Summer projects have turned a once not sustainable campus into one that is.
“I’m excited to see our campus move forward and how quickly it’s moved forward, “ Mike Seitzler, Head Coordinator of P.E.A.C.E. said.
Seitzler working together with Richard Ogorek, the Associate Vice President for Administration & Finance, will be adding 15 small recycling bins at strategic locations around campus (see map).
“I talked with Rick because I thought the concept of the one recycling drop was good, but I wanted people to be able to recycle in between classes and have it be convenient,” Seitzler said.
These smaller bins can take aluminum cans and plastic bottles. Facilities will empty the silver bins once or twice a day according to Seitzler.
Megan Frisque, Assistant Director of Civic Engagement, has also been helping with the project, as well as other sustainability efforts on campus. Frisque explained that the project started by requesting six bins for $7,380. The Class of 2009 doubled the request, and Ogorek added three bins.
A second single-stream recycling dumpster has been added near the left-field corner of the baseball field.
Students need to remember that items must be rinsed and out of plastic bags when depositing into the large recycling dumpsters.
Seitzler and Ogorek are already working on future recycling projects. One was offering the students the opportunity to recycle cardboard boxes during the move-in period.
Ogorek said it was such a big hit, they will consider making it permanent.
These efforts will increase sustainability on campus, but energy is also being conserved and created around campus due to some summer projects.
In the Thomas Parking Garage, 729 175-watt lights were replaced with 420 80-watt lights. Some of the lights are darker than others and this is because they are the wrong lights. They will be replaced and be brighter.
The effort will save UT $125,000 a year. Tampa Electric will also give UT a $20,000 rebate.
In McKay west, the window air conditioning units were replaced with central air. This will reduce 60 percent of the energy used for air conditioning in McKay.
The Martinez Gym’s air chiller and two air handlers were replaced. Now, the chiller is located on the West Parking Garage Roof. The condensator’s will go to two 2,000 gallon tanks which will use the water for irrigation. New cloth duct work has also been done in the gym.
This system reduces the condensation preventing leaking; it is more energy efficient and more efficient at cooling the building.
Each handler will rotate being operational to keep them working longer and to conserve energy.
Around campus buildings, over 459 individual motion light censors have been installed to curb lighting usage.
Since water usage is also a concern, 955 tamper-proof 1.2 gallon per minute shower heads were installed.
Ogorek says he would like to come up with more ways to save electricity in the future.
Some projects for the future include the possibility of solar panels, and replacing the motor on the chiller on top of the library, cooling four campus buildings, to a variable speed motor.
For more information on UT’s sustainability efforts visit www.ut.edu/sustainability.
How you can get involved:
Beta Beta Beta
Environmental Protection Coalition
PEACE Volunteer Center
Student Environmental Action Coalition
Tampa Bay Association of Environmental Professionals