The university's Office of Physical Plant (OPP) is trying to make the blue and white of Penn State a little greener.

Steve Maruszewski, OPP deputy associate vice president, outlined several environmental problems the university must deal with and some possible resolutions in a presentation last night as part of the Penn State Center for Sustainability's speaker series.

He shared certain obstacles, like the fact that there are 54 million miles driven by Penn State commuters, 3 million gallons of gas used, 75,000 tons of coal consumed and 13,000 tons of waste generated each year through Penn State. He said he thinks the best solution is to increase awareness, but also suggested using bio-diesel, a non-petroleum source of lubricants and non-diesel fuels converted from soybean seeds. Bio-diesel can be used for purposes such as lubricating elevators.

OPP spokesman Paul Ruskin said OPP also wants to make new and existing buildings operate in an environmentally sound way and uses seven Segways, or electric scooters, for plant workers to ride instead of trucks.

Ruskin said there are also several "hidden" actions being taken. Carbon dioxide censors are being placed in lecture rooms to measure how many students are present by the amount of carbon dioxide being exhaled into the room. This information sends a signal to the air-operation system to make sure it isn't wasting energy.

Energy-efficient lighting is being installed to replace incandescent lights with fluorescent ones.

"Penn State is moving quickly to do the right thing," Ruskin said. "We really need the students to team up with the university."

One project, "Friday Night Lights Out," involves a group of students who volunteer to turn out lights in classrooms every Friday night, because teachers often leave them on and there are usually no janitors working over the weekend. Howard Wu (junior-economics) has been a part of the project since it began last semester and said it may seem like a small difference, but it may inspire others to take personal responsibility and conserve energy.

Brandi Nagle (graduate-geography) attended last night's talk and agreed that awareness is key. "Penn State can go and replace every incandescent light bulb on campus with a compact fluorescent, but it is up to all of us to turn them off," she said, adding that there is little incentive for students to turn off lights and computers since they don't always see an electric bill.

Jo Mirenda, Eco-Action secretary, said the university can do more. "If we were Kyoto compliant, we could blow everyone else out of the water ... We could be an inspiration to all the other schools," she said, referring to the Kyoto Protocol, which commits countries that signed it to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.