Green Office Certification
The Green Office Certification recognizes the efforts of staff and faculty to green their daily activities by offering four levels of certification.
Green Office Certification
The Green Office Certification recognizes the efforts of staff and faculty to green their daily activities by offering four levels of certification.
At a Glance
Offices represent a significant portion of Penn’s energy and material use and waste production. The Penn Sustainability Office recognizes the efforts of staff and faculty to green their daily activities by offering four levels of Green Office certification.
Certified offices report on existing activities, and implement new activities, across 7 categories: Waste, Purchasing, Energy, Water, Indoor Air Quality and Human Health, Transportation and Involvement. The more actions you implement, the higher certification level you can achieve.
Since inception of the program, 156 offices across Penn have been Green Office Certified.
How to Get Green Office Certified
- Complete the Green Office Certification Checklist by marking all actions applicable to your office. The checklist with automatically calculate your score.
- Have at least 50% of your office sign the Green Office Certification Application Form. The application also requires a signature from your office head or program director.
- Submit your completed Checklist and Form by emailing them to sustainability@upenn.edu. Please include "green office certification - [Office Name]" in the subject line.
- Staff at Penn Sustainability will review the application. Offices will receive an e-certificate for the level achieved which can be printed and displayed publicly in your office. Your office will also be recognized here as a Certified Green Office.
- Certification is valid for 3 years from the date of the award. To recertify, an office must submit a new application for certification.
Green Office Guide
For help completing the checklist, and tips for implementing new actions, you can read the Green Office Guide which includes details for each activity in the checklist, and resources to help you implement them at Penn.
Certification levels
There are over 205 possible points that can be earned, and each activity is assigned points according to the impact of difficulty. No office is expected to implement all the actions listed in this document. Points required for certification are:
- Level 1 - 50 points
- Level 2 - 100 points
- Level 3 - 140 points
- Level 4 - 180 points
"We thought it would be best to lead by example, to show what we’re trying to do with our facilities and in our operations, that we’re actually doing it ourselves.”
Current Certified Green Offices
- School of Nursing, Dean's Office
- Division of Public Safety
- Planning, Design, and Construction - School of Engineering and Applied Science
- Division of Facilities and Real Estate Services
- Penn School of Medicine - Microbiology Business Office
- Penn Institute for Computational Science
- McNulty Leadership Program
- Master in Environmental Studies & Master in Science in Applied Geosciences - School of Arts and Sciences
- Faculty Support Services - Penn Law
- 3401 Walnut Street, B & C Wings - School of Engineering and Applied Science
- Legal Studies & Business Ethics Department - Wharton
- Penn Program on Environmental Humanities
- Division of Business Services
- ITS / Ops Suite – Penn Nursing
- Finance & Administration - School of Arts and Sciences
- Residential and Housing Services – Business Services Division
- School of Engineering and Applied Science - Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- School of Engineering and Applied Science - Dean's Office
- Penn Dental - Department of Fiscal Operations
- Computing and Educational Technology Services - School of Engineering and Applied Science
- Master in Law - Carey Law School
- School of Engineering and Applied Science - Computing and Educational Technology Services (SEAS)
- School of Engineering and Applied Science - Electrical and Systems Engineering
- School of Engineering and Applied Science - PRECISE Center
- School of Nursing - Global Health Affairs
- School of Engineering and Applied Science - General Robotics, Automation, Sensing & Perception (GRASP) Lab - Levine Hall
- School of Engineering and Applied Science - General Robotics, Automation, Sensing & Perception (GRASP) Lab - PERCH
- University of Pennsylvania Museum
- Finance & Treasury
- Department of Oral Medicine – Penn Dental
- Penn Transit
- Office of the Dean – Penn Vet
- Office of the Executive Vice President
- University of Pennsylvania Press
- Space Planning & Operations - Perelman School of Medicine
- Office of Software Licensing - Business Services
- Dean's Executive Suite – Penn Dental