Sustainability

On Wednesday April 24 Penn Faculty and Staff were invited to attend a 1-hour workshop on the basics of home composting. The workshop was held at the Dirt Factory, University City’s own community composting facility. The workshop included a presentation by Master Gardener Christine Tilles of Penn...

On January 29, the SAS Sustainability team came together at 4308 Market St for a tour of the Dirt Factory, University City’s newest community composting facility. While the Dirt Factory is still in its first year of production, its two reclaimed Earth Tubs, purchased from Penn, are already hard...

Jaffe and Stouffer celebrate winning the 2012 Penn Power Down Challenge. The annual Power Down Challenge is run by the Penn Green Campus Partnership.  Between October 31st and November 18th of 2012, faculty, staff, and students sought to decrease energy use within their college houses...

To kick off this year’s Power Down Challenge, SAS’s representative building Jaffe hosted a kick-off event for faculty, staff and students to sign a pledge to reduce their energy consumption. Energy saving giveaways were given to all pledge signers, including CFL light bulbs and power strips....

SAS' Facility's design team recently visited Mannington Commercial in Salem, New Jersey in order to get a better understanding of how their hard flooring products are manufactured. While there, an extensive environmental tour of the campus was given. The team was pleased to discover many...

SAS' Student Sustainability Advisory Board hosted a "MINDSPACE" booth during Philadelphia Science Festival's Science Discovery Day on April 29. The students created a Family Feud inspired game that was played, which focuses on the concept of decision-making and its relationship to sustainability...

SAS recently took a trip to Waste Management's recycling center to see how our recyclables are being treated. The center's single-stream technology allows us to collect all recyclables in the same container, making recycling convenient and easy.

As part of our commitment to Recycle Mania, SAS has taken the initiative to streamline recycling on the primary classroom floors in Williams Hall. Single stream recycling bins were added to 38 of the classrooms located in Williams Hall, providing easy and convenient recycling locations to the...

In an initiative to promote energy awareness and sustainable behavior at home, SAS started off the New Year by hosting an Energy Works @ Work workshop. The event educated faculty and staff on energy efficiency improvements to achieve a more comfortable and safe home environment with savings on...

Given a goal of LEED Silver at the beginning of design, the Music Building project surpassed expectations and is the first LEED Gold building on campus. By exceeding targets set early in design, closely monitoring construction activities and the selection of materials and products, and with...

As part of their commitment to help increase the University recycling rate during recycle mania, Arts & Sciences has added new "Big Green Box" locations for alkaline battery recycling. Faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to bring used batteries from home, as well as deposit those...

The SAS Student Sustainability Advisory Board (SAS SSAB) is hosting an event in conjunction with A Drink for Tomorrow (ADFT), Philadelphia Global Water Initiative (PGWI), and the Year of Water. It will be the kick off to a fund raising drive, with a goal of $5K to benefit the water...

On August 26, B cycle and The Bicycle Coalition of Philadelphia teamed up to demonstrate a prototype of a bike sharing station outside the Penn bookstore. The goal was to garner support for a bike-share program in Philadelphia.

The School of Arts and Sciences Student Sustainability Advisory Board hosted the first of a series of sustainability town hall meetings for fellow students to inform them of School and University initiatives currently underway, and answer questions regarding sustainability.

The magnificent renovation of the Music department’s historic home, combined with the construction of new contemporary space, celebrates both the distinguished traditions and the promising future of one of the most honored academic programs of the School of Arts and Sciences and the University....