WORLD STUDENT ENVIRONMENTAL SUMMIT 1st Assignment: Sustainability Project1 Pilar Carolina Villar Lainé2 Maria Daniela de Araújo Vianna3
PEDALUSP in the Architecture and Urbanism College of University of São Paulo University of São Paulo - Brazil PEDALUSP/2010
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We would like to thank professors Sônia Maria Flores Gianesella, Pedro Jacobi, Antonio Marcos de A. Massola, Eduardo José Siqueira Barbosa, Marcio Maia Vilela and Ricardo Prist and engineer Mauricio Serrano Goy Villar. 2 Lawyer and PhD student from São Paulo University Environmental Sciences Post-Graduation Program. E-mail: pcvillar@usp.br. 3 Journalist and PhD student from São Paulo University Environmental Sciences Post-Graduation Program. E-mail: daniela.vianna@usp.br.
WORLD STUDENT ENVIRONMENTAL SUMMIT 1st Assignment: Sustainability Project Pilar Carolina Villar Lainé Maria Daniela de Araújo Vianna The University of Paulo counts on 6 campuses and several teaching units, museums and research centers distributed throughout the capital, countryside and shoreline of the State of São Paulo, Southeast of Brazil. It is one of the most important teaching institutions in Brazil composed of 229 courses dedicated to all fields of knowledge and offered to almost 56 thousand students. Moreover, USP graduates approximately two thousand doctors per year and contributes with over 25% of the entire Brazilian scientific production. In 2009, it was elected the 53rd best university in the world, according to the Spanish Superior Scientific Investigation Council, and the 78th best university, according to the Higher Education Evaluation & Accreditation Council of Taiwan. In face of the size of this university, selecting only one of the projects developed is a difficult task. The concern with mitigating the environmental impacts produced by the university takes us to the 1990's, when the first environmental projects appeared characterized by a punctual treatment of certain problems. Within that context, USP Recycle4 (1994), the Rational Water Use Program – PURA5 (1995) and the Rational Power Use Program – PURE (1997) appeared. The experience acquired in those programs and a better understanding of the environmental problem demonstrated that such an approach was insufficient and that there was the need to create a system that sought greater integration and broadened the scope of action of the programs. Based on this insight, the Sustainable Campus Program appeared, which should integrate and coordinate the existing initiatives, as well as promote and include the new ones that came about. Sustainable Campus included, besides the above-mentioned projects, others in an implementation phase, such as the cooking-oil-based biodiesel production mill; the bio-digestion mill to produce biogas and bio-fertilizers; the creation of environmental indicators; and the Pedalusp. One of the greatest ambitions of the Sustainable Campus program is the creation of an environmental currency, destined to benefit the units with the best results in these programs. PEDALUSP Of the above-mentioned actions, the option was for describing the Pedalusp project, since it symbolizes the impact of the cultural exchange and potential participation of the students in improving the environmental quality of the campus.
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USP recycle seeks stimulating material-consumption management and adjusts the destination of waste. The program that chiefly focused on paper starts inserting fluorescent lights, chemical waste as well as electro-electronic equipment and organics. 5 The PURA/USP and PURE/USP seek a reduction in the consumption of water and electric power, respectively, at the university through installing meters at the units and changing the equipment. These programs seek the best use of natural resources. .
PEDALUSP, University of São Paulo's shared-bicycle project aims at making bicycles available as an alternative means of public transportation for the USP community. It is composed of automatic bicycle-storing stations strategically distributed throughout the São Paulo Campus (Figure 1). The user checks the bicycle out at one of the stations and returns it at any station in the system. To use the bicycles, the users just have to register a password and use their USP ID card. Figure 1 – Shared-bicycle station
This project was conceived by the graduate students Maurício Massao Soares Matsumoto and Mauricio Serrano Goy Villar. The idea appeared during their stay in France to get the double diploma in mechatronic engineering resulting from the agreement established between USP's Polytechnic Engineering School (Poli/USP), Ecole Centrale Marseille and Ecole Centrale Lyon. Based on their observations of the French system, which contemplates the shared use of bicycles, the Brazilian students came up with the initial project in their respective course-conclusion studies. The study was presented to the University of São Paulo Campus Coordinatorship in São Paulo, which supported the project and left the execution up to its creators. With the institutional stimulus of the University of São Paulo, the words took shape and were transformed into Pedalusp. The USP campus located in the city of São Paulo counts on a 4,173,644.00-m² area and a road system of approximately 60 km. The insertion of this shared bicycle-use system promotes a clean, free and healthy transportation alternative to the community. The sharing of bicycles ensures joining the advantages of individual transportation and those of public transportation. For a group of people living in the same region and in need of complementary transportation, a set of bicycles can be made available to all. That ensures the freedom of schedules, routes and destinations characteristic of private individual transportation. The prototype, composed of two stations and five bicycles, has been exposed since August. They intend the system to be operating with 100 bicycles and 10 stations by the end of 2010. The costs will be borne by a partnership between the University of São Paulo and the private initiative. Gradually, the project is becoming a reality and may benefit the mobility of the entire university community, contributing to the environmental improvement of the campus, especially in the reduction of greenhouse-effect gases. This initiative demonstrates the advantages of the university stimulating, acknowledging and investing in the potential of the ideas of its faculty members and student body to face socialenvironmental challenges.