Our universities need to respond to those ecological challenges, by providing guidance and solutions needed for a transition into sustainable living. This educational shift needs to be spiritual, psychological, scientific, and social to affect consumption, a challenge affecting every university department. The Indicator's Report, published by the Green Destiny Counsel, provides the University with an assessment of its own ecological impact, and its recommendations enjoy wide support among the deans across colleges as well as student groups. An innovative, truly interdisciplinary environmental education program that is currently growing at Penn State is the Center for Sustainability, in the Science, Technology and Society program. The Center is a collaborative effort of faculty members, students and community volunteers working closely together on projects that provide sustainable solutions to many of these environmental challenges.
Courses examine everything from ecosystems to spirituality and art.
The Center is developing a new Research and Demonstration Site for Ecological Technologies off of Porter Road. Students and community volunteers worked at the site on Saturdays to construct a passive solar greenhouse with straw bale and stucco construction, a composting privy, a pavilion and other outbuildings made from mostly recycled salvaged materials. Other solar technologies and renewable nonpolluting energy sources are being considered for the Site. Great care is taken to minimize any negative impact on the site, for example black walnut stain was made for the buildings for insect protection. Organic agricultural methods are demonstrated through biointensive minifarming, which utilizes double digging, a hexagonal planting pattern, and a high content of organic matter in the soil to produce food in a compact space.