Oberlin College Recognized by EPA as Top Green Power Purchaser Among Colleges and Universities

April 19 , 2007 -- Oberlin College has been recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the 2006-2007 Individual Conference Champion for purchasing more green power than any other school in the North Coast Athletic Conference.  The EPA has been tracking green power purchasing among collegiate athletic conferences through its College & University Green Power Challenge, which concluded April 18 with 33 schools and 16 conferences participating nationwide. 

Oberlin College was recognized during a ceremony 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
Oberlin College purchased nearly 13 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually, representing 56 percent of the school’s annual purchased electricity use. Oberlin College is purchasing green power in the form of solar, biogas, and small hydro-generated electricity from the Oberlin Municipal Light and Power System (OMLPS), which helps to reduce the environmental impacts associated with the campuses’ purchased electricity use.

EPA estimates that Oberlin College’s purchase of nearly 13 million kilowatt-hours of green power is the equivalent amount of electricity needed to power more than 1000 average American homes each year.  This purchase will have the impact of reducing the equivalent amount of CO2 emissions from nearly 1,800 passenger cars annually.

EPA will also extend the College & University Green Power Challenge for a second year, to conclude 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 carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a greenhouse gas linked to global climate change. Purchases of green power help accelerate the development of new renewable energy capacity nationwide.

"Our agreement with OMLPS is unique in tying the cost of purchasing green energy to energy reductions on campus and in adding the premium that the College will pay to the town's Sustainable Energy Reserve Fund," says John Petersen, associate professor of environmental studies and biology and one of the plan's architects. "And, by purchasing all of the available green energy from OMLPS, we are expanding the renewable energy market and encouraging suppliers to offer their customers green options."

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, trade associations, as well as colleges and universities.  For additional information please visit http://www.epa.gov/greenpower.

For more information about EPA’s College and University Green Power Challenge, visit the Challenge Web site at http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/partners/hi_ed_challenge.htm.

- ### -

Media Contact:

Scott Wargo
Director of Media Relations
Oberlin College
440-775-5197

< back to current press releases