UCF details conservation plan

UCF's new Climate Action Plan details the road to meeting President John Hitt's promise of a climate neutral UCF by 2050.

The 28-page plan focuses on education, minimization of the campus environmental footprint and advancement of research in green industries. The main points of education focus on educating students and the community about their environmental impact and creating solutions.

Campus sustainability spotlights conservation through energy efficiency, which will be achieved through diverse methods. One key point is campus commuting.

The research portion of the plan highlights product, method, technology and policy research as tools in advancing sustainability beyond the campus community.

The plan requires that all new buildings be LEED certified and all old buildings will be cycled through improvements to meet LEED certification.

Additionally, by mid-summer, UCF will host an E85 pump — a pump with fuel that is 85 percent ethanol — to fuel the campus vehicle fleet. The E85 station has already been designed and is in the process of securing funding.

David Norvell, the director of Sustainability and Energy Management at UCF, said that although the plan is being called ambitious, it is not impossible.

"We just don't know what the future is," Norvell said. "And a lot of things do depend on funding. But we've made tremendous inroads into this thing. Based on the recent past, I would say I'm very optimistic that we're going to achieve our goal before the deadline."

The plan also includes building a compost center to work in conjunction with the existing recycling center. This will result in no more than 25 percent of campus-produced non recyclables being sent to the landfill.

Caroline Pollifrone, a senior interdisciplinary studies and environmental studies major, is also the founder and president of RACOON Recycling, a recycling coalition that started last April between UCF Recycles and off-campus student-based apartments. The club is currently in the process of becoming an officially recognized student organization.

Pollifrone said RACOON is a great illustration of the collaborative effort that will be required to reach climate neutrality.

"I think that the Climate Action Plan is very practical, because it's a multifaceted design," Pollifrone said. "It requires a collective effort of the UCF community to obtain the goals of becoming more sustainable. I just like the fact that it involves the faculty, the staff and the whole UCF community."

Although Pollifrone makes a conscious effort to conserve water and electricity, she said changing the mindset and patterns of students to offset their carbon output might be difficult simply because of the sheer size of the UCF student population.

"I've encountered people that are opposed to [the green movement] but simply because I don't think they understand it well enough," Pollifrone said. "It's almost like they feel like someone's trying to tell them what to do, and I think the premise of the Climate Action Plan is to educate. So hopefully that will change some people's minds."

The College Republicans are often seen as having an anti-green mindset, but according to the UCF chapter's chairman, that's not necessarily true.

"People do have the misconception that Republicans are anti-environment, anti-going green … and that's simply just not true," said Ryan Dougall, a senior Radio/Television major.

"What it boils down to is that a majority of the GOP and Republicans believe that as long as it doesn't increase unnecessary costs to taxpayers, that's where the issue comes up," Dougall said. "No one is against helping the environment, no one is against preserving our natural resources, it's just about the way we go about doing it ...  In the university's case, what's the burden going to be placed on students?"

Highlights for the education aspect include the creation of a sustainability minor and graduate program, as well as a requirement that by 2014 all graduating students will have engaged in 15 hours of applied learning pertaining to sustainability and the community.

"I think the greatest opportunity we have to advance the ideas of sustainability is through energy efficiency right now," Norvell said.

Norvell said the five main steps in achieving climate neutrality are: energy conservation, energy efficiency, fuel-switching, renewable energy production and artificial means that include renewable energy credits.

Norvell said UCF has made great strides in working on the first three steps, but the last two are still being either studied or tested in trials.

"I'd like to see more of a change in mindset," Norvell said.

The constant change of students can sometimes create a problem of backtracking in developing a sustainable mindset, but Norvell views this as an opportunity.

"We can impact those students in those four years, and they can take those lessons learned with them for the rest of their life … and continue to make a difference wherever they go," Norvell said.