by Brianna Crandall — April 27, 2012—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced this year’s winners of its College and University Green Power Challenge. Throughout the 2011-12 academic year, EPA’s Green Power Partnership tracked the collegiate athletic conferences with the highest combined renewable power usage in the nation. The Green Power Challenge is open to all U.S. colleges, universities, and conferences.
On April 18, 2012, EPA concluded this year’s Green Power Challenge and recognized a Champion Green Power Conference as well as the largest single green power users within each participating conference as 2011-12 EPA Green Power Challenge conference champions. The Champion Green Power Conference and Individual Conference Champions are all listed on EPA’s 2011-2012 College & University Green Power Challenge Web page. To be listed, a conference must have at least one Green Power Partner and an aggregate green power use of at least 10 million kWh between conference members.
This year’s challenge participation included 73 competing institutions, representing 30 athletic conferences nationwide. The challenge’s total annual green power usage of more than 1.8 billion kWh has the equivalent environmental impact of avoiding the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the annual electricity use of more than 150,000 homes, estimates EPA.
Collective Conference Champion
At more than 228 million kilowatt-hours (kWh), the Pac-12 conference topped the list with the largest total purchase among all conferences, and earned EPA recognition as the 2011-2012 Collective Conference Champion. The contributing schools for this honor include: Utah (98,255,850 kWh of green power; 36% of its total power use); Oregon State (95,005,040 kWh; 100%); Colorado (20,312,764 kWh; 16%); and Washington (14,956,000 kWh; 6%).
Top 20 College & University
Besides the Individual Conference Champions, EPA also lists the Top 20 College & University green power users among its quarterly Top Partner Rankings. This quarter’s leaders were:
- University of Pennsylvania (200,194,600 kWh; 48%; Ivy League)
- Carnegie Mellon University (119,515,000 kWh; 103%; University Athletic Association)
- University of Utah (98,255,850 kWh; 36%; Pac-12)
- University of Oklahoma (97,201,680 kWh; 56%; Big 12)
- Oregon State University (95,005,040 kWh; 100%; Pac-12)
- Drexel University (84,268,000 kWh; 100%; Colonial Athletic Association)
- Northwestern University (74,311,195 kWh; 30%; Big 10)
- University of Wisconsin (69,891,198 kWh; 15%; Big 10)
- Apollo Group, Inc. / University of Phoenix (68,931,000 kWh; 46%; Numerous)
- University of Maryland (66,000,000; 26%; Atlantic Coast Conference)
Visit the Top Partner Rankings Web page to see the lists for the Green Power Partnership’s other rankings: National Top 50, 100% Green Power Users, Top 20 Retail, Fortune 500 Partners, Top 10 Federal Government, Top 20 Local Government, Top 20 Printing & Packaging, Top 20 On-site Generation, and Top 20 K-12 Schools.
See also “Intel, Kohl’s, Microsoft rank highest on EPA’s list of Top 50 green-powered organizations” on FMLink.
