Pennsylvania State University

College Sustainability Report Card 2007

Pennsylvania State University has been running an ambitious sustainability campaign for the past few years, aided by the Green Destiny Council, the Center for Sustainability, and the Finance & Business Environmental Stewardship Initiative. The Environmental Stewardship Initiative won the Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Leadership Award in 2002. The president has committed to a double-digit percentage in energy reduction by 2012 and, in order to achieve this, the University has a comprehensive greenhouse gas and energy reduction plan. Additionally, Penn State is embarking on an energy conservation and environmental stewardship awareness campaign.

Penn State is currently finalizing contracts that would put it among the top five largest higher education purchasers of renewable energy in the country, with 20 percent of its energy needs being supplied from renewable energy, including four percent coming from Pennsylvania wind farms. It has also put significant effort into a continuous commissioning program, ensuring that utilities are operating at their most efficient rates and replacing inefficient parts. The University also implemented a Guaranteed Energy Savings Program, which involves retrofitting light fixtures, showerheads, fuel selection, and other areas.

The University’s dining services has been pursuing local and organic foods at a rate even greater than student demand. A farm-to-college program with a full-time coordinator nurtures and maintains business ties between local farms and the University. Much of the food for the dining hall, including 70 percent of the milk, 100,000 pounds of cheese, mushrooms, and ice cream, come from University farms. This is in addition to foods purchased from local farms—for example, the remaining 30 percent of the milk—cutting down significantly on transportation and supporting small, local agriculture. Pre-consumer kitchen waste and leftover food is captured as part of the composting operation, and a post-consumer food waste composting program is being explored.

The University recently received a Gold rating for its School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture building and is seeking LEED certification for two new buildings as part of its LEED-certification requirement for all new or renewed buildings. Thirty-two other buildings are part of an Energy Service Company program that involves comprehensive commissioning of existing buildings. There is still a significant amount of work left to be done, however, with 1,600 buildings in the University's holdings.

The University has no known policy of disclosure of endowment holdings or its shareholder voting record.

The University prioritizes investing to maximize profit and has not made any public statements about investigating or investing in renewable energy funds or community development loan funds.

The University has not made any public statements about active ownership or a proxy voting policy.