The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized Cleveland State University as an Individual Conference Champion of the 2016-17 College & University Green Power Challenge for using more green power than any other school in the Horizon League.

Since 2006, EPA’s Green Power Partnership has tracked and recognized the collegiate athletic conferences with the highest combined green power use. The Individual Conference Champion Award recognizes the school that uses the most green power in a qualifying conference.

CSU beat its conference rivals by using 18 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power, representing 30 percent of the school’s annual electricity usage. According to the U.S. EPA, CSU's green power usage is equivalent to the electricity use of more than 1,600 average American homes annually. The university is procuring renewable energy certificates from MidAmerican Energy, and over the next two years plans to use an additional 36 million kWh in green energy. 

"Cleveland State University recognizes the importance of climate action and the purchase of green energy is one of the ways we demonstrate our support for a transition to clean, renewable energy sources,” says Stephanie McHenry, CSU’s Senior Vice President for Business Affairs and Finance. “It is an honor to receive this recognition and we are encouraged to see so many of our peers in the higher education sector also investing in our collective future."

Cleveland State University continually seeks to integrate sustainability into its operations as a number of recent initiatives serve to demonstrate. CSU Dining recently began composting food waste from its kitchens; a new battery recycling program is being deployed across campus; and the university community came together in April to celebrate Earth Day with over thirty exhibits, electric vehicles, a clothing swap, free bike checks, a giant earth dome display, and the launch of a new sustainability website.

In the 2016-17 College & University Green Power Challenge, the 36 collegiate conferences and 98 schools competing collectively used nearly 3.2 billion kWh of green power. It is open to any collegiate athletic conference in the United States. In order to qualify, a conference must include at least two schools that qualify as Green Power Partners, and the conference must collectively use at least 10 million kWh of green power. EPA will restart the 12th season of the challenge in the fall of 2017 and conclude in the spring of 2018. For more information, visit: https://www.epa.gov/greenpower/college-and-university-challenge.

Green power is zero-emissions electricity that is generated from environmentally preferable renewable resources, such as wind, solar, geothermal, eligible biogas, biomass, and low-impact hydro. Using green power helps accelerate the development of new renewable energy capacity nationwide and helps users reduce their carbon footprints.

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