Pennsylvania State University
PAE-13: Staff Professional Development in Sustainability

The Campus Sustainability Office, in partnership with the Human Resource Development Center, held two Leading the Green Challenge conferences in 2010. Over 250 faculty and staff participated in the first one, held in March at the University Park Campus. The second one, held at Penn State Great Valley, had about 60 participants. At both conferences, faculty and staff improved their knowledge of energy, recycling, water, transportation, leadership, greening principles, and purchasing issues and shared ideas on ways to improve Penn State's sustainability. On an ongoing basis, the Campus Sustainability Office offers workshops and presentations on the following: - How to form Green Teams - How to adopt the Green Paws Program to have an office "green" certified - Leading the Green Challenge workshop - Green Your Office and Home At the quarterly Green Teams lunches, we bring in speakers to talk about specific topics, such as "green" purchasing. At the New Employee Orientation, we introduce the participants to the sustainability concept, the role of sustainability in Penn State's Strategic plan, and ways they can become involved. Annually, the Finance and Business Environmental Key Initiative sponsors an Environmental Forum, open to all faculty and staff in order to create awareness about sustainability. At each forum, we want the participants to leave with ideas that they can act on in order to improve Penn State's sustainability practices. In 2010, the topic was Environmental Injustice. In addition, every spring, an Environmental Colloquium is held to educate Penn Staters and the community about sustainability topics. The speakers have included Bill McKibben, Amory Lovins, David Suzuki, and other national leaders.