Colleges and Universities Nationwide Are Fighting for the Future of the Environment

Not long ago, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) posed a challenge to organizations across the nation. The mission? To reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by procuring green power to produce their electricity needs.

The organizations fall into one of six categories: Fortune 500 companies, local, state, and federal governments, trade associations, and colleges/universities. This article will focus on the last of those categories.

In eighteen total conferences, sixty-three universities have joined the fight. Only one of these conferences has 100% involvement - The City University of New York Athletic Conference. On the list of totals, they are currently ranked 15^th in terms of green power usage.

The Ivy League Conference currently produces the most collective green power, with 140,666,180 kilowatt-hours (kWh). A substantial number, a large portion of this total is attributed to the University of Pennsylvania, which alone makes 112,000,000 kWh. This number accounts for 29% of the university's total electricity needs through the employment of wind power.

Edging out U. Penn to reach the number one place on the top of the list is New York University, which currently sits at 118,616,000 kWh. A staggering figure in itself, what is even more astounding is the fact that NYU produces all of its electricity needs through wind resources.

They are not alone in this accomplishment, as three of the other top ten schools share this admirable achievement: the University of California (Santa Cruz), Western Washington University, and the University of Central Oklahoma. The only of these to use resources nonexclusive to win is UC Santa Cruz, which adds Small-hydro to the list. Other schools add still more energy resources.

Rounding out the top three is The Pennsylvania State University, which produces 83,600,000 kwH. Their resources include Biomass, Small-hydro, and Wind. While wind is the most popular choice, there are four total used. The last of these is Geothermal, used exclusively by the California State University System.

Although not represented in the top ten, colleges and universities within the California Collegiate Athletic Association have combined to produce 28,443,070 kWh of green power. Their 92% participation rate, eleven of their twelve schools, is worthy of recognition.

This isn't all gold, however. There were a number of conferences which had very low rates of participation, including the Lone Star Conference and Mid-American. Each have only one school taking part in the challenge, and their rates are 7% and 8%, respectively, with 15 and 12 schools working towards the pledge.

Of course, the advancement of the program has been beneficial, but there is always room for more. We can hope these numbers improve, even where they are already outstanding, between now and April, when the next update is scheduled to be released.

*Information for the preceding article obtained via the Environmental Protection Agency's website at: http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/partners/hi_ed_challenge.htm