The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recognized St. Mary’s College of Maryland as a Conference Champion in the 2017-18 College and University Green Power Challenge. St. Mary’s College currently uses more green power than any other school in the Capital Athletic Conference.
Since April 2006, EPA’s Green Power Partnership has tracked and recognized the collegiate athletic conferences with the highest combined green power use within the program. The Conference Champion Award recognizes the school that uses the most green power in a qualifying conference.
St. Mary’s College beat its conference rivals by using more than 22 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power, representing 117 percent of the school’s annual electricity use. St. Mary’s College is procuring renewable energy certificates (RECs) from 3Degrees, and also generating green power from an on-site renewable energy system using solar 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 U.S. EPA, SMCM’s green power use of more than 22 million kWh is equivalent to the electricity use of more than 2,000 average American homes annually.
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 collectively use at least 10 million kWh of green power. EPA will restart the 13th season of the College and University Green Power Challenge in fall 2018 and conclude it in spring 2019. For more information, visit: www.epa.gov/greenpower/college-and-university-challenge.