UF is one step closer to reducing its carbon footprint.
The university announced Wednesday its partnership with ASI Campus Laundry Solutions and Neutral Gator to create carbon-neutral laundry operations on campus.
ASI is offsetting carbon emissions produced by laundry machines in all of UF’s residence halls, said Laurel Nesbit, a program assistant in the Office of Sustainability.
Neutral Gator is a nonprofit organization that focuses on reducing effects from carbon emission by creating offsets. According to its website, a carbon offset is a credit from a project resulting in less carbon dioxide than would regularly occur.
Executive Director Jacob Cravey said Neutral Gator makes offsets possible by reducing energy consumption in Gainesville’s low-income houses. The efforts include upgrading showerheads and lightbulbs to more energy-efficient alternatives. Volunteers also plant trees native to Florida to capture carbon dioxide.
Cravey said Neutral Gator planted about 10,000 trees last year, which created the carbon offsets it then sold. ASI is offsetting 754,884 kilowatt-hours of electricity and natural gas and about 3,774,000 gallons of water to total 488 tons of carbon emissions through its national corporate offset program Carbon Les, according to the press release.
ASI Executive Vice President David Drake said UF is the first university the company has partnered with for this program. UF is also the first university in Florida to have carbon-neutral laundry operations, he said.
“UF has a goal to be carbon-neutral by 2025,” Nesbit said. “This is an important step.”
UF’s athletic association is already carbon-neutral, she said.
Neutral Gator has been providing offsets to Gator Athletics for the last five years, Cravey said.
“We continue to push the envelope at a national level,” he said.
Contact Samantha Shavell at sshavell@alligator.org.
