Green is more than the color of the ivy lining Penn buildings. The University has been working to make the school greener by creating initiatives intended to reduce Penn’s carbon footprint. In the past, we have praised a number of these initiatives. But there is still more members of the Penn Community can do.
The results of this year’s RecycleMania competition — which judges schools on the amount they recycle and reduce overall waste — exemplify both how far Penn has come and how far it still needs to go.
In 2008, when Penn first participated in the national competition, the University ranked last among the Ivies. This year, Penn came in fourth overall among the six Ivy League schools who participated and had the least amount of waste per person. The University also increased its per person recycling rate.
Our school can do better than fourth place, and needs to increase its efforts if Penn wants to maximize its sustainability and achieve its goal of a 40 percent recycling rate by 2014. Facilities and Real Estate Services’ expansion of the Eco-Reps program into Greek housing for the fall is a positive next step, because it will allow more students to get their peers to think more about how their habits impact the environment. Students can also make more of an effort to reduce waste by recycling their term-paper drafts and soda cans. And the University can further encourage students to live sustainably.
