SU wins Big East award: EPA recognizes university for green energy use
By Roz Vara
Posted: 4/22/07, 11:18 PM EST Section: News
The Syracuse University basketball teams, soccer teams and the football team could not bring home a Big East Conference title this year. But the school did win a conference title from an unlikely source outside of sports.
SU was recently recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency as the largest purchaser of green power in the Big East.
For the past year, the EPA has been tracking the amount of green power purchased by schools among 16 different athletic conferences as part of its College and University Green Power Challenge. SU was honored at a ceremony at the Second Annual Campus Sustainability Conference for besting the rest of the Big East in green energy purchases.
SU currently buys 22 million kilowatt-hours of green power each year - a figure roughly equivalent to the amount of energy needed to power 1,800 American homes. SU now purchases 20 percent of its power from green energy sources and has also taken steps to reduce energy consumption. In February 2005, the university launched a building sustainability committee to review sustainable design practices and monitor the use of green energy.
Green energy is generated by renewable resources including solar, wind, water and biomass, and is considered a cleaner alternative to conventional sources of electricity. SU purchases "low-impact" hydropower and wind-generated electricity from SUEZ Energy Resources - a Texas-based company that provides alternatives to conventional energy sources.
Of the 16 conferences that participated in the challenge, Syracuse finished No. 10 overall. The Ivy League's University of Pennsylvania was crowned the overall winner, purchasing 112,000,000 kilowatt-hours of green energy - or five times the amount SU buys.
"In this day and age, universities nationwide are trying to reduce their environmental impact, and green power is one of the best ways to address the purchased electricity that an institution makes," said James Critchfield, program manager of EPA's Green Power Partnership.
SU was recently recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency as the largest purchaser of green power in the Big East.
For the past year, the EPA has been tracking the amount of green power purchased by schools among 16 different athletic conferences as part of its College and University Green Power Challenge. SU was honored at a ceremony at the Second Annual Campus Sustainability Conference for besting the rest of the Big East in green energy purchases.
SU currently buys 22 million kilowatt-hours of green power each year - a figure roughly equivalent to the amount of energy needed to power 1,800 American homes. SU now purchases 20 percent of its power from green energy sources and has also taken steps to reduce energy consumption. In February 2005, the university launched a building sustainability committee to review sustainable design practices and monitor the use of green energy.
Green energy is generated by renewable resources including solar, wind, water and biomass, and is considered a cleaner alternative to conventional sources of electricity. SU purchases "low-impact" hydropower and wind-generated electricity from SUEZ Energy Resources - a Texas-based company that provides alternatives to conventional energy sources.
Of the 16 conferences that participated in the challenge, Syracuse finished No. 10 overall. The Ivy League's University of Pennsylvania was crowned the overall winner, purchasing 112,000,000 kilowatt-hours of green energy - or five times the amount SU buys.
"In this day and age, universities nationwide are trying to reduce their environmental impact, and green power is one of the best ways to address the purchased electricity that an institution makes," said James Critchfield, program manager of EPA's Green Power Partnership.
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