Become a Partner
Green Campus Partnership Sustainability Pledge
I pledge to further the Green Campus Partnership's goal of achieving carbon neutrality at the University of Pennsylvania by reducing my carbon footprint through implementing the following sustainable practices in my everyday life.
Attending lectures, seminars, and classes to learn about environment.
Buying locally grown food products and supporting local food growers. Why?
- Buying locally decreases the distance food must travel. In doing so, it reduces carbon dioxide emissions from trucking and requires less packaging materials.
- Only about 10 percent of the fossil fuel energy used in the world’s food system is used in production; the other 90 percent goes into packaging, transportation and marketing.
- Source: www.foodroutes.org
Conserving energy by turning down thermostats and using compact fluorescent light bulbs. Why?
- During cold months, lowering the thermostat 10 degrees when no one is home can save 326 pounds of CO2 over the course of the year.
- Source: www.thegreenguide.com
Drinking tap water instead of bottled water when possible.
Why?
- According to a 2001 report of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), roughly 1.5 million tons of plastic are expended in the bottling of 89 billion liters of water each year.
- Source: www.allaboutwater.org
Joining Penn sponsored programs and groups devoted to sustainability.
- Penn Environmental Group (PEG)
- FarmEcology—Shauna O’Donnell, greendream415@aol.com,
- Environmental Studies Department—Robert Giegengack, Undergraduate Chair, Environmental Studies, gieg@sas.upenn.edu, 369 Hayden Hall
Reducing waste by using a reusable mug and water bottle, taking my own bags to the grocery store, donating used clothes and furniture to PennMOVES. Why?
- In 2005, Americans used and discarded 14.4 billion disposable paper cups for hot beverages. If put end-to-end, those cups would circle the earth 55 times.
- Source: www.treehugger.com
Recycling plastic, paper, glass, aluminum and cardboard. Why?
- Paper
- Commercial and residential paper waste accounts for more than 40 percent of waste going to the landfill. Eliminating this paper from our waste would nearly double the lives of current landfills.
- Resources saved per ton of paper recycled:
- 17 trees
- 275 pounds of sulfur
- 350 lbs of limestone
- 9,000 lbs of steam
- 60,000 gal of water
- 225 kilowatt hours
- 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space
- Glass
- Every ton of glass recycled saves the equivalent of nine gallons of fuel oil needed to make glass from virgin materials.
- Metals
- Every three months, the U.S. throws away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial airline fleet.
- Recycling aluminum uses 95 percent less energy than making new aluminum from bauxite ore.
- Source: The Public Recycling Officials of Pennsylvania, Developing a Waste Reduction and Recycling Program for Commercial, Industrial and Municipal Establishments, May 1995.
Purchasing sustainable products such as EnergyStar appliances, Green Seal products and recycled paper.
Riding public transit and my bike whenever possible. Why?
- The transportation sector alone is responsible for about one-third of our nation's total production of carbon dioxide.
- Source: Environmental Defense Fund
Unplugging electronics and chargers from the wall when not in use. Why?
- As long as cell phone chargers are plugged into outlets, they continue to drain electricity even when not hooked up to phones; only 5 percent of electricity drawn by the charger is actually used to charge the phone. The other 95 percent is emitted as heat.
- Source: www.treehugger.com
- GreenIT at Penn
Washing my clothes in cold water. Why?
- A switch of all U.S. washers to cold water, which gets clothes just as clean as warm or hot water, would mean a savings of about 30 million tons in CO2 emissions per year.
- Source: www.terrapass.com
Using the double-sided setting when I print.
To become a partner, share sustainability ideas, or relay a sustainability story, email us at sustainability@upenn.edu
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