March 2024

The idea of a restaurant offering food which comes straight from the garden to the plate, or from the farm to the fork, is not necessarily new, but this story sees the concept being pushed into new areas, with the focus placed squarely on the climate emergency and the need to reduce energy usage and emissions. In simple terms, the Green Orchid restaurant – the garden-to-table restaurant located at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota – is powered by solar energy to such a degree that the owners are claiming it will be the first net-positive restaurant, generating more energy than it actually consumes. The low carbon footprint of the restaurant is further enhanced by the fact that fresh produce will be sourced from the edible garden located right next door, in addition to some ingredients from local farms and the restaurants own rooftop garden.  The final piece of the jigsaw comes in the form of the restaurant kitchen, which utilizes induction cooking facilities heating through electromagnetic fields rather than the traditional gas or flames.

The topic of recycling is one which forms a part of the discussion around climate change and sustainability as a matter of course, but this particular story features one of the more unusual examples of items being re-used and repurposed. Rather than clothing, food, paper or glass, this story looks at efforts to find a way of recycling the asphalt produced during road repairs.

The project in question is backed by a $10 million cash injection from the Florida Department of Transportation, and is based on over a decade’s worth of research carried out by civil engineering professor Albert Bleakley. The research is driven by the fact that the method used for repairing asphalt surfaces involves milling the top few inches, thus producing ‘reclaimed asphalt pavement’, known as RAP. Previously, it has been difficult to reuse RAP as roadway base materials, but the latest research centers upon adding specific chemicals in small amounts to the RAP, or blending it with other base materials such as limestone. The $10 million project will involve the construction of a road test on State Road 301 north of Stark. The road will be divided into sections which have different blends of RAP and lime rock, and the durability and performance of the different sections will be evaluated continuously over a period of 5 years. If the trials are successful, they will make it possible to utilize stockpiled RAP and reduce the reliance on lime rock, an increasingly scarce natural resource.

Although the stories covered in the H2O Zone often highlight the valiant efforts of individuals or community groups to aid the cause of sustainability and conservation, there is no escaping the fact that large scale change often needs to be delivered, or at least cemented into place, via state and sometimes even country-wide legislative action. An example of this came in March, when the House of Representatives passed the Creating Confidence in Clean Water Permitting Act (H.R. 7023). One of the key aspects of the bill was the fact that it makes it easier for Florida to administer delegated programs on its own behalf, tailoring bespoke regulations around the abundant natural resources of the state and the unique nature of the degree to which the natural environment of Florida plays a huge role in its economic success. Provisions under the auspices of the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Air Act will be delegated to Florida to administer, making it easier to drive those resilience, development and conservation projects which are designed with the unique circumstances and requirements of Florida in mind.

This story highlights the degree to which parts of Florida are tackling the challenge of the climate emergency head on, at the same time as taking advantage of the opportunities offered by embracing sustainability. Imagine a solar panel the size of a pool table. Now imagine 2,236 of these solar panels joined together to form one enormous floating solar array, and you’ll have an idea of the clean energy initiative recently installed at the Southern Regional Water Supply Facility. The array is located on a 3.6 acre pond at the facility and is projected to cut the energy costs faced by the water plant by 25% every year. The floating solar array is the largest of its kind in the Southeast U.S., and perhaps even more impressive than the vast solar array itself is the fact that this is just one part of Orange County’s plan to have achieved 100% clean, renewable energy by 2035. As well as cutting energy costs for the water plant, the solar array will, according to Chief Sustainability and Resilience Officer Carrie Black, cut CO2 emissions by 1,500 tons annually.

Take a look here for more details on the project.

Protecting natural resources and the environment across Florida is a massive task and as such it requires input from a vast array of individuals and organizations. We often highlight the work of voluntary organizations, educators and highly committed individuals in the H2O Zone, but this particular story looks at the efforts made by a perhaps less obvious grouping – the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The efforts in question were focused on dealing with the impact of a strong El Nino climate pattern across the south of Florida, and in particular around Lake Okeechobee. Starting in February, the army had been releasing water from the lake in order to bring levels down prior to the wet season and the Atlantic hurricane season, something which boosts the ecology of the lake as well as managing the flood risk for local communities. What this particular article highlights is the degree to which the army liaises with other stakeholders to address concerns over issues such as water quality and risk of water being released when blue green algae are more likely to be present.

Here in the H2O Zone we try to highlight as many positive stories as we can find, but we don't shy away from pointing out the impact that the changing climate is having on the unique Florida eco-system.

We like to think that the good news stories we share with our readers will play a part in keeping spirits up and encouraging people to think that the battle for the environment of Florida is one which can be won. This particular story is a clear cut example of the triumph of the environment over commerce, as it concerns a potential decision to ditch plans to a 16-pump gas station on environmentally sensitive land and create an area of preserved green space. The decision is set to be ratified by the final 2024-25 state budget, which will include an allocation of $3.7 million for Conservation Florida to buy 225 acres at the intersection of U.S. 319 and State Road 267. The land in question is located above Chip’s Hole Cave, and divers exploring the cave have found that it opens out to an underground river linking Wakulla Springs - the world’s largest known freshwater spring - to the Floridan Aquifer, the underground source of drinking water for four states. A plan to build a gas station, car wash and convenience store on the site met with local opposition, and if the revised plan is signed off by Governor De Santis, the site will be protected in perpetuity.

Sometimes the smallest things can make a big difference, and this story of an unassuming looking plant which helps to protect and maintain the beaches in Florida is a striking example of this phenomenon.

We're talking about sea oats, and while the visible part of the plant may seem fairly unimpressive, it is below the surface that the hard work is being done. In simple terms, the roots of the sea oats spread out through the sand dunes in which they grow and help to hold those dunes in place and in one piece. Without the stabilizing impact of the sea oats, the dunes would simply be piles of sand at the mercy of the wind and the sea, and the protection which they offer for those communities close to the beach would be lost. That’s why planting more sea oats is such a vital task, and why 523,520 have been planted into the dunes in Pinellas County over the course of the past six months. These particular dunes were decimated by Hurricane Ida in the fall of 2023 and by a further storm which hit the coast in December. While sea oats grow in the wild, beaches such as those in Pinellas are man-made, and the people living nearby need protection from the impact of environmental factors, which is why the farming of sea oats is now a big business. Once in place, the plants push roots down as deep as 40 feet into the dunes and the stalks can help to hold more sand in place, growing the dunes at the same time as stabilizing them.