Note: This is the third part in a three-part series on "going green".
Dedee DeLongpré Johnston is a busy woman.
Since becoming director of the UF Office of Sustainability two years ago, she's hardly had time to stop and smell the greenery.
Her office in Tigert Hall is littered with brochures outlining projects and plans to make UF run in a more environmentally conscious way.
DeLongpré Johnston shuffled through some folders and held out a brochure for a Styrofoam recycling mechanism, a project she might pursue.
Her eyebrows furrowed at the thought of the material, which doesn't decompose in landfills.
"It's so offensive," she said.
Navigating UF down the path to greener pastures is what DeLongpré Johnston's job is all about, and with maintenance costs rising, helping campus go green is becoming essential.
"I would say it is a trend, and I would differentiate that from being trendy," DeLongpré Johnston said.
While, for some, "going green" is jumping on a bandwagon, the trend has been growing at UF for more than 10 years with the support of students and the administration, she said.
"What went from trying to get the word out is now trying to keep up with the number of people who want to get involved," she said.
LEED the Way
UF has made it part of its policy to incorporate green standards into construction.
In 2001, UF adopted the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design criteria, or LEED criteria, for all new construction and renovations, according to the Office of Sustainability Web site.
LEED is a national, third-party rating system that rates buildings based on six criteria, including water management, energy management and material use, said Bahar Armaghani, UF's LEED-accredited faculty member.
Once buildings are complete, they are submitted for review and can earn certified, silver, gold or platinum certification based on a point system, Armaghani said.
When LEED was first adopted, it was more expensive to build buildings at high certification levels, but now, because the products are in high demand, it doesn't cost more to build green, she said.
In 2006, UF tightened its standards and made it a requirement for all new construction to be at least at the silver level, she said.
"We knew we could do better, so we decided to raise the bar," she said.
Campus currently has two gold buildings, eight certified buildings and more than 30 that have been submitted for certification, she said.
Older buildings are the most difficult to bring up to new standards because they weren't built green-mindedly, she said.
They are also expensive to renovate, and with budget cuts, often the most that can be done is ensuring that the old equipment is maintained and operating efficiently, she said.
For example, Tigert Hall, which was completed in 1951, loses 30 cents on every dollar spent on energy because its air-handling system needs to be updated, DeLongpré Johnston said.
John Lawson, UF energy coordinator, said it can be daunting to make older buildings energy efficient.
Efforts are being made to cut back on air-conditioning use when buildings are unoccupied and to replace equipment when funds are available, he said.
Yet last year, due in part to the rising cost of oil, UF's utility bill increased by 17 percent, totaling $40 million, Lawson said.
"It may be five years before there's a payback," he said. "But in five years, that's money you could use for other projects."
Grassroots Support
Students are the school's most valuable resource in the effort to go green, DeLongpré Johnston said.
"I think students are more passionate about it and more committed about it because they aren't jaded yet," she said.
Sara Hutton, incoming president of the student organization, Gators for a Sustainable Campus, represents that "green" drive.
Hutton has been a member of the organization since it began two years ago with about 10 students.
The group's Listserv now has almost 1,000 e-mail addresses.
Hutton said the group not only spreads the word about "going green" but takes part in initiatives on campus as well.
One such endeavor is the Tail-Gator recycling program, which started in 2006. During home football games, members volunteer to collect recyclable trash, Hutton said.
"Some people will cheer for us and take pictures with us or offer us beer," she said.
Hutton and other volunteers even dig through Dumpsters to make sure they gather all recyclable trash.
During last football season, 13 tons of recyclable material was collected.
Another event, which aimed to help deal with rising energy costs, involvled a competition among undergraduate dorms to see which of the 24 halls could decrease electricity use the most over the course of a month, said Claire Long, who organized the competition, in an e-mail.
The winner, Keys Residential Complex, saved 14,000 kilowatt-hours, Long said. The typical U.S. household consumes about 11,000 kwh a year, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
All together, the residence halls reduced carbon emissions by 340 tons and energy consumption by 24 percent, which is the equivalent of taking 56 cars off the road, Long said.
"My hope is that eventually students won't need a competition to spur them into action," she said.
Green Power
DeLongpré Johnston has no doubts that the UF administration supports efforts to green the university.
"I think the location of the office speaks volumes to how the campus views it," she said as she gestured over her shoulder toward Bernie Machen's office, which is on the same floor in the administration building as her own. "We're right around the corner from the president."
DeLongpré Johnston said her $125,000 budget, which is matched by a grant, wasn't trimmed in the recent round of cuts.
Besides providing the green, Machen has shown his support for environmental efforts in other ways as well.
In October 2006, he was the first to sign the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, which obligated UF to make an effort to become carbon neutral.
DeLongpré Johnston said the goal is to fulfill that promise by 2025.
Plans are already in the works, starting with Gator football.
Last fall, when the Gators took on the Florida State University Seminoles, UF hosted the first-ever carbon-neutral football game, she said.
This year, every home game should be carbon neutral - offset by $10 donations that will go toward the purchase of compact fluorescent lightbulbs, DeLongpré Johnston said.
So far, enough money has been raised for the first three home games, she said.
She said the goal of carbon neutrality in 17 years is slightly unrealistic, but that was on purpose.
"If you don't set the bar high enough, you won't push yourself," she said.
Not Quite in the Bag
While canvas bags might be a passing fad, green changes to UF's policy are likely here to stay as the university sets an in-state standard for going green.
UF received 97 of 99 possible points in the Princeton Review's green rating system.
While that didn't put it among the top 11 universities, all of which scored 99, that score did earn the top spot in Florida.
FSU earned an 83, and the University of Central Florida earned a 60.
Lawson believes efforts to go green will continue until a new source of energy is found.
"This is a wake-up call to be more sustainable in regards to our resources and environment," he said.
With students, the challenge is making changes easy, Hutton said.
She said her club will continue to hand out canvas bags and high-energy efficiency bulbs to make it as convenient as possible, but students will have to feel impacted to really change.
"When you get right down to it, people are motivated by money," she said.
