The last person to hold a position in the Office of Sustainability was Winnie Malumba, a 2019 USF graduate who was the executive director.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
She led two sustainability collectives, Florida\u00a0For\u00a0Good and B Tourism.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Christian Wells, a professor of anthropology at USF, served at the Founding\u00a0director of the Office of Sustainability from 2009 to 2012. He shared that many of the office\u2019s activities\u00a0ceased\u00a0in 2012.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
During his time there, he was responsible for helping the Provost\u2019s Office and the Graduate School launch the world\u2019s first School of Global Sustainability, helping the university to gain national recognition, including Second Nature\u2019s national Climate Leadership Award in 2012\u00a0and incorporating sustainability values into the University System Strategic Plan.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wells also helped create a $1 million annual Student Green Energy Fund (SGEF) to overhaul energy infrastructure on campus and raised over $100k in gifts and other revenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrew Hargrove, a faculty member in the Judy Genshaft Honors College and the Director of the Climate Teach-In, said that the Office Sustainability, ideally, would serve to ensure that USF is meeting its pledged goals of being net zero by 2070, by reducing its\u00a0emissions\u00a0by 70 percent by 2025.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIdeally, the Office of Sustainability would be in charge of making sure that we are on track to reach those goals,\u201d Hargrove said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some of these responsibilities would include taking inventory of our carbon emissions, directing the university towards initiatives, projects, infrastructure, and improvements that would move us towards the goal across all three campuses\u00a0and bring together different individuals, departments, and student organizations that are already doing sustainability work.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Oliver\u00a0Lackzo, a senior environmental\u00a0science\u00a0and policy major and the vice chair of SGEF said that the Office of Sustainability was intertwined with the facilities services.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOftentimes [sustainability] is infrastructure, conservation, landscaping, architecture and planning,\u201d\u00a0Lackzo\u00a0said. \u201cThey operated out of the facilities office, and they helped push for renewable energy infrastructure, waste reduction initiatives, policies and measures and conservation efforts.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hargrove added that the Office of Sustainability has served as a resource for connection, bringing together groups working towards sustainable futures.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Office of Sustainability would kind of be the backbone of all the great sustainability work that\u2019s already happening on campus, but that\u2019s currently being done in these isolated pockets, in spaces where they don\u2019t know about each other, in spaces where they don\u2019t have institutional funding or institutional support,\u201d Hargrove said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hargrove added that the office existed when the university started its Climate Action Plan in 2010 and closed when their funding ran out and they\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0afford to renew Wells\u2019 position.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
What used to be an office of people working together was reduced to just one, making it harder to complete their work,\u00a0Lackzo\u00a0said,\u00a0citing the\u00a02016 Climate Action Plan, which listed multiple team members from the USF Office of Sustainability.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Julianna Parisi, a senior environmental science and policy major and a chair for SGEF, said that SGEF was told by administration that the goal was for the St. Petersburg campus to be the hub for sustainability.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were then told there was no funding for the position and therefore no way to fill it,\u201d Parisi said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The lack of an Office of Sustainability puts a strain on SGEF and its progress\u00a0\u2014\u00a0an experience\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0been\u00a0exacerbated\u00a0by\u00a0SGEF\u2019s consolidation in 2025<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n As of last July, the funds from the Student Green Fee that fund SGEF projects was\u00a0consolidated\u00a0into one pool. Along with this, members on the St. Petersburg campus had to start reporting to greater council to access their budget.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Beyond that, SGEF is looking at their backlog of projects that need funding across One USF.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n He thinks that while cooperation amongst council members has been positive, they\u00a0aren\u2019t\u00a0meeting enough.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s where the backlog has formed,\u201d\u00a0Lackzo\u00a0said. \u201cI think there may have been four to seven projects that weren\u2019t able to get attention and as a result, a vote from last meeting.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Lackzo\u00a0added that some projects are coming back for the third or fourth time with\u00a0numerous\u00a0questions and no foreseeable completion date.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Parisi added that in terms of the green fee being\u00a0consolidated\u00a0last year, SGEF\u2019s biggest\u00a0challenge\u00a0has been engaging with students.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s complicated process to explain and the barrier to entry of getting involved in SGEF is already so high \u2013 having to engage students who want to spend time to write an actual proposal, and having to explain the council just overwhelms students,\u201d Parisi said.\u00a0<\/p>\n There have been several solutions to this issue, Parisi mentions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI do think the increase in funding and access to Tampa resources has been very helpful,\u201d Parisi said. \u201cWe have been able to talk about half a million-dollar projects, something unheard of before at USFSP.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Lackzo\u00a0also mentioned concerns that arose recently over House Bill 1217\u00a0that was filed in the legislature which prohibits governmental policies regulating greenhouse gases and threatens public institutions from using money to fund initiatives that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere was some concern among council members that this could potentially\u00a0impact\u00a0the green fee,\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Lackzo\u00a0told\u00a0The Crow\u2019s Nest. \u201cSo, as a result, all the projects that received funding last meeting, they approved the funding but didn\u2019t release the funds.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n To\u00a0Lackzo, things are going fine, but there needs to be some changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThings could be better; things are moving very slow, and the council just feels very disconnected from the student body,\u201d\u00a0Lackzo\u00a0said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Parisi spoke to the sustainability efforts by the university, saying that it is a mixed bag.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis year especially, I have seen a new level of engagement and interest in student affairs\u00a0from administration,\u201d Parisi said. \u201cIt is much less hostile than before, and projects have been getting done a lot faster.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Parisi added that if the people who care about sustainability within the university stay in the position to help, then students will be able to utilize SGEF to its full potential.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n However, for upper administration, Parisi\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0think\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a top priority.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think sustainability on a college campus looks like education and funding and there are very little instances of the university going out of their way to promote sustainable efforts,\u201d Parisi said. \u201cThere are more road blacks than anything that make these projects more difficult than they need to be if this was a true priority for them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Parisi added that the Office of Sustainability should be reinstated with the inclusion of student internships and extensive collaboration with SGEF and other student organizations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI believe sustainability\u00a0is best done when focusing on community. I think the person in charge should be helping students who want to make a proposal, or see change,\u00a0get in contact with\u00a0administration and be that facilitator,\u201d Parisi said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey should make plans for the university to build that green infrastructure themselves and develop high impact, long term SGEF proposals.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Hargrove spoke on what reinstating the office would look like, agreeing that they would need a dedicated director to run it, ideally a team.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou need more than one person doing full-time work\u00a0in order to\u00a0get a 55,000-person institution to become net zero. So, it would mean dedicating staff lines,\u201d Hargrove said. \u201cThat means every year\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0willing to pay that person\u2019s salary and benefits in addition to some amount of budget funding for the operations of the office.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Hargrove added that the given political climate\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0encourage an environment that is super supportive of the concept of sustainability, but it should still be a priority for an AAU university that champions science and research.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think that an Office of Sustainability is an important signal to the USF community, that its faculty, its staff, its students, that sustainability is a thing that USF values, cares about, and is actively working towards,\u201d Hargrove said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In their conversations with leadership, Hargrove says that\u00a0they\u2019ve\u00a0always been assured that sustainability is woven into everything the university does, however, there has yet to be\u00a0an indication\u00a0from the administration that sustainability is something they care about and is actively working towards.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n They continued saying that oftentimes their efforts feel unsupported, despite sustainability being an important aspect of being a top university in North America.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, it feels like all of the hard work that I and my colleagues are doing \u2013 sustainability projects around USF, that are actively moving use towards being a more sustainable university, it feels like we\u2019re doing all of this against the tide of the university, instead of with the tide of the university.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Hargrove believes that with more university incentive,\u00a0they\u2019ll\u00a0find that many people want to be more involved.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf we have an institution that is actively rewarding sustainability work, you will find that many, many people want to be doing sustainability work, want to be shifting our campuses to being more sustainable, lowering our emissions, and making us more environmentally friendly,\u201d Hargrove said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Written by: Julia Ferrara<\/a> on April 13, 2026. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SGEF members on the St. Petersburg campus have been asked to start going over to the Tampa campus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-230563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}