University of Pennsylvania
OP-6: Clean and Renewable Energy

In 2013, the University signed a five-year contract to purchase 200M kWh of wind Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) annually. According to the EPA’s accounting of voluntary REC purchases, this offsets over 50% of the emissions from Penn’s total electrical usage. In the FY18 academic year, the University intends to begin to evaluate a renewable energy purchase on a scale appropriate to the size and needs of the institution.

90%+ of Penn's building area is heated via the district steam heating loop; however, a few old, residential-scale buildings or parts of buildings are heated via independent fuel oil or natural gas fired boilers/furnaces. While the Morris Arboretum is not included in the boundary for this report, their LEED Platinum Horticulture Center employs a geothermal system for heating. 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 reducing emissions and energy use, as stated in the 2014 "Climate Action Plan 2.0". 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 has also been referenced and noted as outside the boundary 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.