Greening Princeton

Greening Princeton Dinner Discussions

On a monthly basis throughout the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 academic year, Greening Princeton hosted dinner discussion events in which professors made presentations on topics related to the environment and had open conversation with students afterward. Professors from a wide variety of departments participated, as well as some visiting speakers such as The Wilderness Society President Bill Meadows.

CFL Exchange

Every fall since 2008, Greening Princeton has collaborated with the Office of Sustainability to host a CFL Exchange, a day-long event in which students can pick up CFL light bulbs for their rooms to replace less-efficient incandescent bulbs. Students also bring old incandescent and CFL bulbs to the event and Greening Princeton recycles those bulbs for them.

National Teach-In on Climate Change

In spring 2009, Greening Princeton helped Princeton join hundreds of colleges across the nation in organizing a National Teach-In on Climate Change. In this day-long event, six Princeton professors from varying departments participated in three separate panel discussions about how the issue of climate change relates to and affects their field of study. Students from all corners of University life attended and engaged in open discussion with these professors about the implications of climate change and the best solutions with which to address the issue.

Future Projects

Energy

Long-term goal: switch grid energy (i.e., energy not generated at co-gen plant) to wind, solar and/or geothermal, improve building efficiency, green Princeton's fleet, improve environmental impact of transportation to an from campus. (The list goes on...)
Encourage Princeton students, faculty, and staff to become carbon-neutral by offsetting their carbon use with donations to renewable energy, sustainable development, tree-planting, etc.

Dining

Reduce waste and increase recycling in dining halls and at catered events.
Continue to work with Dining Services to increase organic food, local food, sustainable seafood, and antibiotic-free meat served in campus dining halls. Potential new items include local cage-free eggs and locally farmed seafood, and possible new project is a featured organic/local/sustainable entree in the dining halls each week.
Latest Project: work with Restaurant Associates, who run Prospect, the Genomics Cafe, and the Engineering Quad Cafe, to reduce waste and increase purchase of sustainable food.

Recycling/Waste

Coordinate Princeton's participation in Recyclemania, an annual recycling and waste reduction competition between universities. We need a Recyclemania coordinator and team for spring 2008! See our Recyclemania website for more details or contact us if you're interested.

Purchasing

Increase purchasing and use of "green" cleaning products on campus.
Further increase choices for environmentally friendly products, such as compact florescent light bulbs, Energy Star appliances, recycled office products, and organic cotton apparel, at the U-Store (university bookstore).
Encourage other universities in the Philadelphia Area Collegiate Consortium to purchase 100% PCW recycled paper.

Construction

Convince Princeton to follow LEED standards when constructing new buildings (the article linked here describes the current state of university commitment to green building design).
Meet with Grounds to discuss sustainable practices such as planting native vegetation and limiting pesticide use. Possible related future project: work with Princeton golf course to promote sustainable practices.

Outreach & Education

Continuing to support the EcoRep program - 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.
Outreach to Eating Clubs on topics such as organic and local food, sustainable seafood, fair trade coffee, waste, energy, and recycling. Current focus is working with local farmers to get locally-grown food to the clubs and finding a recyclable alternative to the plastic cups used on the Street.