Overall Rating Silver
Overall Score 47.16
Liaison Ryan Chabot
Submission Date March 5, 2021

STARS v2.2

University of Central Florida
EN-11: Inter-Campus Collaboration

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 3.00 / 3.00 Yara Watson Colon
Sustainability Specialist II
Sustainability Initiatives
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Is the institution currently a member of a national or international higher education sustainability network?:
Yes

The name of the national or international sustainability network(s):

Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education
Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences
International Society of Sustainability Professionals
Second Nature


Does the institution actively participate in a regional, state/provincial, or local higher education sustainability network?:
Yes

The name of the regional, state/provincial or local sustainability network(s):

The Central Florida Higher Education Partnership for Sustainable Development, coordinated by UCF and Rollins College, will include higher education institutions throughout the region and will focus on sustainable operations, community action, and curriculum innovations to reflect and further the goals of sustainable development. This shared regional undertaking will help further the work of the East Central Florida Regional Resilience Collaborative, which is a sustainability initiative of the eight counties in the region. UCF will lead in providing faculty technical expertise for the Collaborative. The initial formation of the group began in 2019. The planned official launch of the collaborative planned for April 2020 was postponed by the pandemic, but it will occur in the coming months.


Has the institution presented at a higher education sustainability conference during the previous year?:
Yes

A list or brief description of the conference(s) and presentation(s):

- AESS 2020 Annual Conference
Assessing the Impacts of a New System of Recycling Bins on Recycling Diversion Rates in Campus Buildings
Presenters: Richard Plate, Ketsira Pierre, Melissa Robinson:
Summary: UCF is making efforts to increase its recycling diversion rate. Part of that effort involves encouraging students to properly dispose of recyclable items. The design and placement of recycling and landfill bins can play a significant role in this behavior. In this study, students collected data on recycling diversion rates in different buildings on UCF's campus to assess the impact that the new system of recycling bins is having on student behavior. Presenters will also talk about the objectives and impacts of having students leading the data collection on this project as a part of a senior capstone class in the Environmental Studies program.

- AASHE 2019 Conference and Expo
Affordable Renewable Energy for the Developing World that is Creating Jobs
Presenter: Norvell, David
Summary: In our world, there are currently 1.3B people living with no access to electricity. The lack of electricity can have negative impacts on their education, communication, safety, and even health. A clean source of electrical energy can dramatically improve living conditions by providing clean LED lighting at night, access to the vast knowledge base of the World Wide Web, and cellular communication.

Due to the high cost of infrastructure, there is a trend away from centralized energy production towards distributed energy, producing energy right at or very close to the point of use. This move can increase reliability while reducing infrastructure costs.

In the developed world, technology changes at an incredible pace. There are many opportunities to apply these now "throwaway technologies" in the developing world. This provides countless possibilities to create solutions for global challenges through economic development.

By combining solar photovoltaic, digital control circuitry, and lithium-ion battery storage, we have developed a safe and reliable source of clean energy that is affordable for a single-family unit and is available 24/7. The SLB50 is powered by the sun's energy, provides storage within lithium-ion cells, and has all the protection needed to prevent the catastrophic battery failures of the past.

The energy bank has been sized to just meet the power needs of a single-family. It will fully charge two smartphones and provide more than 5 hours of lighting to 100 square feet of living space. The energy bank is fully plug-n-plug, requiring no training or skills to operate.

The design is complete and the cost to manufacture the unit is $20 U.S. Currently, we are identifying entrepreneurs in Haiti, Malawi, and Sierra Leone to train them to produce the energy bank and solar module in their facilities, using their in-country labor. The entrepreneurs would then be responsible for distributing and servicing the product


Has the institution submitted a case study during the previous year to an external higher education sustainability resource center or awards program?:
Yes

A list or brief description of the sustainability resource center or awards program and submission(s):

- AASHE Hub
Integrating Sustainability into Campus Administration and Student Government
Submitters: Swiersz, Sarah E; Perno, Dempsey
This study outlines and portrays the ways by which the University of Central Florida's Office of Sustainability Initiatives (UCF SI) is partnering with the UCF Student Government (UCF SG) and campus administrators to implement sustainability into student programming, services, and curriculum. The implementation of sustainability in UCF SG and campus administration is achieved through two collaborative partnerships between UCF SI and the campus community: A member of the Executive Cabinet of UCF SG is appointed to serve as the Campus Innovation Coordinator to advance initiatives that improve the sustainability, health and wellness, and research scholarship of the UCF community. Concurrently, UCF SI is developing a program to integrate sustainability across UCF's curriculum through faculty-led committees from each academic college. This initiative is integrated with UCF's overhaul of its general education curriculum. As one of the largest universities by enrollment in the country, a study of sustainability in campus student government and administration is relevant and informative to a wide array of institutions, as projects at UCF are very sensitive to issues of scale and cross-institutional collaboration. An emphasis is placed on outcomes of the innovative, transdisciplinary curriculum, community projects, and programming that engages stakeholders and emphasizes the ties between the environmental, psycho-social, and physical health of the campus community.

- University of California-Davis Environmental Law and Policy Journal (2020), Vol 43.
Fighting Back from the Brink: International Efforts to Prevent Illegal Trafficking in Endangered Species.
Submitter: Consalo, Karen
This article studied laws and policies to deter unsustainable illegal wildlife harvesting and trafficking and advocated for sustainable wildlife development and harvesting.


Has the institution had employees or students serving on a board or committee of a sustainability network or conference during the previous three years?:
Yes

A list or brief description of the board or committee appointment(s):

Cheong, Caroline
Member, Sustainable Development Goals Working Group of the International Council for Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS - an advisory body to the UNESCO - the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)

Consalo, Karen
Board Member, IDEAS for US, Inc.

Jacques, Peter
President, Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences 2018-2020

Reinhart, Debra
US EPA, Board of Scientific Counselors, Homeland Security Subcommittee, 2014-present
Environmental Education and Research Foundation, Board of Directors, 2003-1017; Research Council, Chair 2019-2020


Does the institution have an ongoing mentoring relationship with another institution through which it assists the institution with its sustainability reporting and/or the development of its sustainability program?:
Yes

A brief description of the mentoring relationship and activities:

On an ongoing basis, UCF provides Valencia State College, Seminole State College, Orange County Public Schools, and the City of Orlando in-person mentoring sessions covering such topics as internal sustainability committees, energy efficiency, energy conservation, and water conservation. A Sustainability Staff member regularly participates in the annual AASHE mentorship program.


Has the institution had employees or students serving as peer reviewers of another institution’s sustainability data and/or STARS submission during the previous three years?:
No

A brief description of the peer review activities:
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A brief description of other inter-campus collaborative efforts around sustainability during the previous year :
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Website URL where information about the institution’s inter-campus collaborations is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.