News Center

Meadville, Pa. – Dec. 22, 2010 – Beginning on New Year’s Day, 100 percent of Allegheny College’s electric power will be supplied by wind energy, a change that immediately eliminates 52 percent of the institution’s carbon footprint.

“Our agreement to purchase green e-certified wind energy for all of our power takes us halfway toward fulfilling the promise we made when we signed the President’s Climate Commitment in 2007,” said David McInally, Allegheny executive vice president and treasurer. “It represents a major step forward for Allegheny and supports our educational mission, operational efficiency and the college’s new 10-year strategic plan.”

The decision to choose wind energy clearly advances the work of achieving carbon neutrality. But long-term success ultimately depends on the college maintaining its disciplined resolve to make small but measureable changes annually to save energy.

In addition to using wind energy, this year the college’s energy-saving resolutions include, among other steps, the following:

• Insulate the roof of Montgomery Gymnasium.  Last year, winterizing Ford Chapel cut approximately 20 percent from that building’s annual fuel bill.
• Install two solar panels on Carr Hall, the future home of the Richard J. Cook Center for Environmental Science.  Carlyn Johnson, a senior with a double major in physics and environmental science, has brokered a deal with UGI Performance Solutions to exchange the efforts of environmental science students doing energy audit work for the solar panel systems. Johnson is completing a senior project focused on reaping both the educational and energy-savings benefits of solar energy. NWPA Engineering Services, LLC, of Linesville, will donate services to provide engineering support for installation of the panels; Onset Computer Corp., of Pocasset, Mass., will donate data logging equipment for the project.
• Install lighting system upgrades in the Campus Center and Pelletier Library.
• Complete a variety of building envelope improvements to the 454 House, Carnegie Hall and the Odd Fellows Building.

For more information about sustainability initiatives at Allegheny, visit www.allegheny.edu/green.