Florida Gulf Coast University
PA-2: Sustainability Planning

FGCU's strategic plan seeks to embed sustainability where appropriate into its Pillars, Objectives, and Actions. FGCU's 2016-2021 Strategic Plan was not accepted by the Florida Board of Governors and an ad hoc committee is currently working to revise a 2017-2022 Strategic Plan. As such, we will reference our 2010 to 2015 Strategic Plan which is available at https://www2.fgcu.edu/Provost/files/Strategic_Plan_2010-2015.pdf. Goal 5 of the 2010-2015 Strategic Plan is Environmental Sustainability and Innovation. Goal 5 states, "To meet the challenges of the 21st Century and benefit the local economy, the University will demonstrate responsible leadership and innovation by infusing environmental sustainability throughout critical dimensions of University life and community interactions. This will be accomplished through curriculum; research; public service; campus development; administration and operations; and student life that embrace service learning and engagement opportunities." It includes two strategies to achieve these goals. The first is to, "promote energy conservation and efficiency." Associated actions to achieve this strategy include, "Implement and promote strategies to reduce energy consumption." Benchmarks and goals associated with this strategy are, "Study recommendations of the Environmental Sustainability Committee (ESC) and identify those to be implemented; all new buildings will be built to at least LEED standards; automate buildings and retrofit to reduce energy consumption; realize a 5% reduction per square foot in savings during 2010-11 from these actions." The second strategy to achieve the goal is, "Sustainability as it applies to the Campus environment in its myriad ways will be pursued."The action to achieve this strategy is, "Review holistically recommendations of the ESC concerning curriculum, physical plant operations, waste minimization, student involvement, research, investments, transportation, and staff development; update the campus master plan with embedded considerations of environment and safety; mitigate campus natural areas to sustain habitat." The benchmark for this action is to have the, "Planning and Budget Council to develop strategic plan through ESC by May 2011; complete an updated master plan by end of spring 2011; eliminate Melaleuca trees; create master plant list; and, plant native species." Updated benchmarks and strategies for more recent years falling under the STARS reporting period for this submission were developed in the sustainability plan by the ESC referenced below.

Sustainability is embedded throughout many elements of FGCU's 2015-2025 Campus Master Plan available at http://www.fgcu.edu/Facilities/MasterPlan2015.html The Real Food Campus Commitment states that 20% of food purchases for the residential dining hall will meet the Real Food Challenge criteria by 2020. Thereafter, we will continue to increase the amount of "real" food on campus by 5% annually until 60% is achieved. This commitment is available at http://www.fgcu.edu/EHS/Files/Signed_RFC_Commitment.pdf

The ESC's Sustainability Strategic Plan recommends that FGCU, "identify, document, and recognize all courses with a sustainability focus or with sustainability content through the same framework used to identify course attributes." This information will be used by the committee to identify areas where it would be valuable to develop sustainability content. Members of the committee will work with Deans, Chairs, and program leaders to encourage faculty from those areas to participate in FGCU's Integrating Sustainability Across the Curriculum Academy to facilitate the development of sustainability content in these areas with the goal of increasing them over time.

The ESC's Sustainability Strategic Plan recommends that FGCU, "identify by Department the research related to sustainability occurring at FGCU." This information will help FGCU understand the depth and breadth of existing sustainability research and consider ways to incentivize sustainability research.

The Office of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement is seeking to increase outcome-oriented service learning and is monitoring this through their new, paperless service-learning tracking system.

The ESC's Sustainability Strategic Plan recommends that FGCU, "update our Climate Action Plan with the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment." The Climate Action Plan targets state that FGCU will strive to decrease net emissions by 10% from tour baseline year (2010) by 2020. FGCU missed our 2015 interim emission reduction goals and is working hard to get back on track to meet our 2020 goals and set goals beyond 2020. The ESC is currently in working in the following subcommittees: Transportation, Land Use, Employee Training, Green Buildings, Green Revolving Fund, and Real Food Challenge. The Sustainability Manager will synthesize the work being completed through these subcommittees into an updated campus CAP starting in Fall 2018.

The 2010-2015 Strategic Plan says that FGCU will "study recommendations of the Environmental Sustainability Committee (ESC) and identify those to be implemented; all new buildings will be built to at least LEED standards." Per our Carbon Commitment, all major projects are being designed and constructed to LEED Silver or higher at this time. The ESC's Green Building subcommittee is currently working to develop more nuanced and rigorous Green Building Policy that will increase the sustainability expectations and contribute to our CAP update that will commence in Fall 2018.

The 2010-2015 Strategic Plan says that FGCU will "implement and promote strategies to reduce energy consumption." It also says that FGCU will, "automate buildings and retrofit to reduce energy consumption; realize a 5% reduction per square foot in savings during 2010-11 from these actions." The ESC's Green Revolving Fund subcommittee has been working since 2015 to continually update those goals. The subcommittee suggests efficiency projects that will decrease energy consumption and works to identify funding mechanisms for continual improvement.

The Real Food Campus Commitment states that 20% of food purchases for the residential dining hall will meet the Real Food Challenge criteria by 2020. Thereafter, we will continue to increase the amount of "real" food on campus by 5% annually until 60% is achieved. This commitment is available at http://www.fgcu.edu/EHS/Files/Signed_RFC_Commitment.pdf

The 2010-2015 Strategic Plan states that FGCU will, "eliminate Melaleuca trees; create master plant list; and, plant native species." It also states that the Planning and Budgeting Council will "Study recommendations of the Environmental Sustainability Committee (ESC) and identify those to be implemented." As a result, the ESC's Land Use Subcommittee is currently working to develop a plan to decrease pesticide use on campus, execute a controlled burn to increase the health of campus ecosystems, and writing policy recommendations that will help FGCU be better stewards of our preserve area and outdoor living laboratory spaces.

The 2010-2015 Strategic Plan states that the Planning and budgeting Council will "Review holistically recommendations of the ESC concerning curriculum, physical plant operations, waste minimization, student involvement, research, investments, transportation, and staff development; update campus master plan with embedded considerations of environment and safety; mitigate campus natural areas to sustain habitat." As such, the ESC's Transportation Subcommittee is working to identify the areas of greatest need for improving sustainable transit options and is developing a proposal for a Transportation Demand Management Director who will focus on increasing incentives for sustainable transportation modes as a large part of his/her essential job functions.

The 2010-2015 Strategic Plan states that the Planning and Budgeting Council will "Review holistically recommendations of the ESC concerning curriculum, physical plant operations, waste minimization, student involvement, research, investments, transportation, and staff development; update campus master plan with embedded considerations of environment and safety; mitigate campus natural areas to sustain habitat." ESC members mainly work through RecycleMania efforts described in EN-5 to set goals for waste reduction and track progress.

Goal 3 of the 2010-2015 Strategic Plan aims to "strengthen diversity through internationalization." It proposes to accomplish this as follows: "Examine participation in university exchange agreements: increase number of FGCU participants and balance with number of J visa students from abroad, and integrate international students with FGCU students. "Increase the number of students from abroad studying at FGCU." "The number of F visa students will rise by 5% over the next three years." Goal 4 of the 2010-2015 Strategic Plan states that FGCU will, "enhance recruitment efforts to meet University goals for increasing FTICs, transfer students, students of color, international students and other underrepresented groups." It also proposes the following: "Expansion of directed efforts to recruit a more diverse student body." "Further improve graduate student diversity and retention of non-traditional graduate students." "Acquisition and implementation of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system as soon as practicable; meeting targets for applications and admissions for these various populations; improved processing speed of admissions materials; completed study of non-traditional prospective student base by May 2011." "Targeted visits to high schools and community colleges; use of high school alums; partnership agreements." "Greater numbers of minority and non-traditional students enrolled and earning graduate degrees." "Continue to diversify faculty and staff." "Continue to enhance the diversity of hiring pools." "Meet annual hiring goals as set forth in the annual Equity Report."

The Strategic Plan for Sustainability recommends that FGCU "integrate our commitment to sustainability into our endowment." As a result of this, efforts to establish a formalized Green Revolving Fund are underway. The university community continues to learn more about ESG criteria and is hosting a local expert to give a presentation on this to our campus community in November 2017.

FGCU's mission statement includes the following sentence: "FGCU emphasizes innovative, student-centered teaching and learning, promotes and practices environmental sustainability, embraces diversity, nurtures community partnerships, values public service, encourages civic responsibility, and cultivates habits of lifelong learning and the discovery of new knowledge."

Earth Charter Affiliate: https://www2.fgcu.edu/CESE/earthcharter.html Second Nature's Carbon Commitment: https://www2.fgcu.edu/EHS/commitments.htm