Restored Robbins House: Celebrating Collaborative M&T Spirit
President Amy Gutmann dedicated the newly renovated and restored Robbins House—home to the Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology (M&T)—during an April 17 dedication ceremony honoring Larry Robbins, ENG’92, W’92 and the House’s designers.
President Gutmann said that the building celebrates a program that was interdisciplinary—collaborative—long before it was “the vogue,” and is one that continues to attract and cultivate great talent.
“I’m so happy to be here when we ceremoniously open the doors to the new home of the M&T Program, because as we all know—and some of the people who went to Penn with me here today know—Penn opened so many doors for us,” said Mr. Robbins, a 1992 M&T alumnus and lead donor for the $9.8 million renovation project (Almanac July 15, 2014).
The 7,120-square-foot building, at 3537 Locust Walk, was originally constructed in the late 19th century as a home. Its subsequent transformation in the late 1920s for use by a fraternity was enlivened by adding its current Tudor-style façade. The building functionally has served as a meeting ground for students from M&T and other departments in recent years. It was selected for renovations in 2014 as an M&T-specific workspace, and construction began in May 2016. Doors reopened in August 2017. New York-based architecture firm Studio Joseph, led by Penn alumna Wendy Joseph, C’77, designed the new building (Almanac April 3, 2018), which has been expanded to approximately 8,000 square feet.
“This is an incredibly intellectually vibrant environment that draws the best and brightest from around the world,” President Gutmann said. “It encourages incredible expertise, and our students are incredibly hardworking, and the program rewards innovative thinking. To put it simply, it fosters greatness.”
Among the building’s interior changes are a new conference room facing Locust Walk, work lounges on the first and second floors, a first-floor reception area, several offices and private third-floor rooms that buffet a large space that alternates as workspace and event space.
The exterior’s most recognizable transformations, meanwhile, include the curtain wall installed on the north façade of the building that creates a contemporary protrusion aesthetic, and an expanse of panel windows along its rear. This contemporary north façade is a contrast to the restored south façade along Locust Walk, with an entrance that is designed to be transparent—onlookers can see through each end of the building, from the glass entranceway through the back windows. An estimated one-third of the original building was preserved.
University Architect David Hollenberg emphasizes that a major effort was made to preserve as much of the building as possible—even as design hurdles along the way required more to be taken out than originally intended. Much of the building’s 1920s exterior façade was maintained, including its limestone on the south and west walls, all of which was retained and cleaned. On the interiors at the southern end of the project, surviving features such as ornamental window paneling and the shell of a fireplace and chimney were conserved.
“There’s a pejorative term out there in the field called a ‘façadectomy,’ a treatment in which literally all you keep is the façade, and we don’t like to do those at Penn, especially at this prominent location,” Mr. Hollenberg said of the preservation effort. “All of us felt it was important for the historic part of the building to turn the corner and keep not just the south façade, but portions of the façade that made their way from Locust Walk into the entrance, and that’s what you see out there with the ornamental brick and limestone that defines the pathway to the entrance.”
Ms. Joseph notably integrated a “scissor stair,” more typically used for egress in high-rise construction, to allow the building’s narrow space to breathe. Rooms are designed to bring in outdoor light—going as far as to add corner windows on the second and third floors, in addition to skylights on the third—and become increasingly more intimate from floor to floor. The transparency of the building, three-dimensional design principles and natural light are meant to enhance the collaborative nature of the space’s use.
“It’s cramming a lot of ideas into a very small space,” Mr. Hollenberg said. “There’s a lot of architectural thought going on here so as to not make it look overworked and fussy. It’s very clean, and there’s a lot of care with every square foot that Wendy exercised to make it look as simple and clean as possible.
“The notion of recalling Penn’s residential history, a lot of the buildings that line Locust Walk, it’s the notion that instead of it being ‘The Larry Robbins Hall,’ or ‘Center,’ there’s something more welcoming about the word ‘House’ that goes with the diminutive character of the building,” Mr. Hollenberg said. “The same logic is what led to calling Perry World House what it is—there’s almost an explicit intent to recall those two historic renovations with frankly contemporary pieces at each end of Locust Walk, that speak to each other through their names.”
Gad Allon, director of the M&T program, the Jeffrey A. Keswin Professor and professor of operations, information and decisions, notes the symbolism of the building being halfway between Wharton and Penn Engineering, offering a home base to students between classes. Since it opened in August, he said, students have often used it to do homework, socialize and take advantage of the building’s newly incorporated audio-visual technology—screens, discussion boards, plus cameras, speakers and microphones for Skype—to host meetings.
“It’s not very different from what WeWork would look like; it operates like a co-working space,” Dr. Allon said. “There’s a coffee space downstairs, snacks, it’s very much trying to capture a startup mentality. A place where people can come work [together].”
School of Arts and Sciences 2018 Teaching Awards
Steven J. Fluharty, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, and Paul Sniegowski, dean of the College, announce the following recipients of the School’s 2018 teaching awards, to be presented on Thursday, April 26 at an awards reception that is open to the University community. The reception will take place 4-6 p.m. in 200 College Hall.
Ira H. Abrams Memorial Award for Distinguished Teaching
This year’s recipients of SAS’s highest teaching honor are Peter Holquist, Ronald S. Lauder Endowed Term Associate Professor of History, and Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, associate professor of history of art. Created in 1983, the Ira H. Abrams Award recognizes teaching that is intellectually challenging and exceptionally coherent and honors faculty who embody high standards of integrity and fairness, have a strong commitment to learning and are open to new ideas.
Dr. Holquist has earned a reputation as a vibrant lecturer who captivates students in his classes. In describing the combination of rigor and enthusiasm that he inspires, a student explains that “signing up for Professor Holquist’s courses means committing to a semester of reading more and reading more carefully than in any other class, to a semester of being challenged to be better than one might think they’re capable of.” A colleague notes, “Dr. Holquist is simply the model of a devoted teacher—lively and engaging, demanding and inspiring and always available to his students.”
Dr. Shaw’s approach to teaching is open, experimentally minded, and reflects “a fabulous sense of the fun of learning about art,” according to her colleagues. For many years she has pushed her departmental teaching culture into new areas of global and object-oriented learning, earning “unparalleled devotion” from her students, including one who reflected after travelling to Cuba as part of Dr. Shaw’s Art History 384 course, “The very foundation of her teaching is challenging the preexisting conceptions of her students.”
Dennis M. DeTurck Award for Innovation in Teaching
This award, newly named after former College Dean and Robert A. Fox Leadership Professor Dennis DeTurck, recognizes exceptional creativity and innovation in instruction. The 2018 recipient is Philip Nelson, professor of physics and astronomy. Motivated by a deep commitment to innovative teaching, Dr.Nelson puts extensive work into making challenging subjects such as biophysics accessible to the widest possible group of students while still retaining depth and mathematical rigor.
One student sums up the power of Dr. Nelson’s approach: “His greatest ability is demonstrating the relationship of concepts to context in an engaging and curiosity-inspiring manner, melding what to some students is relatively bland material into intriguing real-life stories.”
Dean’s Award for Mentorship of Undergraduate Research
This award recognizes faculty members who have excelled in nurturing undergraduate students’ desires and abilities to conduct meaningful research. This year, SAS honors Meredith Tamminga, assistant professor of linguistics, who is known as a dedicated and supportive mentor who provides research experiences that start with basic methodologies and allow students to grow into their full academic potential by taking on responsibility in independent research projects. Her close guidance and collegial approach prompted one student to say, “It often felt like we were two colleagues working together.”
Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching by an Assistant Professor
This award recognizes a member of the junior faculty who demonstrates unusual promise as an educator. The 2018 recipient is Daniel Singer, assistant professor of philosophy. Dr. Singer is highly lauded by faculty and students for his talents as a dynamic lecturer, his ability to make difficult material accessible and stimulate interest in philosophy, and his accessibility and commitment to students.
Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching by Affiliated Faculty
Meghan Crnic, lecturer and undergraduate research coordinator in the department of history and sociology of science, and Jami Fisher, lecturer in the department of linguistics, are the recipients of this award, which recognizes the contributions to undergraduate education made by the School’s non-standing faculty.
Dr. Crnic’s students rave about her ability to connect with them, “including shy students and those less confident about their projects,” says one, while another explains that she is “brilliant, engaging, a fantastic seminar leader, respects all of her students and overall creates an atmosphere where everyone loves and wants to learn together as a group.”
Dr. Fisher is, in the words of a colleague, “the creative mind behind a flourishing and well-respected American Sign Language program.” She works tirelessly to provide a stimulating and cohesive experience for Penn students “to learn about and engage with another world [deaf culture] that is hiding in plain sight.”
College of Liberal and Professional Studies Award for Distinguished Teaching in Undergraduate and Post-Baccalaureate Programs
Julie Nishimura-Jensen, lecturer and director of the Post-Baccalaureate Program in Classical Studies, is the recipient of this award, which recognizes outstanding teaching in LPS’s undergraduate and post-baccalaureate programs. According to the classical studies undergraduate chair James Ker, “Julie’s post-baccalaureate seminars in Latin and Greek have been transformative for entire cohorts of students due to her well-honed pedagogy…she is a master language teacher.”
College of Liberal and Professional Studies Award for Distinguished Teaching in Professional Graduate Programs
The recipient of the LPS Award for Distinguished Teaching in Professional Graduate Programs, is Charline S. Russo, a lecturer in the organizational dynamics program. Students particularly praise Dr. Russo’s ability to engage the learner in a way that helps them to connect the theory she is teaching to how it could be useful in their lives. One writes, “It seems as though Charline has a story, an article or a friend that she can connect to any topic you might throw her way. Her ability to match the right content to the right people is incredible.”
Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching by Graduate Students
This award recognizes graduate students for teaching that is intellectually rigorous and has a considerable impact on undergraduate students. This year’s awardees are:
Chelsea Chamberlain, History
Tomas Elliott, Comparative Literature and Literary Theory
Danielle Hanley, Political Science
Wesley Hanson, Classical Studies
Jeffrey Katzin, History of Art
Clare Mullaney, English
Stan Najmr, Chemistry
Sudev Sheth, South Asia Regional Studies and History
Zachary Smith, Political Science
Margaret Strair, German
Ben Evans: Associate Vice President, Risk Management & Insurance, Division of Finance
Ben Evans has been promoted to associate vice president, Risk Management & Insurance, effective April 1. Penn’s Vice President, Finance and Treasurer MaryFrances McCourt said, “After nearly a decade of tremendous service to Penn, Ben is truly deserving of this recognition. His unending commitment to identifying and minimizing risk at an institution with the complexity of Penn makes him an integral member of our leadership team, and I am excited for his continued positive impact.”
Mr. Evans has spent nearly his entire career in the field of higher education risk management and insurance. He became Penn’s executive director of Risk Management & Insurance in 2008 after spending 10 years at Temple University in a similar role. As associate vice president, Mr. Evans will focus his efforts on high-level leadership and oversight of the University’s risk management and insurance needs, with an increased focus on the University Health System. He will also maintain responsibility for certain lines of insurance that he is passionate about, including cyber liability, fine arts insurance, medical professional liability, trustees and officers liability, the student-athlete injury program and construction-related liability.
During his almost 10 years at Penn, Mr. Evans has led the Risk Management & Insurance department through a period of continuous growth, building strong internal and external partnerships and expertise in the areas of workers’ compensation and international risk management. His accomplishments over the past decade have been vast. He has negotiated leading-edge deals with Quaker Insurance Company, a Penn-owned subsidiary, and led the negotiations for favorable insurance programs for areas of increased liability. Over the course of his tenure, property insurance premiums have remained the same while total insurable values have increased by 60%. The fine arts insurance limit has increased by 400% while the premium has only doubled, and the deductible has decreased to $0. In addition, since 2012, Penn has paid 12 cents for every dollar of billed medical expenses in its student-athlete injury insurance program, compared to a benchmarked average of 23 cents on the dollar.
Mr. Evans served as the president of the Pinnacle Consortium of Higher Education from October 2014 to June 2017, and under his leadership the operations of Genesis Insurance Company, Ltd., were merged into Pinnacle Consortium of Higher Education. He also co-authored an article on Mission Continuity for the 2016 University Risk Management and Insurance Association Journal and speaks nationally and internationally at numerous industry conferences and seminars.
His accomplishments have been recognized: Mr. Evans was the 2017 Risk & Insurance Management Society (RIMS) Risk Manager of the Year Honorable Mention Recipient and the First Quarter 2017 AIG Client of the Quarter. He also sits on the AIG Higher Education Advisory Board and the International SOS Advisory Council. He demonstrates his service to the Penn community as a recipient of the Models of Excellence Award and participant in the Leadership@Penn Program.
Ms. McCourt added, “Ben is a wonderful Penn ambassador, serving on the leadership councils of external organizations, presenting at conferences and seminars and building partnerships across the risk management and insurance industries. He is a true champion for the University who has delivered impactful results. I am proud to have Ben on my team.”
Kelly McLaughlin: Director of the Carey JD/MBA Program
Kelly McLaughlin, who had previously been a member of the Wharton admissions team since last June, was recently named director of the Carey JD/MBA Program.
An alumna of the University of Virginia, Ms. McLaughlin gained experience in consulting for Accenture and Deloitte before completing her master’s of education at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and serving as Assistant Director of JD Admissions at Harvard Law School.
The three-year accelerated joint JD/MBA degree program, which launched in 2009 (Almanac September 23, 2008) and was renamed The Francis J. & Wm. Polk Carey JD/MBA Program in 2015 (Almanac March 24, 2015), leverages the resources of Penn Law and Wharton to prepare students to serve as leaders at the intersection of business and law.
Second Phase of University Catalog on NGSS
The Office of the University Registrar and the Next Generation Student Systems (NGSS) program are proud to announce the planned release of the second phase of the University Catalog in May. In addition to a revised course listing and updated information about undergraduate programs and policies, the 2018-2019 Catalog will include a complete list of graduate programs and policies at the PhD and research masters level.
Presented in a mobile-friendly display, the Catalog is a searchable, secure site that offers prospective and current students, as well as other members of the Penn community and the general public, information about academic opportunities and degree programs at Penn. The Catalog has replaced the online Course Register and provides a listing, by subject, of course offerings across the campus at all levels of education.
Many people contributed time and effort to this project. We would like to thank the core team, including staff members from the Office of the University Registrar, Office of the Provost and the NGSS Project Team. We are also grateful to the many members of our graduate groups and programs who worked collaboratively to create this Catalog.
The Catalog can be found at https://catalog.upenn.edu
We welcome your thoughts and feedback about the Catalog at catalog@lists.upenn.edu
—Margaret Kip, Acting University Registrar
—Rob Nelson, Executive Director for Education and Academic Planning, Office of the Provost
—Matthew Sessa, Executive Director, Student Registration and Financial Services
From the Environmental Sustainability Advisory Committee: University of Pennsylvania Climate Action Plan 2.0 Executive Summary
Five Years of Progress
Five years since the launch of the University’s first Climate Action Plan, Penn looks back on a remarkable and steadily deepening array of accomplishments and forward to a path of continual improvement in its ecological performance. In 2007, as the first Ivy League signatory to the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, the University began the process of creating and executing a vision of environmental sustainability at Penn.
In 2009, the launch of the Climate Action Plan set concrete goals and began the formal process of integrating sustainability into coursework, community, campus planning and design and campus operations. Significant progress has been made and accelerating momentum established. Below is a review of the main objectives by the numbers:
- Bolstering the Curriculum—Penn now offers over 170 courses focused on and related to sustainability, and the Integrating Sustainability Across the Curriculum program added 22 faculty and 12 students who have collaborated to infuse principles of sustainability into 21 courses.
- Reducing Our Carbon—Penn achieved an 18% reduction in its carbon emissions from FY 2007 to FY2014 and also achieved a 6.6% reduction in normalized energy consumption.
- Growing Greener—As a major research university, Penn meets its mission of teaching and research with new facilities. But the Climate Action Plan focuses that growth to be more sustainable, resulting in six new buildings achieving LEED Gold Certification, and more than 27 new acres of green space.
- Minimizing Waste—Penn recycles nearly 26% of its waste, including traditional recycling, composting and e-waste, and educates our community about the importance of decision making in what products they consume. Penn’s continued reduction of landfill waste by almost 10% provides a more complete picture of waste minimization on campus.
- Commuting with Fewer Emissions—50% of Penn commuters now use public transit, walk or bike. Our community has witnessed an increase in people using alternative transit by nearly 10% playing to our strength as a dense campus easy to traverse by foot or bike and well connected by public transit.
- Engaging the Penn Community—Penn’s Green Fund made 49 grants to faculty, students and staff totaling over $1 million over the last five years, and whose ideas are enhancing our campus’ environmental sustainability. Three hundred and fifty students and more than 100 staff have volunteered as Eco-Reps over the past five years, championing sustainable actions in offices, College Houses, student organizations and athletic teams.
While implementing the initiatives explicitly identified in the Climate Action Plan has been rewarding for the faculty, staff and students who helped create it, the unanticipated outcomes, programs and projects that have evolved through heightened exchange have often been even more profound and exciting. Not only have students, faculty and staff eagerly embraced the initiatives we have undertaken, they have also responded by creating new programs at a rate that was impossible to predict, including:
- PennGreen: Upperclass students who wanted to provide a sustainability-themed preorientation program created PennGreen, which in 2014 welcomed its fifth class of freshmen to Penn with a whirlwind of tours, meetings, dialogues and lectures by local experts in environmentalism.
- Move-In Green: Staff in College Housing and Academic Services and Residential Services were essential to the implementation of Move-In Green, Penn’s signature New Student Orientation student volunteer opportunity.
- School and Center Sustainability Coordinators: A role not foreseen in the 2009 Plan, seven Schools and Centers are now meeting monthly, sharing their enthusiasm and best practices and implementing projects across campus.
- Penn Green Fund: The success of the Penn Green Fund has exceeded expectations, with funding awarded to College Houses, Greek Houses, Athletics and Recreation, the Morris Arboretum and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, among many more.
- The Century Bond Program: The Century Bond Program is investing in energy efficiency in campus buildings at an unprecedented scale, demonstrating Penn’s commitment to bringing sustainability to the heart of its planning operations.
Development & Format of Climate Action Plan 2.0
Developing a new five year plan, Climate Action Plan 2.0, is an exciting opportunity that builds on such successes, institutionalizes organic change and uses the experience learned from past challenges to better frame new goals and strategies. One of the most ambitious elements of Climate Action Plan 2.0 is the expansion of the Plan’s geography, from the core academic campus to more fully capture the range of environmental leadership across the University’s entire built assets. By including the University of Pennsylvania Health System, the Morris Arboretum, the New Bolton Center and the University’s leased space and real estate portfolio, Climate Action Plan 2.0 reflects an expanded approach to environmental stewardship and highlights important work accomplished, underway and planned for the future.
The recommendations included throughout Climate Action Plan 2.0 were formalized by the respective Environmental Sustainability Advisory Committee (ESAC) Subcommittees, building upon five years of collective experience implementing the initial plan. ESAC Subcommittees are organized by topic area: Academics, Utilities & Operations, Physical Environment, Transportation, Waste Minimization & Recycling and Outreach & Engagement.
This Climate Action Plan 2.0 document is organized by the above subcommittee initiatives, with each section including a Mission, Five Year Summary and Recommendations.
Climate Action Plan 2.0 Recommendations at a Glance
The recommendations included in Climate Action Plan 2.0 build upon those outlined in the original Climate Action Plan and achievements of the past five years. The carbon and energy goals in Climate Action Plan 2.0 align with the long-term goal of carbon neutrality by 2042 and include the following:
Academics–Expand opportunities for teaching, learning and researching sustainability among students, staff and faculty.
- Create a Faculty Working Group on Sustainability to provide outreach and support to faculty interested in researching and teaching sustainability.
- Promote existing sustainability programs and classes to Penn’s undergraduate and graduate student body.
- Create a Speaker Series / Symposium dedicated to sustainability.
Utilities & Operations–Promote and adopt best practices in energy management, design and maintenance to improve efficiency and reduce Penn’s carbon footprint.
- Achieve Total Carbon Reduction in Buildings (absolute)
- 7% reduction by 2019 in comparison to the FY14 baseline
- 18% reduction by 2042 in comparison to the FY14 baseline
- Achieve Energy Reduction in Buildings (absolute)
- 10% reduction by 2019 in comparison to the FY14 baseline
- 27% by 2042 in comparison to the FY14 baseline
- Recommission the top 20% of the buildings that have the highest energy use every five years and complete a deep energy retrofit by 2042. The remaining 80% of buildings will be recommissioned on a 10 year basis.
- Develop an energy reduction plan for all building renovation projects, including basic energy benchmarking for all buildings and energy modeling and analysis of alternatives for major renovations.
Physical Environment—Create and maintain a sustainable campus by increasing green space, decreasing building energy consumption and increasing education and awareness of sustainable design.
- Continue to pursue LEED Silver Certification for all new construction, with focus on “Penn plus” credits, those that are identified as critical to Penn’s environmental initiatives.
- Implement the Green Guidelines for Renovations to provide direction on Penn’s renovation work on modest sized projects, as defined in the Guidelines. Significant renovations that satisfy criteria identified in the Guidelines, including exceeding $1 million, are recommended to pursue LEED Silver Level under the Commercial Interiors (CI) protocol.
- Develop an Ecological Landscape Stewardship Plan that, through pilot projects, examines how to minimize chemical use, promote biological diversity and incorporate best practices from the Sustainable SITES pilot on Shoemaker Green.
- Extend the Plan’s geography from the core academic campus, to more fully reflect the full range of the University’s built assets, to include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Morris Arboretum, the New Bolton Center and Penn’s leased space and real estate projects.
Waste Minimization & Recycling—Improve Penn’s environmental performance by minimizing solid waste through community education, strategic purchasing, appropriate infrastructure and proper disposal, strengthened by relevant and accurate metrics.
- Increase recycling rate, currently approximately 24%, to 30% by 2019 and continue to reduce overall municipal solid waste.
- Implement the Solid Waste Management Plan, including the creation and implementation of a data reporting tool to track waste diversion metrics and improve composting operations on campus.
- Increase participation in and awareness of sustainable purchasing options and recognize green purchasing champions.
- Increase the number of zero waste events and expand composting on campus.
Transportation—Emphasize and plan a quality pedestrian campus environment, encourage use of bicycling and public transportation for commuting and provide safe, efficient local transportation services for the University community.
- Create a centralized online resource for bicyclers on campus, including bicycle rack maps, the University Bike Policy, bike lane maps, etc.
- Continue to replace older bicycle racks with University standard bike racks.
- Expand the number of bike repair stations on campus.
Outreach & Engagement—Build a culture of sustainability that informs all constituents of University life.
- Work with School and Center senior leadership to encourage and expand Sustainability Coordinator roles within all Schools and Centers at Penn.
- Sustain a vibrant Student Eco-Reps program in College Houses, Greek chapters and Athletics that fosters a culture of sustainability among students on campus.
- Maintain a dynamic Faculty/Staff Eco-Rep program as an active and accurate source of sustainability information.
Leadership & Awards
Since the launch of the 2009 Climate Action Plan, the University of Pennsylvania has been repeatedly recognized by both internal and external audiences for the University’s commitment to environmental sustainability.
Princeton Review
The University of Pennsylvania has annually been highlighted in The Princeton Review’s Guide to Green Colleges since 2010. This guide profiles institutions of higher education in the U.S. and Canada which exhibit a commitment to sustainability in both the academic arena and university operations. The guide has highlighted Penn Park, the Green Fund and the Student Eco-Reps program over the past five years.
Tree Campus USA
The University of Pennsylvania earned 2013 Tree Campus USA® designation, awarded by the Arbor Day Foundation. This marks the fifth year in a row that Penn has received this designation. Tree Campus USA® is a national program created in 2008 to honor colleges and universities for effective campus forest management and for engaging staff and students in conservation goals. Penn achieved the title by having an active Tree Advisory Committee, a Campus Tree Care Plan, and finance and personnel resources allocated for the Tree Care Plan.
Sustainability Tracking Assessment & Rating System
In May 2014, Penn submitted its first application to STARS—the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Ratings System—and received a Silver rating. STARS is a self-reporting framework of sustainability metrics specifically developed by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) for college and university campuses. STARS’ standard categories and transparent scoring metrics allow for easy assessment of the University’s performance and future opportunities. Although the STARS ratings last for three years, Penn will update its submission every two years so that content remains relevant and progress can be regularly measured against these defined standards.
EPA Green Power Award
The University of Pennsylvania finished in first place in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s nationwide College and University Green Power Challenge. EPA defines green power as electricity produced from solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass and low-impact hydroelectric sources, and this program recognizes colleges and universities that purchase Renewable Energy Credits (RECs), which are created through the generation of green power.
EPA began its Green Power Challenge for higher education institutions in 2006, and the University of Pennsylvania has been the Ivy League winner every year since. Penn took top honors nationally in 2013 by purchasing more than 200 million kWh of wind power—more green power than any of the 75 other competing schools.
As part of EPA’s Green Power Partnership, more than 1,400 organizations are purchasing more than 26 billion kWh of green power annually, avoiding carbon pollution equal to that created by the electricity use of more than 2.8 million American homes. The partnership provides quarterly updated lists of partners using green power in several other categories including K-12 schools, technology and telecommunications, and local government, among others.
Green Purchasing Award
A Special Recognition Award from Office Depot was presented to Penn at the GreenBuild Conference & Expo on November 22, 2013 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, recognizing Penn as an institution that proactively seeks out products with environmental attributes. Office Depot’s Special Recognition Awards are based on specific aspects of a customer’s purchasing program or leadership in greening. For 2013, the University of Pennsylvania was one of 28 organizations selected out of 17,000 Office Depot customers.
Best Work Places for Commuters
The National Center for Transit Research has named Penn among the Best Workplaces for Commuters for two years in a row, in acknowledgement of the University’s integrated approach to commuting options, which includes discounts for public transit commuters, van and carpooling programs and support of cycling on campus.
International Sustainable Campus Network
Penn has been a member of the International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN), which is a part of the Global University Leaders Forum, since 2010. In 2014, Penn’s Integrating Sustainability Across the Curriculum program was included as one of the ISCN’s case studies for the World Economic Forum.
With Climate Action Plan 2.0 as the blueprint, Penn now embarks on another five years of environmental leadership guided by long-term vision and commitment from senior leadership, students, staff and faculty. There is still more to do. We are excited about the next five years of engagement with the Penn community and look forward to our journey together.
Gold Level in STARS
The University of Pennsylvania has completed its STARS survey for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) and has received a Gold Rating for its 2017 submission, according to the University’s Sustainability Office. The STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System) survey is a comprehensive benchmarking system developed and overseen by AASHE, and is used by more than 800 colleges and universities on six continents to evaluate their environmental performance.
“A Gold Rating in STARS for Penn is particularly satisfying since environmental sustainability is a priority for our President, Amy Gutmann, who signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment in 2007, the first Ivy League president to do so,” said Penn Facilities & Real Estate Services Vice President Anne Papageorge. “Penn’s Environmental Sustainability Advisory Committee has transformed the sustainability initiatives on this campus since 2007, and in particular since the 2014 launch of our Climate Action Plan 2.0.” The Climate Action Plan is the university’s roadmap for environmental sustainability, and version 2.0 established new goals for expanded educational opportunities for students, enriched support for faculty research, teaching and collaboration and campus performance.
STARS is a transparent, point-based system with categories spanning all aspects of Penn’s academics, operations and administration. The 2017 submission used FY17 data and was assembled by the Penn Sustainability Office, with input from multiple sources across the university. There are 91 credit areas in STARS. Penn earned an exceptionally high number of points in five categories: Coordination and Planning, Diversity and Affordability, Transportation, Campus Engagement and Innovation.
The innovation credits are reserved for new, extraordinary, unique or uncommon outcomes, policies and practices that address sustainability challenges and are not covered elsewhere in the STARS survey. Penn submitted for all four available credits, including the category of Arboretum Status. Penn’s main campus was designated as an arboretum last year (Almanac April 18, 2017) under the international ArbNet certification program, and joins a select group of urban campuses recognized for exceptional tree collections, maintenance, and landscape stewardship. Only 23 universities, six of which are urban, have earned such designation.
Penn previously received a silver STARS ranking for its May 2014 submission (Almanac October 28, 2014).