For the past decade, Carnegie Mellon University has committed to protecting the planet's future by ensuring that all of its purchased electricity has come from renewable sources. Now, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has named the university to its Top 30 College and University List as part of its Green Power Partnership, ranking it No. 11 among all national universities.
Green power is electricity that is generated from environmentally preferable renewable resources, such as wind, solar, geothermal, biogas, biomass and low-impact hydro.
According to the EPA, as of Oct. 25 the combined annual green power use of the 30 colleges and universities on the list totals nearly 3.8 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power, which is equivalent to the annual electricity use of more than 351,000 average American homes. Carnegie Mellon is purchasing nearly 125,005,846 kWh of green power annually, which is enough to meet 111% of the university's purchased electricity use.
"This important ranking from the EPA demonstrates Carnegie Mellon's commitment to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in this case to the use of renewable energy to protect the environment," said CMU Provost James H. Garrett Jr. "Whether through renewable energy, our numerous LEED certified buildings or our storm water management, the university is intently focused on our shared responsibility to not only educate the future leaders of our world, but to help save the planet they live on as well. Our Sustainability Initiative involves students, faculty and staff members and promotes education, practice and research related to the 17 SDGs."