U.S. Colleges Set a Green Course
Posted on 24. Aug, 2009 by admin in Green Business
It’s the time of year when college students return to campuses across the United States. As the 2009-2010 year dawns upon them, many students will find their schools taking action to reduce their environmental impact. In fact, the trend of colleges and universities going green is growing at an incredible pace. In the second annual Princeton Review’s Green College ratings, there was a 30 percent increase in participating schools.
Last week, President Bill Clinton was in Chicago speaking to the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, a group of 250 university presidents and senior leadership looking to reduce the environmental impacts on their campuses and prepare students for green jobs. Clinton urged the group to speed up their efforts. “All this work is out there laying on the ground, begging to be done with absolutely certain rate of return,” Clinton told the university executives.
Many schools are pushing forward at a fast pace. Students returning to Arizona State University will find a major project under way to retrofit interior and exterior lighting. The six-month project will improve the lighting quality across the campus to reduce energy demand. This is not a small project either: The school is retrofitting 10,214 lighting fixtures on the 300-acre campus. The effort is expected to save more than 1 GigaWatt-hour (1 million kilowatt-hours), resulting in savings of over $100,000 annually.
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