EPA Recognizes Allegheny College for Largest Green Power Use Among North Coast Athletic Conference Schools

April 21, 2014 — Allegheny College has been recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a 2013-2014 Individual Conference Champion of the College & University Green Power Challenge for using more green power than any other school in the North Coast Athletic Conference.

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

Allegheny College beat its conference rivals by using 15 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power, representing 100 percent of the school’s annual electricity usage. Allegheny is buying renewable energy certificates (RECs) from Constellation NewEnergy. This demonstrates a proactive choice to switch away from traditional sources of electricity generation and support cleaner renewable energy alternatives. Purchasing RECs also halves the campus carbon footprint and advances progress toward the college’s goal of climate neutrality by 2020.

According to the EPA, Allegheny’s green power use of 15 million kWh is equivalent to avoiding the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the electricity use of more than 1,000 average American homes annually, or the CO2 emissions of more than 2,000 passenger vehicles per year.

In addition to purchasing renewable energy, Allegheny College is continuing to add on-campus solar panels, which are purchased each year as a result of savings accumulated during an energy challenge that is held at the college in October. The college added 10 more solar panels this year, for a total of 24 panels purchased through the savings realized by reductions during the energy challenge.

A separate two-panel solar array on Carr Hall is linked to a real-time energy display — at https://buildingdashboard.com/clients/allegheny/carr/ — which monitors the production of solar energy; the consumption of electricity, natural gas and water; and the potential to advance efficiency and sustainability through human behavior.

Thirty-three collegiate conferences and 79 schools competed in the EPA’s 2013-2014 challenge, collectively using nearly 2.3 billion kWh of green power.