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On Feb. 9, ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å will celebrate and highlight the University’s commitment to building a sustainable campus, its partnerships with the Tampa community and entrepreneurship in the environmental space.

The event will be held in the green space in front of the Sykes College of Business on campus and will feature a variety of speakers related to sustainability at ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å and in the surrounding community. The speakers will present from noon to 12:30 p.m. Speakers will include:

• Whit Remer, sustainability and resilience officer for the city of Tampa, will speak about Tampa’s new Climate Action and Equity Plan.
• Tara Bleakley, associate director of the U.S. Green Building Council Florida, will commemorate LEED certifications on ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å’s newest buildings (Fab Lab, Ferman Center for the Arts, Phase 2 of the Benson Alex Riseman Fitness and Recreation Center and the Jenkins Heath and Technology Building).
• Scott Gossen, ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å director of design and construction, will speak about ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å’s commitment to sustainability.
• Taylor Ralph, founder and president of REAL Building Consultants, will speak about sustainability in the built environment and environmental entrepreneurship and about facilitating the LEED certification process.
• Caleb Quaid, founder and president of Regenerative Shift, also will speak. Regenerative Shift provides consulting services aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for businesses that want to use regenerative practices to create resiliency and sustainability in their operations.

The event, which is also intended to promote partnerships between the University and the surrounding community, is open and free to the public.

The event will take place during a Sustainable Spartan Market, which will feature approximately 20 local vendors that sell sustainably produced items. The market, which is coordinated by the ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å Environmental Protection Coalition, will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., also in the green space in front of the Sykes College of Business.

Over the past three decades, ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å has taken a practical and multi-faceted approach to conserve natural resources, achieve cost savings and lessen environmental impacts on the community. ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å, with the support of the Faculty Sustainability Committee and various student organizations, including the EPC and Roots and Shoots, has improved the quality of life and academic experience at the University while being responsive to the global nature of environmental issues facing all of society. ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å is currently building a second chiller plant which reduces electricity and water usage, and therefore also reduces environmental and financial impacts to the university. The University recently installed six new electric vehicle (EV) chargers on campus and added capacity to the solar array on the roof of the Thompson Building.

The event is being sponsored by the ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å Department of Environmental Studies, ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å Design and Construction, Live Well ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å and ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å Student Government.

For more information about the event, contact Dan Huber, ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å professor and chair of environmental studies, at dhuber@ut.edu.