Temple University says it is committed to maintaining a sustainable environment on campus and its surrounding blocks.
One community member has been unofficially helping Temple achieve this through her own good will. Charlotte Savage is a resident and block captain on the 1500 block of Page Street.
Every Monday, and then throughout the week, Savage goes outside and cleans up any stray trash to help keep the block clean.
“It’s more appealing [and] it just looks better,” she said. “At the end of the day, when you come home, the last thing you want to see is trash all over the place.”
Savage stressed that there’s a sense of pride in keeping the block clean, and that pride has even flowed into her neighbors. Temple student Jessica Zbytniewski lives next door to Savage and says that “she gets [her] super motivated” to pick up any stray trash to help maintain the neighborhood.
The Office of Sustainability says it pushes Temple Students to be greener on and off campus. Kathleen Grady, the Director of Sustainability, says her department has been tasked with “greening Temple’s campus and its culture, and integrating sustainability into the academic curriculum, and doing outreach on sustainability on and off campus.” This would include off campus housing blocks, where lots of students move to but may not be aware of how to sustain these places. Grady mentions that Temple has a good neighbor policy, and she thinks sustainability is a core component of that.
Temple Student Government’s Director of Grounds and Sustainability, Sarah Kuchan, encourages students to take advantage of Temple’s member school status with the Post-Landfill Action Network, or PLAN, by logging into their website with their AccessNet credentials. There, students have access to different materials that cover composting, recycling, and other acts that can help keep Temple a sustainable campus. She also encourages students to do their part by finding ways to reuse and recycle items they might already have, because “there are so many ways to use what you already have.”
Savage acknowledges Temple’s efforts in helping to maintain off-campus housing blocks, saying “Temple has been a great help, but we have to work hand in hand.”
To do that, students can participate in Sustainability Week, which kicks off on October 23.
The Office of Sustainability’s website provides information about any activities happening throughout the week and in the future. Tips on how to keep both on and off campus sites clean and sustainable are also available.
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