Michigan State University is one of eight schools in the Big Ten Conference being recognized as the 2017-18 Collective Conference Champions for its green power use.
The award is part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s, or EPA, annual College and University Green Power Challenge. Together, the schools in the Big Ten collectively use more green power than any other conference participating in the challenge.
Since April 2006, EPA’s Green Power Partnership has tracked and recognized the collegiate athletic conferences with the highest combined green power use in the nation.
MSU’s voluntary use of more than 17 million kilowatt-hours, or kWh, of green power, representing seven percent of the school’s annual electricity usage, helped contribute to the winning conference effort.
MSU generates green power from on-site renewable energy systems using solar and biomass resources. This commitment to green power demonstrates a sustainable choice that helps to reduce the negative health impacts of air emissions including those related to ozone, fine particles, acid rain and regional haze.
According to the EPA, Michigan State's green power use of more than 17 million kWh is equivalent to the electricity use of nearly 2,000 average American homes annually. Additionally, the Big Ten Conference’s collective green power use of 496 million kWh equates to the electricity use of about 46,000 average American homes.
In the 2017-18 challenge, the 38 collegiate conferences and 109 schools competing collectively used nearly 3.6 billion kWh of green power.
EPA’s Green Power Challenge is open to any collegiate athletic conference in the United States. To qualify, a collegiate athletic conference must include at least two schools that qualify as Green Power Partners and the conference must use at least 10 million kWh of green power combined.
The EPA will begin its 13th season of the College and University Green Power Challenge in fall 2018 and conclude in spring 2019.