ReThink Your Footprint: Penn's Waste Minimization Campaign |
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November 12, 2013, Volume 60, No. 13
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ReThink Your Footprint involves the entire Penn Community in a broad waste management campaign that draws the community together to act in source reduction, reuse and recycling. Here are some ideas to get started: ReThink Your Footprint is Penn’s Fall 2013 waste minimization initiative. It culminates November 22, with an awareness campaign designed to engage the entire Penn Community. In support of Penn’s Climate Action Plan’s goals in the area of waste minimization, initiatives, events, presentations and other forms of outreach will take place during this period to share information about environmentally sustainable practices in source reduction, reuse and recycling.
Every school and center across the University, as well as the student community, is invited to participate. College Houses, Greek organizations, student clubs, entire classes and all Penn departments, large and small, can do something to reduce the amount of waste they generate, re-use items instead of throwing them away or find new ways to recycle waste items and other used goods. Need ideas? Visit the ReThink: Get Involved website page. Here are just a few:
• Ban the Bottle—get refillable bottles and use filtered water stations for drinking water.
• Consider Composting—the Green Campus Partnership is here to help you learn what to do.
• Make Your Meeting or Event Zero-Waste—use compostable or re-usable plates, utensils and napkins.
• Pack it Up—organize an office clean-out or a charity drive.
• Consolidate purchasing into orders of $25 or more (or set a higher base).
• Print or copy to both sides of a page whenever possible. Set double-siding as a default on office computers, and place a visual prompt on your copy machine to remind members of the office to double-side whenever possible.
• Install Managed Print protocols in your office, which helps to reduce accidental printing, and switches all printing to double-sided by default. In some cases, a single, higher-quality printer can replace many small inefficient ones.
• Think about your actions as points towards your office’s Green Office Certification.
Looking for more ideas or some inspiration? Visit www.upenn.edu/sustainability/ Seek out your Eco-Rep, sustainability coordinator or email sustainability@upenn.edu
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