Sustainability (Reduce, reuse and re-envision: the HSC's next 50 years)

Denise Trunk; 02/12/2007:- Tossing a soda bottle into a recycling container instead of a trashcan is the proverbial drop-in-the-bucket when it comes to the University of Florida's energy conservation efforts. But it's what most faculty, staff and students likely think of when they hear the word sustainability.

Dedee DeLongpre, director of UF's Office of Sustainability, is trying to change that one presentation at a time. Education, she says, is key to raising real awareness of the issue, which reaches far beyond recycling paper and plastic.

Because of its efforts campuswide, UF is a national leader in energy conservation and sustainable practices. Through her job coordinating UF campus staff, students and faculty, DeLongpre acts as "the hub on the wheel" around which sustainability research, programs and policy spin. The Health Science Center is one of the spokes on that wheel, and as the HSC moves into its second 50 years, its future is more tightly linked than ever to that of the entire campus.

Dennis Hines, assistant director, medical/health administration in the office of the senior vice president for health affairs, has signed on to lead the HSC toward creating a complex that meets the campuswide goals.

"We need to look at problems in new ways and work to solve them in a way that can be maintained for many years to come," Hines says. "Our efforts are just getting underway, but we aim to boost plastic, aluminum and paper recycling, reduce medical and food waste, use green cleaning supplies, build green buildings and cut our transportation and energy use in the coming months and years."

The basic idea of sustainability is simple: Humans must live successfully in the present in a way that does not compromise their ability to live successfully in the future. To put the future into perspective, DeLongpre says she often must first clarify some points about the present.

For example, she says, resources such as oil, natural gas and water are limited and valuable, yet they aren't included in the bottom line of economic equations. At the same time, as capitalism has expanded globally, U.S. society has moved from valuing durability to valuing disposability.

Natural systems, of which humans are a part, are circular, not linear, DeLongpre says. Resources in natural, sustainable systems are not consumed and then cast out of the loop into the trash heap. Think of the journey water travels from rivers to oceans, eventually evaporating, changing to rainfall, falling to the soil and returning to the rivers. The life-sustaining liquid is transformed into a gas and recycled back into the earth. If we view the world in a new way, one that considers natural systems, we can transform the future, she says.

"If we want to maintain the health of our human society, we have to pay attention to all life on the planet, all resources, and we have to acknowledge that we are a part of a much bigger system," DeLongpre says. "We often think that we can get outside of that ecology, but we are often reminded that we can't. On campus that means we need to use our resources as efficiently and effectively as we possibly can."

The larger philosophy of sustainability may sound abstract, but is evident in everyday actions. In fact, it involves changing the way humans interact with their environment. Sustainable choices include actions such as turning off lights when leaving the room, driving less or using alternative transportation, and buying products that are produced locally in order to save transportation costs and build local supply networks and the local economy.

The big picture

UF recycles about 30 percent to 40 percent of its consumer solid waste - but recycling as most faculty, staff and students know it is only a small part of the equation, DeLongpre says. UF recycles vegetative waste, construction waste, and bottles and paper.

Of these three categories, bottles and paper are the least important because "they make less of a dent in our overall energy footprint," says Allan Preston, coordinator of UF's quality office. On the other hand, recycling construction waste from just one project can keep tons of trash out of landfills.

Other global issues include energy efficiency and water use, transportation, grounds maintenance, building construction and disposal of dining hall food, waste, and medical waste.

DeLongpre says once people begin to view the big picture - focusing on ways to continue the cycle of use for all resources on campus - then they begin to see through the lens of sustainability. Old problems are re-framed. When commuters have difficulty finding a parking space, for example, rather than thinking there is a shortage of parking spaces, they begin to see there are too many cars.

The effort to create a sustainable campus took off after President Bernie Machen called for a sustainability initiative in 2005, which provided administrative support for a 10 -year-old grassroots movement.

He set the goal for the campus to produce zero solid waste by 2015, initiated a reduction of cars on campus and increased incentives for alternative transportation, including bikes, buses and carpooling. He recommended exploring options of flex time and telecommuting to reduce miles traveled.

The Health Science Center is just getting involved in this campuswide effort to re-envision the future. Hines met with representatives from various HSC colleges in January - including Jennifer Moscoso from the College of Nursing, representatives from Shands and UF's first lady Chris Machen - to set goals and identify possible new programs.

Chris Machen, who leads the Zero Waste Task Force, a sustainability subcommittee, is a former nurse who is passionate about the effort. Given her background in health care, she says she has taken a special interest in bringing the HSC on board.

"HSC is a huge piece of the puzzle and we have to have them involved to make this a team effort," Chris Machen says. "This is our future. We have got to make it better. They can argue global warming all they want, but the more we can do right now, the better. There are no overnight fixes and we don't have 10 years."

The effort is starting with a few key, and sometimes overlapping, areas: energy consumption, building construction, transportation, waste management and innovation.

Too many cars

One issue that is glaringly obvious to nearly all who enter UF is the uneven ratio of cars to parking spaces.

By creating bike lanes and bike parking and offering free bus service to UF students and staff, UF has taken steps to reduce the number of cars on campus.

Some other early moves to promote fleet management that were instituted last year, such as charging departments a $3,000 annual fee to keep a departmental car on campus were unpopular.

However, Preston says the fee is designed not only to reduce the number of cars on campus, but also to help provoke a new train of thought. "Cars aren't free," he said. "They require resources."

In the past few months the Physical Plant Division, through its new fleet management programs, has kicked off new ways to reduce the use of nonrenewable, carbon-emitting fossil fuels, including a new taxi service and Flexcar rental program.

The free taxi service uses cars liberated from the PPD's administrative motor pool and is funded by the $3,000 fee. The door-to-door service is available to HSC personnel beginning in February and it will continue as long as the fee is collected. ........

The Flexcar is Fleet Management's newest addition. In January, UF teamed with the Washington-based car rental company to provide eight cars for hourly rental.

"Today, the more you use your vehicle the more economical it becomes," Preston says. "We want to reverse the economics of owning a vehicle. Flexcar will give the ability and freedom without having to have a car on campus."

Any student or employee over the age of 18 is eligible to join Flexcar at www.flexcar.com for a one-time application fee of $35 and an annual fee of $40. The application fee is waived for UF departments using Flexcar for official business.

The introductory rate of $5.50 an hour includes gas, insurance, maintenance and roadside assistance. Flexcar members locate a vehicle and make reservations online, and can travel across campus, across county or across the state. Two Flexcars, one a hybrid, the other a minivan, are parked in an HSC lot on the corner of Mowry Road and Center Drive.

Transportation and Parking Services also now offers carpool decals and has reserved a large number of parking spaces for those who share their commute. The decals are available at a reduced rate - about a quarter of the cost of an orange decal - and require only two full-time employees to register. In addition, UF started an online service to link commuters who share specific routes. Through the UF/GreenRide Program, employees can create an account through their e-mail address to anonymously search for potential carpools in their area. ......

Home away from home

On campus, people spend their days in buildings lighted, heated, cooled and plumbed by UF. Needless to say, with more than 15 million square feet in 932 buildings, the university requires a large amount of energy to function.

According to figures supplied by Jeff Johnson, coordinator of energy management in the PPD's energy and metering department, UF used more than 438 million kilowatt hours of electricity in 2006, at a cost of nearly $37 million. Of that amount, the Health Science Center used nearly 73 million kilowatt hours. The HSC's roughly $7 million electric bill last year was paid for by UF, as were the bills of every college, department and institute on campus - a practice that can stand in the way of energy conservation because there is little financial college- or department-level incentive to conserve.

"There is no built-in pain because PPD pays the full bill for all departments," Preston says. "We are working to set up separate metering and conduct energy conservation measures such as cycling buildings over the summer, dialing down the ones that aren't in use."

Campus uses about 55,000 to 80,000 gallons of water a month. Much of that is reclaimed for use in irrigation. Today, 90 percent to 100 percent of irrigation is reclaimed water. By planting native species, which require less water, grounds staff is able to conserve even more.

"We want to make decisions that honor and restore the environment and also provide restorative lifeways for students and employees," DeLongpre says. "We also have to be sure the decisions make long-term economic sense for the health of the university because we are serving the state and the state's taxpayers."

Energy conservation works best when the energy is not needed in the first place, Preston says.

Bahar Armaghani, Env. Eng., assistant director of facilities planning and construction, is responsible for seeing that new construction and major renovation on campus is conducted in the most sustainable manner. She says creating smart, well-designed buildings can lower water and energy costs, make for a healthier workplace and ensure environmentally sensitive construction.

"Our goal is to minimize the building's environmental footprint and make it a better place to work, for improved economic, health and energy standards," Armaghani says.

Since 2001, UF has complied with the building standards set by a third-party group, called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED. Its certifications require meeting certain stringency standards, which range from basic to silver, gold and platinum levels.

LEED's buildings use natural lighting and green materials that contain low-levels of volatile organic compounds, including paints, adhesives, sealants and carpeting - all to improve indoor air quality.

"We spend 90 percent of our time indoors. We must make that environment healthy and comfortable," Armaghani says.

The buildings also use resource-efficient air-conditioning units, water fixtures, light sensors and temperature controls. And by using these items, UF is creating a market for them locally.

"All these things you see," she says. "The things you don't see are that the buildings have a huge effect on the amount of carbon dioxide emissions. The building materials are locally sourced - all come from within a 500 -mile radius of Gainesville to decrease the need for transportation energy."

In addition, UF purchases green power to offset the use of power generated from non-renewable sources.

The UF programs are so innovative that Armaghani was invited to give a presentation to the Institute of Medicine in Washington, D.C., to discuss her work with LEED-certified buildings at UF and at the HSC.

The Health Science Center has a number of certified or soon to be LEED-certified buildings that are undergoing planning or construction, including the Cancer & Genetics Research Complex and the Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine Institute.

The Biomedical Science Building, Emerging Pathogens Institute, The Nanoscience Institute for Medical and Engineering Technology, the Veterinary Medicine Food Animal Facility and the new Shands Cancer Hospital will all be built to basic or silver certification standards.

The HSC buildings, despite their intensive energy needs, have proved to present no additional challenge toward meeting certification, says Armaghani who is UF's LEEDs-accredited professional.

"We have not seen anything to hold us up. At this point, we are so established at doing it, it is easy for us to get basic and silver certification without any extra cost," she says.

Also in the works are plans to upgrade older buildings, making them more energy-efficient as well, which will require integration of cutting-edge technologies in air, water and energy handling.

New technologies

The university is a living laboratory for sustainability. Forty percent of UF's solid waste is recycled-a better percentage than most cities. However, to meet the goal of zero waste by 2015, UF is looking for new technologies all the time.

Some new technologies in development involve such things as turning waste into energy. One is an anaerobic digestion unit, others are thermal conversion systems such as those already in use in Iraq processing paper and plastic solid waste from military mess tents. A UF scientist is developing a mobile thermal conversion unit, for example, that works at 5,000 degrees Celsius. UF is looking for funds to test this unit on campus, DeLongpre says. The waste would create synthetic gas that would power the unit, which could possibly help dispose of biomedical wastes.

"This is where we have to go," DeLongpre says. "Innovation - that is where sustainability is fun."

President Machen has said he believes sustainability is not only the future for UF, but also the present.

"Most broadly defined, sustainability means protecting the environment while also elevating the social and economic status of everyone in the community," Machen says. "In other words, it's uplifting - even transforming. Ultimately, sustainability will improve our lives and the lives of our children. That's something we at the University of Florida should all be able to get behind."

From: From: .news.health.ufl.edu/