Course Information

About Us

Center for Training, Research and Education
for Environmental Occupations
(UF/TREEO)

TREEO Facility Environmental professionals can keep current with what is happening in their fields at the University of Florida TREEO Center. UF/TREEO offers more than 250 non-credit, professional development courses each year in the environmental and health and safety as well as air quality, asbestos abatement, GIS, GPS, groundwater, hazardous materials, health and safety, ISO 14000, landfill design, lead abatement, solid waste, water and wastewater.

The mission of UF/TREEO, Excellence in Environmental Education & Training, ensures that you will receive up-to-date information in your field, and learn information you can use immediately at your job.

One option is attendance at one of the open enrollment courses offered in Gainesville and other Florida locations including Orlando, Tampa, Pensacola, West Palm Beach and Ft. Lauderdale. More than 5000 technicians, operators, engineers, environmental supervisors and decision makers are trained annually in one of these classes.

Another option is for UF/TREEO to customize a course and deliver it at your location. This allows for more in-depth coverage of topics specific to your industry or agency. Bringing a course to your location also saves travel time and expense.

TREEO Facility UF/TREEO has the staff and resources to provide technical assistance to business and industries that have a need for innovative solutions to environmental problems. Projects include working with wastewater treatment plants that are out of compliance to bring them back into compliance through training and changing operations, finding more energy efficient ways for treatment plants to operate and determining if a facility is in compliance with OSHA and EPA regulations.

Specific environmental training programs and materials have been developed for the Pulp and Paper industry, wastewater treatment plants in small communities, landfills and state water inspectors.

If a facility does not have the resources to send several people for training, but has the technical staff available, UF/TREEO can teach the instructional skills necessary to deliver the information to your own staff. Train-the-Trainer classes are offered in Gainesville yearly or can be customized to meet your specific needs.

For the student that does not have the time to be away from work, UF/TREEO offers several online courses. Correspondence courses are also available for Florida wastewater treatment operators from the Department of Independent Study.

TREEO Facility UF/TREEO's facility features a water garden which provides habitat for many plant and wildlife species including alligators, birds, fish, snakes and turtles. The water garden uses reclaimed water from the Gainesville Regional Utilities Kanapaha Water Reclamation Facility. Reclaimed water is wastewater that has been treated to an advanced level that meets or exceeds drinking water standards. Reused water conserves higher quality drinking water while eliminating the energy costs associated with pumping, treating and distributing fresh water. It is widely accepted in Florida for restricted public access use such as irrigation of homes and golf courses. Most significant, use of reclaimed water helps conserve valuable potable water supplies, an essential element to the continued growth and prosperity of our beautiful state. UF/TREEO is proud that our water garden practices meaningful energy and water conservation methods.

For more information about services offered by the University of Florida TREEO Center contact Carol Hinton, Associate Director at chinton@treeo.ufl.edu or (352) 392-9570 ext 209.