University of Pennsylvania
EN-2: Student Orientation

Move-In Green, founded in 2012, is Penn’s move-in engagement program dedicated to environmental sustainability. The program gives sophomore, junior, and senior class environmental leaders the opportunity to educate incoming students (freshman and transfer students) around sustainable lifestyles and to raise awareness of the goals within the University’s Climate and Sustainability Action Plan 3.0.

Volunteers help incoming students learn about recycling on campus, ways to reduce their carbon footprint, and opportunities to get involved in sustainability initiatives at Penn. Average annual achievements of the Move-In Green student volunteers include:
- Work with students, parents, and Penn Housekeeping staff to separate and dispose of waste associated with move-in.
- Tables outside dormitories to help educate parents and students about sustainability at Penn;
- Contribute to recycling about ten to fifteen tons of cardboard during New Student Orientation, in support of Penn’s Housekeeping and Urban Park sustainability efforts;
- Receive over 1000 new followers across Penn Sustainability's 3 social media platforms, which help to inform students about important sustainability news and events on campus;

There is also a "New Student Guide" on the Penn Sustainability website with a welcome video, tips to green their move-in, ways to get involved on campus, and other important information related to sustainability at Penn geared toward new students.

Since 2012, the Penn Sustainability Office has held a late summer training workshop and/or provided an online training program during Resident Advisor/Graduate Associate orientation about sustainability initiatives on campus and how to get on-campus residents involved in sustainability programs. Students who take part in the training receive a sticker to put outside their room door to signify their involvement in environmental efforts. RA and GAs receive a custom created Sustainability Manual, an in-depth resource for RA/GAs about Penn’s sustainability programs, which includes a guide to living green in campus residence halls and modeling sustainable behavior for residents.

For graduate students, New Student Orientation is less centralized than its undergraduate counterpart, but various trainings, tours, activities, and resources are available to incoming graduate students through the Graduate Student Center. Penn Sustainability has offered campus ecology tours to incoming graduate students as a part of their New Student Orientation. The student organization Climate Leaders @ Penn has offered a "Meet & Greet With Penn Centers" at the beginning of the semester to give incoming graduate students the opportunity to speak with sustainability-related academic and operational centers across campus about programming, research, and other opportunities.

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 2019 "Climate and Sustainability Action Plan 3.0." This submission documents Penn's efforts during the FY20 year and compares them to the FY09 baseline year which corresponds with the University's "Climate and Sustainability Action Plan 3.0." 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 Center 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.