UGA Green Zone
Located in the heart of campus, UGA's Grounds Department has begun the transition to creating a more sustainable landscape environment.
What is the Green Zone?
UGA established a new 81-acre Green Zone in 2023 located on the central campus around Tate Student Center and Sanford Stadium. The goal of this Green Zone was to pilot the use of "electric-only landscaping equipment" and other green practices to reduce emissions and noise, and improve air quality and health and well-being. As one of our data driven Clean Energy projects, the project is keenly focused on measuring the benefits of these innovations to the campus community, and communicating our lessons learned to other higher education institutions.
As one of UGA's five campus landscape zones, this central zone is the first to begin transitioning to a more environmentally friendly space for students, staff, and campus visitors. By implementing sustainable land management practices and reducing on-site noise, pollution, water usage, synthetic chemicals, and energy usage, UGA's Central Green Zone aims to set a standard for sustainable landscape management.
The landscape crew testing out their new electric equipment in the Green Zone.
Green Zone Boundaries Lumpkin Street -Left/West Boundary | Baldwin Street - Top/North Boundary | East Campus Road - Right/East Boundary | Cedar Street - Bottom/South Boundary |
Project Goals
- Establish Green Zone Program on campus during the Spring 2023 Semester
- Work with Landscape Crews and UGA Organizations to promote similar projects focused on environmental ethics and the conservation of natural spaces.
- Collect feedback from crews and service technicians on usage data and equipment efficiency.
- Engage with campus visitors to gauge the perception of the project goals and benefits.
- Develop communication methods to spread awareness of the purpose and goal of the green zone and its contribution to campus. Posters, Surveys GIS maps, and other methods.
- Generate a comprehensive understanding of the costs and benefits of this new program and its impact on campus, students, and the environment.
Presentation
After the completion of a 1-year study of the rollout of the Green Zone (started March 2023) the results of this study were shared at the 3rd Annual conference of Grounds Department management teams from SEC universities on April 9th, 2024. One month later the project outcomes were shared at the quarterly UGA Facilities Management Division Leadership Team meeting. We plan to share the results of our progress so far with the Southeastern Region Association of Physical Plant Administrators (SRAPPA) in November, 2024. Below is an abbreviated version of the presentation and project results.
Green Zone / Fleet Electrification PRESENTATION for Quarterly FMD Leadership Meeting
Green Zone Projects & Features
Electric Transition
Electric Transition. Click to expand.
One of the main changes in the Green Zone is the use of state-of-the-art electric landscape equipment. This switch from gas-powered machines to those that use electricity will see a significant reduction in on-site emissions from landscape maintenance. In addition to less pollution, these machines are also much quieter than the traditional gas equipment; this aims to improve campus experience by reducing noise and disruptions.
Green Energy Solutions
Green Energy Solutions. Click to expand.
Partnerships with related student groups, such as one Engineering Student Capstone Team, open doors for new sustainable innovation. Spring '23 graduates of the program designed solar charging mounts for Green Zone maintenance trucks, which would allow for the use of green energy to power the new electric landscape equipment. Read More about these initiatives here: https://fanda.uga.edu/News/MobileCharging/
Green Infrastructure
Green Infrastructure . Click to expand.
The Green Zone includes pervious surfaces that allow for rainwater capture and infiltration, reducing pollution and runoff while diverting water from the city's sewer infrastructure. This infiltration can allow captured rainwater to play its role in the water cycle, returning it to its place in the natural ecology of campus.
Cutting the Chemicals
Cutting the Chemicals. Click to expand.
The Green Zone wants to focus on creating safe and healthy landscapes. UGA's Grounds Department has already begun to phase out many of the commonly-used landscape chemicals (i.e. pesticides & herbicides) in the Green Zone to reduce the impact on natural systems and campus health.
Natural Systems: Tanyard Creek
Natural Systems: Tanyard Creek. Click to expand.
Tanyard Branch (often called Tanyard Creek) runs right under Samford Stadium and through the Green Zone. Once encased in concrete, the efforts to daylight this waterway seek to reconnect it to its historical role in the local ecological systems.
Urban Agriculture & Rooftop Gardens
Urban Agriculture & Rooftop Gardens . Click to expand.
The Green Zone is home to the Geography/Geology Green roof, which is over 3,000 sqft and serves as a UGArden satellite location to help produce organic food donated to programs focused on alleviating food insecurity in Athens-Clarke County.
Native Plants & Wildlife Habitat
Native Plants & Wildlife Habitat. Click to expand.
The Green Zone is full of plants and areas that focus on creating attractive spaces while also benefitting local wildlife. By using trees, shrubs, and groundcovers that are native to our region, these spaces provide much-needed shelter and resources to a variety of animals and insects that play an important role in Georgia's local ecology.
Rain Gardens
Rain Gardens . Click to expand.
Designing around natural systems while also creating beautiful landscapes is a goal of the Green Zone. Campus rain gardens not only capture stormwater runoff, but they also allow it to play a larger role in supporting campus habitats while reducing pollution. By capturing stormwater runoff, rain gardens also allow this water to be absorbed into the ground and return to the water table by natural percolation.
Involvement + Impact
Involvement + Impact. Click to expand.
The Green Zone has created opportunities for student groups with shared interests and overlapping goals to collaborate on projects within the site! Pictured is a student volunteer event to plant native milkweed (Asclepias spp.) in a neglected flower bed. Milkweed is great for pollinating insects, birds, and butterflies that reside in Lumpkin Woods on campus. This event was made possible by UGA's Office of Sustainability Bee Campus Intern and College of Environment + Design senior working on their Landscape Architecture Capstone project.
Autonomous Mowers
Autonomous Mowers. Click to expand.
Represents a transformative leap in the world of lawn care technology. These innovative machines are equipped with cutting-edge sensors, GPS technology, and advanced algorithms that enable them to navigate and maintain lawns independently. With minimal human intervention, they efficiently mow lawns, avoiding obstacles and adapting to varying terrains. Beyond the convenience they offer, autonomous mowers also contribute to eco-friendliness by reducing noise pollution and emissions compared to traditional gas-powered counterparts. On the UGA campus, there are a total of twenty-two autonomous mowers. Eighteen of these mowers are positioned at the IM fields, while an additional four are stationed at Club Sports.
Background
A primary goal of the Green Zone is to reduce on-site emissions produced from routine landscape maintenance. After identifying two-stroke gas-oil engines as a large contributor to landscape emissions, UGA's Grounds Department partnered with the Office of Sustainability to purchase state-of-the-art electric landscape equipment to replace the gas-oil engines in the Green Zone.
There is a perception that electric lawn equipment may not measure up to their gas-powered counterparts. This project is designed to put that notion to the test, and to demo and vet newer electric models to determine their capabilities to meet performance criteria.
This project is supported by an Office of Sustainability Green Zone Intern embedded within the Grounds Department. The Green Zone intern:
- Tracks energy use and maintenance data
- Works side by side with Grounds crew to obtain feedback on new equipment performance, data tracking, and recommendations for project improvements
- Reports and communicates the results of the project to broad audiences using written reports, presentations, and audio/visual tools to make the program widely familiar to the UGA community and beyond.
- Develop a more complete model of how it compares to the gas equipment used to maintain the rest of campus.
Green Zone Interns
The following is a brief history of our outstanding Green Zone Interns.
Sarah Evans - Spring 2024, Hannah Brown - Fall 2023, Andrew MacElroy - Spring 2023
Issues with Common Two-Stroke Gas-Oil Engines
Two-stroke engines are much less efficient in combustion than four-stroke engines (which are standard in cars); they burn a mix of oil and gasoline; and they emit a lot of this combustion mixture directly into the atmosphere, unburned. According to the EPA , in 1 hour, 1 gas lawn mower: pollutes the same as 40 late model cars, emits the same amount of hydrocarbons (precursors to ground-level ozone) as a SUV driven 23,600 miles, and contribute 93 times more smog-forming emissions that 2006 cars. In addition to being heavy sources of pollution in concentrated areas, conventional equipment is also very loud which can cause disruptions to nearby programs and hearing damage if those in close proximity are not wearing adequate protection. The new electric equipment not only produces no on-site emissions, but is also 50-70% quieter than the gas machines. With the potential for this new equipment to be powered by solar energy, the Grounds Department is exploring options to reduce our carbon footprint even further by collaborating with engineering capstone students for solar charging.
Between Baldwin and Cedar Streets (northsouth) and Lumpkin Street and E. Campus Road (west-east).
