On October 12th, 2023 my colloquium class decided to take a field trip around campus. My schools foundation is based off of environmental sustainability; however many students did not understand how or why. It was even mentioned during our tour, that majority of the students didn't chose to attend FGCU because of their environmental sustainability let alone knew about it. That is what our tour was mainly about. Most of our sustainable practices you can't see, so we do a tour to elaborate on the unseen.
Our tour started off looking at our trash cans and the way they are structured. The nickname we like to call our trash cans is big belly and that is because they can store more trash than your typical trash can. They can do this because our trash cans have simulations in it that crushes the trash to increase space. Next to every trash cans both inside and outside our buildings are recycle bins. All recycle materials can be placed in the same bin without the treat of waste contamination.
Our next stop on our campus was to our chiller or central energy plant. These plants were thermal ice storages that would cool the campus. FGCU campus buildings usually don't have a thermostat so it cools building based off the temperature outside. At night, the water is mixed with glycol and circulated through the chiller to produce and store ice in the energy storage tank. During the day, the ice is melted and the glycol is pumped through a frame heat exchanger. The chilled water is then circulated through underground pipes to cool the campus. Not only does it reduces the impact on surrounding environment but it also saves money that would he going towards power bills.
We then proceeded to visit Whitaker Pond. This Pond is located on campus between two educational buildings and the bridge students take to class The pond is actually all man made. Also, the reason for them making the pond was to protect the land nearby from flooding. Whitaker pond is not the only pond on campus that serves this purpose but it is good to note.
The pond sits right by a building called Seidler Hall. Seidler Hall is the main building for FGCU college of Arts and sciences. This is a green building and in 2010 it received the LEED platinum by the U.S. Green Building Council. What makes it a green building includes the reduced heat simulations inside the building. As well as the 75% of materials used to build the building were all reused recycled materials. Also, 20% of those materials were collected less than 500 miles from the school, reducing the carbon footprints and CO2 emissions. Another cool thing to note about this building is that they have showers in the building to encourage people to actually bike to class instead of drive. This will once again help with pollution so not much CO2 emissions will be released.
All around FGCU we have plants called green plants. Its always the little things that count and FGCU made sure to pay attention to minor details like plants to keep the school sustainable. Majority of all plants on campus are native plants meaning they born and fostered here in Florida. This is important because native plants have the ability to adapt to our Florida weather because they have been here for a lifetime. This saves money because they never have to be replaced and they don't make too much of a mess on campus. Surrounding our plants are rocks that separate them from the concrete. Due to this design, the rocks help capture water so it don't destroy the soil for our plants. A last thing to note is that the surrounding plants actually help cool our buildings by not just providing shade but also by releasing water vapor through the air that can cool the surroundings.
Our last stop included going to FGCU green lawn by the library. This massive land space can be used by anybody in the public and can be used at a place to let your inner thoughts loose. Here freedom of speech is best practiced and many events are held to get people voice or organization heard. You would often see religion advocates come to preach their word around this area and although for most students it may be annoying, that is the one place you can't tell someone no. I can see this being a safe place for someone.
After our campus trip our professor took us on a nature trail back in this woods. I'll admit, I was not a fan of this activity at all. However, I am super happy that I went just to say that I experienced it, but I won't do something like that again personally. When we first got there, we went to a bench to sit and talked about everything we just witnessed and learned during our campus tour. Afterwards we began our journey walking through a swamp. The further we got, my higher the water level was. The journey was a little scary to say that least due to the animals and branches I kept tripping over in the water. Once we reached our destination, I was okay. Everyone had to pick their own tree and make a connection with that tree. We think had to listen for things we found and things are saw. We took a moment of silence to really make a connection and visualize a past memory you hold dear to your heart.
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