University of Pennsylvania CLIMATE ACTION PLAN 2.0 Published October 21, 2014 CLIMATE ACTION PLAN 2.0 TABLE OF CONTENTS Letter from President Gutmann 5 Executive Summary 6 Academics 11 Utilities & Operations 15 Physical Environment 20 Waste Minimization & Recycling 28 Transportation 34 Outreach & Engagement 38 Looking Forward 45 I am pleased to present the University of Pennsylvania’s Climate Action Plan 2.0, our roadmap for environmental sustainability. Drawing from the successes and lessons of the last five years, Climate Action Plan 2.0 sets challenging new standards for campus performance, expands educational opportunities for students, and provides enriched support for faculty research, teaching, and collaboration. When I signed the Presidents’ Climate Commitment in 2007, we set in motion university-wide efforts to build on Penn’s strengths, identify opportunities for progress, and bring together passionate students, faculty, and staff to develop environmental strategies that will impact our local community, our nation, and the world. The Environmental Sustainability Advisory Committee (ESAC) produced Penn’s first Climate Action Plan in 2009 and set ambitious goals for achievement by 2014. The Committee dedicated itself and the University community to the highest ambitions of performance and transparency, in the areas of academics, utilities and operations, physical environment, transportation, waste minimization, and engagement. The dedicated students, faculty, and staff of Penn’s ESAC subcommittees reviewed our progress and wrote the goals set forth in this new blueprint for environmental excellence. Penn’s Climate Action Plan 2.0 represents Penn’s considerable expertise across a variety of disciplines and anticipates the demands of the next five years. We look forward to continued engagement across campus in making Penn a model of environmental academics and stewardship. The future of our University, and beyond, depends on it. Dr. Amy Gutmann President Penn Climate Action Plan 2.0 5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Five Years of Progress • Minimizing Waste - Penn recycles nearly 26% of its waste, including traditional recycling, Five years since the launch of the University’s first composting, and e-waste and educates our Climate Action Plan, Penn looks back on a remarkable community about the importance of decision and steadily deepening array of accomplishments, making in what products they consume. Penn’s and forward to a path of continual improvement continued reduction of landfill waste by almost in its ecological performance. In 2007, as the first 10%, provides a more complete picture of waste Ivy League signatory to the American College minimization on campus. and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, the University began the process of creating and • Commuting with fewer emissions — 50% of Penn executing a vision of environmental sustainability at commuters now use public transit, walk or bike. Penn. Our community has witnessed an increase in people using alternative transit by nearly 10%, In 2009, the launch of the Climate Action Plan playing to our strength as a dense campus easy set concrete goals and began the formal process to traverse by foot or bike and well connected by of integrating sustainability into coursework, public transit. community, campus planning and design, and campus operations. Significant progress has been • Engaging the Penn Community — Penn’s Green made and accelerating momentum established. Below Fund made 49 grants to faculty, students and is a review of the main objectives by the numbers: staff totaling over1M over the last five years, and whose ideas are enhancing our campus’ • Bolstering the Curriculum — Penn now offers environmental sustainability. 350 students and over 170 courses focused on and related to more than 100 staff have volunteered as Eco-Reps sustainability, and the Integrating Sustainability over the past five years, championing sustainable across the Curriculum program added 22 faculty actions in offices, College Houses, student and 12 students who have collaborated to infuse organizations and athletic teams. principles of sustainability into 21 courses. While implementing the initiatives explicitly • Reducing our Carbon - Penn achieved an 18% identified in the Climate Action Plan has been reduction in its carbon emissions from FY 2007 rewarding for the faculty, staff, and students who to FY14, and also achieved a 6.6% reduction in helped create it, the unanticipated outcomes, normalized energy consumption. programs, and projects that have evolved through heightened exchange have often been even more • Growing Greener – As a major research university, profound and exciting. Not only have students, Penn meets its mission of teaching and research faculty, and staff eagerly embraced the initiatives with new facilities. But the Climate Action Plan we have undertaken, they have also responded by focuses that growth to be more sustainable, creating new programs at a rate that was impossible resulting in six new buildings achieving LEED to predict, including: Gold Certification, and more than 27 new acres of green space. 6 Penn Climate Action Plan 2.0 • PennGreen: Upperclass students who wanted of collective experience implementing the initial to provide a sustainability-themed pre- plan. ESAC Subcommittees are organized by topic orientation program created PennGreen, which area: Academics, Utilities & Operations, Physical in 2014 welcomed its fifth class of freshmen Environment, Transportation, Waste Minimization & to Penn with a whirlwind of tours, meetings, Recycling, and Outreach & Engagement. dialogues, and lectures by local experts in environmentalism. This Climate Action Plan 2.0 document is organized by the above subcommittee initiatives, with each • Move-In Green: Staff in College Housing and section including a Mission, Five Year Summary, and Academic Services and Residential Services Recommendations. were essential to the implementation of Move- In Green, Penn’s signature New Student Climate Action Plan 2.0 Recommendations at a Glance Orientation student volunteer opportunity. The recommendations included in Climate Action Plan • School and Center Sustainability Coordinators: 2.0 build upon those outlined in the original Climate A role not foreseen in the 2009 Plan, seven Action Plan and achievements of the past five years. Schools and Centers are now meeting monthly, The carbon and energy goals in Climate Action Plan 2.0 sharing their enthusiasm and best practices, align with the long-term goal of carbon neutrality by and implementing projects across campus. 2042, and include the following: • Penn Green Fund: The success of the Penn Academics – Expand opportunities for teaching, Green Fund has exceeded expectations, with learning, and researching sustainability among funding awarded to College Houses, Greek students, staff, and faculty. Houses, Athletics and Recreation, the Morris Arboretum, and the University of Pennsylvania • Create a Faculty Working Group on Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, Sustainability to provide outreach and support among many more. to faculty interested in researching and teaching sustainability. • The Century Bond Program: The Century Bond Program is investing in energy efficiency in • Promote existing sustainability programs and campus buildings at an unprecedented scale, classes to Penn’s undergraduate and graduate demonstrating Penn’s commitment to bringing student body. sustainability to the heart of its planning • Create a Speaker Series / Symposium dedicated operations. to sustainability. Development & Format of Climate Action Plan 2.0 Utilities & Operations – Promote and adopt best Developing a new five year plan, Climate Action Plan practices in energy management, design, and 2.0, is an exciting opportunity that builds on such maintenance to improve efficiency and reduce Penn’s successes, institutionalizes organic change, and uses carbon footprint. the experience learned from past challenges to better • Achieve Total Carbon Reduction in Buildings frame new goals and strategies. One of the most (absolute) ambitious elements of Climate Action Plan 2.0 is the expansion of the Plan’s geography, from the core o 7% reduction by 2019 in comparison to the academic campus, to more fully capture the range FY14 baseline of environmental leadership across the University’s o 18% reduction by 2042 in comparison to entire built assets. By including the University of the FY14 baseline Pennsylvania Health System, the Morris Arboretum, • the New Bolton Center, and the University’s leased Achieve Energy Reduction in Buildings space and real estate portfolio, Climate Action Plan (absolute) 2.0 reflects an expanded approach to environmental o 10% reduction by 2019 in comparison to stewardship, and highlights important work the FY14 baseline accomplished, underway, and planned for the future. o 27% by 2042 in comparison to the FY14 The recommendations included throughout Climate baseline Action Plan 2.0 were formalized by the respective Environmental Sustainability Advisory Committee • Recommission the top 20% of the buildings (ESAC) Subcommittees, building upon five years that have the highest energy use every five Penn Climate Action Plan 2.0 7 years and complete a deep energy retrofit by metrics and improve composting operations on 2042. The remaining 80% of buildings will be campus. recommissioned on a ten year basis. • Increase participation in and awareness of • Develop an energy reduction plan for all sustainable purchasing options and