soon as the Stars thing is under way, we would be glad to respond using that data," he said. "We know that we want every response we give to be apples to apples" compared with the responses of other institutions.

Past rankings performed by other organizations have been confounding in regard to who they include and who they leave outand why.

For example, take Grist's list of the 15 greenest colleges, released last August: The University of Maryland at College Park landed at number 15, in part for its efforts to reduce energy usethis despite the fact that maintenance at the college is so far behind that many buildings are inadequately insulated and heated and cooled with outdated, inefficient equipment. Emory University, the University of Florida, and the University of New Hampshire, all of which have very active and ambitious campus sustainability programs, didn't land anywhere in the top 15.

And such lists hardly ever mention the tiny colleges, those lacking savvy marketing departments, that have quietly and steadfastly pursued sustainabilityplaces like Sterling College in Vermont, where students grow a great deal of what they eat (The Chronicle, November 25, 2005).

Mr. Bodner, of ecoAmerica, said that he understood the "ratings fatigue" among colleges and that he hoped to improve the Princeton Review ratings, perhaps by incorporating metrics from Stars.

Friendly Competition?

But a bigger question among some officials is whether green rankings are a good idea in the first place. Is a focus on reducing carbon emissions at one institution more valuable than an emphasis on preserving land or water, or supporting local agriculture, or paying fair wages at other institutions?

"Rankings are inherently zero sum, there can be only one No. 1," said Mr. Dautremont-Smith. "Campus sustainability includes a really collaborative group of people, and with some of these rankings, there is a concern that could undermine that."

For example, at a conference like Smart and Sustainable Campuses, held recently at the University of Maryland, sustainability directors and facilities managers shared ideas about how to save the planet. Wendell C. Brase, vice chancellor for administrative and business services at the University of California at Irvine, gave a presentation with lots of advice (and some frank confessions) about getting closer to carbon neutrality (The Chronicle, April 2).

He hated to think how the sustainability community would change if, say, strategies in carbon reduction became a competitive advantage.

"Most of our competition in higher education is friendly competition, particularly around green issues," he says. "When it turns into rankings, it adds a more disillusioning element. This isn't about winners and losers. We all will win or lose together."

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