Sustainability at SRU

For information on Earth Day 2024, click "SRU Earth Days Events" under the Related Links tab.

Slippery Rock University is committed to being at the forefront of preparing the next generation of thinkers, innovators and entrepreneurs to help the world meet its profound environmental challenges. We are also focused on meeting the sustainability goals set forth in our Climate Action Plan. That is our road map to achieving carbon neutrality by the year 2037, in keeping with the President's Climate Commitment and our long term Strategic Plan, Trend Five: "The world is reaching a point of diminishing returns regarding resource utilization".

We are proud of our achievements to date, which include:

  • Consistently making the Sierra Club's Top 100 Cool Schools list, the Princeton Review's Guide to Green Colleges, and ranking in the top 100 schools in the University of Indonesia's International Green Metric Survey
  • Being the first 4-year college in Pennsylvania to be named a Green Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education
  • Reducing our net GHG Emissions by approximately 30% since 2005 
  • Achieving the Silver Rating by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) - see our latest AASHE STARS report for a complete description of all our sustainability initiatives and curricula.
  • Regularly exceeding our  EPA Green Power Partnership minimum green power purchasing requirement.
  • Achieving the "2018 Governors Award for Environmental Excellence" for the EPA Environmental Summer Camp and Community Projects Incubator program - view our student-produced highlights video here.

Many of the methods we're using to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and to prepare our students to be good stewards of our environment are summarized in the topic areas shown below, which also include reports on our progress in each area and additional resources relevant to that topic.


To get a flavor for some of our other sustainability events and initiatives, check out the following: