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Pennsylvania State University

Pennsylvania State University
Campus Category: 
Four year and graduate institutions over 15,000 student FTE

Contact Information

Lydia
Vandenbergh
Program Coordinator
Finance and Business
Education and Research:

Curriculum:
Penn State University (PSU) recognizes its opportunity to educate our 87,000 students, preparing them for climate change. We are integrating sustainability across our curricula in the following ways:

  • The Schreyer Institute for Educational Excellence, in collaboration with the faculty and several campus institutes, has sponsored 5 teaching luncheons and workshops with almost 200 attending, discussing ways to weave sustainability into the curriculum.
  • PSU offers students over 600 courses on environmental topics; 16 undergraduate majors in energy and environmental studies; 37 minors; and 6 graduate programs in the same areas.
  • Through a grant from the National Science Foundation, the Center for Sustainability at Penn State is developing a rubric and assessment tool to help faculty integrate and implement sustainability into existing courses.

Co-curricular Activities:
The Center for Sustainability has championed service learning programs that enrich students’ educational experiences while strengthening communities.

  • In 2009, 24 students and volunteers design and build green housing projects on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, as part of the ongoing American Indian Housing Initiative.
  • The Honduran Solar Project, in which students installed solar arrays on a school there.
  • Over 50 students have conducted energy audits of six local institutions and businesses, including a local school district and a beer brewery.
  • Our Solar Decathlon team, with over 900 student participants, placed fourth in 2007 and are building their 2009 solar home.

PSU’s Physical Plant (OPP) collaborates with students and faculty, providing them with practical applications of their studies. Examples include:

  • The nationally-recognized STATERS’s recycling efforts at Beaver Stadium, in which students hand out recycling bags to tailgaters, has resulted in a 400% increase in football game recycling and compost capture and has raised more than $65,000 for United Way.
  • Smeal Business School students are assisting the Purchasing Department in shifting a $500,000 janitorial paper contract products to a more sustainable supplier.
  • Our 6 environmental student groups have been involved in reviewing plans for reducing water bottle consumption, resulting in the installation of some water bottle filling stations. This could avoid over 12,800 water bottle purchases annually.
  • The Friday Night Lights Out student group turns off over 2,000 lights in classrooms every week.

Research:
PSU’s Institutes for Energy and the Environment (PSIEE) facilitates interdisciplinary research by 500 faculty on sustainability issues, supported with $120 million in grant funds annually. PSIEE projects include:

  • Assembling a multidisciplinary team to focus on creating energy from wastewater, the Microbial Fuel Cell Project, funded with a $10M international award.
  • Establishing the Critical Zone Observatory, in which faculty from three colleges are investigating diverse interactions from biogeochemistry to ecosciences, between the groundwater and the top of the forest layer zone.
     
Campus Operations:

PSU’s Physical Plant (OPP) demonstrates the University’s commitment to environmental stewardship. Accomplishments include:

Energy Savings:

  • Since 2005 a full-time staff person has maintained our GHG inventory.
  • Since 2006, PSU’s energy savings programs have reduced our GHG emissions by about 10%, and electrical use by about 4%.
  • PSU’s Green Building Policy establishes our own LEED rating system that exceeds the national standards. For example, all of our buildings must exceed ASHRAE 90.1 by 30%. Presently, 12 existing buildings have LEED awards and 6 more are under construction.
  • Behrend campus has converted a dorm to geothermal heat.
  • The Big Fix, a power-management software, is expected to avoid more than $2 million in electrical costs for the University Park campus. Desktop and Server virtualization programs are already saving OPP 475,000 kWh/yr.
  • Our new Energy Conservation Policy sets behavior and technology standards for all students and employees.
  • Our Take Charge energy awareness program reaches at least 15,000 students annually.

Transportation: To reduce reliance on petroleum-based fuel.

  • 28% of campus vans operate on CNG or flex-fuels
  • OPP uses 7 Segways, 3 smart cars, & 11 electric vehicles

Purchasing Initiatives:

  • Using local manufacturers – we switched bike rack manufacturers from one 2,700 miles away to one in the next town. This involved helping a steel welder purchase the unique equipment necessary to make the racks.
  • 30% recycled content paper offered at a 5.8% cost discount compared to virgin paper
  • Developed a ceiling tile recycling program with Armstrong Corporation. Over 25 tons of ceiling tiles were diverted from the landfill in 2008. We then closed the waste loop by purchasing their recycled content products.

Collaborations with Academics

  • Green roofs: our 5 green roofs provide living labs for our faculty and students.
  • Cooking oil to biofuels – We refine 22,000 gallons of our used-cooking oil yearly into fuel for campus vehicles and 276 pieces of equipment.
  • Composting – OPP works with the College of Ag to capture over 3,000 tons of food and landscaping waste and convert it into 1,200 tons of compost.
  • Our Blue Cleaning Program test and utilizes green cleaning supplies in all buildings.
  • The Living Filter Program sprays treated effluent from our wastewater treatment plant over fields in order to recharge our water table.

Waste Reduction: Penn State has a highly developed waste management program and is now recycling over 53% of its waste. Specific initiatives include:

  • Our Trash to Treasure Program captures unwanted items at student move-out dates, collecting 63 tons of goods that produced $63,000 for United Way.
  • We work with furniture and electronic suppliers, like Dell, to reduce packaging, which saves $23 per computer, plus labor savings.
  • Penn State contributes 90% of its bottom ash (~6,500 tons) to a concrete manufacturer in York, Pennsylvania, which makes it into concrete block.
     
Administration and Finance:

Leadership and Governance:
In line with its goal to be a leader in environmental stewardship, PSU created an administrative infrastructure to act as a rudder, guiding measureable sustainable practices throughout our campuses. In light of this objective:

  • President Spanier established a goal of a 17.5% reduction of GHG emissions by 2012. 20% of PSU electricity is derived from renewable resources, primarily wind energy.
  • The Sustainability Leadership Team coordinates operations, research, outreach and academic efforts on sustainability.
  • The Finance and Business (F&B) Environmental Stewardship Key Initiatives Team, representing administrators and operations staff from various divisions, established 8 sustainability goals. To help implement these goals, they created a 3-person Environmental Stewardship Office (ESO), funded with $1.4 million annually, to finance awareness and mitigation initiatives.
  • Several PSU departments have created Green Teams to mentor faculty and staff on conservation issues.

Outreach –PSU is engaging with citizens, organizations, and communities on sustainability challenges and opportunities in many ways, including:

  • Cooperative Extension is aggregating and trading energy credits on behalf of small entities, assisting energy company incubations, providing energy efficiency education and tools, partnering on community-scale alternative and renewable energy projects, offering 4-H youth programs in energy and environment, and assisting communities to balance agriculture and energy production with environment interests.
  • The Steel City Biofuels Program focuses on education, demonstration, research and advocacy for biofuels. Their goal is to build the policies, technology and infrastructure needed to sustain production and use of biofuels in southwestern PA.
  • The World Campus program offers courses and degrees, such as Earth Science Education, in a distance-learning format.
  • The Penn State Center in the greater Pittsburgh area, addresses green workforce development, sustainable building infrastructure, emerging renewable energy credit markets, energy business incubation, and brownfield redevelopment.
  • PSU’s PennTAPap and Small Business Development Centers provide free consultation assistance to small businesses, including consulting on energy efficiency, waste reduction, pollution prevention and regulatory compliance.
  • The Center for Sustainability, PSU Broadcasting, PSIEE, and the Economic and Workforce Development are working together to offer a package of energy efficiency and renewable energy education programs and services in response to Pennsylvania's Act 129 - mandating utility companies to reduce carbon emissions.
  • Public Broadcasting has developed a suite of video materials associated with sustainability topics, including green buildings, water infrastructure, energy efficiency, energy assets, and K-12 curriculum resources.

Finance:
Penn State’s endowment has investments in various private capital funds that include strategies with modest allocations to clean technology and green initiatives.
 

Please email resources@aashe.org with any suggestions, additions or updates.