On Dec. 4, Penn Sustainability released its Climate and Sustainability Action Plan 4.0 progress report for the previous fiscal year.<\/p>\n
The progress report<\/a> outlines advancements made by Penn Sustainability and its partners in FY25, such as emissions and waste reduction, green infrastructure development, and carbon offset purchases. The report relies on input from the various subcommittees of the Environmental Sustainability Advisory Committee<\/a>, which track progress towards their respective goals throughout the year.<\/p>\n In FY25, Penn made notable progress toward its operational goals, achieving a 4.5% reduction in net main campus emissions and bringing the total decrease since FY09 to 49%. The University offset 12,218 metric tons of CO2 equivalent from domestic and international flights taken in the last fiscal year through Penn’s Air Travel Offsets program, increasing from prior years. In addition, the Solar Purchase Power Agreement<\/a> became fully operational this year, reducing main campus electricity emissions by 36%.\u00a0<\/p>\n CSAP 4.0 is the first to aggregate data from properties beyond the main campus, including Morris Arboretum, the New Bolton Center veterinary hospital, and Penn\u2019s owned real estate portfolio in its overall emissions projections.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat was a learning curve for us \u2014 making sure that we have all of that data completed at the same time,\u201d Sustainability Director Nina Morris told The Daily Pennsylvanian. \u201cThat was definitely a challenge, but we were able to overcome that, and all of that is now in our reporting cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n Waste management was another major area of progress this past year, according to Morris.<\/p>\n Penn saw a 33% landfill diversion rate this year \u2014 a 29% improvement from last year \u2014 as well as a 4% reduction in landfill waste generation. It also began piloting Quaker Kitchen as a near-zero waste<\/a> dining hall and developed a waste dashboard to track data efficiently.<\/p>\n These efforts contributed to 313 tons of material being composted \u2014 a 55% improvement from prior years.\u00a0<\/p>\n Morris highlighted the contributions of Penn Dining, staff, building administrators, and building managers to achieving progress towards their composting goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really proud of that, because that really is a great demonstration of how people can really make a difference,\u201d Morris said.<\/p>\n