Green Success Stories puts Alexandria Carson, outgoing President of the University of Tampa Environmental Protection Coalition, in the Green Spotlight. Alexandria describes her growing interest in sustainability, from loving being in nature as a child to rising through the UT’s Environmental Protection Coalition and ultimately taking on its role as president, a role that she recently completed. Alexandria is especially proud of organizing and leading the continuing Sustainable Spartan Market, featuring local venders selling eco-conscious products to the entire community. She hopes to help people see that sustainability can be an everyday practice, and that trying to make a difference is an essential step toward a building a better world.

Tell us a bit about your sustainability journey.

Ever since I was a kid, I have loved to be in nature. However, it wasn’t until I started attending the University of Tampa in 2021 that I took a more concentrated interest in sustainability. Early into my time at UT, I found my way into an Environmental Protection Coalition (EPC) meeting. They were discussing different potential product replacements that were not only better for the earth, but also better for you! I was hooked right away. Quickly, I found myself serving on the executive board for EPC as the Volunteer Coordinator, then the Vice President, and then eventually into the President’s role. Through this organization, I was able to teach others about sustainability and how to incorporate that into your daily life. However, as we led more and more educational programs, I realized that not everyone had access to the sustainable products and lifestyle choices that we were teaching about.

After this realization, I knew that we needed to begin to offer a more accessible solution to sustainability. We also needed to do this in a way that was easy, fun AND affordable. That was when the idea of the Sustainable Spartan Market was born.

Tell us a bit about the product or solution you offer.

I co-founded an event starting in 2022 at the University of Tampa called the Sustainable Spartan Market. This event is a monthly farmers market which features local businesses who each have a focus on sustainability. It is also hosted in the heart of campus which makes this event accessible to students, faculty, staff and the community. By bringing vendors focused on sustainability to campus, this allows for greater accessibility to more eco-conscious products that students may not have had access to before. It also opened the conversation surrounding how to adopt more eco-friendly habits into your day -to-day life.

From its inception in October of 2022, this market has expanded to over 30 vendors, has supported thousands of community members, been featured on various news stations and has become a growing part of the University of Tampa campus community. It continues to grow and evolve each month by adding new vendors and adopting new ideas on how to showcase sustainable practices in daily life.

Share a green success story with us – how have you helped customers or other businesses in the fight against climate change?

Through the Sustainable Spartan Market, we have been able to host up to 30 vendors each time. This allows us to support several local small businesses each month. Not only does this support local businesses by offering an additional audience to unlock potential income but it also encourages students and other members of the community to shop small and shop local, which helps to cut back on negative emissions associated with shipping and larger corporations.

What would you like readers to take away from this article?

The most important takeaway from this article should be that sustainability can be (and should be) an everyday practice. It can be adopted in the simplest of ways, such as making the conscious effort to shop locally or to switch from a product in plastic packaging to one in glass that you can then reuse. Sustainability is more effective by 100 people practicing it imperfectly, than it is by just 1 person who is doing everything perfectly. The first step towards making a difference is just to try!

How should readers get in touch with you and/or your organization?

To get in touch with me personally, readers can email [email protected]

If readers are interested in following along with the Environmental Protection Coalition or finding our more about the Sustainable Spartan Markets, they can follow @utampaepc on Instagram.

Kudos

Many thanks to Alexandria Carson and to the University of Tampa Environmental Protection Coalition. Green Success Stories is happy to support and highlight your efforts! We invite you the reader to do the same.

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