Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 66.40
Liaison Austin Sutherland
Submission Date Feb. 21, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of Pennsylvania
IC-1: Institutional Boundary

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

Institution type: Associate (i.e., short-cycle), Baccalaureate, Doctoral/Research, or Master's:
Doctoral/Research

Institutional control (Public, Private for-profit, or Private non-profit):
Private non-profit

A brief description of the institution’s main campus and other aspects of the institutional boundary used to complete this report:

Penn's 299-acre (302-acres when the hospital is included) urban campus is located in the West Philadelphia neighborhood known as University City, just across the Schuylkill River from Center City Philadelphia. All Penn facilities except the Morris Arboretum and the New Bolton Center large-animal hospital are located on the University City campus.


Which of the following features are present on campus and which are included within the institutional boundary?:
Present? Included?
Agricultural school No No
Medical school Yes Yes
Other professional school with labs and clinics (e.g. dental, nursing, pharmacy, public health, veterinary) Yes Yes
Satellite campus No No
Farm larger than 5 acres or 2 hectares No No
Agricultural experiment station larger than 5 acres or 2 hectares No No
Hospital Yes No

The rationale for excluding any features that are present from the institutional boundary:

The geography of Penn's Climate Action Plan 2.0 (CAP2.0), published in 2014, was broadened to include the 82-acre Morris Arboretum, the 700+ acre New Bolton Large Animal Center, and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP). These added affiliated institutions, while part of Penn's overall corporate structure, have their own facilities staff and energy management teams. As such, the University’s facilities division (which includes the Penn Sustainability Office) has less direct control over their operations and management, and the operational metrics associated with these institutions are therefore excluded from this STARS report.
However, these affiliated institutions have completed carbon inventories and have implemented a variety of initiatives related to energy conservation and environmental sustainability. Including an account of their sustainability initiatives in Penn’s Climate Action Plan 2.0, recognizes the good work that has been taking place in parts of the University that were not included in the 2009 Climate Action Plan.
As Penn moves forward in the planning for the third iteration of our sustainability plan, the initiatives at the New Bolton Center, the Morris Arboretum, and HUP will continue to be an important part of the University’s sustainability work.


Additional documentation to support the submission :
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

The University of Pennsylvania is a major research institution, with over 3,000 degrees granted annually from twelve professional and academic schools at the Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctorate levels. Penn is committed to teaching environmental sustainability, with a goal to make climate change and sustainability part of the curriculum and educational experience available to all Penn students. (Penn's 2009 "Climate Action Plan".). This submission documents Penn's efforts during the FY17 year and compares them to the FY14 baseline year which corresponds with the University's "Climate Action Plan. 2.0".
The submission relies on information related to the main, academic, West Philadelphia campus, but to more fully document efforts across the Penn system, information related to the Morris Arboretum and New Bolton Large Animal Center has also been referenced, and noted as outside the boundary of the main campus in descriptions. The information is used to enrich examples of University efforts and is not intended to be the primary justification for credits. The responses for each of the questions and sub-questions are drawn from University materials, both internal and public documents. Each section notes the website where the information can be found.


The University of Pennsylvania is a major research institution, with over 3,000 degrees granted annually from twelve professional and academic schools at the Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctorate levels. Penn is committed to teaching environmental sustainability, with a goal to make climate change and sustainability part of the curriculum and educational experience available to all Penn students. (Penn's 2009 "Climate Action Plan".). This submission documents Penn's efforts during the FY17 year and compares them to the FY14 baseline year which corresponds with the University's "Climate Action Plan. 2.0".
The submission relies on information related to the main, academic, West Philadelphia campus, but to more fully document efforts across the Penn system, information related to the Morris Arboretum and New Bolton Large Animal Center has also been referenced, and noted as outside the boundary of the main campus in descriptions. The information is used to enrich examples of University efforts and is not intended to be the primary justification for credits. The responses for each of the questions and sub-questions are drawn from University materials, both internal and public documents. Each section notes the website where the information can be found.

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.