A Report to the President and Faculty Senate

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A Report to the President and Faculty Senate
Ad Hoc Committee on Sustainability
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Ad Hoc Committee on Sustainability

• Matt Armstrong, Student Government
• Mark Brown, Environmental Engineering
• Eva Czarnecka-Verner, Microbiology
• Linda Dixon, Planning Office
• Paula Fussel, Finance and Administration
• Lisa Hall, Environmental Horticulture
• Mark Hostetler, Wildlife, Ecology and
  Conservation
• Marc Hoit, Academic Affairs
• Donna Isaacs, Student Government
• Charles Kibert, Design, Construction and Planning
• Chris Machen
• Ramachandran Nair, Forest Resources and
  Conservation
• Rich Segal, Pharmacy
• Kim Tanzer, Archictecture (ex officio)
• Colette Taylor, Student Affairs
• Les Thiele, Political Science (chair)

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What is Sustainability?

• Sustainability means meeting current needs
  without
• compromising the ability of future stakeholders
  to
• satisfy their needs.

• To be sustainable, a practice must preserve
• rather than destroy its ecological base,
  ensure
• rather than undermine long-term economic
  benefits,
• and advance rather than retard matters of
  fairness,
• equity and diversity.

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Why Should Sustainability Concern Us at UF?

• As educators we play a leading role in training
  the
• scientific, social, political and cultural
  leaders,
• professionals and policy-makers.

• We consume significant resources here on campus.

• UF students will have major environmental
  impacts
• as consumers and conservers when they leave.

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The challenge before us is to make the University
of Florida, in its operations, pedagogy,
research, and service, serve as a model
laboratory for sustainability.
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How to Become a Leader in Sustainability?

• In keeping with the recommendations of the Task
• Force Report, the Committee on Sustainability
• asks that the Senate approve the creation of an
  
• Office of Sustainability to serve the entire
  campus.

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Office of Sustainability

• The Office will serve as a facilitator and
• clearinghouse for sustainability-related
  programs and
• projects, foster innovation and collaboration
  in
• sustainability-related teaching, research and
  service,
• and implement cost-effective resource
  conservation
• in university operations.

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Office of Sustainability

• The Director of the Office of Sustainability will
  report to the Vice-President of Finance and
  Administration. He or she will mostly be in
  charge of operations.

• The Chief Academic Officer of the Office of
• Sustainability will report to the Provost. He
  or she
• will mostly be in charge of academics.

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Ad Hoc Committee

• We recommend that the Ad Hoc Committee on
  Sustainability be made a Joint Standing
  Committee, with appropriate amendments to its
  mission and constitution.
• The Committee will serve as an Advisory Board to
  the Office of Sustainability, and its link to the
  broader community of interest at UF.

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Is UF Ready for Leadership?

• Of 17 peer institutions we examined, 6 already
  have funded offices of sustainability.  All 6 of
  these institutions include sustainability in
  their curriculum, research, and operational
  policies. 
• Of the other 11 institutions, 7 have ongoing
  efforts to establish an office of sustainability.

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Is UF Ready for Leadership?

• Of all our peers, the University of Florida has
  among the greatest resources in terms of
  curricula, research projects, and operational
  achievements in sustainability.

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Is UF Ready for Leadership?

• A campus-wide School of Natural Resources and the
  Environment, and some of the most extensive
  research and teaching efforts in environmental
  affairs in the nation.
• The University is leading the state in
  constructing more sustainable buildings since
  2001, and we have the first GOLD-certified LEED
  (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)
  building in Florida.
• UF is the first university in the nation to adopt
  the Audubon International program toward
  ecological sustainability for its campus.

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Is UF Ready for Leadership?

• UFs sustainability related resources and
  achievements are currently operating without the
  benefit of a clearinghouse for ideas,
  opportunities for coordination, a forum for the
  sharing of best practices, and a magnet for
  funding opportunities.

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Is Leadership too Costly?

• Excellence is seldom done on the cheap.
• But taking sustainability seriously is an
  economically beneficial situation.

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Is Leadership too Costly?

• The Harvard Green Campus Loan Fund, which gives
  interest free loans to conservation-oriented
  projects, has provided 2.8 million to 32
  projects that now save the University 750,000
  per year. On average, these projects have
  generated enough financial savings to pay back
  their loans in three years.

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Is Leadership too Costly?

• The economic benefits are there for the reaping,
  not only from savings in operational costs, but
  in securing the research funding and
  philanthropic support that will accrue to UF when
  it gains the position of national and
  international leadership in sustainability
  efforts.

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Is Sustainability Simply the Latest Trend?

• Sustainability in its most basic form is the
  retrieval of ancient wisdom dictating that you do
  not eat your seed corn.
• Cutting-edge developments in sustainability-relate
  d knowledge, skills, and technology will be in
  the greatest demand for the foreseeable future.

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Is Sustainability Simply the Latest Trend?

• If UF doesnt step up to develop and teach the
  knowledge, skills and technologies that will be
  in the greatest demand in the foreseeable future,
  other universities, here and abroad, certainly
  will.

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Is Sustainability Really Our Responsibility?

• Yes, but more importantly, it is our opportunity!

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Is Sustainability Really Our Responsibility?

• Incorporating sustainability into the fabric of
  this university serves the interests of UFs
  faculty, students, staff and other stakeholders.
  It will aid UFs efforts to rise into the ranks
  of the top 10 public universities in the country.

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Is Sustainability Really Our Responsibility?

• We are responsible to prepare our students for
  the future, and to help prepare our state,
  nation, and world.

• We have before us the responsibility and
• opportunity to translate environmental
  challenges
• into social benefits.

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How Will the Office Help Faculty?

• The Office of Sustainability will help faculty in
  a number of ways, including course development,
  promoting interdisciplinary research, and
  assisting faculty in their grant-writing efforts.

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Resolution

• The Faculty Senate accepts the following
  recommendations of Sustainability Committee aimed
  at enhancing initiatives for making the
  University of Florida a global leader in
  sustainability.

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Resolution

• The University of Florida shall establish a
  university-level Office of Sustainability,
  effective before or during the 2005-2006 academic
  year, for facilitating teaching, research,
  service, administrative, and fundraising
  initiatives in sustainability.

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Resolution
2. The Ad-Hoc Sustainability Committee shall
remain empanelled until Fall semester 2005, at
which time a permanent joint-committee on
sustainability shall be empanelled through
amendment to the University Constitution.
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