A team of 28 Penn students, including student Eco-Reps Karen Chi, Samantha Friskey, Sophia Leporte, Richard Ling, Nicole Posadas, and Hannah Sanders have been selected to participate in the global 2018 Millennium Fellowship Pilot, a collaboration between United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) and the Millennium Campus Network (MCN). Millennium Fellows share a common goal of advancing United Nations goals for social impact on their campuses and communities.

Only 30 campuses worldwide (11% of campus applicants) were selected to host the Millennium Fellows.

The Power Down Challenge for 2019 has been scheduled for March 18-22! The Power Down Challenge empowers members of the Penn community to reduce their energy consumption and deepen their understanding of energy issues. The Power Down webpage will be updated with more details as the Challenge draws near.

Prior to the 2019 Power Down Challenge, swap out your space heater for a free heated foot pad or warm desk pad as a part of Space Heater Amnesty Day 2019. Space Heater Amnesty Day will take place on Thursday, January 24 from 11am to 2pm in the Houston Hall Bistro. Fill out the sign-up form by 1/11/19 to reserve your heated foot pad or warm desk pad.

Penn's School of Arts and Sciences uses an IBM desktop energy-saving software called BigFix. Adam Linder has leveraged existing features of BigFix for almost seven years, and also wrote custom code in order to increase energy savings in SAS Computing.

The League of American Bicyclists has honored Penn with a Silver Bicycle Friendly University award in recognition of Penn’s achievements in promoting and enabling safe, accessible bicycling on campus. Penn joins a group of 193 colleges and universities in 46 states and the District of Columbia that are transforming the American landscape by providing more bicycle friendly campuses for the benefit of students, staff, and community members.

“Congratulations to the University of Pennsylvania for its inclusion in a select class of Bicycle Friendly Universities nationwide,” says League Executive Director Bill Nesper. “Universities and colleges are in a unique leadership position to help encourage and enable people of all ages—especially young adults—to adopt healthy, sustainable habits that can benefit them throughout their lives.”

The University of Pennsylvania is one of the most environmentally responsible colleges in the United States, according to The Princeton Review . The education services company has given Penn a Green Ranking of 94/99.

The Princeton Review  chose the schools for its 

ninth annual edition of their "Green Guide" 

based on data from the company's 2017-18 survey of hundreds of four-year colleges concerning the schools' 

commitments to the environment and 

sustainability.

The Sustainable Campus Index, a publication by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), has recognized Penn as a top-performing university as measured by the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS). The report highlights innovative and high-impact initiatives from institutions that submitted STARS reports in the most recent calendar year. The Index highlights Penn’s campus and its designation as a Level II Arbnet-Certified arboretum, and labels Penn a top performer in the Diversity & Affordability and Transportation categories.

Penn Sustainability recently met with Staff & Faculty Eco-Reps to review progress made on the group’s 2017 waste minimization goals. The ongoing waste minimization goals are:

·         reduce disposable utensil use,

·         reduce coffee waste, and

·         expand office reuse collections.

The Eco-Reps discussed the challenges in establishing habitual change within the office setting, while also sharing some ideas for innovative ways to promote waste minimization, such as a coffee mug lending library, and patronizing caterers that do not supply unnecessary disposable utensils.

The Staff & Faculty Eco-Reps Program is a peer education program that provides the tools to improve the environmental sustainability of Penn offices and labs. They work with campus stakeholders and within their departments and offices to develop educational events, activities, and campaigns aimed at supporting the University’s environmental goals and Climate Action Plan.

Have an idea for environmental sustainability on campus that you’d like to try? The Green Fund welcomes ideas from students, faculty, and staff about ways to improve the University’s environmental performance. Since 2009, this initiative has funded numerous innovative ideas in sustainability from members of the University community.

Proposed projects must support goals and objectives outlined in Penn’s Climate Action Plan, the University’s long-range strategy to reduce our carbon footprint and enhance overall sustainability. Penn Sustainability team members are available to advise you while putting together your Green Fund application.

Recent projects have included the installation of a wildlife tracking antenna on top of David Rittenhouse Laboratories for a Master of Environmental Studies research project as well as support for the development of a Soil Conversation Plan at Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center.