Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 66.74
Liaison Krista Bailey
Submission Date Oct. 20, 2014
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

Pennsylvania State University
EN-10: Inter-Campus Collaboration

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution collaborate with other colleges and universities to support and help build the campus sustainability community?:
Yes

A brief summary of papers, guides, presentations, and other resources the institution has developed to share their sustainability experience with other institutions:

Penn State's main sustainability website serves a clearinghouse of our guides, presentations, videos, courses, whitepapers on a wide range of sustainability topics touching every aspect of university life: research, curriculum, student life, outreach, and operations. www.sustainability.psu.edu
Staff from Penn State's Sustainability Institute have recently developed materials to guide academic and support units in incorporating sustainability into their strategic plans: the “Fast Track Guide” and “Sustainability Guidebook for Teams” (available in print and on-line), and the on-line “Opportunity Finder”. These materials have received enthusiastic attention from other universities interested in using a similar approach.

Penn State faculty, staff, and students participate in, and present at, national and regional conferences sponsored by organizations such as those listed below, where they share their sustainability experiences with other institutions through presentations and informal conversation. Examples of presentations made during the last three years include:

E. Foley. "The Next Frontier: Integrating Sustainability Into Unit Strategic Planning", Smart and Sustainable Campuses Conference, March 2-4, 2014, Baltimore, MD

N. Franklin. "Sustainable Communities" presented at University of Oregon Sustainable City Year Workshop, 4/11/13 (Eugene, OR)

SH Barsom, DR Riley “Foundations of Leadership in Sustainability for 20 Campuses: Finding a Common Thread” presented at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education conference, 2012, Los Angeles.


The names of local, state/provincial, regional, national, or international campus sustainability organizations or consortia in which the institution participates and/or is a member:

Penn State is a leader and/ or a member of a number of sustainability organizations and research consortia. A few examples follow:

- AASHE, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education; also a charter member of STARS (AASHE's Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System)

- Pennsylvania Environmental Resource Consortium (PERC), a state-wide network of over 55 sustainability-leading colleges and universities

- National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE). NCSE's University Affiliate Program advances environmental and energy programs across the nation's campuses.

- USGBC, the U.S. Green Building Council.

Examples of national student sustainability organizations with Penn State chapters include:
Engineers for a Sustainable World
Net Impact
The American Solar Energy Society
Global Brigades
...and many more

In addition to the above organizations, Penn State leads, or participates in, a number of multi-institutional research consortia focused on sustainability issues, including:

- The NSF-sponsored Sustainable Climate Risk Management (SCRiM) research network links a transdisciplinary team of scholars at 19 universities and 5 research institutions across 6 nations to answer the question, “What are sustainable, scientifically sound, technologically feasible, economically efficient, and ethically defensible climate risk management strategies?”
- Penn State leads the Department of Energy-funded Consortium for Building Energy Innovation (CBEI) - formerly the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub - located at The Navy Yard in Philadelphia. The CBEI is comprised of 14 organizations including major research universities, global industrial firms, and national laboratories from across the United States who collaborate to develop and demonstrate solutions for 50% energy reduction in existing buildings by 2030.
- EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge is a multi-college competition sponsored by GM and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), organized and overseen by Argonne National Laboratory. It is a joint venture between Government, Industry, and Academia with 16 teams from North America competing in this challenge. The goal is to design and build a working hybrid vehicle applying GM’s standard engineering design methods and procedures.


A brief summary of additional ways the institution collaborates with other campuses to advance sustainability :

Penn State led the creation of the Big Ten Environmental Stewardship Group. The group meets twice a year with counterparts at all the Big Ten institutions plus a number of additional universities. Members are vice presidents and associate vice presidents of business operations along with sustainability officers of each institution.


The website URL where information about cross-campus collaboration is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.