Rowan designated conference champion in EPA’s Green Power Challenge
RU is the largest university green power purchaser in NJ Athletic Conference
May 17, 2007

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently recognized Rowan University as the 2006-2007 individual conference champion for purchasing more green power than any other school in the New Jersey Athletic Conference. EPA has been tracking green power purchasing among collegiate athletic conferences through its College & University Green Power Challenge, which concluded recently with 33 schools and 16 conferences participating nationwide.

Rowan was recognized during a ceremony on April 18, 2007, at the Second Annual Campus Sustainability Conference in College Park, Maryland. EPA presented two categories of awards for its 2006-2007 College & University Green Power Challenge:

1) Individual Conference Champions – To recognize the school that has made the largest individual purchase of green power within a qualifying conference

2) Collective Conference Champions – To recognize the conference, and its respective participating schools, whose collective green power purchase was the largest among all participating conferences. Rowan beat out its conference rivals by purchasing more than 10 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually, representing 25 percent of the school’s annual purchased electricity use. Rowan is purchasing wind power from Community Energy, which helps to reduce the environmental impacts associated with the campus’ purchased electricity use.

EPA estimates that the more than 10 million kilowatt-hours of green power is the equivalent amount of electricity needed to power more than 800 average American homes each year. This purchase will have the impact of reducing the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from more than 1,400 passenger cars annually.

EPA plans to extend the College & University Green Power Challenge for a second year, concluding in spring of 2008. EPA’s Green Power Challenge is open to all U.S. colleges, universities and conferences. In order to qualify, a collegiate athletic conference must include at least one school that qualifies as a Green Power Partner, and the conference must collectively meet EPA’s minimum conference purchase requirement. For more information, visit: http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/partners/hi_ed_challenge.htm

Green power is generated from renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass and low-impact hydro. Green power is considered cleaner than conventional sources of electricity and has lower CO2 emissions, a greenhouse gas linked to global climate change. Purchases of green power help accelerate the development of new renewable energy capacity nationwide.

“Through a variety of sustainability measures across campus, Rowan University is rapidly becoming a leader in demonstrating how economic growth and environmental protection can co-exist,” said John Imperatore, PE, Rowan’s director of Facilities, Resource Management.

About the U.S. EPA’s Green Power Partnership:
EPA’s Green Power Partnership encourages organizations to purchase green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with conventional electricity use. The Green Power Partnership currently has hundreds of partners voluntarily purchasing billions of kilowatt hours of green power annually. Partners include a wide variety of leading organizations such as Fortune 500 companies, small- and medium-sized businesses, local, state, and federal governments and trade associations, as well as colleges and universities. For additional information, visit http://www.epa.gov/greenpower.