Robert Morris University promotes socially responsible and environmentally sustainable practices through all aspects of campus activity, including waste reduction, recycling, energy conservation, sustainable construction, and general business practices. We will educate our students, faculty and staff, as well as the community, about social responsibility, environmental sustainability, and green practices. We will help to prepare our students to become leaders in all areas of human endeavor supporting sustainable environmental practices.
The university's sustainability efforts are overseen by a committee that focuses on five major areas: education; green buildings and energy management; environmentally friendly purchasing and investments; emissions and waste reduction practices; and promotions and communictions. A list of goals and objectives for each of those areas can be found here. To learn what the RMU community thinks about sustainability, read about the results of last spring's sustainability survey here.
Major initiatives that have been implemented recently include:
- adoption of a single-stream recycling program. Click here for a list of recycling locations on campus.
- elimination of disposable styrofoam to-go containers from the Food Court. The Food Court now offers reusable to-go containers that can be returned to the Food Court after use.
- installation of energy efficient hand driers in restrooms.
- expanded course offerings, including a major in environmental science and courses in sustainable marketing and management.
- adoption of LEED design standards for new building construction and major renovations.
- a vendor certification program which will allow the university to reduce paperwork generated by vendor invoices and payments.
- a utility demand response program.
In September, the RMU School of Business along with the Institute of Organization and Management in Industry ORGMASZ (Warsaw, Poland) launched the International Conference on Sustainable Enterprises of the Future. The conference is interdisciplinary and focuses on sustainable business, technology and economic development. Last year, the conference had 29 peer reviewed presentations representing intellectual contributions from 46 academicians representing 19 institutions from the United States, Poland, Mexico and Thailand. In addition to the academic presentations and papers, Dennis Yablonsky, CEO of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development gave a lecture titled "Pittsburgh as a Global Energy Hub" and Jachen Meyer, president of Flabeg Solar U.S. Corporation, spoke about manufacturing for sustainable energy solutions. For information about this year's conference, click here.
To learn more about RMU's sustainability efforts, contact Jonathan Potts, director of public relations, at potts@rmu.edu.