New program tests how green students are

This fall, students will have one more reason to go green.

The Green Campus Partnership, a group of Penn community members that work to improve sustainability on campus, has created a new list of standards targeted at students in the College Houses called Green Living Certification.

The new certification aims to use a combination of personal incentives and community pressure to encourage participation. On an individual level, the rewards are apparent — adhering to the standards for green living will earn residents a sticker along with other rewards, including a free drink and cookie from Picnic, a reusable bowl and a membership card from Sweetgreen.

On another level, the Green Campus Partnership wants stickers in a hall to pressure other students to live greener.

“The public display will engender other people to do it,” he said, comparing the stickers to “I voted” stickers on election days.

Residents who want the rewards will first have to submit an application. Afterward, EcoReps in their college house will come and check that the resident practices the behaviors they listed on their application.

The stickers are the real thrust behind the psychological approach to the certification. Dan Garofalo, the University’s Environmental Sustainability coordinator, explains that in this approach, self-identification with green living breeds actual behavior changes.

The list of green behaviors is extensive, covering everything from waste management and responsible disposal to energy and water conservation, all in line with what the Green Campus Partnership believes comprises green living.

“A lot of the things people do on campus, in aggregate, have a big effect,” Garofalo said.

While other programs meant to foster green living in the past have emphasized recycling above other behaviors, the certification includes other behaviors. Garofalo wants students to imagine recycling as “the first rung of a green living ladder.”

The certification was first implemented in Stouffer College House last semester on the recommendation of Sustainability Student Outreach Associate Julian Goresko.

“We did it as a competition style program,” College senior Kristin Zuhone, last year’s house leader of Stouffer’s EcoReps, said.

Stouffer College House consists of two buildings, and the EcoReps last semester pitted residents in the two buildings against each other, delivering stickers and tallying points for each. Garofalo estimated that around 10 percent of Stouffer residents participated.

Garofalo pointed out that if 10 percent of all College House residents participated, the number would be “huge,” but Zuhone was skeptical.

“I think it’ll be really difficult, especially if it’s going all through the EcoReps,” she said. “They’ll have to prioritize it.”

Zuhone also mentioned that the audit system of the pilot was flawed because EcoRep audits were and still will not be very extensive, leading the system to rely partially on honor.

“We had a lot of problems with truthfulness,” she said.

Garofalo remains optimistic. “We learned a lot from the pilot,” he said. “We changed the stickers, the name, the branding.”

That approach means the program will depend on some people to already be green enough to get the stickers. Green Living Certification Manager and College senior Bailey Rowland said that they wrote the checklist as a standard for green living for someone who already had some green practices.

Applications for the certification are available online now, but auditing will have to wait until after the new class of EcoReps is chosen. The Green Campus Partnership believes that by the end of September, they will begin audits.

Above all, Garofalo believes, “the reward is doing it.”

“These are habits that you set up in your teens and twenties, that hopefully become second nature … leading to 30, 50 years of sustainable living,” Garofalo added.

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