RESTON, VA — As Congress considers legislation that seeks to reduce the nation's greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by mid-century, colleges and universities may hold the key. Campuses nationwide have launched climate-driven projects that are taking a significant bite out of emissions along with saving money, according to a new publication from the National Wildlife Federation, Higher Education in a Warming World: The Business Case for Climate Leadership on Campus. The report demonstrates how schools are stepping up efforts in response to the potential threats of global warming and how these institutions are reaping multiple rewards.

The report highlights the business, educational and ethical arguments for reducing greenhouse gas emissions on campus, featuring best-practice examples from U.S. schools.

Packed with examples from over 100 schools, "Higher Education in a Warming World" is an illustrated online guide for taking climate action. It covers the science of global warming, the opportunities and challenges confronting higher education, steps required to create a campus climate action plan, as well as dozens of cost-effective, practical solutions to reduce CO₂ emissions on campus. These include energy efficiency, renewables (wind, solar, geothermal), co-generation, green buildings, transportation alternatives, habitat improvement and behavior change.

A sampling of campus initiatives featured in the report includes:

• A 1.6 megawatt wind turbine built by St. Olaf College in Minnesota provides 33 percent of campus electricity, saving over $250,000 in utility costs a year.
• Richard Stockton College in New Jersey is heated and cooled using one of the country's largest closed-loop geothermal systems, cutting natural gas consumption by 70 percent and reducing CO₂ emissions 13 percent below 1990 levels.
• At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, eight energy efficiency projects resulted in annual savings of $365,000, with an average project payback of less than three years.
• The new Bren Hall laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara has a LEED-Platinum certified, energy efficient design that saves the campus $50,000 in utility costs and prevents 275 tons of CO₂ emissions per year.

It doesn't take a math major to figure out that good environmental stewardship is also good for the bottom line. As many campuses have discovered, clean energy and efficiency projects can yield an attractive return-on-investment, especially when funded in part with grants and other incentives. Using life-cycle accounting and by "bundling" different-sized projects together, campus emissions--and long-term costs--can be greatly reduced.

Higher Education in a Warming World showcases schools that are leading the way toward a sustainable future. It calls for an ever-greater commitment from the over 4,000 U.S. colleges and universities to step up to climate leadership. To date, 465 college presidents have already signed the American College and University President's Climate Commitment pledging to dramatically reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. This new report will assist them in translating that commitment into action.

"Our nation's institutions of higher learning can achieve the 2 percent per year reduction in net carbon emissions that climate scientists say is needed to stabilize the atmosphere," says David Eagan, staff member of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and lead author of the report. "It's an investment in the planet's future we can't afford not to make."

Contact Info:

Julian Keniry
Tel : 703-438-6322
Cell 571-226-0149

David Eagan
Tel : 608-249-0409

Website : National Wildlife Federation