Welcome to a Sustainable Eckerd

Latest News: The Eckerd College Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Mitigation Action Plan is now available. The primary goal of the GHG mitigation strategy is to reduce Eckerd College's emissions of gases that contribute to climate change through a variety of strategies, ranging from conservation actions and behavior change to initiatives such as Zipride and the new air travel offset program. Click here to read the Eckerd College Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Plan.

From the very beginning, Eckerd College has enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with its surrounding environment.  The college's surroundings function as a kind of living, breathing classroom, which both provides a subject of study and in so doing promotes its own conservation and gives practical lessons for sustainable practices elsewhere.  It is no surprise then that from its inception, the college has had a commitment to educate students about the environment and ecologically thoughtful practices. Our innovative Environmental Studies major was cited by Florida Leader as the state's "best new undergraduate major."

Our commitment to the environment has led us to develop positive environmental landscape practices such as using native plants where appropriate; using natural, permeable surfaces for parking and pedestrian paths; and drawing on ponds and wetlands as natural filters to clean water run-off. We even have a Yellow Bike program, which was designed to increase bicycle use on campus and decrease automobile traffic. In fact, the Yellow Bikes program has earned Eckerd College special Campus Ecology Recognition by the National Wildlife Federation®, the nation's leading conservation education and advocacy group.

These are just some of the features that combine to create a drive toward sustainability on campus.  Many more aspects of this drive are featured on this site, so explore and learn more about Eckerd's commitment to both minimizing its operational footprint and maximizing environmental awareness and green practices.