In an effort to include more students, faculty and staff in the University’s efforts to achieve carbon neutrality, Facilities and Real Estate Services and the Green Campus Partnership created the Green Fund last week.
The new fund will award up to $50,000 for projects and initiatives focused on improving Penn’s environmental sustainability.
It was developed in light of the recently released Climate Action Plan, a long-range outline of steps the University will take toward carbon neutrality. One of the plan’s goals is to involve the Penn community in environmentally focused efforts.
According to FRES Vice President Anne Papageorge, similar programs have been implemented at other universities, including Harvard University, and the University modeled the Green Fund after some of these programs.
“Engagement of the broader Penn community in the Climate Action Plan is important,” she said. “Now the Penn community has the resource to put forth their ideas, and funding won’t be an impediment.”
The grants will be funded from a settlement FRES received.
The first criterion will be to look at whether the project will be able to produce a return on the grant in order to fuel more Green Fund projects in the future, Sustainability Coordinator Dan Garofalo explained.
“We want to encourage people to be creative,” he said. “There are so many problem-solvers on campus, apparent in their research and their scholarship. We want to tap into that energy and creativity.”
The requirements for the project include a description of the beneficiary target, a list of project participants and the project’s intended outcome.
“The Green Fund could have a measurable impact on not only the school’s energy use, but also the opinions students have towards environmental sustainability,” said Engineering senior and Undergraduate Assembly member Dan Sanchez, who is on the Green Fund project selection committee. “Large-scale projects with adequate funding can catalyze further action through increased awareness.”
According to Sanchez, the board hopes to award projects that will not only reduce carbon emissions, but will save the University money.
Currently, the UA is also working with groups such as the Penn Environmental Group to form projects that could be submitted for review, he added.
The Green Fund will continue to accept applications until Oct. 31 and will also accept projects in the spring.
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