Green Veterans Spread the Word

Not everyone is new to the green movement. Some Florida companies are veterans. Since 1990, for example, Massey Services, an Orlando company with 61 offices and 800-plus employees in Florida, Georgia and Louisiana, has taken an “environmentally responsible” approach with its pest prevention and lawn and shrub services. The company has twice been recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program (PESP) champion.

Another experienced hand, the Tampa law firm, de la Parte and Gilbert, has specialized in water rights and environmental issues ever since the firm was involved in the landmark 1979 Tequesta case, which the Florida Supreme Court used to form the backbone of Florida’s water policy.

And for more than a decade, the Florida Crystals Corporation has been recycling sugar cane fiber as a fuel to produce 142 megawatts of electricity at is renewable energy facility — the largest biomass power plant in North America — to power the company’s mill, refinery and nearly 60,000 nearby homes. All this, plus its fields of CO2-absorbing sugar cane, earned the company sugar products a “carbon neutral” certification from the Edinburg Center for Carbon Management.

Florida Crystals is also one of the largest producers of organic sugar that’s 100% free of herbicides and pesticides.

Spreading the Word

Education and research are indispensable if Florida's green movement is to become sustainable. Increasingly, the state’s universities are setting examples, by launching various green initiatives, such as new campus green building policies, plans to offset carbon emissions and innovative interdisciplinary degrees, such as the incorporation of ecological and biological sciences into an existing environmental engineering program at Florida A&M and Florida State Universities. In Sarasota County, New College student volunteers trained in conservation issues work with local middle school science classes.

Florida International University is working on the Future House USA, a demonstration community in Beijing that showcases modern sustainable energy technologies. This “demonstration community” is specifically intended to address China’s growing energy concerns and will use the 2008 Olympics as a platform to inform and educate.

Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers recently received $8.5 million to build a 16-acre solar farm on its campus — the largest university-based solar farm in the world. If successful, the solar field will supply all of the 9,500-student university’s energy needs and save $22 million over 30 years.