Green Power Partnership
Partner Profile
| Northwestern University | |
| Location | Evanston, IL |
| Organization Type | Education (Higher) |
| Percentage Green Power | 37.1% |
| Purchasing Third-Party Certified Green Power Product? | Yes |
| Organization-wide Purchase | Yes |
Environmental Web Page  | |
| Partner Profile Northwestern University purchases clean, renewable power to further its commitment to environmental sustainability. Northwestern joined the EPA Green Power Partnership in 2006 by purchasing renewable energy certificates (RECs) to cover a significant portion of the campus' power needs. Since then, the University has increased its REC purchase so that it now equates to 37 percent of the campus' energy use and the purchase of more than 96 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) ranks among the largest college and university purchases in the nation. Northwestern's REC purchase is complimented by an on-site 17 kilowatt (kW) solar array which was the result of a project envisioned and led by students members of Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW) in collaboration with Northwestern's operations team. Northwestern is in the process of executing over $40M in energy efficiency programs including a new approach to producing chilled water at our central utility plant. As a result, our electricity use has increased but the new strategy has reduced our natural gas usage by almost 70,000 MMBtu a year resulting in a reduction of over 600 tons of CO2.The University is currently exploring options for on-site geothermal and combined heat and power to further reduce its grid purchased energy and accompanying GHG emissions. | |