Northwestern and the Big 10 power green!

Northwestern University, along with University of Wisconsin, the University of Iowa, and The Ohio State University contributed to making the Big 10 this year’s champion in the College and University Green Power Challenge. The EPA’s Green Power Partnership annually tracks and recognizes the collegiate athletic conferences with the highest combined green power purchases in the nation. Green power is electricity that is generated from environmentally preferable renewable resources, such as wind, solar, or geothermal.  Purchasing green power helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector.

NU’s voluntary purchase of more than 96 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power represents 37 percent of the University’s annual electricity usage. This contributed to beating out the other 32 collegiate conferences. According to the U.S. EPA, Northwestern’s green power use is equivalent to avoiding the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the electricity use of more than 10,000 average American homes annually or the CO2 emissions of more than 14,000 passenger vehicles per year. This commitment places NU seventh in the EPA’s Top 20 list of green power partners among higher education institutions.

This article was featured in Northwestern in the News. Check out the EPA’s College and University Green Power Challenge for more information.