Farm-fresh fruit and vegetables, breads and baked goods, and gourmet chocolates are just a sampling of the tasty offerings available at the farmers market located centrally on campus near the Penn Bookstore at 36th and Walnut Streets. The market is open Wednesdays, 10AM - 3PM, into the fall.

Congratulations to ISC Computer Operations for being the first Level 4 Green Office certified under the new Green Office 2.0 guidelines. "Reaching Level 4 certification is a great achievement in itself, and doing it under the refreshed guidelines deserves extra recognition because it shows that the office has embraced continual improvement," says Penn's Sustainability Director Dan Garofalo. "This office initially achieved Level 2 in its first submission, and later upgraded to Level 3 after an internal review of their environmental practices and processes.  Under the new guidelines, ISC engaged in a third review of practices, and inaugurated a number of new policies to rise to Level 4."

 The Green Office program was refreshed in April 2014 to include sustainability practices that may not have been options in 2012 when the program was launched. READ MORE...

Learning and leading - both of these terms describe what it is to be an Eco-Rep at Penn. Eco-Reps are volunteers who educate, engage, and empower others in sustainability in their own offices or departments. "It's important that these green champions can be articulate about the programs designed to meet the goals outlined in the Penn Climate Action Plan," says Andrea Kreiner, sustainability consultant to Penn's Green Campus Partnership. To facilitate this learning, she organizes training sessions for Staff & Faculty Eco-Reps throughout the year, in addition to the regular monthly lunch meetings.

The trainings are sometimes events, like the walking tour of Penn's landscapes that took place in June, or presentations on University-wide programs such as the Managed Print Initiative or the Power Down Challenge. The Eco-Reps also spearhead Green Office Certification in their offices. Ms. Kreiner envisions an interesting year ahead for Staff & Faculty Eco-Reps. Upcoming programming is scheduled to include:

• A prep meeting for this fall's ReThink Your Footprint waste minimization campaign
• An in-depth presentation on Penn's five years of progress on its Climate Action Plan and the goals of Climate Action Plan 2.0
• A tour of the Waste Management recycling facility in northeast Philadelphia
• A training session on how to conduct a waste reduction assessment in your office or department.

In addition, all Eco-Reps receive peer support and idea exchange, and a monthly newsletter with helpful tips for being green at home and at work. This year, the Eco-Reps also began an optional reading group.  The current selection is The Ominivore's Dilemma, a former Penn Reading Project selection, which they discussed at their monthly Eco-Rep meeting.

 Does your office have an Eco-Rep? Check out the list on our website. Are you interested in raising your own office's level of environmental sustainability? Apply to be an Eco-Rep - download the application or email akrein@upenn.edu.

The Penn Green Fund is designed to seed innovative ideas in environmental sustainability from Penn students, faculty, and staff. Since 2009, this initiative of Penn's Green Campus Partnership, funded by the Division of Facilities and Real Estate Services, has supported 49 projects aimed to improve Penn's environmental performance and reduce campus emissions.

 The variety and creativity brought to these projects has been impressive. Now, as Penn reviews five years of progress on its Climate Action Plan, the Green Fund Program has been updated. The refreshed program offers a quicker turn-around on most submissions, and is designed to make the grant-making process more responsive to those who submit ideas. The Green Fund Review Board has announced the following program updates, effective for the Fall 2014 semester:

• Grant applications under $7,500 will be accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year, with decisions on applications usually provided within one month.  This will allow for applying groups get a quick response on timely proposals, and to refine unsuccessful applications and apply again sooner instead of having to wait until the following semester. Grant applications under $7,500 will be reviewed by the School and Center Sustainability Coordinators at their monthly meetings.
• Grant applications for over $7,500 up to the maximum grant amount is $30,000 will be reviewed twice a year - once in the fall and once in the spring - by the full Review Board of faculty, staff, and students. New this year, a student representative from the Student Sustainability Association at Penn (SSAP) will sit on the Review Board.
• When there are applications to the Green Fund are submitted by faculty or otherwise related to academics, the ESAC Academics Subcommittee Co-Chairs will be asked to review the application and provide input.

Learn more about the Green Fund and download an application.

Think about 5,000+ students moving in to campus within one week, and how much waste that generates. Cardboard boxes and wrapping, computer cases, and plastic bags - once cleared of their contents, are all headed to Penn's trash stream. 

 A group of student volunteers is ready to assist staff to make sure that everything is disposed of in its proper place during Move-In, and others are poised to continue the educational process around sustainability at Penn.

• Move-In Green- More than 20 student volunteers will participate in this year's Move-In Green program and help incoming students and parents sort and dispose of trash and recycling in all eleven College Houses.  Volunteers will be staffing outreach tables at Hill, Hamilton Village, and the Quad where they'll be promoting green living to the incoming student class by handing out energy-efficient light bulbs, reusable cups, and sunglasses made of recycled-content plastic, and answering any and all questions about campus sustainability.
• Instagram Contest- Posting photos of themselves "being green" while moving onto campus will net some lucky winners a membership to Zipcar, a three-month free subscription to PennCycle, and an IKEA gift card. Visit the Green Campus Partnership Facebook page to learn more about the contest.
• Pennfest, the traditional late-night orientation celebration with food, games and events, is going zero-waste this year! The goal is to compost or recycle all waste, sending next-to-zero trash to the landfill.
• On August 24, the annual GCP Penn Sustainability Preceptorial invites new students to "Come learn about Penn's Climate Action Plan and environmental initiatives on campus!" This small group discussion with Penn's Environmental Sustainability Director Dan Garofalo will review what the university is doing to benefit the environment, and will be followed by a walking tour of sites around campus, including the Penn Women's Center green kitchen, Penn Law's LEED-certified Golkin Hall, and Shoemaker Green.  Students will have a chance to meet others interested in environmental issues and plan to get involved in Penn's sustainability initiatives and organizations.
• Student Eco-Reps' activities expand this year with an enhanced training program and a bi-weekly lunchtime speaker series.  Penn Eco-Reps hone their leadership skills by working on various environmental projects throughout the year and organizing Green Teams within their College Houses, Green Chapters, or varsity athletics teams.  Students can apply to join Penn's 2014-15 Eco-Reps program by submitting an application , which will be accepted for the College House program until August 31 and the Athletics and Greek programs until September 7.
• The Green Living Certification for College House residents moves into its second year of recognizing students' personal lifestyle choices. Rewards include coupons to University City restaurants Shake Shack and Picnic.

 "We are very proud of all the students who play a role in helping to promote a culture of sustainability around the University," says Julian Goresko, Sustainability Associate for the Green Campus Partnership. "The year ahead promises to be our best yet in terms of student initiatives and activities to lead the University towards its Climate Action Plan goals."

Each spring, PennMOVES encourages students leaving campus to donate items they no longer want rather than toss them in the trash. This year's program sent clothes, furniture, and kitchen supplies to Goodwill, and - new this year - non-perishable food items to Philabundance, a local food bank in Philadelphia. According to Joel Mintzer, Building Administrator in Penn's Residential Services, Penn collected 52,386 pounds of donations for Goodwill - nearly double the previous high total - and 3,551 pounds of food for Philabundance. He calls PennMOVES "truly a collective effort," adding that "everyone involved deserves to be proud of the good that was accomplished."

 Julian Goresko, Sustainability Associate with the Green Campus Partnership, credits this year's high totals in large part to a broader collaboration between Facilities & Real Estate Services and Residential Services, along with significant contributions from Eco-Reps and paid student interns with Residential Services workers: "This year the students played a much bigger role in helping to lead the PennMOVES program. They did a fantastic job bringing high visibility to the program and were hands-on helping out with the sorting process and promoting the program among their peers."

Graduation got even "greener" this year as Penn expanded its collaboration with Oak Hill Cap & Gown, which provides regalia for the University, to include its Greenweaver gowns for Master's candidates. Undergraduates have worn the gowns, which are made from the 100 percent post-consumer recycled plastic bottles, since 2010 when Penn became the first Ivy League institution to feature the Greenweaver line. With some 60 million plastic bottles going into U.S. landfills alone every day, regalia made of recycled materials offers a chance to turn trash into keepsakes.  Traditionally, Penn baccalaureate degree recipients purchase their caps and gowns and keep them as mementos. That opportunity was extended to Master's Degree candidates this May.

Purchasing Services in collaboration with the Office of Environmental Health & Radiation Safety (EHRS) has now expanded its pilot program to recycle reusable sharps (needles, blades and similar materials) containers campus-wide. Previously, during EHRS audits of labs, one of the most common problems noted was the improper disposal of infectious sharps. Establishing a reusable container program helps to improve safety by reducing exposure risks and eliminating inventory problems and multiple handling of containers.

 In addition, the program has:

• Saved lab space and research dollars as principal investigators do not have to purchase and store the large disposable sharps containers. The containers are provided by Curtis Bay, the vendor selected to administer the program.    
• Offered an environmentally sustainable disposal method, as Curtis Bay will only dispose of the container's contents (the sharps). The container itself is cleaned and sterilized prior to being returned to our labs. According to Curtis Bay Energy's data, one reusable container can replace up to 150 disposable containers each year. 

If you should have any questions or would like to participate in this program, please contact Dr. Andrew B. Maksymowych, Institutional Biosafety Officer at 215-898-6236, or Dave Staskin, Purchasing Services Strategic Sourcing Manager at 215-898-2482.

There are no easy answers to the challenges of environmental sustainability, David Hsu cautions his city planning students. But he encourages each of them to direct his or her particular skills into collaborative teamwork needed to solve problems in this interdisciplinary field. In this interview, Professor Hsu shares his thoughts on the rhetoric around sustainability and his ideas on how Penn students and the University can contribute to the ongoing discourse.