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USF getting greener, but cars and trucks hold it back

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By LINDSAY PETERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 7, 2009

It has "green" buildings, biodiesel-powered shuttles and a recycling program, but forces off campus are dragging back a push for sustainability at the University of South Florida.

It's all those cars and trucks, tens of thousands of them, that travel to and from the campus each day.

A USF inventory of its greenhouse gas emissions shows more than 83 percent of the faculty and staff drive alone to their campus jobs. Add in students and USF commuting amounts to about 200 million miles a year.

"A lot of people can go around turning off all the lights, but they could do the most by cutting their travel," said Robert Brinkmann, chairman of the USF Department of Geography, who helped write the greenhouse gas report earlier this year.

Transportation is a key topic this week at USF's 4th annual campus and community sustainability conference. It's being held in conjunction with the Going Green Tampa Bay Expo, which will showcase efforts to create a more sustainable Tampa Bay area.

The conference, which begins Thursday, includes more than 70 presentations on topics from water conservation to rail. A highlight will be a lunchtime address on Friday by actor and environmentalist Ed Begley Jr., star of the HGTV series "Living with Ed."

But today, as Brinkmann and others prepare for the conference, a national environmental group cast USF in a dim light. The College Sustainability Report Card 2010, from the Sustainable Endowments Institute, graded more than 330 colleges and universities on dozens of measurements of energy usage and conservation.

The results released today gave USF a grade of C. That was an improvement over last year, Brinkmann said, but still disappointing.

"It's hard to compare USF and it's a little frustrating because USF is actually doing a lot. But because of our size we still have a big footprint," he said.

The institute's report did note that USF's "ConservaBull" competition had cut energy use in its residence halls by 25 percent.

USF's own inventory showed that overall, it emitted 257,565 tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in 2007.

Its energy use went up by 15 percent and its natural gas use went up by 8 percent between 2004 and 2008. That's largely because building space increased. During those same years, the number of full-time students went up by 10 percent, to 26,289.

The greatest contributor to the emissions was vehicle and air travel, the inventory said.

Only 8 percent of faculty and staff carpool and less than one half of 1 percent use HARTline buses, it said.

"It's rough with HARTline," Brinkmann said. "The service is good, but a lot of people just aren't familiar with the routes."

USF has done a lot to reduce the use of cars and trucks, he said. "We have one of the best mass transit systems on campus. … The Bull Runner uses biodiesel and it's free."

Also, the university just built a new dormitory with more than 1,000 beds.

But the vast majority of USF students don't live on campus and probably never will.

"Our students lead pretty complicated lives," Brinkmann said. "They are working part time, going to school. They are juggling family and school and they need to convenience of a car."

The answer lies in doing more to offset those vehicle emissions, he said. For example, USF plans to plant dozens of trees throughout the city to help soak up some of its carbon emissions.

"That's how we mitigate our impact," Brinkmann said.

Reporter Lindsay Peterson can be reached at (813) 259-7834.

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