Facilities Planning & Management

USF is seeking your help to reduce the Sarasota-Manatee campus's carbon footprint and make it more environmentally friendly and sustainable. Currently enrolled students, faculty, and staff are invited to turn your brilliant green ideas – small or large – into formal proposals for outcome-driven projects to help our campus conserve energy, reduce energy costs, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and promote renewable energy technologies.

If you have a bright idea, the first step is to do some preliminary research, and then you can either speak with one of the Sarasota-Manatee Committee members serving on the OneUSF SGEF or to submit a proposal. Your proposal could be funded by the Student Green Energy Fund for implementation under your leadership! Proposals can originate from individuals, groups, and formal and informal bodies at USF.

Student Green Energy Fund proposals MUST comply with the fund criteria and guidelines.

The fund was initiated as a student-led campaign in 2007. With support from the University of South Florida Tampa’s Office of Sustainability, faculty, staff and various student organizations, the SGEF proposition was championed through the USF Board of Trustees and the Florida Board of Governors. The USF St. Petersburg campus passed their last SGEF referendum in 2020.

At the Sarasota-Manatee campus, the SGEF is financed through a nominal student fee of $1.00 per credit hour. Students vote via a student body referendum every three years to approve initiation of the fee and affirm any subsequent modifications.

The Student Energy Green Fund (SGEF) is collectively administered by the OneUSF SGEF Committee. The SGEF Chair convenes the committee, oversees procedural matters, and may cast a tie-breaking vote. A simple majority of voting members is required to vote on SGEF proposals and amend the SGEF By-laws.

SGEF Bylaws are the governing rules by which the committee operates. Further information about the fund charter, administration and management can be found here. 

Board of Governors Student Green Energy Fund Regulation. These are binding conditions to the student green energy fund as approved by the university's board of trustees.