Photo: Creative Commons
We compared the greenest hotels, coffee shops, and more (obviously, that’s in our name). However, one big player in the sustainability game is often overlooked: universities.
Philadelphia is lucky enough to have a number of high-ranking universities. the majority of these schools are making progress in sustainability, with initiatives growing annually and beyond their own campuses.
Let’s take a look at a handful of these schools and the programs that they’ve been implementing.
In 2007, Penn joined the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Since, they’ve exceeded targets through increased use of renewable energy and continued efforts to reduce their total energy use.
Here are additional Penn sustainability programs:
Starting in 2008, Drexel became the first university to monitor the environmental impact of their buildings using Green Globes. Green Globes rates the buildings and sets milestones for improvement; even posting results online to show the majority of Drexel’s buildings are sustainable and continue to improve.
Here’s more how Dragons’ fire is turning green:
Saint Joe’s has made strides toward sustainability through numerous projects over the past few years, including composting, installing drainage systems to prevent runoff, implementing chillers to reduce AC usage, and more.
Here’s some more of the Hawks’ green programs:
Since 2007, Villanova has been working toward their goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. Adding two LEED-certified buildings and a third party rating sustainability system helped move them closer to achieving this goal.
Here’s more on how Villanova is going green:
Even though Temple is growing both in campus size and student body population, in only six years Temple has already reduced their greenhouse gas emissions by 16%. In addition, there have been many strides toward behavioral changes for both students and employees that help to eliminate energy waste, such as the switch to doing housekeeping in the day during the summers so the buildings can be powered down at night.
Here are some more of the Owls’ outstanding programs:
Readers, what other initiatives have local universities have taken? Tell us in the comments!
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