Pennsylvania State University
EN-10: Inter-Campus Collaboration

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.

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.

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.