In October 2013, the Sustainability Institute announced its new internal grant program, The Reinvention Fund, intended to support collaborative projects by faculty, staff and students that will improve and expand sustainability efforts at Penn State. Of the more than $700,000 allocated for investment in these projects, $102,000 has been dedicated to support proposals received by student teams.
Twenty-two proposals were received from interdisciplinary student teams, and 11 were selected to be funded. The funded proposals represent innovative ideas from four of Penn State's campuses -- Abington; Berks; Erie, The Behrend College; and University Park.
If every on-campus student at University Park reduced his or her time in the shower by just five minutes, Penn State would save 100,000 gallons of water each school year. That is enough to fill five swimming pools and lower the University's carbon footprint by 18,980 pounds every year.
