Greening Princeton
Energy
- Sponsored a student-initiated seminar for Fall 2006 to investigate ways
Princeton can substantially reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The
class is being offered in the Environmental Studies Program and taught by
Dr. Tom Kreutz of the Princeton Environmental Institute. Look back for
more announcements and their exciting conclusions!
- Coordinated meeting between Princeton University faculty
experts in climate change and engineering administrators to discuss
long-term energy goals.
- Educational campaign to promote purchase and use of
electric carts instead of gas-powered carts for within-campus
transportation, 2004-2005. See
the PEOC, linked here, website for a comparison of gas-powered and
electric carts.
- Educational campaign on conserving energy by closing hood
sashes on variable-flow fume hoods, 2004-2005.
- Worked with administration to research alternative
(wind/solar) energy options.
- Meeting with Housing
Department about Energy
Star appliances in on-campus housing, fall 2004. They agreed
to purchase Energy Star refrigerators for all graduate
student apartments (Energy Star appliances were already being phased in
for many cases, including laundry machines and rented
MicroFridges).
Dining
- Sponsored a student-initiated seminar offered by
the Program in Environmental Studies entitled "Farm
to Fork: The State of America's Food System Today." It was taught in Spring 2007 by
Professor Deborah Popper.
- Purchasing changes in
Dining
Services that include serving more
Specific
examples include:
- focus on purchasing local seasonal produce
- changes to more than 20 seafood items
- switching to organic spring salad mix
- switching to organic tofu
- switching from bleached to
unbleached white flour
- adding two organic cereals
- adding two loaves of organic bread
- and serving Fair Trade coffee
in ALL dining halls. See
Dining Services' Environmental
Impact website for more details.
- Assisted with
establishing Princeton
Dining Services as a
Monterey
Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Partner (starting in 2006).
- Vendors now submit bids on organic and local products
weekly to Dining
Services, indicating the high level of institutional interest
in these products.
- Annual
distribution of
reusable
mugs to all freshmen to help reduce container waste.
- Campus-wide beverage discount for reusable mug use at all
Dining
Services locations, starting fall 2003. Reusable
mugs were used in beverage purchases on campus more than 3,000 times
from September, 2005 to March, 2006.
- Educational table tents in dining halls on the benefits of
organic food and eco-friendly seafood.
- Educational campaigns on eco-friendly food in the dining
halls associated with
Special Dinners highlighting sustainable items. Special
Dinners highlighted organic food in winter 2003 and antibiotic-free
meat in winter 2005.
- Meetings with representatives from several vendors to
discuss environmentally-friendly food, including:
- Seaburst
Farms/Aquaculture
Systems to discuss local, chemical-free, grain-fed,
sustainably farmed tilapia, winter 2006.
- Bell & Evans Chicken to discuss antibiotic-free
meat, winter 2005.
- M. Slavin & Sons
(the largest seafood vendor on the east coast) to discuss and provide
educational material on environmental and health issues related to
seafood, winter 2003.
- General Mills’
organic division and their main institutional representative.
- Northeast
Organic
Farming Association of New Jersey to
discuss University options for
purchasing from local producers, winter 2003.
- Submitted dining report on antibiotic-free meat, organic
food, sustainable seafood, local food, and fair-trade coffee to the
Priorities
Committee in spring 2003 (in collaboration with
Dining
Services).
Purchasing
- University mandate for 100%
post-consumer waste recycled paper for all routine office paper use (in
collaboration with PEOC),
spring 2004. Click here for links to
more details
on the paper
program and an
overview of the current and potential environmental impact of
Princeton's paper policy.
- A “Paper Party” for university
purchasing staff to increase awareness of the benefits and availability
of post-consumer waste (PCW) recycled paper.
- Meeting with Senior Vice President for Administration
Charles Kalmbach and Treasurer Christopher McCrudden to discuss
establish university-wide standards of PCW recycled paper.
Meeting
with U-Store (university
bookstore) to discuss sale of environmentally friendly products;
addition of
recycled notebooks to products available, fall 2005. As
reported in the Princeton University
Store Newsletter, if
all Princeton students bought the recycled notebooks, it would save 4
tons of wood, 21 million BTUs of energy, 2,600 lbs of carbon
dioxide, 10,818 gallons of water, and 1,389 lbs of solid waste
(based on the Environmental
Defense Paper Calculator).
Recycling
Outreach
- Creating a
forum for undergrads, grad students, faculty,
administrators, and alumni to work together as one group towards common
goals.
- Helped the Princeton Environmental
Institute plan, produce, publicize and execute
the first Bert G. Kerstetter '66 Environmental Lecture Series
entitled "Food, Ethics, and the
Environment" on November 16th and 17th, 2006. The Conference was
very well attended and featured Michael Pollan, Peter Singer, Marion Nestle,
Eric Schlosser, Gary Nabhan, and other notable speakers in two days
dedicated to an ethical and environmentally responsible food system. This
conference was sponsored by the PEI, the University Center for Human Values,
and the Program in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy.
Click here to see the posters: (corn,
pigs,
fish,
farmer) Click
here
for the write-up about it in the Princeton Environmental Institute's
Newsletter.
- On the eve of the conference, Princeton University students were treated
to a preview screening of Fast
Food Nation (based
on the book
Fast Food Nation
by Eric Schlosser '81) at the
James M. Stewart '32
Theater at the University Center for the Creative and Performing Arts. The
audience of Princeton University students then stayed for a question and
answer session conducted by Professor Peter Singer with Eric Schlosser '81
and Film Director, Rick Linklater.
- Worked with
university, especially the PEOC,
to create a Sustainability
Manager position at Princeton in 2006. Shana Weber started in June! Check
out the
press release.
- Helped start EcoReps - student employees
of the Facilities Department who educate their peers on green living and
keep track of recycling performance.
Click here for the
2006-2007 job announcement.
- We had a table at “Open Doors” at John Witherspoon School about
sustainable food on Princeton’s campus on Saturday afternoon, 10/14/2006.
(Picture below). It was a great opportunity to get Bent Spoon ice
cream, treats from Mediterra, meet the local food community, and enjoy a
sunny fall afternoon.
- Ali Kelley, Peter Ryan, and Katy Andersen went to Riverside on 9/25/2006
to teach 350 elementary school students about recycling. (Picture below)
Pete dressed up in a trash bag replete with trash glued all over it and the
got message across. We will be going to different classrooms there in the
near future for some more in depth recycling/environmental discussions.
See
more: (1)
(2)
- Manned a Sustainability Table at the fall 2006 move in, handing out
Guides to Living Green at
Princeton, green candy, and
Monterey Bay Sustainable Seafood Selectors as students arrived to get
their keys and parking permits. All told, we distributed 2300 green
guides and 7 lbs of candy. Freshmen also got reusable mugs from Dining
Services, for which they get a $0.25 discount on beverages around campus.
We stuffed those mugs with Seafood Selectors and fliers.
- Sponsored panel discussion on "Future
Directions for Environmentalism at Princeton"
held Friday, June 2nd. Panelists included Bill Andersen
(’81, founder of the Phoenixville Farmers' Market and the
Charlestown Farm Center), Darcy Copeland (’06, student
Recyclemania coordinator), Marty Johnson (’81, president of
Isles, Inc.), and Prof. Steve Pacala (EEB, director of the
Princeton Environmental Institute).
- Co-sponsored (with the Princeton
Environmental Institute and the Pace Center)
a panel discussion on "In
Whose Backyard? A conversation
about environmental justices problems at home and abroad, and what we
can do about them" held February 23, 2006.
- Sponsored panel discussion on "Environmentalism at
Princeton
and Beyond" held during Reunions, May 27th, 2005. Panelists
including George Hawkins ('83, faculty at the Woodrow Wilson School),
Becky Goldburg ('80, senior scientist at Environmental Defense), Chris
Kim ('95, faculty in Physical Sciences at Chapman University), Steph
Tatham ('04, Project '55 fellow for Environmental Defense),
Ilya
Fischhoff (GS), and Christina Harris ('05) .
- Co-sponsored a panel discussion on “Consumer
Choice and the Environment” held April 3, 2003.
- Annual educational outreach for Earth Day & Communiversity.
- Educational campaign with fliers posted in bathroom stalls
on water use, energy use, and recycling on campus.
- See our downloads page for
educational fliers and posters, and see our monthly
newsletter for further details on our activities.
