Ooligan Submission

Last week we enthusiastically submitted our form to be included in Ooligan Press's upcoming green book project, highlighting green endeavors on campus.

It was a nice reflection of what we have been working on.

I have included the write up below for everyone to review! I hope you use it an inspiration for us to move forward!

Your mission:

We, the SBA Green Team, seek to initiate more sustainable practices and operations within the School of Business at PSU. We believe that behavior change is a key component to achieving this goal. Therefore, we aim to provide SBA faculty, staff and students with the information and tools necessary to make sustainable decisions within the School of Business.

Some specific project or events you have completed or are being planned:

We have adopted three main goals for our first year. They are listed below:

1) Information! Provide the SBA faculty and staff with quick sustainability facts along with quick and easy practices that we can do to promote sustainability each week through an email.
2) Recycle! Recycle! Recycle! Bring in more recycle bins to the SBA, while putting out clear maps of their locations and what can/can't be recycled.
3) Let's save some paper! Make a conscious effort to save paper and track our paper usage.

In what ways has this project been successful? What are you learning?

We have been successful in a number of ways:

• We have made our presence known as a promoter and collaborator for sustainability.
• We have started to provide faculty and staff with sustainable tips and practices that can be used both within our building and within their every day lives.
• We have started a blog aimed at reporting our success & current endeavors to the SBA. You can visit it at: http://sbagreenteam.blogspot.com/
• We are in the process of making recycling more convenient in the SBA. We will soon have at least 2 recycling locations on every floor and “Green Maps” that show the location of the recycling bins throughout the building.
• We have been tracking our paper usage and will be reporting back to the faculty and staff our success in saving paper.
• We are exploring sustainable options for acquiring new technology equipment such as recruiting corporate sponsors.

How does your group define “sustainability?”

To us, sustainability is the adoption of actions, practices, and behaviors that support the long term viability of our environment.

Why do you think it's important for people in your department to focus on sustainability issues?

We, as a school, would like to be a leader in sustainability. We house the Center for Global Leadership in Sustainability and have a number of passionate staff and faculty members who have exemplified themselves as leaders and advocates for sustainability. Therefore, we, as a school, feel that it is our responsibility to show our commitment to sustainability. We have a deep value in social responsibility and want that to be a focus for our department.

How do you interact with the PSU community?

So far we have mainly been starting by interacting with the School of Business Community through email, our blog, meetings & general promotion. However, we are beginning to interact with the rest of the PSU community through the interdepartmental Green Team Meetings and are brainstorming events that will allow us to further interact.

What about the community outside PSU?

We are beginning to explore the options around corporate sponsors and grants that may be available for some of our larger ambitions.