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| It was a packed house for the first ever Tampa Bay Student Sustainability Summit at Eckerd College [photo credit: David Hastings] |
On Saturday November 23, sixty students representing six
Tampa Bay area colleges came together to network, share ideas, and build a framework
to address climate change locally. The Tampa Bay Student Sustainability Summit
was facilitated and organized by a group of Sierra Club interns and their theme
was “Think Globally, Act Locally.” The
three hour event was designed to bring together the best and brightest
community and student leaders for a day of sharing, planning, and collaborating.
Climate change is real, is getting worse, and it’s related
to human activities. The students agreed
that in order to address climate change and build a resilient community, local
leaders must come together to collaborate and ensure that we aren’t operating
alone in our respective silos. Many students
are putting significant time and energy into sustainability projects on campus
but how can they channel some of their energy into a community and regional
focus? On the flip side, community groups are hard at work at the community
level but how can they utilize the enthusiasm and creativity that is so readily
available among our youth leaders?
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| The urban agriculture breakout group got a tour of Eckerd College's impressive garden and compost operation. [photo credit: Kristie Lafavore] |
The students invited
representatives from environmental non-profits, as well as student leaders from
every school in the Tampa Bay area, to share their perspectives. The day started with inspiring presentations
from local community groups working on everything from clean energy to open
space preservation to urban agriculture. The
community groups spoke on their organization’s priorities and the various ways
students could get involved. Student
leaders from area colleges then shared their own campus priorities with regard
to sustainability. From education, to energy efficiency, to resource conservation,
colleges and universities often serve as a beacon of sustainability and provide
an important source of creativity and knowledge to their surrounding community.
Many students are pioneering innovative solutions to address climate change and
it was both inspiring and impressive to see youth taking on such enormous challenges. After the campus presentations, students and community group leaders broke into four focus groups: urban agriculture, clean energy, green
transportation, and restoration/conservation to outline community priorities
and build consensus.
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| Sierra Club interns Katy Seyffer and Max Carfagno debrief the results of their breakout group discussion. |
The day ended with a debrief session and the most important
lesson that was revealed was the need for less talk and more action. The students raised the idea of creating
their own Tampa Bay Student Sustainability Council that will work together to
create an action plan to address the local causes and effects of climate
change. Rather than working in silos and
limiting their activism to their respective campuses, the students agreed to
expand their focus and think regionally.
It’s not just about sending petitions to the White House and fighting
for good environmental policy at the state and federal level. Although those things are important and
necessary, building resilient communities and reducing our carbon footprint can
happen in other unexpected ways. Community
gardens in low income neighborhoods, farm-to-school programs, energy
efficiency, public transportation, and zero emission vehicles are just a few of
the projects that the students agreed were most important.
