Back to school!

Its back to school time here in Philadelphia, USA. Arcadia University, is back in full sessions and through the work of global footsteps member Jeff Murphy has been making great strides towards minimizing their environmental impact.
The recycling program has grown rapidly this year. Now every class room, with most academic buildings have proper recycling bins for paper and co-mingled refuse. The greatest improvement for the Arcadia University community is the placement of all the recycling containers in all 175 off-campus apartments occupied by students. This is one of the greatest areas of waste for the university, now all the thirsty students have the recycling facilities to dispose of there bottles! All of this results in the most recycling that the university has ever had!
On the humanitarian side of Arcadia affairs, Parkhurst, the dining service that the campus dining halls use has started a partnership with local cherity Philabundance to donate excess food and left overs from the ding halls to local food pantries and homeless shelters.
The computer labs on campus have also started an Energy conservation initiative. Previously all computers in classrooms and comp. labs ran 24/7, now they are turned off after last lab closes (2 am). Saved $10-15,000 annually and about 30 metric tons CO2 annually.
The administration at the university has also given the OK to have PhillyCarShare (http://www.Phillycarshare.org) to campus by the start of the spring 2008 semester. The Philly Car Share program has fully insured communal cars with gas provided with designated parking spots city wide. Subscribers have 24 hour access to these cars 7 days a week, and are billed monthly according to their milage and time used, monitered via satalite. The program sports energy efficient and popular cars, such as hybrids and the popular Mini's. Now for the first time Arcadia University students have the opportunity to subscribe to the service and have Philly Car Share Cars on campus.
Fall of the Earth initiative has also started. This is the development of environmental and sustainable curriculum for the next fall semester. This program will dove-tail with new Generation Education curriculum to enhance students understanding of connections between global issues and local action as well as theory and practice requirements of general education
requirements. Many new learning communities focused around environmental
issues. The program is also working to get environmental speakers for distinguished speaker series, to help
saturate the campus community with information about the environment.
Toilet talk, a monthly publication placed in campus rest rooms, now feature a section giving facts about recycling and the environment to better help students understand ther connection with these issues. In addition to this publication, Arcadia University's Tower Newspaper will also feature a "Greening Arcadia column. Each issue will mark strides the campus has taken towards their environmental goals.