Greening Princeton

Current and Future Projects

Convince Princeton to agree to reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions 50% in 50 years; currently coordinating meetings between administrators and faculty experts in climate change and developing ideas to help achieve this goal. For a project course to help with exploring such ideas, a student-initiated seminar focused on energy will be offered fall 2006 (ENV ST01, taught by Prof. Tom Kreutz).
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.
Work with the Butler Committee to improve the energy efficiency of the Butler Apartments.

Working with Dining Services to establish an organic herb garden on campus (in the Graduate College).
Helping Dining Services set up a Farmers' Market on campus that launched in fall 2007 and will re-open in spring 2008. Brown University's successful market is our model.
Assist with publicizing Princeton Dining Services' new agreement to become a Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Partner.
Help distribute Environmental Defense's posters on seafood contaminants.
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.

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.
Helping to increase visibility of recycling in Frist Gallery.
Campaign to promote junk mail reduction: post flier and postcards with info on how to remove yourself from junk mail lists in all campus mail areas.
Worked with Public Safety and USG to start U-Bikes program in Forbes College, in order to reuse/recycle abandoned bikes on campus.

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.

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.

Long-term goal: convince Princeton to adopt a university-wide sustainability policy, along the lines of the Talloires Declaration or declarations that other universities have made. As part of this goal, we hope to organize a symposium or lecture series on the ethics of sustainability in higher education in 2007.
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.
Our new Sustainability Manager, Shana Weber, is training students in radio media to promote participation in Eco-Talk! Her new Student Environmental Communication Network is off and running. Check out their 1st broadcast! And their latest advertisement.
Send monthly update emails to a list of alumni interested in environmentalism at Princeton. Want to be on the list? Go to http://groups.google.com/group/greeningalum and click "Join this group". If you don't have a Google Account set up yet, you'll first need to create an account.
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.