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Green Building Expo Offers Lessons For Businesses

From left, Michelle Jenkins with the Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County shows Bob Gray and his fiance Joan Duta of Tampa a Neuton battery-powered mower during the going green expo.

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By MIKE WELLS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 12, 2008

Going green doesn't require spending a lot of green.

That was the premise behind the eco-friendly Going Green Tampa Bay EXPO '08 held on Saturday at the Sun Dome in Tampa. The event showcased nearly 100 providers of sustainability products and services and emphasized the economic benefits of sustainability.

"My area is green business and making a profit at it," said Sharon Hanna-West, USF's Exide Distinguished Lecturer of Ethics and Sustainability and a graduate faculty member of the university's College of Business.

The majority of ecological harm can be traced to economic factors, Hanna-West said. While most Fortune 500 companies have sustainability policies and practices, small businesses usually don't and they make up about 85 percent of the market, she said.

"We want to show businesses how to become restorative by using technologies and strategies to put back what you take away," she said.

The event was the brainchild of the University of South Florida, the Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission and the Urban Charrette, a non-profit organization of local design professionals and community leaders who advocate for a sustainable urban core.

Visitors were given ideas about renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable design and green building. Workshops included information on urban cycling, biodiesel fuels and water conservation.

Phyllis and Everett Henderson of Tampa are intern architects with the design firm GouldEvans and came to the Expo as visitors to look at building products.

"We are always looking for ways to add something Earth-friendly to our projects," Phyllis Henderson said. "We're interested in the topic in general and we wanted to see what they had to offer."

During the EXPO, University President Judy Genshaft signed the American College and Universities Climate Commitment, moving USF forward to address climate change issues.

Participating schools are moving to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and integrate sustainability into the curriculum.

USF is already in compliance with the agreement's transportation alternatives requirements and is close to compliance on energy efficient equipment purchasing and campus recycling initiatives, according a report prepared by Hanna-West.

There are over 500 signatories to date, including the University of Florida, Stetson University and Florida Gulf Coast University.

The university aims to be a leader in the sustainability field by pairing business and environmental science students together on projects to reconcile competing interests in land use – namely tourism, development and agriculture, Hanna-West said.

"Every student, regardless of what degree program they are in, needs to have some kind of environmental literacy," she said.

She credited former Vice President Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" movie with raising awareness among the public, but she said the recent upswing in interest in saving the environment is not a passing trend.

"To me, this movement is not like the one we saw in the '70s," Hanna-West said. "It's deeper. We've learned to better calculate the impact and damage and to project what's going to happen in the future.

"It's a new era, and I think this one's really permanent," she said.

Reporter Mike Wells can be reached at (813) 259-7839 or mwells@tampatrib.com.

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