The President's Commitment to Climate Neutrality

In 2007, President Amy Gutmann signed the Presidents’ Climate Commitment, which charged Penn to write a strategic plan outlining Penn’s plans for achieving climate neutrality. To carry out this mission, a committee comprised of faculty, staff and students was formed to advise President Gutmann on environmental sustainability issues. The Green Campus Partnership was formed, whose goal was to achieve carbon neutrality by reducing our carbon footprint through the implementation of sustainable practices in our everyday life.

The Division of Public Safety understands that sustainability in today’s world is a critical necessity and we have begun to do our part in contributing to the overall mission for climate neutrality.

Facility Management

In July 2007, as part of Public Safety’s facility maintenance, all new interior and exterior eco-friendly paint was used. Following suit, included the painting of the DPS Annex. Both sites also include an ongoing recycling plan.

We also have received certificates acknowledging our environmental effort and stewardship for participation in the InterfaceFLOR Commercial Reentry Carpet Reclamation Program. By utilizing a vendor which offers a recycling program, DPS has, to-date, diverted 960 lbs of carpet from the landfill and retired three (3) tons of certified carbon dioxide credits. As we continue to change out old, worn carpet from our facility, we intend to grow our volume of credits and reduce landfill waste.

Fleet Management

Fleet management was another focus for DPS in regards to sustainability. In April of 2008 Security & Technical Services, in conjunction with Allied Barton, deployed three (3) new hybrid vehicles as part of the new Penn Patrol Unit. In 2008 Public Safety purchased two (2) Hybrid vehicles and one (1) Vectrix electric motorcycle equipped with emergency equipment and markings consistent with other marked police vehicles. Delivered in December, it is now currently being used in traffic enforcement and core campus patrol with favorable initial patrol results.

Disposable Waste

In December of 2008 Public Safety installed four (4) new bottle-less Quench water cooler systems to replace the previous water jug systems. All employees were also given DPS branded, water bottles. By doing so, we are no longer contributing to the 38 billion plastic bottles being discarded into landfills every year. DPS also continues to empower our administration to recycle and by mindful of waste by making recycling bins available in various locations throughout the DPS headquarters and to consider double sided printing if possible.

Printing

To reduce paper consumption Public Safety encourages staff to reconsider printing needs, and print double sided if possible.

We also made a strong effort to reduce paper when producing our 2007-2008 Annual Report. The pages and copy were made smaller to use less paper, fewer hard copies were printed, substituted by our online version, and the ink used by local printer, M3Printing (M3Printing.com), is an eco-friendly soy based pigment!