Implementing Sustainability: How Partnerships in Higher Education Operationalize Sustainability Lessons Taught in the Classroom

Embedding sustainability throughout campus operations to match the sustainability lessons taught to students in the classroom is an important part of higher education’s sustainability mission. Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) takes this task seriously and attempts to operationalize sustainability in all campus activities. Cross-campus communications and working groups—including operational divisions, faculty, and students—provide opportunities for individual actions to contribute to the larger institutional mission. This chapter looks at ways that FGCU harnesses renewable energy, minimizes hazardous material use and wastes, promotes material reuse and proper recycling, and monitors and protects biodiversity. We also critically examine energy efficiency efforts such as a state-of-the-art chilled water-cooling system, strategic installations of energy recovery valves, upgrades to Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting, and the use of intelligent energy monitoring systems. In each operational initiative, university departments such as the Physical Plant and Environmental Health & Safety work with faculty and students to enlist their expertise and provide lifelong educational opportunities for the entire university community. The goal of sustainable operations is often difficult with competing goals of development and conservation and cost can be prohibitive. This chapter underscores the benefits of connecting operational endeavors to student learning and faculty research and argues that this method of working together is the ideal way to improve operational efficiencies while preparing future leaders with professional skills and real-world experience.