EPA Recognizes Duquesne as Top Green Power User in the Atlantic 10

Duquesne, for the eighth consecutive year, has been recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a 2014-2015 Individual Conference Champion of the College and University Green Power Challenge, using more green power than any other school in the Atlantic 10.

Duquesne beat its conference rivals by using more than 18 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power, representing 36 percent of the school’s annual electricity usage—equivalent to the electricity use of nearly 2,000 average American homes annually.

Through the award, the EPA commended Duquesne’s proactive choice to switch from traditional sources of electricity generation and support cleaner, renewable energy alternatives by buying renewable energy certificates from Direct Energy.

“EPA applauds Duquesne University as the Atlantic 10 Conference Champion for the eighth year in a row in the College and University Green Power Challenge,” said James Critchfield, director of EPA’s Green Power Partnership. “By using more than one-third green power annually of the campus’ electricity use, Duquesne is reducing harmful air pollution and taking a leadership position on the environment.”

Thirty-nine collegiate conferences and 90 schools competed in the 2014-2015 challenge, collectively using nearly 2.4 billion kWh of green power. 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. The Individual Conference Champion Award recognizes the single school that is the largest individual user of green power within a qualifying conference.

Green power is zero-emissions electricity generated from environmentally preferable renewable resources, such as wind, solar, geothermal, eligible biogas, biomass and low-impact hydro. Using green power helps accelerate the development of new renewable energy capacity nationwide and helps users reduce their carbon footprints.